At this point, the modern/classic binary is still going strong. Take San Francisco/San Jose “classic rock” station KUFX. The station’s top hits list includes Queen – “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” U2 – “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” ZZ Top – “Give Me All Your Lovin,” Van Halen – “Pretty Woman,” and Bad Company – “Rock and Roll Fantasy.”

That’s all pretty classic classic rock, as far as I’m concerned. But other classic stations in the same genre are starting to integrate what I’ve always regarded as modern rock tunes into their playlists. For example, there’s the Sky.fm online station. Sky also claims the classic rock category, but brands itself as offering “a diverse and exciting selection of classic rock hits, ranging from 70′s British hard rock to 80′s progressive rock.”

Last I checked, Sky.fm hits included selections from The Cars, Peter Gabriel, and David Bowie. Are these classic rock artists? Is John Mellencamp, also featured on the station, really classic rock?

Hot stuff

What is the actual historical difference between classic and modern rock anyway? Some years ago I ran into a guy selling copies of The Art of Modern Rock at the Metreon in San Francisco. I asked him when he thought “modern” rock began and “classic” rock ended. He seemed sort of annoyed by the question, so I left him alone.

My guess is that Disco serves as the original historical marker between classic and modern rock. Between 1974 and 1979, Disco disrupted Rock in huge ways. It stole a sizeable chunk of Rock’s audience, causing a huge anti-Disco backlash. The story is nicely told in Alice Echols’ great book, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture.

When Rock made its comeback in the early 1980s, it did so by borrowing Disco’s thunder. “New wave” bands like The Cars, Devo, Oingo Boingo, Prince, The Talking Heads, and Blondie appropriated the hard 4/4 beat and urbane sound that bands like Chic and Rick James perfected. Artists like John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen didn’t go that route, obviously, but their songs about post-industrial America clearly acknowledged that the sixties were over. So did Bowie with lyrics like “Do you remember your President Nixon? Do you remember the bills you have to pay? Or even yesterday?”

So in a historical sense, “modern” and “classic” rock can really be defined as pre- and post-Disco rock. Modern rock really took off after Disco unexpectedly declined following the spectacular release of Saturday Night Fever in 1977. But in a practical sense, when surveying modern/classic rock radio stations, it’s getting more difficult to detect the clear, bright line between the two genres.

Modern = new

Now, in addition to the blurring between pre- and post-Disco rock circa 1980, there are modern rock radio stations like 99Rock that have moved way beyond that era. Their version of modern rock is Green Day, or Cake, or even Celo Green.

Thus, modern rock is now relatively new rock. Modern rock as it emerged in the 1980s is 80s nostalgia. Everything pre-1990 that still makes it to playlists has itself becomes a “classic” (even if it was once “modern”), and the historical events that actually created the modern/classic rock distinction are slowly being forgotten in the process.

This doesn’t mean that radio stations can’t still call themselves “classic” or “modern.” They can call themselves whatever they want. But the original difference between the two terms, rooted in cultural events, is fading from memory as the generations change.

The Rush post noticed that Indian Governor Mitch Daniels response speech praised the Obamas for “setting a great family values example.”

“And he’s right,” Limbaugh added, “they do that well.  Mom and dad and the two kids.  It’s a good-looking family.”

But then the commentary, titled “How the First Lady Could Help the Poor,” says that FLOTUS ought to dump the school nutrition standards that are being unveiled this week:

That’s not the kind of teamwork, you see, that the people of this country want.  They don’t want their government telling them what they cannot eat.  They don’t want the government telling them what they must eat.  Even little leftist robot kids don’t.

Instead:

You know, the best thing Michelle Obama could do—and I’m not joking here—the best thing Michelle Obama could do for people in poverty is to simply highlight the solid nuclear family that she has with her husband, Barack, and the two kids.

Oh well, that compliment had to go somewhere like that, or it wouldn’t have been Rush Limbaugh. Sorry Rush, but since huge numbers of kids in poverty depend on schools for meals, it makes sense to feed them things that won’t cause diabetes and high blood pressure. And before we complain about our tax dollars going to new Federal standards, maybe we should complain about them going to lunches that make public school kids obese.

