TV Coverage of Michael Jackson's Radio Airplay

I’ve been combing through the web trying to get a handle on how radio has responded to the death of Michael Jackson on Thursday. There’s much anecdotal evidence to suggest that radio listenership was up, as fans sought out his music and news about his death from the radio. However, as listeners turned on their radios and TVs (and the Internet) to hear the sounds and see the images of the pop icon at his best, not all stations were able to deliver great programming from the outset. As Matthew pointed out on Thursday, many commercial stations with automated programming weren’t in a position to provide Jackson-themed music and commentary as the news broke.

However, an article in the Boston Globe today, “Live Radio Takes the Lead: Canned Programs are Set Aside as DJs and Fans Celebrate Michael Jackson,” points out that the Boston airwaves did have some success in terms of satisfying fans. According to the piece:

The death of pop megastar Michael Jackson brought new life to Boston radio this week, as local stations scrambled to capture the moment. Station managers called for all hands on deck, replacing automated voices with live talent to talk about the man and the music, take calls from nostalgic listeners, and saturate the airwaves with Jackson’s hits.

It was a historic day in an era of corporate radio, controlled play lists, and canned voices. At Mix 98.5, DJ Lady D played Jackson tunes and interviews from 7 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, the day of Jackson’s death. Caught in a week when the regular morning team was on vacation…the station called in three of its top personalities from around the clock, who sat together yesterday morning, live on the air.

In cars, living rooms, and offices, listeners set aside the solo experience of their iPods for a day and gathered around the radio to tap into something bigger – memories of college years, albums shared by millions across a range of musical tastes, dance hits two decades old that can still fill a dance club with another generation of fans.

“It’s a good reminder of what live radio can do, of the role that radio can play in bringing a community together,” said Scott Fybush, editor of Northeast Radio Watch in Rochester, N.Y.

Many stations no longer have live announcers, using canned voices for part or all of the day, and so can’t react to a major news event, he said.

Jammin’ 94.5 called back its morning crew for a second shift after the news broke. They talked about Jackson and spun his music until midnight. The pop icon was the only topic of conversation on Kiss 108 yesterday morning, and Oldies 103.3 played nonstop “Thriller,’’ “Billie Jean,’’ and other Jackson favorites all day…

The article also points out that some stations were unable to react, either because they didn’t have live DJs or didn’t have enough music in their collections:

There were some outliers yesterday, stations that did little to acknowledge Jackson’s passing, sticking to their usual focus and format. WBOS 92.9 fired its DJs last year and now features canned announcers between its alternative rock hits – “voice tracking,’’ as they say in radio – all day. It played just two Michael Jackson covers by other artists, said program director Ken West.

Most telling of all is speculation that this sort of communal grieving experience across radio may soon become a thing of the past:

Jackson had more fans across a broad spectrum of listeners than perhaps any pop figure of his generation, radio executives and music critics said. Fybush, the Northeast Radio Watch editor, observed that with more stations abandoning the live, local personalities of the past, “this may really be the last of these moments as far as music radio goes.’’

It’s so fascinating to me that the way that people listened to music on Thursday night may have been a radical departure from the way they listened to music on Wednesday. And, I agree, that it suddenly brought everyone back to the past, when radio was local, live, and communal. Is it possible that this will have any sort of lasting impact on radio?

“I look forward to working with Julius,” declared interim Chair Michael Copps this evening, “and all my colleagues at the Commission in tenacious pursuit of a communications policy that truly puts the public interest first.”

There are still two more FCC nominations that await Senate approval, one for South Carolina Public Service Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (she daughter of prominent Democrat James Clyburn) and another for former National Telecommunications and Information Administration biggie Meredith Attwell Baker. With their approval, the Obama administration will have a full Commission.

Julius Genachowski at his Senate confirmation committee hearing last week.

None of these new people have any substantial experience with radio. Genachowski is a new media guy. Clyburn, like most state public utilities folk, is most familiar with wireline regulation, and may be the least prepared of the new crop for her new job. Republican Baker’s focus at the NTIA was with the DTV transition, spectrum grants, and Internet domain issues. Incumbents McDowell and Michael Copps have their opinions about radio, but neither has any real affinity for the medium. McDowell was a telecom lobbyist prior to his coming to the FCC.

