It's bad enough that you have all these huge radio companies running radio stations, but they avoid playing local artists, who could use the free airplay. The FCC should mandate that local artists be played at certain times of the day. This would give a more interesting radio listening experience and entertain people to the fact that local music exists and is usually pretty darmned good. Who's with me?

2freaky4church1 said:

I understand where you're coming from.

I have to give a couple of stations in my area credit. They try to work in local artists into rotation. The good thing is they are either independent stations or locally owned. The bad thing is that it's all about "the format". For instance, our local rap and blues artists get pretty good exposure thanks to the independent station, KNON. Also, the local rap talent gets a little exposure thanks to KNON and KKDA. If you do any other type of music, you'll have a hard time getting exposure.

I don't like the "big brother" aspect of your suggestion...but on the other hand, radio HAS become a monopoly anyway, so I'm not sure...

One of the few good things I can say about Mississippi, is we did promote and are proud of our own.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, we had a little funk scene of our own locally. The funk band Freedom is from here. They had national success on the TK label with "Get Up And Dance" which Grandmaster Flash later used as the background music on his song "Freedom". Freedom also had other local hits on Jackson's Malaco label such as "The Funktionary", "At The Party", and "Whodat". There was also Shamwell that had a local jam called "Do It (On The One)". There was also Wynd Chymes who eventually ended up doing an album on the RCA label and worked with Larry Graham on one of their tracks. Sho Nuff was another popular local group and they were contantly touring Japan of all places. All these groups got major airplay on the three black stations down here at the time, WJMI, WKXI, and WOKJ and also were constantly being plugged and played on our local "Soul Train" type dance show called "Black Gold".

Then there was the blues scene. We have a local station, WMPR, that was and I still think it still is (if I'm correct) owned by Charles Evers (Medgar Ever's brother). The first time I remember hearing this station was around 1984 or 1985 and it has been playing and promoting blues ever since to this very day. Lots of the artists live and record down here also such as Denise LaSalle and Bobby Rush.

The the late 1980s, we had a local rap artist that the stations promoted as well. His name was Kyper and had a local hit called "Conceited". He later ended up on Atlantic Records and recorded a song that went national called "Tic Tac Toe".

The local blues artists are still promoted well down here and we still have the Jackson Music Awards every year which mostly consists of blues and gospel acts. As for local shit hop, yeah, we have that too. I don't know if WJMI promotes them like they used to promote the local funk acts because I took WJMI off my dial years ago when it became a disgrace to it's name and really should change it's name instead of destroying the memory what used to be a great station. WKXI now has a "Soft Soul" urban adult format, and WOKJ is no longer in existence.

vainandy said:

I remember Kyper!!!

Oh, and I forgot about The Rose Brothers. They were a local group in the late 1980s that had a slow jam that went national called "I Get Off On You".

Monopolies changed everything for the worst.

vainandy said:

I remember that song also (for some reason).

2freaky4church1 said:

Can't happen. Violation of freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

Well the stations (at least the R&B stations anyway) already do that by keeping everything out that isn't cheap and shit hoppish sounding.

Government mandates are not Big Brother. We mandate that you cannot murder someone or jay walk, so enough of that nonsense.

Companies cannot tell us what free speech they will allow us to have. The radio is a public subsidy. The people own the airwaves. I just want fairness. The government can be used for that, since they defend our interests.

2freaky4church1 said:

In theory, you are right. In the real world, money rules everything. Therefore, record companies, radio conglomerates, television conglomerates, etc. dictate what is being played on the airwaves. Our interests don't mean a thing to them.
[Edited 12/28/09 15:49pm]

2freaky4church1 said:

Companies can tell you what free speech they will allow you to have.
What makes you think they can't and don't?

The government sells the airwaves, so once sold, the do not belong to the 'public.'
What you define as fairness someone will surely object to. Fairness is a subjective standard.
Government defends its interests first . . .

SUPRMAN said:

they shouldnt cuz a lot of them arent really talented.....being honest

alexothetimes said:

Tru dat.
I was gonna ask about the talent level of the local talent and if that would be a consideration.
If they were all that good, surely they will be larger than local?

SUPRMAN said:

exactly

Alvin Community College has a radio curriculum and they have an FM station, KACC 89.7.

