Commentary: Incompetent Radio Folks (January 14, 2005)

Some radio stations too often make the mistake that if they're the only one of a given format in a market, that gives them the license to slack off and play whatever they feel like playing, rather than to play the kind of music their local audience has long been clamoring for but is missing from the airwaves.

There are a few alternative rock stations in the years 1997-2001 that made the mistake of thinking that the format is basically a merging of the Hot AC format heard on Star 100.7 and a hard metal punk format heard on Rock 105.3, playing songs that are either boring or too hard on the ears.

What the music directors ignored back then was that the audience that originally listened to the alternative rock stations in the first place way back in the early 80s is the same audience that has moved on to acoustic, folk, AAA, electronica, synth dance, and modern rock; they didn't care for soft Hot AC or heavy metal punk or grunge as those three music genres were not evolutions of the original modern rock and synth pop genres back in the good ol' 80s decade. Instead of melodic upbeat pop tunes, some alternative rock stations took off the fun songs in favor of programming totally awful and clashing music that just made no sense.

I'm not going to name names here, but there are some incompetent music directors in San Diego that never had a pulse on what the locals wanted to hear on the radio. Local rock and roll that's melodic and fun. Fun folk and funny comedy. Exciting electronica and techno. Adult Album Alternative rock. Many music directors kept on insisting that since they were the only games in town that catered to a format, they didn't care what the locals thought and shut them out. They did what they basically felt like doing, not playing certain songs, playing garbage day in and day out that were basically one-hit blunders.

Enter the year 2001 and what happened on the first of May 2001? Mike Halloran, the exiled music director late of 92.5 in 1998 and unfairly fired from 91X in 1996, came back to San Diego, albiet, in Escondido, and lo and behold, he took a classical radio station on 92.1 and changed it to an alternative rock format and played what he felt San Diego wanted or needed to hear on the station. Many radio station news websites picked up on the news and helped spread the word that Halloran was out to save San Diego from corporate alternative rock hell. A bulletin board linked from the radio station, KFSD 92.1 back then, was full of activity as people posted comments about bringing back music for San Diego and knocking on the legendary competetor that simply ignored their listeners' requests for songs that were not getting any airplay.

A month into the existance of 92.1, listeners who could get the screaming 588 watt radio station from 30 miles north of San Diego were making the switch and helping to spread the word by placing Premium 92.1 stickers all over the North County. The competetion responded by, what else, lifting some of the songs that 92.1 started playing that the competetor didn't play and started playing them as if they had been all along. The listeners were not fooled by that stunt.

After a year at KFSD, Halloran left 92.1, but the station rolled on without him playing alternative rock that wasn't getting airplay on any other station in town. In November 2002, a major coup happened as Halloran became Music Director of the low-rated 80s B94.9, and with the help of Program Director Garrett Michaels, and several knowledgable jocks, some of which he rehired from 92.1, launched FM 94.9 in the heart of San Diego. Now, this time, there was a major-grade signal that had that alternative rock the locals wanted to hear. Meanwhile, Premium 92.1 stayed on for almost a year until Jefferson-Pilot bought it from Astor and put KSON-FM on the frequency instead. Premium lasted six months on AM 1000 in Vista.

It was a bit sad when that happened, but FM 92.1 served a purpose for Halloran. He used a radio station to prove his talents and what he could achieve in the ratings with the help of unsoliticited mass publicity from the fans and making the San Diego alternative rock scene come alive once again in 2001. FM 94.9, by January 2004, had overtaken the competetion, by acknowledging what the heritage competetor eschewed: the listener is always right, even if they happen to be silly radio columnists.

92.1 and then 94.9 listened to what was missing from the local airwaves and played whatever corporate radio just wouldn't play for one reason or another. A fresh sound emerged from the staleness of the local radio skyline, giving the fickle young music fans something to listen to other than mindless skate-rat punk ad nauseum or sex talk that nobody cares to hear anymore. They gave the listeners variety, unpredictability, fun, spontaneaty, and made you want to listen to their station over downloading MP3s from the Internet.

To the radio folks who just wouldn't listen to my advice about music and who are now out of work locally: You had your chance to improve or lose out. Too bad you didn't understand the collective intelligence of the local radio market and how the alternative rock culture existed in San Diego and how it shaped up in markets such as New York and Europe. Sorry you got mad at what I was writing about, but let's be mature and face the fact. I was right all along in the six years I've been doing this Dave's Radio Waves reports and commentaries back in 1997. Either change thy ways or perish. Too bad you didn't get out more often and listen to what the other alternative rock stations in other cities were doing such as the late WLIR 92.1 out of Long Island playing an electronica-leaning mix of alternative rock, which is almost what alternative rock had evolved to in 2000, not some lame-brained metal punk and soft pop genre. The music was about the fun, the groove, the happiness, the experience, and I enjoyed listening to that WLIR station back in the 2000-01 years instead of the ignorant local station that just insisted on sticking to an outdated formula that didn't work anymore. Internet radio was taking off and many stations were streaming on the web. There was no satellite radio yet, but MP3 downloads were the rage that year. Teenagers didn't like corporate radio and started downloading the music and listening to the streamers, picking up on the oldsters who already were listening to distant radio stations on the Web up to 12,000 miles away. The people who listened to Internet radio were getting educated on the kinds of songs local radio wasn't playing. You see, you can't run a radio station like it's 1995 anymore. The cat's out of the bag. The listeners got wind of what corporate radio wasn't playing and are now programming iPods, listening to Satellite radio, downloading songs, and listening to stations on the Internet. Radio even back in 2000 was already facing an array of competetors but local radio just plain ignored it. I knew about radio ignorance since 1997 when local radio just didn't understand what I liked to hear that wasn't on locally. In the eight years since, I bought over 400 CDs that I heard on mostly from the Internet and almost none of the music I heard on the radio. I'm even programming them on my own online radio station, dfsxradio.com, playing Dr. Demento-type fun music not heard locally to all people worldwide, so in a sense, I have become a competetor to the radio stations as well. Meanwhile, I listen to 94.9 most of the time nowadays, sometimes I flip to 91X and KPRI 102.1 for rock, KIFM 98.1 for smooth jazz, Magic 92.5 for old school R&B, and channel 933 if there's a good dance mix show on. When I'm home, it's mostly satellite radio, Internet radio, my MP3 collection, or downloading Dr. Demento shows on USENET. The landscape has changed, radio music directors. Have you? When will you? So instead of wasting your time sending e-mail full of epithets that I will forward with headers to your local ISP who will look into this as harassment violating the rules of the ISP and possible FBI involvement if there are threats as this is a felony, you may want to understand that I, David Tanny, have been right all along about the state of San Diego radio all along since 1997.