There was a time when you couldn’t do that.
Radio licenses are held in the public’s trust. The FCC is supposed to ensure that license holders live up to their responsibility to serve their local community. Station owners have lost their licenses in the past because they did not adequately serve their public.
But that was when we had a government that was looking out for the people, not trying to swindle them. That is when we had anti-trust laws. That is when there were laws limiting the number of commercials. And number of stations any one group could own.
Both WPLJ and Mix107 had local talent and decent ratings. They organized local charities, provided emergency information during blizzards and other calamities. Now a satellite signal from Sacramento or wherever will fill those airwaves. Tell me exactly how this is a better use of a frequency for serving the community?
Of course it’s not.
And who’s the big loser (besides all the people who lost their jobs in a shrinking industry)? YOU are. YOU ALWAYS ARE.
And here’s the worst part – no one (neither ownership nor the FCC) gives a shit.
Ownership groups like to tout statistics that people still listen to terrestrial radio over anything else. Those numbers are bullshit. Ask a Millennial the last time he turned on a radio. Go into a Best Buys and see if you can purchase an AM receiver.
Goodbye to WPLJ and WRQX.
And very very soon -- radio.
36 comments :
Didn't listen to either one and I'M STILL VERY sad, for the reasons you state.
RIP WPLJ - This is a huge loss :(
And to think next year marks the centennial of Pittsburgh's KDKA.
Back when I lived in DC, I won a trip to the Bahamas with the Mix 107.3 Morning show crew. Radio "celebs," they're just like us! Before it became Mix, it was Q107 and definitely part of the soundtrack of the 80s. It will be missed, as will many other stations as they slowly disappear.
I remember "WPLJ" from Zappa's Burnt Weeny Sandwich lp.
"White port and lemon juice"
Not to get too heavy on a Monday but... Corporate control of all the strings of power in government was a hallmark of fascism in Italy under Benito (Donald) Mussolini. For appropriate visuals take a look at the shots of Trumps sour puss in England and compare that to the scowl of Mussolini.
So yeah, happy Monday in America.
Radio is rife with sports talk, political talk, news, etc. Don't you think that radio will stick around to accommodate those niches, Ken ?
Yep. Nuts. No time left for do-overs either...
Man, PLJ, a fave along with NEW. Grateful I lived in an era when they were hot.
Before Sirius I'd travel around the country and my only entertainment would be the truck radio. I knew all the clear channel stations as I went to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, and Florida. As the satellite feeds increased and local talent vanished (or it would go from entertaining to right wing talk radio with Rush or worse yet Mark Levine) I just couldn't listen anymore.
This is going to be like seeing a double feature at a theater (with a cartoon yet!) or maybe when there was no cable and we'd know the TV schedules by heart (ah, Saturdays).
Damn few people will realize how good things used to be.
I remember getting my first portable radio for Christmas at the age of seven. Always seemed to have one with me on trips, not just visiting a place but hearing the local stations as though listening to the voice of whatever city I was in. Seems like there used to be a window that has not only been closed, but bricked over.
Hello Ken,
Longtime listener to WPLJ here in NYC. Very upset by it. It was really a pop/Top 40 institution here in the Big Apple. I'm a GenX who still listens to radio everyday (but you're right- millennials & younger don't really listen anymore) Too bad IMHO, I grew up on the radio and it's something that will be lost going forward, --LL
I used to Listen to Don and Mike who had a syndicated show out of D.C. back in the day. Don has been in radio forever. (Friday Question: Did you ever encounter Don Geronimo in your radio days?) He has stories about feuding with The Real Don Steele and, of course, Howard Stern amongst others.
Way back in the late 90's when I started listening to him, he used to lament about this stuff too. Now it seems there are only two companies that own all the radio stations. Sad.
It used to be that we had to pass a test and get a license before we could get a job at a radio station. I once, in the 1970s, did a license renewal with the owner of the small station I worked for. We had to submit our bids on percentages of the categories of programming we were required to broadcast. The categories were locally derived entertainment, news, public service, public affairs and 'other'. Other was anything outside of the other categories. That's where we shows like American Top 40 came in. The FCC would approve or adjust our proposed percentages and we would abide by their decision. When deregulation came about all the categories went away and first the news people lost their jobs. Then the shows like AT40 disappeared. You no longer had to learn about the business and pass a test to get in. All the fun and creativity started to...and continues to...disappear. Self-regulation just doesn't work. It's now 100% about bringing in as much money as possible while putting out as little as possible. Entertainment is secondary.
You didn't mention who owned those stations. Was it one of the few remaining independents or a corporation such as Clear Channel or Cumulus Media, etc. The reason I ask is because the logo for WPLJ looks just like the logo for L.A. station, 95.5 KLOS. Often businesses will try to brand all of their entities in a similar way. By the way, KLOS is owned by Cumulus.
M.B.
One of our local FM stations runs a promo that I think was produced by the radio association / broadcasters in Canada...it basically says TV will kill radio / tapes will kill radio / CDs will kill radio / the internet will kill radio, and then closes with a broadcast of local traffic over Mars and a joke about how many years since the Yankees won a pennant.
I prefer the illusion of rebels, rogues broadcasting against the grain...kind of like your episode early in your podcast (I'm on a whopping episode 7 now, just started last week) about the power of the station in Chicago with 50K watts to reach the coasts. I heard a story about a station near New Mexico called the X or something that was fighting the FCC fines and blasting mega power drowning out everyone because they couldn't get a license or something.