On the other hand, Limbaugh’s praise for the Obamas could be read as an oblique reference to the family values of another presidential candidate.

WSHU Acquires 2 more stations

The FCC just approved the proposed assignment of two Cox-owned AM radio stations in Connecticut to Sacred Heart University for use as non-commercial radio stations. Stations WSTC (Stamford, CT) and WNLK (Norwalk, CT) will convert from commercial to non-commercial status and will be used by public radio group WSHU for its broadcasts of public radio programming (mostly syndicated shows from NPR and BBC).

The purchase price is $500,000 and a local marketing agreement currently in place allows for $15,000 a month in expenses to be reimbursed to Cox up until the sale closes. According to the asset purchase agreement, Cox believes that the sale price is “substantially below the fair market value” and therefore intends to qualify the difference between the purchase price and the market value of the stations as a charitable contribution. It’s intriguing that Cox can potentially get paid and get a tax write-off for this deal since the purchaser is a non-profit university.

WSHU began airing its programming over WSTC and WNLK in November, 2011 after the proposed sale was announced. Before that time, both Cox stations aired a news and talk format. This isn’t the first time that WSHU has entered into a deal with a commercial station. Last year they began leasing airtime from Ridgefield Broadcasting Corporation for the use of commercial FM station WQQQ. WHSU broadcasts classical music programming and a public radio news format across a number of AM and FM frequencies in both Connecticut and New York. Although there doesn’t appear to be any student involvement in these public radio stations, Sacred Heart University also has the Internet-only student radio station WHRT.

My most cynical response is that the name change represents nothing new; Clear Channel hasn’t really been in the radio business for more than a decade. Rather, the company was in the broadcast real estate business, buying up stations and repackaging them into clusters in order to reduce staffing and other costs. In the short term it was a wildly successful strategy from a profit standpoint, because it’s a ruthlessly simple formula: radically cut costs while keeping revenues mostly static. However, it wasn’t a sustainable approach because it also resulted in diluting the product–the programming itself–which listeners couldn’t help but notice, as they jumped ship to new competing platforms.

At the same time, I think it is true that the company’s shift in strategy really is a turn away from traditional radio, but at radio’s expense. By comparison, National Public Radio has used its internet platforms to compliment and court new listeners to its programming, on the air and online. While programming ostensibly is the product offered up in iHeartRadio, the overwhelming sameness of it all is rather striking. Sure there are dozens of active rock stations to choose from, but the distance between their sound and playlists can be measured in millimeters.

Now it is true that Clear Channel is actually a significant radio content company with its ownership of Premiere Radio Networks, home to such highly lucrative programs as Rush Limbaugh’s and Sean Hannity’s. And while you can listen to these programs by tuning in live broadcast streams from affiliate stations on iHeartRadio, there’s no way to listen at another time. Furthermore, iHeartRadio doesn’t provide a schedule for these stations so you know when to tune it. Sure, you can subscribe to on demand access to Rush or Hannity on their respective websites, but I argue that’s a scattershot approach. First, it limits the audience to the more dedicated, rather than casual listeners. Second, it takes place outside of iHeartRadio, fracturing the platform’s value as a one-stop shop for Clear Channel radio content.

The even more telling aspect of Clear Channel’s move away from radio as we know it is its Total Traffic Network which delivers real-time traffic reports over its stations’ HD channels. Why is this not a radio service? Because one of its primary purposes is to feed traffic data to navigation devices like Garmins and TomToms, not radios. In effect, this is a step towards making stations more valuable for the spectrum they occupy rather than the programming that they can deliver.