And my guess is that they won’t pay much attention to radio. It’s all going to be about broadband, wireless, spectrum allocations, white space, wireless issues like openness and exclusive handset deals, and, of course, the future of network management. All crucial issues, but so is radio.

Radio, real radio, the kind that is live and local and accessible, is in huge trouble. On the commercial end, its revenues have dramatically declined, as has its audience. On the non-commercial platform, the listeners are, well, old and getting older. Predictions of satellite radio’s demise appear daily. HD Radio is in a state of suspended animation. Podcasting is treading water. College radio stations are being mugged by budget crazed administrators.

KMEL, the "people's" radio station

And much of what passes for “radio” on the Internet is, in fact, not really radio. It’s juke box. Example: the online station I’m listening to while writing this post. It’s been almost three hours since Jackson’s death was confirmed, and I’m still waiting for KMEL to have someone on from the San Francisco Bay Area to talk about him. Or even to take a call or two from listeners. Nah. It’s just a stream of Jackson tunes, with the deejay making a two second comment every twenty minutes or so.

Why should anyone listen to KMEL when they can get the same format on Pandora or radio365? If KMEL is the “People’s radio station,” where are the people?

We need real radio. Radio that informs us and brings our voices together in times of crisis. Radio that lets us know what’s going on in our neighborhoods, in our cities, in our regions. Radio that gives our local musicians a first chance. Radio that, when it talks, talks with us, not just at us.

So what is the current FCC agenda? Not much, but a start.

Localism. The FCC still needs to resolve a wide variety of issues contained in its localism proceeding. Should the agency require a baseline amount of local programming from radio stations? Critics argue that this would burden already struggling broadcasters. But it may be that by abandoning any real local presence, over-the-air radio stations have walked away from the one unique service that they can offer in the hyper-competitive world of Web 2.0.

There are some complex and thorny issues to address in that docket. Should the agency require a 24 hour personnel presence at radio stations? Should it require all licenses to set up advisory boards? And if so, how? I’m not sure I have the answer to these questions, but since the agency has formally raised them, it should resolve them one way or the other.

Low Power FM. The FCC needs to continue to push Congress to pass Mike Doyle and Lee Terry’s Local Community Radio Act, which would make it much easier for the agency to license 100 watt non-commercial stations in urban areas.

Non-commercial, educational licenses. What’s going with all those license applications that the agency took last year for NCE stations? How many licenses have been awarded? How many have yet to be resolved? Progress report? Hello?

Sirius XM. Lots of loose ends are still hanging around the Sirius XM merger. Those minority channels need to be allocated. The FCC needs to decide whether to require interoperable receivers to pick up HD signals (they shouldn’t). And that long battle between Sirius XM and wireless carriers over potential WCS interference needs to be put to bed once and for all.

AM stations using FM translators. The FCC has been putting off a decision about this issue for years. Basically the problem is that AM stations have to reduce wattage at night when their signals become much more powerful. The agency needs to let smaller, struggling AM license holders access FM translators, so that they can provide more local service in the evening and early AM, but in a way that doesn’t encroach on LPFM.

What the FCC has yet to do is to establish an agenda for radio, to define what it really is, and chart out  ways to further the medium. My biggest problem with the war over the Performance Rights Act is that it has allowed the National Association of Broadcasters stations to pose as martyrs and set the agenda. Saving “local radio” has been reduced to stopping the PRA.

Will the Genachowski FCC reach past the false dichotomy of “old media” versus “new media” and see what a crucial role real radio can play? Here at Radio Survivor we’ll be watching, and listening.

So, I suppose, many of us will now remember when we heard of Michael Jackson’s death, where we were, and how we heard about it. I found out on email (how retro!) from a fellow college radio DJ. Our radio station’s staff email list is actually the place where I’ve gotten the first word about many music-related deaths.

From the posts I’ve seen on Facebook, it would seem that many people heard about the news via that social networking site. And, I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter has functioned the same way today (after all, it’s the new college radio!).

But what about radio? Did any of you find out about Michael Jackson’s death today on your local radio station? On your college radio station?

In the days to come, radio will be the place where fans might congregate to celebrate Michael Jackson’s life in song. If you have special programming planned, post it here. Also, I’d love to collect stories about how people heard about his death and if radio played a role in spreading the word.

I’ve got to go now and settle in for MTV’s Michael Jackson tribute tonight at 9pm EST to memorialize the King of Pop.