Radio: Alive And Kicking
by Dawn St John
A lifelong music-lover, I used to envision myself with a future in radio. A lot has changed in the industry in my lifetime, and some of those changes have been discouraging for someone who was considering it as a career option. Many stations are now owned by major media conglomerates and have lost their personal and local touch. The Internet has had its impact as well. Still, independent stations - both conventional and web-based - are out there and proving that radio is not a lost medium.
These days, we are not limited to local stations. With satellite and Internet radio, the options are nearly limitless. Two hours' drive from my hometown, I can still listen to my beloved college and indie stations there through my computer. Or I can tune in to stations who operate solely on the web. Even my favorite local station has a web presence, so I needn't run multiple appliances to hear them while I'm plugging away at a column. According to Matthew Leftwich, general manager of Ithaca, NY's WVBR FM, "Being able to broadcast to a global market allows an Internet radio station to narrow its programming and target a much more significance audience than FM stations typically do."
"Historically," says Bill Goldsmith, who runs Internet-based station Radio Paradise along with his wife Rebecca, "radio stations have served as a quality filter for music lovers - separating the tiny kernels of musical goodness from the mounds of chaff that are released each year." This is a poetic description of what we as listeners tend to expect from our radio stations. Years ago, I stopped listening to most commercial stations because I grew tired of the repetition and the "cookie-cutter" sound. Eventually, I found a few favorite independent stations, who are more likely to play what they like instead of taking dictation from record labels as to which songs to play. "There's no rule in radio that says a station had to play this song from a band," says Joey Guisto, station manager and program director of WBER in Rochester, NY. He continues, "A record label, in a perfect world, would like every station to be playing the same song because then that song will achieve the highest chart position, but not everyone does that - especially us. We're going to play what fits us." This is what makes WBER stand out on the local airwaves. Radio Paradise follows the same principles over the Internet. Says Bill, "We play what we think are the best songs on a CD, or at least the ones that we think will fit our vision for the radio station the best. We don't pay any attention to what songs the record company has decided that stations should play ... [nor] to charts or sales figures. RP is about the music. Period." As a listener, I have to respect that.
As one who harbors unfulfilled fantasies of running a radio station myself, I also find myself curious about the daily activities involved. Says Matthew, "Most of the tasks are not consistent on a day-to-day basis..." There's no such thing as a "typical" day in a "typical" station. What Bill and Rebecca do for RP varies from what Joey or Matthew do at their stations, which also likely varies from the way things are handled commercial stations. One thing is for certain, though: running a station means long, busy days and many responsibilities. Reviewing and programming the music are the major tasks shared by both types of stations with which we interviewed, along with recording such things as station identification, public service announcements, or underwriting spots. These tasks can easily take up the bulk of a station manager's day. However, the job does not stop there. For someone like Bill or Rebecca, who co-own their station, there are also technical responsibilities (website maintenance, solving any technical problems which may arise, etc.) and accounting. For a terrestrial station such as WBER or WVBR, the manager may be responsible for training new DJs, dealing with bands (and their management), community events and relations, and conducting interviews in addition to the aforementioned programming duties. It's a lot of work, and often means long hours, but both Joey and Bill left me with the impression that they wouldn't trade their jobs for any other.
If their jobs sound like a good match for you, the best thing you can do is jump right in. The experience one can gain even as a DJ in a community-run station can certainly lead to further responsibilities down the line. Whether you climb the ladder within the station or move to a new ladder - possibly even one of your own creation, the opportunities are there. No one can say for certain what direction radio will take in the future, but regardless of its form, people will be needed to make it happen.