As The World Tunes

SHE Says Good-bye

by Steve Bussey
GeoSynchronous Records

The central Florida area experienced another major radio format shift recently when modern rock station WSHE (100.3 MHz) changed to oldies format Cool 100. Not that I loved the old format, it was quite repetitive and a little too stuck on playing only the newer stuff. But they did play music you would not hear on the other central Florida stations, plus some of the up and coming local bands like My Friend Steve, Von Ra, and Wellville. Now that I think about it, I felt sad when WSHE gave long running WDIZ the boot two and a half years ago.

But it is all about business and the bottom line. Commercial radio exists to sell advertising. The radio and advertising dictators constantly research what the buying public wants to hear. They can tell you the exact demographics for any particular format (demographics meaning the age, gender, and spendable income of the listening audience). So if you want to sell your products to 35 to 45 year old males with income in the $40,000 to $60,000 range, the radio advertising sales person will tell which format to use, be it talk, oldies, modern rock, country, news, or whatever.

But is this really what the public wants? Radio says it is, that listeners want to tune in to their favorite station any time of day and hear the latest hit within a few minutes. That is one reason the Top 40 format came into existence. Some stations cut the rotation list to 30 or even 20 or less, with excellent ratings results. And the higher the ratings, the more a station can charge for each advertising minute.

I think that in reality the listeners would prefer a little broader format. The GeoSynchronous Records office recently purchased a CD changer that can hold 301 CD s a one time. It has a random play function which automatically continually plays songs with no logic at all in the order of selection. Sort of like a radio station with no commercials or talking. It will play a funky Bong Water Taffy song, followed by a John Phillips Sousa march, on to Pink Floyd, a classical selection from Gustav Holst, and then smooth jazz from The Rippingtons. No one in the office complains, because even if you hate the song, it is gone in a few minutes and you never know what will follow.

That may be too broad for the general public, but a little broadening of each format would be good. Take rock music for example. Classic rock, modern rock, AAA, and even oldies formats are all rock based. But classic rock stations will never play newer artists like The Bare Naked Ladies, and you will never hear ZZ Top or The Beatles on a modern rock station. But does this mean a combined format will not be accepted by the listeners? Big Red of the central Florida acoustic rock band Big Red & The Bus thinks it will be accepted. We play Matchbox 20, The Byrds, Bare Naked Ladies, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles all in the same set and the crowd loves it. A great song is a great song, I don t care when it was written or how old it is, and the audience couldn t care less.

Granted, a live performance is a different venue than radio broadcast, but I still think the silent majority of listeners want a little more diversity and less repetition. The laws may be changing soon for low power FM broadcasting, enabling any one to start their own radio station with very little expense. We are already seeing Internet only stations springing up with wide open formats as well as very tight ones. Maybe with advances in wireless Internet links we will one day even be able to pick up these Internet stations in our car, boat, or at the beach. Hopefully we are on the verge of an explosion in listening opportunities.

About the author: Steve Bussey is a singer/songwriter/guitarist and is currently the owner and general manager of GeoSynchronous Records (http://www.pan.com/geosync, Listening Line 800 235 9193, ask for a free catalog), an indie label handling artists such as Les Dudek, Mike Pachelli, Bong Water Taffy, and Big Red & The Bus. Prior to this, Steve earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Georgia Tech, designed sound equipment and guitar amps for Fender, and supervised design of communication systems for the Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center.