Any chance of a blog or podcast about the rebels of radio stations?
P.
We also lost WQUN 1220 kHz at Quinnipiac University last Friday too - a wonderful community AM station that was a local treasure. :(
Great article, thanks for sharing.
James
I am in my 30s and I just realized it never occurred to me that the government used to require people and companies using the public airwaves to act in the best interests of the public. Everything is becoming consolidated further and further. It will never go back. Sad!
P., "The X" refers to stations in Mexico (not New) that broadcast into the United States. They are easy to identify because their call letters start with X (like XERF) and they often have enormously powerful transmitters (500,000 watts instead of the US maximum of 100,000). There's a book called "Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves," that tells the whole story.
Sean, do you listen to Mike's current podcast? For a good time, look up TMOS!
Terrestrial radio and newsPAPERS will probably both go off the bridge, hand-in-hand, once the boomers are gone.
ou didn't mention who owned those stations. Was it one of the few remaining independents or a corporation such as Clear Channel or Cumulus Media, etc. The reason I ask is because the logo for WPLJ looks just like the logo for L.A. station, 95.5 KLOS. Often businesses will try to brand all of their entities in a similar way. By the way, KLOS is owned by Cumulus.
Cumulus owned WPLJ. For more, see here
You didn't mention who owned those stations. Was it one of the few remaining independents or a corporation such as Clear Channel or Cumulus Media, etc. The reason I ask is because the logo for WPLJ looks just like the logo for L.A. station, 95.5 KLOS. Often businesses will try to brand all of their entities in a similar way. By the way, KLOS is owned by Cumulus.
Cumulus owned WPLJ. For details, see here
(this may be an inadvertent double post. If so, apologies)
Have you no compassion? All these poor corporate souls are only trying to improve the lives of their impoverished stock holders. And you have the nerve to cast judgement? If it wasn't for them, we would not have the pleasure of I Heart Radio! I don't know about you, but I enjoy listening to the same fucking songs day after day!
Thank you for recognizing the demise of our beloved WRQX. The hometown, community-oriented talent was top notch, and missed very much this morning!
This post just reminds me of how much I enjoy WGN-AM 720. It's one of the few commercial stations that produces all of its programming, with interviews and shows around the clock. I live several hours from Chicago, but I love listening to it.
There may be negatives of which I'm unaware, but I wish every locality had a station like it. I wish that my local NPR station was more like it.
To Mike Bloodworth-- WPLJ was indeed owned by Cumulus.
Posted twice and the link didn't work. here's the WPLJ story. Really.
estiv said...
There's a book called "Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves," that tells the whole story.
Thanks! I just pulled it from Amazon. :)
KLOS is now owned by Merulo Media.
Ken, I'm surprised by how many people don't know, but on the FM dial, every frequency from 88.1 to 91.9 is considered "public radio." I don't believe the FCC has gotten around to selling this portion of the band out, either. So it's in that range where, supposedly at least, NON-commercial stations rule.
College radio, NPR-affiliated stations, even still some church-owned stations.
Here in Southern California, although they moved their studios away from the campus (which bugs me), we have a genuine gem of a station, KKJZ, at 88.1 on the dial. It's owned by California State University Long Beach, and used to be known as KLON. Since 1980, they've featured a jazz and classic pop music format, playing tracks I would bet serious money you just can't hear anywhere else on the radio in the USA. The great musician David Benoit is their morning guy. Duke Ellington, Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Chet Baker, Manhattan Transfer, the works. They also have a kick-ass rockin' blues show on the weekends, called Nothin' But The Blues.
They're available on the web. Only downside is that like PBS, they have to stop and beg for money every few months, because they're "listener-supported." But still worth a listen. Check 'em out everyone.
It looks like the new owner of both stations, EMF, funds its operations with donations from evangelical organizations. I suppose it will satisfy folks in “bible belt” locations that they are inundating “heathens” in big cities with “pure” music. Reminds me of the era when the same type of folks sought to have the Beatles banned from the airwaves.
Check 'em out, be durned, Steve Lanzi. I worked there for a short time back in the KLON days! Wonderful station!
The truth is WPLJ had fallen to #17 in the market. It has continually been losing listeners for well over a decade. Advertising revenue has been dropping like a rock as well. I'm amazed at all the people mad about the sale who were not listeners. If WPLJ was still what it was 30 or more years, AND people under 25 listened to radio like 25 year olds listened to radio in the 1970s and 1980s, the station would not have been sold. I'm 65 years old, and spent a lifetime in radio. Sure, I have fond memories of how radio "was," but I wouldn't get rid of my cellphone to go back to a rotary dial phone on the wall.
Terrestrial radio has to be saved so that people still have the chance to ignore it.
Blame fascism.
Blame deregulation.
How about blaming the people who don’t want to listen?
Radio had its day, and I still have a few mixtapes. But times change. My preferences aren’t yours. And your baseline of what radio should be is not set it stone. Give it up. Let others have the chance press the buttons and turn the knobs and evolve radio it something people can enjoy again. Stop holding on, and stop asking someone like an Elizabeth Warren to shoe horn your private preferences into a “public interest.”
I never listened to Mix107 but I know more people in this town will miss it than want Evangelical music.
Broadcasting definitely needs to be reregulated.
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