Ever since I can remember, American broadcast radio has touted its superiority for localism. The appeal of broadcast radio was supposed to be that everything you heard was coming from a local studio with a local host talking about local things.
Never mind that the music was mostly made elsewhere and the talk was at least partially syndicated; radio was all about the local aspect, and the goal was to have listeners know where the station came from simply by listening.
They even had local or regional hit songs that you wouldn’t hear if you traveled to another market, and talk hosts so entrenched in local politics and business that they would be considered for elected office.
I don’t think I need to tell you what happened. Local costs money. Radio has less money. The main studio rule was flushed. Radio sounds the same, with the same music, same hosts, same topics nationwide. Is that bad? Not always.
First, why I’m bringing this up now, years after the industry largely abdicated the local angle.
This week, I had to drive up from my South Florida home to Savannah, Georgia, and back — the dreaded I-95 run. This time, rather than listen to satellite radio or streaming, I decided to just poke around the broadcast radio dial and see what the locals were being offered.
It was exactly what you’d expect: syndicated talk, a LOT of country music (once you cross the Palm Beach–Martin County line, you’re in the South), a lot of the same pop hits, and, other than the commercials, nothing local.
You couldn’t tell where the stations were located. There was nothing you couldn’t get better through streaming, Spotify, or podcasts.
I couldn’t even catch a local traffic report when I hit a wall of rush-hour traffic on the East Beltway around Jacksonville. (In fairness, if I’d stuck with WOKV long enough, I probably would have gotten a traffic report. Thank heaven for Waze.) Savannah, Brunswick, DUUUUVALLLLL, Daytona, Orlando, Fort Pierce — all the same music, all the same talk.
But is that necessarily a bad thing? Internationally, many countries started out with nothing but national radio. Local radio was never a thing there. There were national brands with national playlists and national spoken-word shows since Marconi.
Even in the U.S., which launched commercial radio as a local service, the Golden Age involved networks; after all, Jack Benny and Fred Allen couldn’t be in every city at the same time. There were local affiliates in each market, and locally programmed stations took a back seat to NBC Red, NBC Blue, CBS, and Mutual. Localism as the driving force behind radio’s success really came around, for the most part, in the ’50s, as the networks shifted to television and radio embraced its new role as a jukebox with music formats.
Over time, with consolidation and corporate PDs overseeing stations nationwide, everything started to sound the same—no more local breakout hits, fewer local personalities, sharply reduced local news.
That’s where we end the history lesson and talk about why this doesn’t have to be a bad thing, at least for listeners.
At this point, the audience for music is here for the music; the younger the target audience, the less they want to put up with talk breaks. Talk radio listeners are there for conflict and “owning the libs,” and the national shows do that as well as locals. What gets lost is that local feel and discussion of local news events, but we’re in an age when you can get local stuff elsewhere. We won’t get into the diminution of local news staffing among all media right here — that’s the real problem now.
But if we’re going to decry that Taylor Swift on a Savannah station is the same as Taylor Swift on an Orlando station, someone is going to have to explain why that’s somehow worse.
And as for talk syndication, as we’ve been saying for decades, people shouldn’t be deprived of top talent and shows simply because they don’t live in a major market. It’s not their fault they don’t live in New York. Besides, the economics just don’t work anymore, even if you don’t factor in the crippling debt the big broadcasters have to pay just to stay alive. It’s a shame that good, talented people lose their jobs in a situation like this, but it’s also a fact of life for which you have to be prepared.
My disappointment in not being able to tell stations from different markets apart isn’t important. Radio’s battle for survival is. The old business model doesn’t work anymore, and it’s kind of a miracle that radio’s still standing in its diminished form.
If that means national programming and national brands, there’s a business opportunity for someone to make localism work via streaming or podcasts. Or maybe the market has had its say and is rejecting the local model.
Either way, I miss hearing rural Georgia stations doing Tradio and lost livestock breaks, but it’s not like I can’t live without it. Nothing lasts forever.
(Oh, and here’s an East Coast travel tip: If you’re in dire need of a bathroom and not near a Buc-ee’s, find a Wawa and park at the back door if there is one. The restrooms are right by the back door, and you’ll shave a minute or so off your rush. Thank me later.)
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Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
I disagree, when I flip around to truly “local” stations outside large cities, (which also do offer inside info on what’s going on in their cities and areas – BTW)…I hear the heartbeat of whats going on in that city or county, events that make up the business and non profit organizational landscape of the region. fark to table, fundraisers for the underserved, harvest, county fairs, lical musicians and music, etc. And the local persoanlites are always proudly touting the bounty and people in their area. sad you didn’t get that whereevr you were again? Perhaps you didn’t go across the dial far enough, or listen long enough, to get the vibe and feel of the station – too bad…long live local radio and the hardworking people that make it happen to support their communities.
I agree that national programming brings higher quality content to smaller markets, and that songs sound the same whether they are programmed locally or nationally. Nevertheless, there are a couple of things in Perry’s piece that I disagree with.
Radio’s success, or at least a large part of it, is based on building a community. That community need not be limited to a geographic boundary; country music fans constitute a community that spans the country due to a shared interest in the music, and nationally programmed country music and content can bring that community together. But there are locales where a tweaked playlist resonates more, especially when an artist is performing in the area. And a local voice can be the focal point for local events, which is not only an (additional) source of revenue, but makes the local community members a tighter group, which in turn creates greater interest and more listening hours.
As far the economic model, local radio is profitable; it just costs a lot to generate that profit. Since profit is not the goal of publicly traded radio companies – stock price is – and because it’s expensive to produce quality radio, the poor expense/revenue ratio, along with the fact that radio/audio is a mature industry (you can’t grow that much when you already reach most of the potential audience), local radio and Wall Street aren’t the best partners.
Ultimately, for local radio to succeed, it’s bottom line can’t negatively impact the stock price of the company that owns it. Local or private ownership is what’s needed for local radio to serve its listeners optimally and to turn the greatest profit.