Monday’s FCC hearing in Nashville was the best airing out of policy issues affecting Music City since last spring’s Technology Summit. With the focus squarely on radio and four of the five FCC commissioners there listening attentively, Nashville’s artists, writers, pickers, publishers and plain old music fans had plenty to say about the effects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the way radio has done business ever since. Very little of it was complimentary. Nearly everybody who testified from the creative community urged the FCC to oppose any further liberalizing of caps on ownership of media properties. Some even urged returning to pre 1996 ownership caps, which would bust up Clear Channel and other radio groups like the trust-busting of the early 1900s. Rick Carnes of the Songwriters Guild of America may have summed up the mood in the room most succinctly with his opening, “Big radio is bad radio.”
What follows is my summary of the day’s first big panel, followed by some thoughts on the public testimony, which was by turns moving, stirring, peculiar and funny.
FCC chief Kevin Martin got the first applause line of the day by promising to enforce payola rules “where violations are discovered.” How aggressive the FCC has been in rooting for violations may be addressed later in the day.
Commissioner Michael Copps took a swipe at former Chairman Michael Powell by recalling the ownership revisions he “squeezed through…under cover of night.” He warmed up the crowd by noting his love since the 1950s of country music. He noted that big media is still on the consolidation path and that not coincidentally LA and NY have both lost their country radio stations. Media, “the way we communicate as a people is decidedly not just another business,” he said to loud applause. “The bargain America made with commercial broadcasting has gotten wildly out of whack.”
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein confesses he was in a band – the Screaming Elmers – and that he too is a long-standing country music fan. He also noted that the first FM license was granted here for WSM. (Not many folks in Nashville know that.) His comments about wondering if the “next Elvis” is being discouraged by lack of access to local radio. Adelstein, who I’ve known for many years, has always emphasized opportunities for emerging artists as a test of how functional our arts economy is working. Like Copps, he believes the system today is pretty broken.
The very first member of the distinguished Nashville panel was none other than Cowboy Troy. He’s there sharing his five minutes with Big and Rich. “I’m one of those fringe country artists you hear about,” Troy said, noting that he has a large audience who find him through the internet and satellite, but he can’t get spun on commercial country because he’s “different.” He said: “I humbly submit that if my music is good enough for the Grand Ole Opry, it’s good enough for the radio.” John Rich noted the loss of country stations in Los Angeles and New York. He said true censorship isn’t coming; it’s here. “One guy can affect what 30 million people get to hear. That’s censorship.” Finally, Big Kenny told the story of how the Muzik Mafia was formed – to battle against creative restrictions based on the prospect of radio promotion. Big applause ensued.
Harold Bradley is the picture of dignity. He rattled off a few facts about his remarkable career without sounding anything but humble. He recalled WSM’s all-night DJ show where new artists could get new records played and get interviewed. He’s clearly concerned. “Gone are the days” he says when a local artist could talk their way onto a local commercial station. Local DJs, if there are any left, have lost their autonomy, he said. He offered anecdotes from the “sad situation” like a traditional country artist whose CD was praised locally but couldn’t get a spin in Nashville, while he could overseas. (Probably a Gary Bennett or somebody like that.) “What does it say about local radio when a (talented artist) can find an audience in Europe but not get airplay in his own home town?”
“Big radio is bad radio,” summed up Rick Carnes of the Songwriters Guild of America. “The quality of the music in inversely proportional to the size of the radio network.” These days he says, you can drive I-40 all the way to Barstow CA and hear the same 20 songs on the radio all the way. “We used to have music everywhere that sounded like it was from somewhere. Now we have music everywhere that sounds like it’s from nowhere.” Music he says comes from the “top down” -- small groups of programmers who are influenced at every turn by major label radio promotion dollars. The radio industry targets demographics he says, not listeners. “What we end up with is boring, bland music.” Songwriters in Nashville, he said have been conditioned by economics. “We are writing inside a box,” he says. “The FCC must step in to restore the balance between art and commerce on the radio.” He calls for rolling back the 1996 rules that let companies own an unlimited number of stations.
Vanderbilt business professor Luke Froeb noted the uncertainty of the times. Media is becoming self-designed, he notes. There’s more competition for listeners and media outlets are facing new competition for advertising dollars. Not all mergers are bad, he notes. Some mergers have kept newspapers or broadcasters alive that would have otherwise gone under. He’s a cautionary figure it seems who urges the FCC not to handcuff media big or small with oppressive regulations that make it impossible to adjust to the rapidly changing environment.
