I hate radio. Complaining about radio in Las Vegas is a time-honored pastime, but I'm not looking to rehash the lack of rock music on KUNV, the need for a real community station nor the blandness of commercial stations. My problem isn't just with radio in Las Vegas; I hate radio in general: the homogeneity (like Vegas's "Mix" or "Xtreme" formats? There are franchises all over the country), the unadventurousness, the way the DJs talk, the commercials—everything.
I'm sure you're thinking that I should just listen to satellite or Internet radio, or get an iPod. Most of the time, I don't bother with radio, and although I haven't yet gotten an iPod, I do have hundreds of CDs I can and do listen to instead of whatever's coming over the airwaves. For the most part, radio and I keep a safe distance from each other, and my hatred rarely comes into play.
So why do I care about the sad state of radio? Because even though it's not hard for me to avoid it, I shouldn't have to. There should be something good on the radio. As a recent ad campaign (designed to counter all of those other options mentioned above) bragged, radio has millions of songs on hundreds of stations, all for free. Unlike satellite, there's no monthly subscription fee, and radios are practically free compared to iPods or computers. The Federal Communications Commission may be a killjoy right now, cracking down on sexually explicit language and anything Howard Stern wants to do, but the reason the agency exists at all is that the airwaves are supposed to belong to the people.
For the most part though (and this is especially true in Las Vegas), the airwaves are licensed out by the FCC—the agency that's supposed to regulate that space in the public interest—to large corporations which then use them to maximize profits. It's hard to blame behemoths like Clear Channel and Infinity for playing the same 40 songs over and over again and duplicating successful formats all around the country; it's the quickest and surest way to make money. It's not, however, the way to make radio worth listening to. But there's no way that's going to happen under the current paradigm.
What's necessary to save radio, then, is not a retreat to satellite, the Internet or iPods (although those are all fine ways to listen to music and there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of them). What's necessary is deregulation. When most opponents of corporate-controlled radio hear that term, they think of huge corporations getting permission to buy even more stations in a single market. But the deregulation that gets tossed around by government officials isn't real deregulation; it's a corporate handout disguised as an expansion of freedom.
I'm talking about a full-scale dismantling of the FCC's control over the radio waves. Complete and total anarchy. This would certainly give corporations license to buy up as many stations as they want to, but it would also open the floodgates to hundreds of micro-broadcasters who have previously only been working illegally, if at all. Anyone with the money and knowledge to broadcast, even in a radius of only a few blocks, would be free to do so, and on the same frequency as a giant corporate station, if they so desired.
The government has been offering licenses to low-power stations for five years now, and Congress is currently considering Bill S2505, that would expand the parameters for low-watt broadcasting, which is currently restricted to frequencies far away from corporate stations, and thus has thrived mainly in rural communities out of commercial radio's reach. Of course, lobbying groups for corporate broadcasters oppose any expansion of low-power radio rights, and they're likely to get their way, as Republican lawmakers are reluctant to support the bill.
As much as it would be wonderful for this bill to pass, it's still only a small step toward what really should be the ultimate goal: getting rid of both corporate and government control and putting the airwaves in the hands of the people.
Josh Bell still has fond memories of KUNV's "Brain Pain." Read more of his takes on pop culture at
http://signalbleed.blogspot.com.