Not only does it play the best rock, but they play local artists two or three times an hour. They also have local rock artists in-station sometimes.

Plus, the only commercials they have are PSAs.

Best station in town!

Every huge star had to start locally by either playing in a local band or getting a local record deal. That is, unless they were like Evelyn King and got discovered singing while cleaning a public restroom.

2freaky4church1 said:

Agreed!

Uh, how many times have I had people on this very forum tell me...."There's great music out there but you have to look for it"? And I'm saying their phrase in a mocking voice because I'm sick of hearing people say that.

But since when in this day and age of the 2000s does acts that are any good get any national attention? Not very often. The national mainstream promotes the bullshit.

I actually think that a lot of radio stations are owned by people who don't know much about the radio business. If I heard correctly, Clear Channel is one of those owners. I believe they have their radio station play on Top 40 songs only. Only what is really popular. That's one reason why you constantly hear the same songs over and over again in the same day. There's a really good audio segment about this called Before The Music Dies. You can watch it in segments on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...NtZ_x5OHpc

Clear Channel is Satan himself. And their oldies stations are the same way. They will play songs from a 30 year era and only play a handful of songs over and over, all day, every day. They are usually the songs that were the biggest hits and they only play one, maybe two, songs per artist.

When people get tired of those, then they change their format. One station in my area started out as R&B from the 60s and 70s. They wore only a handful of songs from that era completely out. Then they started including a few 80s songs with those previously worn out songs and wore that handful of 80s songs out too. Then, they started adding pop/rock from that era and wearing just a handful of those songs out too. They just don't get it. It's not the format that people are sick of. It's hearing those same damn songs over and over.

Oh, and when they were an R&B station, they played only the biggest crossover R&B hits. Stuff like "Little Red Corvette" and "Super Freak". Never anything like "Lady Cab Driver" or "Dance Wit Me".
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[Edited 12/29/09 16:07pm]

The FCC have guideline/mandates for children TV programming, what's the difference?

For all the hoppula about the Internet, the World Wide Web hasn't been able to do what radio has done and can do... give artist career and mass exposure. For all the hand-wringing by the powers that be (aka Clear Channel and record companies or should I say music conglomerate) about the Internet, radio is still a viable asset. The Internet is a BILL, it cost. What do you think the first thing was cut from household budgets when our ecomony imploded? Cable/Internet. Push come to shove, you can live without the net. Everyone still ownes a radio and these fools have chosen to think short term... focus on a very narrow demographic, and quarterly profits.

They don't play local artist on the radio in Chi-Town. The younger Radio Dj's don't have the pull, the will, nor the power to even suggest local artist be given exposure. The airwaves are publicly owned and deregulations was suppose to open them up even further in theory but something else happen... radio monoplies.

I spoke about this topic some months ago on the org. Here's my link to what happen to radio. http://prince.org/msg/8/315531?&pg=1 last post on page one.


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[Edited 12/29/09 20:11pm]

vainandy said:

But you also have self marketing options such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, the internet in general. There's also 'selling it out the trunk of the car.'
Talent is a lot easier to find for everyone including record companies.

TD3 said:

The difference? Protecting children in one instance, making subjective marketing decisions in another.

Radio stations in the bay area play local artists

SUPRMAN said:

You've made a "sujbective marketing decision" when the goverment requires you by law to, air at least three hours per week of core programs dedicated to children.

The Fairness Doctrine

A license permits broadcasting, but the licensee has no constitutional right to be the one who holds the license or to monopolize a...frequency to the exclusion of his fellow citizens. There is nothing in the First Amendment which prevents the Government from requiring a licensee to share his frequency with others.... It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount.


U.S. Supreme Court, upholding the constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 1969

Which was revoked my that sob Ronald Reagan.

They do this here in New Zealand. All radio stations must adhere to a certain percentage of the songs they play being NZ made. I think it's somewhere in the realm of 20%. I think it's a great thing! I just wish they'd up the percentage to 50%! No need to import so much crappy music when there's heaps of cool stuff going on in our own backyard. The more familiar the public is with the local songs the more enticed they will be to go out and watch live music! It's nothing but a good thing IMO!