This isn’t to say that I believe Clear Channel is abandoning radio. Rather, it’s clear that Clear Channel is continuing to move away from relying on profiting from individual station revenues towards seeing stations as a nationwide commodity where local programming is more of an obligation than a raison d’être. I don’t see the company reinvesting in programming at local stations so much as using them as resources to create new data services and outlets to push national programming brands as consolidated under the iHeartRadio banner. This can be seen no more clearly than in the massive layoffs of on-air talent that Clear Channel imposed last October.

The change from Clear Channel Radio to Clear Channel Media and Entertainment is consolidation 2.0. For the sake of true local service and innovative programming, we could only wish that Clear Channel were actually leaving radio.

The other day I got a chance to see Lev Anderson and Chris Melzter’s wonderful documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone at the Roxy Theater in San Francisco (trailer here). The film is a must see for anyone who wants to understand the post-disco music scene of the 1980s, with its eclectic mix of ska, funk, soul, rock, punk, and whatever else happened to be around. Fishbone was, and still is, a wonderful band, best appreciated live, but certainly beautifully understood and portrayed in this doc.

Fishbone's Angelo Moore at the Roxy Theater in January (photo: Matthew Lasar)

The screening was especially exciting for me, because the band’s lead singer, Angelo Moore (aka “Dr. Mad Vibe”) made an appearance afterwards. But Everyday Sunshine also reminded me of one of Fishbone’s first MTV hits: “? (Modern Industry)”—a 1985 Devo-esque piece that served as a long song to broadcast radio.

Basically, the piece lists and shouts out what I presume were some of Fishbone’s favorite radio stations:

“Turn it on, man . . .
WBRU, KABE, WFLY, Cool 92
KAX, KOKE, KRO
WAMX, yes, wow !
KJZ ! The . . . KUSF, check 94, KFRC
A-A-A-A”

. . . followed by this observation:

“These are the voices of modern industry
They speak the words that bring you together
These are the sounds gears grinding
These are the round levers
These are the sounds behind the machines . . . “

. . . other stations mentioned include:

“K-ROCK, K-VETE, K-VOL, K-ZAP, K-SOUL, K-SHAFF
Disappear !
WIMI
394 … JACE
397 … WEWE
KCOC, Star 96
The Cube…”

. . . followed by:

“WBAS, WOWW, hah, WAX, WDUD
KSIN, we refuged you…
KUSA, hallelujah
KILD, that means ‘kill’
Hey man, we have faith in you…
Hey, can you believe it
Do we have listeners out there
105… 195″

I would love to know the story of how these radio stations were picked (and if any are figments of the Fishbone imagination). But the piece definitely goes on the next edition of my favorite songs about radio list.

The FCC rulings have both been rebuked by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on First Amendment grounds, hence the Supremes get the final word. Fox and friends were in full force to push the free speech line. But what struck my eye in reading the transcript were Department of Justice Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli comments before the justices. Verrilli attempted to parry broadcaster arguments that broadcast television is no longer ubiquitous, hence Pacifica vs. FCC, the 1978 case that backed FCC indecency regulation on ubiquity grounds, is no longer relevant.

But he also warned the panel that if the high court sweeps away the FCC’s relatively new strictures against fleeting dirty talk, the decision will have the most impact on radio.

“I want to point out at the outset something I think is significant,” he began, “which is that their [the broadcaster's] argument would sweep away indecency restriction with respect to radio as well as television, and they would sweep that away in the arguments they are making today without making any showing that circumstances have changed at all with respect to the ubiquity of — or accessibility of radio.”

“And I think if one looks at the FCC orders that this Court cited in its prior decision in this case, one would see that a lot of the most vile and lewd material really is in radio. So I just want to put that marker down at the beginning here because I do think it is quite important. No showing has been made about radio.”

“I didn’t quite understand that,” interjected Justice Anthony Kennedy. “Today there’s a — there is either a potential or a fact of violent and objectionable broadcasting in radio? I didn’t quite understand your point.”

“Yes. Pacifica itself, Justice Kennedy, was a case about a radio broadcast,” Verilli noted.

“Yes, I understand that. Yes,” Kennedy agreed.

