Oh Yeah

How to defy (dubiously documented) music listening trends and (legit) radio programming trends and maybe just maybe grow your old-school terrestrial radio station ratings:

Play more new music.

Play more music, period.

Have actual local DJs in your actual local studio communicating with your actual audience while playing music they actually want to play.

Crazy, right?

That’s the (admittedly anecdotal) message from this Billboard piece on a number of public radio stations in the US whose ratings have been skyrocketing while commercial stations around them gasp for air. KUTX has seen its share of the Austin, Texas, radio audience more than triple in the past three years, “leapfrogging Austin’s primary pop and country stations,” ELIAS LEIGHT writes. KEXP in Seattle tripled its ratings, too, over the same period, while Minneapolis’ KCMP and Philadelphia’s WXPN saw more modest gains. All four stations have deep playlists top-heavy with current music and get much of their funding not from advertisers but from listeners who apparently are demanding that music. They’re hosted by DJs who have agency over what they play and know who they’re playing it for. Hashtag oldschool.

No one is suggesting KIIS-FM in Los Angeles start playing FANTASTIC NEGRITO or SPECIAL INTEREST deep cuts, but programmers there and elsewhere could do worse than ask themselves some related questions the next time they’ve got a few minutes and a cup of coffee. Such as: Do music fans actually like variety? Do they crave new sounds? Are they hungry, in an age of algorithms and consolidation, for human guides? Are their minds open? Should you give Special Interest a shot after all? Are music fans really listening to less new music these days, or are the chartkeepers and data miners simply not noticing when (and where) they do? Is there a commercial pop (or country or R&B or...) equivalent to this kind of programming?

Or should y'all just start spinning classical music?

Etc Etc Etc

Who owns SPOTIFY?... WTF happened to hip-hop album covers?... JOHN LYDON wants to represent Ireland in EUROVISION for reasons that are heartbreaking and beautiful and I’m rooting for him... SHAKIRA’s disses don’t lie... How Christians invented nu metal... STEVIE WONDER, VERNON REID and JOE SATRIANI on the majesty of JEFF BECK, who "went forward in a way that would frighten normal people"... Gibbons (no relation to ZZ TOP) sing duets.

Rest in Peace

Pioneering electronic musician YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI, best known as the drummer and lead singer of Yellow Magic Orchestra, a group he co-founded. He also played in Sadistic Mika Band and Metafive... Australia’s “Difficult Woman,” soul singer RENÉE GEYER, who electrified audiences at home in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s while enjoying a simultaneous career as an in-demand backup singer in the US and UK... TV producer/director BRUCE GOWERS, who directed Queen’s iconic “Bohemian Rhapsody” video in 1974 (for a paycheck of $590) and, a couple generations later, the first decade of “American Idol” (hopefully for a lot more)... KEITH BEATON, tenor singer in ‘70s Philly soul band Blue Magic, who had a major 1974 hit with “Sideshow”... Singer/guitarist C.J. HARRIS, sixth-place finisher on season 13 of “American Idol” in 2014... FRED “SONNY” BAKER, last surviving member of ‘60s and ‘70s Detroit R&B group the Dynamics... "UNCLE” RAY CORDEIRO, whose 72 years on the radio in Hong Kong earned him the Guinness World Records title of “World’s Most Durable DJ."