HOW ABOUT SOME RADIO THAT DOESN'T SUCK?

by Jaimie Vernon

As the slow creep of corporate de-regulation occurred in the terrestrial radio industry during the Bill Clinton administration (yes, it was that long ago), radio as we knew it -- the Hit Top40 -- began its slide into niche-oriented, limited playlist, demographically skewed radio 'brands'. Despite not being de-regulated, Canada nevertheless began to re-invent their stations and their formats as monolithic telecommunication entities like Rogers began to dip their toe into terrestrial radio as well.

B.O.B.-FM's "The Best Of The Best" was launched by CHUM LTD. at CFWM in Winnipeg by program director Howard Kroeger after hearing a mix tape at a birthday party. The concept -- playing only the cream of the crop from the catalogs of hundreds of popular artists -- grew legs and was cloned by other Canadian broadcasters like Corus Entertainment's DAVE-FM and JOE-FM.

The big spark in radio that would change the playing field during this decade was JACK-FM's "Playing What We Want" which first appeared in 2002 on CKLG-FM in Vancouver and has now grown to approximately 60 stations across North America. JACK stations play a mix of "gold" standards from the '60s thru the '90s with very few current Hot A/C singles. 

In 2003, an Ottawa station launched FRANK-FM as a one-day Halloween prank most likely inspired by the Canadian satirical/political magazine Frank. However, Nassau Broadcasting in the US branded this format which boasts a play list of approximately 1,000 songs -- nearly an identical playlist to JACK-FM.

As bean counters continued micro-formatting into smaller and smaller musical niches (sometimes leaving the stations rotating ONLY 300 songs every few months), and "new" music being left exclusively in the hands of the Adult Contemporary and Hot A/C stations (who also skimmed from the past catalogs of 'gold' artists), radio stopped being about the songs and more about the commercials between them. This, in turn, led to another wave of radio competition where 'more rock, less talk' or 'XX minutes of uninterrupted music' was the new battle cry.

At the end of the day, the audiences became tired of personality-less on-air personalities and the playlists they were unable to change (anyone remember "ALL request" shows?). When Napster's peak illegal downloading performance boasted nearly 30 million songs to steal from, it became quite clear that radio was not, and is not, going deep enough for the average listener -- especially boomer listeners who've got 30 to 40 years of hit music colouring the soundtracks of their lives.

The new hope for those that loved listening to a variety of songs during leisure or work time, was satellite radio. Almost overnight XM and Sirius sprang up with an alternative to what the terrestrial radio listener had available to them. Both entities offered custom digital hardware that could be mounted to their home stereo systems or made portable for travel. There were some hiccups at first as it seemed the devices only worked while the listener shook the device with one hand, stood in a rice paddy, faced south during a vernal equinox between the hours of 7:41 AM and 10:28 PM and stuck the antenna into a raw potato. 

With the technical issues ironed out and the unlimited playlists from dozens of virtual radio stations drawing listeners in, the subscription-only service plateaued - after all, who wanted to PAY for radio service that had been free for nearly 100 years? Then the inevitable fidgeting happened: satellite begin hiring ex-terrestrial radio bean counters and programmers to mess with the formula...thinking that it was the playlists that were not focused enough to bring in more subscribers. The plan backfired and began driving away the few subscribers it already had. The fallout left XM in a financial crisis causing both satellite giants to merge. The satellite radio market is still in uncertain flux.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world had already moved on. The Internet was offering the allure of those 30 million songs that were revealed through Napster nearly 10 years ago. Web-based radio stations run by both entrepreneurial  dot com corporations and the renegade listeners who were tired of the terrestrial alternatives grew exponentially thanks to services like Yahoo.com's streaming radio and Live365's micro-radio stations.

But the limitations of independent broadcasting came to a head two years ago when Live365 and other similar streaming radio station services were impeded by new legislation (initiated by lobbying terrestrial radio station owners) that would see mandatory fees added retroactively in the form of a new royalty tariff for music owners on anyone broadcasting web-based music. It was a double slap when these new media companies found out that terrestrial broadcasters are exempt from the same fee -- a move that was viewed as hostile protectionism.

So where does this leave the LISTENER? A place affectionately called, with tongue planted firmly in cheek,
Radio That Doesn't Suck.com .

The online 'station' is the brainchild of Toronto's Todd Miller whose own DJ persona is Don River -- cleverly named after the body of water that bisects the city. Miller's frustration with the limitations of the pay-to-play streaming stations made this budding radio personality seek out alternatives to getting the music to the listener without the hassle of subscriptions or limited air-times or restricted playlists.

Miller started with his own shows "The Vinyl Vault" spinning deep tracks from classic rock and pop plus "My Own Radio Show" with tastes of new material in the same music vein; he'll even occasionally stream live and take requests from listeners.

Slowly he brought local friends on board to create and customize their own radio shows -- restriction free. There was only one stipulation: PLAY GOOD MUSIC. This was a very attractive format for frustrated former Q107/CHUMFM/Sirrius radio personality Bob "The Iceman" Segarini who can now offer up rare and obscure Canadiana via his "Radio Zombie" show but also new and cutting edge material by Canada's new artists on "A & R Online" which Bob also blogs about in the Canadian music industry magazine http://fyimusic.ca .

Other current and archived shows include over 40 episodes of east coast DJ Larry Wilson's "A Space In Time" which is eclectic and usually features interviews and behind-the-scenes info on specific artists; Darryl MacLean's "Saturday Night Beach Party"; Prairie native Greg Mikolas's "Mik's Eclectic Mix";  Magazine publisher Gary 17's "Open Season" featuring material from the Toronto live music scene; Big Daddy Russ Horton's "Top40 Timeline" which is a 2 hour oldies magazine program; and Jade Dunlop's jazz and big band throwback "I've Heard That Song Before" [this writer's favourite show!].

Miller landed a radio coupe this year when the demise of the Canadian terrestrial radio icon 1050CHUM AM (which had been a household institution since 1957) allowed Miller to bring another radio program to his listeners with the inclusion of Toronto's "The Wine Ladies" who were left without a home to air their show.

RTDS's new, upscale profile, has also attracted Bob Zyerunkel's "Country Classics"; business man Steve Stunt's "The Entrepreneur Hour"; a current events show called "This Is Toronto",  and Miller's latest attraction to the station: former MuchMusic VJ Michael Williams and his "Soul On The Beach" show.

Listeners have been increasing with the addition of each episode supplied to RTDS at no cost (and usually produced by the show hosts themselves) because the personalities involved believe in the concept and the need to get the programming to the masses first, and reap the monetary rewards second. All the costs inherent in the website have been borne by Miller but donations via PayPal are encouraged by listeners to offset the time and energy he puts into the enterprise. The hope is to attract sponsors to the shows and the station to keep advertising and interruptions, a boondoggle to terrestrial radio, to a minimum.