“And the Respondents are arguing in this case that Pacifica ought to be overruled because the circumstances that justified its rule no longer obtain,” Verilli continued:

“I want to put a marker in at the outset here with respect to radio because I do think it’s quite important, that they haven’t made any argument that those circumstances are any different with respect to radio. It’s just as ubiquitous as it was. There isn’t even any argument that there is blocking technology available. I want to make sure, given the kind of vile material that the record demonstrates has been transmitted over time on radio, that the Court focuses on the breadth of the argument that the Respondents are making here.”

So there you have it. Radio is where the really nasty stuff is, according to Uncle Sam. But if that’s really the case, why are all the indecency suits up before the Supremes about broadcast TV?

ON AIR sign at the old Pirate Cat Radio (Photo: J. Waits)

The FCC released a list today, updating its statistics on the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States.

Based on this list, there are more radio stations today (14,952) then there were a few months ago.

The number of AM stations, FM commercial stations, and FM educational stations all increased since the end of September, 2011. The only categories in which there was a drop in the number of radio stations were FM translators/boosters and Low Power FM.

By the end of December, 2011, there were 87 more radio stations in the United States than there were at the end of September. FM educational stations (college radio, high school radio, public radio, community radio, and religious broadcasters) picked up the most stations and increased by 72. By the end of the year there were 10 fewer LPFM stations and 114 fewer FM translators/boosters.

As of December 31, 2011:

AM Stations:                         4,766 (up from 4,763 in Sept. 2011)
FM Commercial Stations:      6,542 (up from 6,530 in Sept. 2011)
FM Educational Stations:       3,644 (up from 3,572 in Sept. 2011)
Total Radio Stations:        14,952 (up from 14,865 in Sept 2011)

Not included in Total Radio Stations:

FM Translators and Boosters:   6,099 (down from 6,113 in Sept 2011)
Low power FM:                            838 (down from 848 in Sept 2011)

103.7 Oldies Changes Call Sign to KOSF

As part of an overall re-branding and re-formatting effort across several Clear Channel-owned stations in San Francisco, call signs for KKSF, KNEW, and KKGN were changed yesterday.

The station formerly known as KKSF, now branded as oldies station 103.7 FM, became KOSF. That left the KKSF call letters available for use by the former KNEW at 910 AM (licensed in Oakland) under the brand NewsTalk 910AM. KKGN (formerly progressive talk station Green 960) at 960 AM now takes the call sign KNEW and is airing a talk format (hosts include Glenn Beck, Bill Press, and Stephanie Miller) under the brand 960 AM KNEW. It was initially rumored that 960 would become a Fox Radio News affiliate, but this plan seems to have been modified following the big changes at KGO.

It’s hard to tell what this means for each of these stations, but it’s curious that the heritage of the KKSF call letters (most associated with their old smooth jazz format, which lives on at KKSF.com) isn’t really connected with the news talk format of 910AM. Perhaps that means that more changes are to come.

Spotify has released its top 100 lists for 2011. They include staff favorites, too. Here are the first ten user picks from the Spotify United States top 100 roster, which leads with Foster the People‘s rather disturbing (but very listenable) song, “Pumped Up Kicks.”

1. Pumped Up Kicks, Foster the People
2. Stereo Hearts – feat. Adam Levine, Gym Class Heroes
3. Rolling In the Deep, Adele
4. We Found Love, Rihanna, Calvin Harris
5. Helena Beat, Foster the People
6. Moves like Jagger, Maroon 5, Christina Aguilera
7. Super Bass, Nicki Minaj
8. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, Skrillex
9. Give Me Everything, Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer
10. Party Rock Anthem, LMFAO, Lauren Bennett, GoonRock

Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” is definitely an underground tune with its scary, creepy lyrics:

Robert’s got a quick hand.
He’ll look around the room, he won’t tell you his plan.
He’s got a rolled cigarette, hanging out his mouth he’s a cowboy kid.
Yeah, he found a six shooter gun.
In his dad’s closet hidden with a box of fun things, and I don’t even know what.
But he’s coming for you, yeah he’s coming for you.