Classic singer/songwriter Dobie Gray noted that while he’s still active and recording, he can’t get much airplay. It used to be that you could develop relationships with DJs and program directors to develop your career, but now those people have little to no influence over play lists. His catalog as an artist, not inconsiderable, has been whittled by radio down to “Drift Away,” but virtually nothing else. He says he’s almost ashamed to admit it, but that if he hadn’t written the jingle for Clorox 2 he might be “up a creek.” “New media has enabled some of us to squeak by but it’s no substitute for (terrestrial) radio.” I have lots of fans, but if they can’t hear my records, how will they know I have new music, he says. What a class act.
George Jones! He says he still sells records at concerts and through the internet and “what’s left of record stores.” Radio, he says, ignores him and deprives America of the chance to hear his new music. DJs have told him and wife/manager Nancy Jones that they would love to play his music, “but I’m to old and I don’t fit the mold.” They say he’s too country. Or that they have no power over programming. Sometimes, he notes, that country group PDs don’t have any history with country music. Alluding to what they ARE playing, he says, “you know sugar is sweet, but too much can kill you.” Do NOT expand the number of stations one company can own he says. “When my life and my income and my profession are affected by media consolidation, we don’t need to make a move any further in the wrong direction. Please don’t make it any rougher for recording artists like me or tomorrow’s rising stars.” And that gets a standing O!
Naomi Judd, that very bright and talented duchess of a place not on any map, says there’s a “pitiful disconnect” between the huge catalog of music country fans know and love and what country radio is willing to play. She compared the leaders of radio companies to the robber barons who used to own the coal companies in Kentucky around where she grew up, which was awesome and effective. “They rape us and then they pay a pittance of a fine,” she said. Then she voluntarily gave her autograph to Commissioner Copps and said she owes him a chicken and dumplings dinner. Yum.
Sharon Kay, GM of WFSK at Fisk University, reflected on 30 years in broadcasting in many roles and at many kinds of companies. We play local music, she says. WFSK is one of only two African American owned/operated stations in Nashville. “Big box radio” rules today she says. “Is it ever going to be enough,” she asks. Is it about stockholders or about people in communities? People say her they feel a sense of “powerlessness and hopelessness” about getting local airplay or about getting relevant local news and information. “Does everything in our country have to be about the wealthiest of the wealthy?” she concludes. And another Standing O.
Jenny Toomey, “rocker” and Exec Dir of the Future of Music Coalition, is a veteran crusader/lobbyist for working musicians, of which she is one. Most musicians aren’t stars, she notes. Her membership has many points of view about a lot, but they are unified on the state of radio. She recalled a study the FOMC published a few years ago that looked at radio consolidation market by market and found monopoly or oligopoly in markets across America. “Radio remains the canary in the coalmine” for the larger media matrix, she said. An update of the big radio study is coming out on Wednesday. “The news is worse than we thought.” The localness of radio has declined by a third in five years, she says. The statistics are coming fast and furious here, but it’s all pretty ugly. FMC offers a five-point agenda for FCC policy on radio, all based on promoting localism, competition and diversity.
Up next, a rhinestone spangled Porter Wagoner, speaking as a member of AFTRA and on behalf of “legends and icons such as myself and George Jones.” He recalls the days when “clear channel” meant a strong, exclusive AM radio signal. “If you can’t receive exposure or airplay, you can’t sell records and you can’t put butts in the seats,” he says. “I don’t know how to advise new artists today how to get played on the radio.” The days of artists receiving regional airplay are gone, he said. Don’t let broadcasting “dynasties” become bigger dynasties. Otherwise, the next Dolly Parton isn’t going to get that first record like Jolene.
Bud Walters, former head of the Tennessee Assn. of Broadcasters is next, feeling perhaps like he’s outnumbered. But he dives in by saying that consolidation has been positive for localism and for broadcasters. Does everyone who wants to be on the radio get on the radio? No, but many do. He points to local shows on stations in the area that do present live, local entertainment. Nashville is a place where writers and artists are welcome and appreciated on the radio. He points to the expression of the desires of audiences via ratings. Consolidation does work he says. It’s helped many small town stations remain viable. Your big question is Big Companies he says. The top five own 2,000 stations. The next five own 1,000. There are more different licensees today than there were in 1972. So he’s saying there are a few biggish companies at the top, but the vast majority of stations are owned locally, individually or in tiny clusters. “We are not all big, and even the biggest are not all bad.” Clear Channel runs good Nashville radio stations, he says. He does note that he has concerns about Clear Channel’s vertical integration, I think he means concert promotion. But he’s moving fast. He notes that in the 1970s, Nashville had fewer stations and two (WSM and WLAC) had more than half of local listeners. So he’s saying it’s more diverse today.
