{"id":675,"date":"2007-02-02T20:07:01","date_gmt":"2007-02-03T04:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/02\/02\/radio-last\/"},"modified":"2007-02-02T20:07:01","modified_gmt":"2007-02-03T04:07:01","slug":"radio-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/02\/radio-last\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Last"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night I had a dream
You were in it
And I was in it with you
And everyone I know
And everyone you know was in my dream<\/em><\/p>\n

I was at a radio convention.\u00c2\u00a0 And there was a band playing on stage.\u00c2\u00a0 Their number resembled Vanilla Fudge’s reworking of "You Keep Me Hangin’ On".\u00c2\u00a0 The lead singer was blond, and he was playing a portable keyboard.\u00c2\u00a0 But there were two more keyboard players behind him, and one to the side.\u00c2\u00a0 Like I said, it was a dream.<\/p>\n

And it was clear that this song was a hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it needed to be polished, finished in the recording studio, but it had the raw essence.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, it was more than that, this band HAD IT!\u00c2\u00a0 They lacked charisma, but the instrumentation was innovative, the sound was low-key, it wasn’t in your face, but the melody was catchy, and your mind was set adrift.<\/p>\n

And when the band finished playing, a guy near the stage started pontificating, about the radio plan.\u00c2\u00a0 And I shouted out from the back, RADIO LAST!<\/p>\n

The whole room went quiet.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody looked at me.\u00c2\u00a0 I had the feeling that drove me to psychotherapy.<\/p>\n

I don’t know what it is about altitude, but I’ve been having crazy dreams all week.\u00c2\u00a0 Last night’s starred my ex-wife.\u00c2\u00a0 For a long time.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually, she just makes brief appearances.\u00c2\u00a0 The distance, the superiority, the manipulation, it creeped me out.\u00c2\u00a0 Then my friend Kate let me out the back door to avoid the killers.\u00c2\u00a0 I flew to South America to evade their grasp.\u00c2\u00a0 But the most memorable dream I had was the one in the middle, with the band and the radio convention.<\/p>\n

Radio conventions used to rule.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio used to be what it was about.\u00c2\u00a0 That was the goal, TO GET ON THE RADIO!\u00c2\u00a0 Back when radio was addictive, when it was the tribal drum, when you had to be tuned in to know what was going on.<\/p>\n

Oh, first there was Top Forty.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m considering 1964 Year One, when the Beatles broke, everything before that is B.C.E., before the common era.\u00c2\u00a0 But then there was free format.\u00c2\u00a0 Free format was about the EXPERIENCE!\u00c2\u00a0 The deejays picked the tunes, they took you on an aural adventure.\u00c2\u00a0 Then came AOR.\u00c2\u00a0 AOR wasn’t so bad at first.\u00c2\u00a0 A lot of songs were played, there was hip news, everybody was in it together.\u00c2\u00a0 Then came corporate rock, and eventually the whole system crumbled, especially when these same AOR stations wouldn’t play Human League’s "Don’t You Want Me" and Soft Cell’s "Tainted Love".\u00c2\u00a0 AOR lost its stranglehold on the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, AOR wasn’t cool.\u00c2\u00a0 And suddenly, RADIO wasn’t cool anymore either.\u00c2\u00a0 MTV was where it was at.\u00c2\u00a0 And new Top Forty radio stations grew side by side with the video channel, to play the same hits.\u00c2\u00a0 And then came the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and radio consolidation and the whole system imploded, radio no longer mattered.<\/p>\n

And it still doesn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody believes radio sucks.<\/p>\n

But with MTV not playing any music, radio is the easiest way to reach the most people, so the major labels, interested in making a buck, focus on these lame stations.\u00c2\u00a0 They can only see through this prism.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas only the lowest common denominator music fan still trusts the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio is a joke.<\/p>\n

So you go to radio last.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want cred, if you want to have a career.<\/p>\n

That’s what I was going to tell the assembled multitude, if they’d ever opened their mouths, if it wasn’t a "Springtime For Hitler" moment, if I hadn’t woken up.<\/p>\n

