Radio: creative talent need not apply

Radio has always been one of my passions. I’ve dabbled in my life as a radio announcer, although nothing that could be considered really commercial. I ran a radio club in high school, moved on to a college radio gig or 3, and operated night shifts at a large FM station. I wrote and announced a series of radio spots years ago, more for my entertainment than anyone.

For all these years, through thick and thin, I’ve been a radio fan. I think I’ve acquired an ear for good radio, and a nose for bad.

Vancouver’s radio stations are a bit like their big league sports teams. They seem lulled by the temperate weather conditions and coffee bar casualness. There is no urgency, there is no desire for excellence. They all settle for adequate. They titillate during sweeps, and ditch you for a bad ratings book.

It wasn’t always so. Vancouver used to have local ownership, loyal to their staff and their on-air talent. The city was once was a hotbed of radio talent, although you would have to have a long memory to recollect much of it. They include Red Robinson, J.B. Shayne, Pat Burns, Jack Webster, Rafe Mair, Roy Hennessey, Doc Harris and Fred Latremouille. The greatest survivor of Vancouver radio must be Terry David Mulligan, who was program director back in the glory days of CKLG-AM and on-air talent at CFUN in the 60s, and still works today as a TV presenter.

Finding worthwhile radio programming in Vancouver has been an impossible task, forcing me to look outside our city limits. Seattle is a big town with as much bottom-line driven thinking as my city, yet they have had better luck supporting good radio talent and developing worthwhile programming.

Pat Cashman comes to mind as a Seattle radio original. Pat has been bounced around the dial more times than a cat’s chew toy, yet he is still as fun as ever (when you can find him). While they’re not together anymore, one of the edgiest pairings on Seattle was Gary Crowe and Mike West. The now defunct KXRX radio had Robin and Maynard as their morning hosts, and Crowe and West pulling afternoon drives. The music programming was tolerable – mainly classic rock until grunge appeared – but the announcers made the station very listenable.

In the early 90s the US government passed a bill that allowed a change in ownership rules for each market. While media companies I believe were once only allowed 1 newspaper, 1 AM and 1 FM station per market, these restrictions were removed. One company named Entercom now owns SEVEN radio stations in the Seattle market alone.

Seattle’s “The End” (KNDD 107.7 FM) became the preferred listening choice after our local cable company posted it on their FM cable service at 107.5 FM. It was thanks to my own efforts, and the lobbying of Dave Holden and a sales rep at Terminal City magazine that Rogers cable added The End to their cable roster.
The End became pretty horrible during the late 90s and early 2000s. The Nü Rock phenomenon with its Fred Dursts made most rock radio intolerable, not just KNDD. In late 2003 they made a big change, blowing out a lot of its on-air talent and creating the Alternative Declaration. Part of this new radio philosophy astonishingly was to reduce advertisements by 20% per hour.

The station improved immensely. While it can hardly be called an “alternative” station in a pure sense of that term, it does play its share of compelling new music. White Stripes, The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand are continuing favourites. New acts like Aqueduct and She Wants Revenge now spice up my Ipod thanks to the introduction by The End.

There are troubling signs on the horizon for The End though. With no advanced warning they blew out their morning show hosted by DJ Noname and Jennifer White (the station’s only female voice) for a networked program by Adam Carolla. Carolla is responsible for a number of projects, including The Man Show and his Lovelines radio sex talk show. It wasn’t like the world needed another racy radio morning show geared towards young male audiences, but listeners seem to have an endless appetite for this stuff.

I’ll keep listening to The End for now. Noname and White are very talented and will no doubt land on their feet at another venue.
Radio’s future today is unclear. The influence of Ipods, podcasting and satellite radio cannot be ignored. Ratings are suffering in several markets because of them. Programmers are faced with a choice: create more compelling radio & hire announcers with original voices, or keep producing pablum.

For Vancouver audiences I think it will be Gerber on the menu for some time to come.