Craig Wiseman, super-songwriter, zeroed in on the slow movement of the radio charts. There are many fewer charting records today per year than there were 10 years ago, in fact about half as many. Demographics drives programming. Record labels are at the mercy of that. I’m a songwriter and a publisher. What hurts is coming across new writers who are great but who I know I can’t sign because they’re not in step with the market. It’s often said on the Row that some writers “are too good for their own good.” He tells the story of the song “Believe” which he wrote with Ronnie Dunn. Brooks & Dunn put it out. “It took forever to climb up the charts,” and it never got close to No. 1 because it was “too long” and couldn’t fit morning drive time. It won Song of the Year at the CMAs despite, not because of, the system. I’m not worried about the mid sized groups like the one Bud Walters runs. It’s the super-groups he says. The people running big radio today “wouldn’t know a transmitter from a transvestite.”
Christopher Yoo, law prof at Vanderbilt. New players in media are forcing old players to adapt and change. He says look at history, especially in the regulation of cable TV, to avoid repeating big mistakes. Whoo, this is hard to summarize. Packet switched architecture? I have no idea what he’s talking about. Bring back George Jones. (That’s what I wrote initially, but now I think I get his drift. We’re about to be a world in which all information pipes are fungible. They won’t be discrete media like radio and television. Every kind of information will flow over the Internet, and our current regulatory structure is not ready for that reality. Or something like that.)
For about two hours in the day and three in the evening, scores and scores of regular folks lined up at microphones to get roughly two-minutes to speak their minds. Nearly all of them opposed expanded ownership. A rather astonishing number came out from the years-long barn-raising of the air known as Radio Free Nashville. Beau Hunter, one of its pioneers, sort of teared up describing the awe and responsibility he and the other RFN freedom fighters felt at having their own FM signal with which they could broadcast actual things about actual things, from saving dogs to Medicare Part D information, and actual music made by musicians. My new friend Freddie O’Connell, co-host of WRVU’s political talk show “Liberadio” noted how out of whack political points of view have gotten on the air. Nashville’s two biggest news/talk stations air a total of 34 hours a day of right-wing conservative blowhards like O’Riley and Limbaugh. Many people said how happy they were to be in an actual democratic forum, speaking directly to pretty heavy public officials. Those same people also said that they’d had plenty of reasons to wonder lately if they’d ever see democracy at home again.
What I found fascinating is that payola hardly came up at all, except in vague and oblique references. Nobody sketched out a story of money changing hands for airplay. There was plenty of discussion of centralized programming and shrinking play lists, which is one of those things that’s borne out by hard data and that’s completely apparent to anybody with a real zest for music. Radio groups and programmers make the case that their cycles of ratings and research are carefully designed to give the people what they want, that our homogenized mass taste is a direct reflection of our nation’s free market. This is not to be dismissed lightly, but many in the audience Monday and I harbor deep suspicion that our ratings system and the demographic targeting its used to support super-serves a bunch of minorities but has about as much to do with our nation’s broad tastes and curiosities as a McDonald’s hamburger has to do with real food.
But there I go again. I’d better post this…
Craig, An excellent report. I was impressed by all the peopel who drove in from Memphis for the hearing. I was struck by the lack of particpation on the main panel by a record label or any group representing labels. I was on the list to speak on behalf of A2IM the American Association of Independent Music, a group that represents Indie Labels. I was however so far down on the list that it was obivous that if I got to speak at all it would have been after 8 PM. So I departed at 5 PM and posted my comments on the FCC website. Thanks again for an excellent report.
Posted by: Al McCree | December 14, 2006 at 11:46 AM
Hi Craig,
I'm a longtime reader, first time commenter, as we say in radio. I've always found your writing to be fair. Although I felt the headline presenting the music industry as David to radio's Golliath was tough to accept. I'd say the two industries are about the same size.
I followed Monday's hearings pretty carefully, and then read the FMC's study. The one thing I took from both of those events is a general misunderstanding of the radio business. They seem to feel the problem is ownership. I believe even if ownership changed, or if restrictions were placed on ownership, the current problems would remain. Because the problem isn't ownership, but money. Specifically where radio gets its money.
Most of the testimony on Monday came from musicians. The FMC report also comes from musicians. Radio is not part of the music business. It has no financial stake in a musicians career. If you look at where radio gets its money, it's mostly from non-music sources. Those non-musical sources don't really care about music or programming. They care about reaching the largest number of listeners for their advertising. So radio caters its programming to satisfy the advertisers.
The only way for radio to better reflect music and the music industry is for radio programming to be funded by music. That way, radio wouldn't care if the music attracted a large audience. The musicians would be the primary beneficiaries, and they could see directly which music attracted the largest audiences, and which music didn't.
The problem with my proposal is that Congress and the FCC created payola laws that prevent music industry support of radio. However, if musicians and the music industry want radio to serve them, they need to find ways to pay for that service. Otherwise, radio will continue to serve their advertisers.
Posted by: George Achaves | December 14, 2006 at 02:35 PM