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Another radio show gone. Actually for me it has been gone for many years. Like other programs it disappeared from my radio when the Federal Canning Commission abandoned its restrictions against mega ownership of broadcast stations by corporations. Followed then by most stations being sucked up and owned by the big three, CBS, Citadel and Clear Channel who program their stations with crap, satellite feed programming that no one wants to listen to.
I used to enjoy Dr Demento very much along with a lot of other great variety of programs that no longer have a home on corporate radio
Another radio show gone. Actually for me it has been gone for many years. Like other programs it disappeared from my radio when the Federal Canning Commission abandoned its restrictions against mega ownership of broadcast stations by corporations. Followed then by most stations being sucked up and owned by the big three, CBS, Citadel and Clear Channel who program their stations with crap, satellite feed programming that no one wants to listen to.
I used to enjoy Dr Demento very much along with a lot of other great variety of programs that no longer have a home on corporate radio
While you are totally correct there is another reason for this and the end of so many radio programs, heck even "older" announcers...those so-called CONSULTANTS !! Sadly Dr. Demento was one show most of them really hated because of the phrase many of them give "...well the show and his music doesn't test well" and/or "...his show brings in the wrong demo..." Blah, blah, blah
Another good example is those stations that had once played 50s/60's music. Since you live in the DC area I am sure you can remember the old WBIG ( then Oldies 100" , "XTRA 104" or even the old WHFS..GREAT RADIO !!! Along came the consultants saying how the 20 year old demographic is "very important" and now we have so-called oldies stations passing off Guns & Roses or Poison as "golden oldies". Even some of those syndicated oldies shows that are still around like Mike Harvey's Supergold are more/less following the same path. FWIW I checked out Harvey's show online last year and he seems to be very bored with this.
Of course that is not to say that there is anything wrong with those hairbands from the 80s but I don't consider Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" in the same ballpark as say, well Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender"
This is a milestone. But rather than blame the industry, I just can't imagine there is much of an audience anymore for novelty songs. Even Weird Al, who is easily the most famous modern novelty song creator, hasn't produced a noteworthy song in years.
Is there any other niche genre of music that's both as popular and prolific now as it was 40 years ago? AFAIK, no. IMHO, the world has just moved past novelty songs.
AFAIK, no. IMHO, the world has just moved past novelty songs.
I somewhat disagree with that as there is no shortage of such songs on You Tube and quite a few of those clips done by average folks have had hits well into the hundreds of thousands such as that novelty clip of the ABBA song "Momma Mia" done to scenes of the infamous Faye Dunaway flick "Mommie Dearest". Then again one problem the folks who had done such clips had to face is usually over copyright issues. Even the one novelty song I saw last year called "Kohls..Don't Expect Great Things" even though that was shot by employees in a Kohls store the clip was still pulled by that chain..over "..a violation of their copyright". Same thing as well happend to another similar clip involving Kroger Supermarkets.
That was one "problem" Weird Al never had to face as he was very picky about getting that OK from those who he was writing a song about.
This is a milestone. But rather than blame the industry, I just can't imagine there is much of an audience anymore for novelty songs ...
In my case, the novelty songs were secondary to the idea of listening to a creative individual who put together a unique program and his discussion about the selections.
Of course, I speak from the experience of radio in the Washington DC area where we have only the bland, "safe" corporate satellite feed pablum on almost every music station. And yes cathy J. I grew up with WHFS 102.3 as well as WGTB (we got the boogie) locally owned and operated alternative and underground broadcasting
I would love to hear creative programing like Little Steven's Underground Garage (http://www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com/home.html - broken link) which had a brief stay here on a CBS station shortly before it flipped to another format.
I know people will say, just get a sat rad subscription for $ per month or perhaps get a $300 iPhone and pay $60 a month for wireless ISP service. It's too bad good radio is no longer available on the radio
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