Foster the People singer Mark Foster explained the meaning of the song to Spinner UK.

“‘Pumped Up Kicks’ is about a kid that basically is losing his mind and is plotting revenge. He’s an outcast. I feel like the youth in our culture are becoming more and more isolated. It’s kind of an epidemic. Instead of writing about victims and some tragedy, I wanted to get into the killer’s mind, like Truman Capote did in ‘In Cold Blood.’ I love to write about characters. That’s my style. I really like to get inside the heads of other people and try to walk in their shoes.”

Interestingly, the clip isn’t anywhere near the top of Billboard’s 2011 Year End Most Popular Radio Songs list (it is number 29). This scotches my theory that music social network users still follow the lead of commercial radio when constructing their playlists.

On the other hand, if Billboard is to be believed, “Pumped” isn’t a top 75 downloaded song either. So I guess there are now at least three categories to follow: radio, downloaded, and played-on-the-cloud. Actually, there are five if you include ringtones and videos, but that’s too much complexity for me to handle on the cusp of New Year’s weekend.

I’m not sure how much sociological fatalism to attach the popularity of “Pumped.” The echoey, distant sound of the vocals make the lyrics difficult to understand, so what emerges is the cheery, almost marching-band mood of the piece.

KGO protest; San Francisco; 12/15/2011

The first was held two weeks ago (we were there; photo on right). Now the protesters say they will hold a candlelight vigil on Friday, December 30, at 5 pm, and collect food donations for the Bayview-Hunter’s Point YMCA Food Pantry. “The food donations are being made in honor of Ray Taliaferro, legendary bay area broadcaster who was fired on December 1 along with other well known radio personalities at KGO,” the Facebook press release says. “Mr. Taliaferro was born and raised in the Hunter’s Point neighborhood and had worked at KGO radio for decades.”

According to a Former Listener member, Taliaferro will be there himself. He was on KSCO  AM in Santa Cruz earlier this month, and in high dudgeon. The show started with KSCO’s Kay Zwerling offering some praise for Donald Trump’s ideas, especially his opposition to the Obama administration’s health care reforms.

Taliaferro was asked to respond.

“I think anyone who pays attention to Donald Trump is ridiculous, stupid, unknowing, absolutely ridiculous,” he began. “What the hell has Donald Trump done for poor people? What has he done to try to make sure to help the people that I grew up with, I grew up poor in Hunter’s Point?”

“Why on earth are people so stupid in the United States of America that they’ve got to come with a commentary like that?” Taliaferro demanded. The exchange got quite heated. Perhaps Taliaferro will have more to say about these larger issues at the Friday demonstration.

Radio Survivor readers are reporting that various dismissed KGO folk have found jobs elsewhere. One comment says that Len Tillem and Gene Burns have landed new DJ work at Clear Channel’s KKSF (910 AM), beginning January 3rd. Len’s show will run from 3-4 PM. Gene Burns show will follow from 4-7 PM. We contacted Clear Channel to confirm this, but have received no reply.

Noah Shanock from Stitcher Radio also posted an invitation:

We at Stitcher Radio were saddened to hear of KGO’s recent decision to remove their talk programming content. KGO’s change in formatting is lamentable, both for our community and for the outlook of terrestrial talk radio. We believe that some of the most interesting and engaging content on the radio are talk shows, and are fully committed to providing the best platform for talk shows to reach and engage their listeners online. We’d love to have these great talk shows on Stitcher and have reached out to each of the hosts who were laid off – offering up our San Francisco recording studio for free, no strings attached – where they can record live Internet radio streams and podcasts.

The commentary notes that Stitcher provided air time to the morning show duo Fernando and Greg “back in 2009 under similar circumstances.” Their program on Energy 92.7 FM in San Francisco was cancelled following the station’s sale.

And KSCO has been trying to recruit former KGO staff, among them Dr. Bill Wattenburg, who hosted KSCO’s Good Morning Monterey Bay AM Drive for a week this month.