The response to my Scott Muni/Glen Campbell piece has been incredible. It has been shared and ‘liked’ exponentially more than anything I’ve written to date.
The point of the piece has riled some of those radio know-it-alls who populate message boards. Their position is that over the air radio is ruled by minute to minute ratings, and owe their loyalty only to whatever makes them short term profit. Anyone who suggests otherwise is leftover from another era and is old and in the way, not understanding current business models.
I submit that those of you who have responded positively to the piece understand those issues only too well. Unbridled greed supersedes any dose of humanity left in our media world. We must cater to whatever we perceive our listeners want now !!! or fail. We can’t take time out to honor an icon and educate our younger listeners for a couple of minutes. God forbid — they may tune out. And if they do, stock prices may drop by $.00000000001 as a result. Do that enough and we’re talking real money.
We can give in to this corporate bullcrap, or we can rail against it. Smartass respondents tell us that radio isn’t interested in us anyway. We’re too old for Madison Avenue. We live in the past, hopelessly mired in the idea that every once in a while, commercial radio might do something innovative or exciting, rather than playing the same stale songs over and over.
I think we’re all wise enough to know that those old free form days are gone forever. Maybe they weren’t all that great 24/7. But they had the ability to rise to the occasion when it was called for. I maintain that the pinnacle of WNEW-FM’s history was the night John Lennon was killed. It became a talk station. No one was worried that ratings may go down or that it might actually make them go up. It was the right thing to do, period.
This is not to equate Campbell’s passing with that dreadful night. But breaking format for a few minutes to acknowledge the passing of a legendary musician is now seen as foolish nostalgia for a time when you expected radio to be more than a jukebox that merely recycles songs you’ve heard hundreds of times.
Maybe programmers need to understand that the reason so many people loved a particular station, were loyal to it and wax nostalgic about it decades later was for those special times. Times when it stepped away from the routine, even at the risk of temporarily losing a few fair weather fans.
It shouldn’t have to be seen as a great act of courage to make a stand against the empire once in a while when events dictate. Props to Jim Kerr at Q104 for playing Galveston and noting it could be taken as an anti-war song. That’s the way it’s done.
The funny thing is, I was never a big fan of Glen Campbell back in the day, but now I appreciate his artistry and legacy all the more. I had to work to find some of his great performances on my own. By and large, commercial radio didn’t provide them. They were too busy counting their money.
Radio these days is all about forward momentum. Don’t look back. Don’t back announce songs. Sadly, this feckless disregard for past greatness is nothing new. To quote a sarcastic Hamlet, “there’s reason to hope a man’s memory may outlive him by six months”.