Take the easy way out and longevity eludes you.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to grow from the ground up if you want to have a career today.<\/p>\n

Used to be you had to build it on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s still a good plan, but it’s slow.\u00c2\u00a0 Although fans made on the road last forever, since it’s about the performance, and you’ve got to be good live to win people over.<\/p>\n

Now you can also gain traction on the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 Just as long as you’re not pushing.\u00c2\u00a0 Street teams are just one level above radio, they lack trustworthiness too.\u00c2\u00a0 Can you say SPAM?\u00c2\u00a0 If someone says ANYTHING is that great, especially if you don’t know the sender, the poster, you tune it out.\u00c2\u00a0 We can tell what’s real.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, are you ever confused, do you ever believe a spam e-mail is a real one?<\/p>\n

No, you’ve got to get your act going through word of mouth.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be good, and then you have to give people the tools.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to post MP3s that you allow people to trade, you’ve got to have a Website updated DAILY!\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to have a policed message board.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to have a real bio, hopefully a road diary.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be a friend.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t be above the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s for doofuses like Paris Hilton.\u00c2\u00a0 Real musicians are in it together with their audience.<\/p>\n

Point is, a friend sends you an MP3.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you like it, you want more.\u00c2\u00a0 You immediately go to the band’s site.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe even their MySpace page.\u00c2\u00a0 But MySpace is to CHECK OUT an act.\u00c2\u00a0 If someone is already a believer they want a hub that’s the act’s own.\u00c2\u00a0 Without endless Flash animation, but tons of useful information.<\/p>\n

And if you’re good, word spreads.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s never an overwhelming sense of ubiquity.\u00c2\u00a0 Because there’s no place to EVIDENCE this on the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no SoundScan number.\u00c2\u00a0 No Top Ten.\u00c2\u00a0 No site that rates ascension of a new act.\u00c2\u00a0 It eludes the system, therefore the only person who knows something is happening is the act itself.\u00c2\u00a0 And fans continue to build the act, telling everybody about their newfound favorite.\u00c2\u00a0 You can be a star and nobody really knows.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got something real that can’t be quantified by traditional metrics.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the traditional metrics quantify everything but soul.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no soul in a sale.\u00c2\u00a0 But soul is what keeps people dedicated.<\/p>\n

And THEN, MAYBE, you have a radio hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Sweeping up newbies, but not alienating the hard core, that knows you’re real.<\/p>\n

Classic example, the Dave Matthews Band.\u00c2\u00a0 By time "Crash Into Me" hit, the act had hundreds of thousands, if not MILLIONS of fans, who were THRILLED the act they’d been into for years was getting the recognition they believed it deserved.<\/p>\n

In other words, radio comes last.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the icing on the cake.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the victory lap.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the seal on stardom.\u00c2\u00a0 IT’S NO LONGER THE BEGINNING!<\/p>\n

If you’re BREAKING an act on radio, you can bet it won’t last long, it will never be classic.\u00c2\u00a0 You break an act in the audience’s hearts and minds.\u00c2\u00a0 Reached in these new ways.\u00c2\u00a0 To think otherwise is to be in it for short term gain.<\/p>\n

I saw a vampire
I saw a ghost
Everybody scared me but you sacred me the most
In the dream I had last night
In the dream I had last night
In my dream<\/em><\/p>\n

There used to be promo people, radio consultants, the people in attendance at the conference in my dream.\u00c2\u00a0 There are people like this who still exist in the music industry today.\u00c2\u00a0 They spread their bullshit, make like their old ways still rule.\u00c2\u00a0 But if this were so, why would radio listenership be dropping?\u00c2\u00a0 Why would CD sales be off 15% this year?<\/p>\n

It’s a new era.\u00c2\u00a0 To hold on to the old ways is to be Michael Dell.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone who created a system that delivered riches that ultimately became outmoded.\u00c2\u00a0 Breaking acts on radio is an outmoded paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, like Michael Dell, the old music industry guard doesn’t know what to do.\u00c2\u00a0 They know they want to continue to rule, but they can’t make up for being asleep at the wheel for the better part of a decade.<\/p>\n

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