A Little (Somewhat Biased) History

I am sure that it's always a bit painful for record executives to read how their business looks from a radio geek like me who has only seen their industry from the outside looking in, and the same goes for radio when viewed by a music professional.

It's easy to say "he just doesn't understand."

However, it's hard to disagree with a lot of what Bob Segarini has been blogging about the last three weeks in his columns "When Radio and Records Ruled" in Canada's "FYI."

Tragically, the great arbiters of taste, the men and women of radio and records who listened for us and chose the music we were exposed to, are no longer in place to help us separate the wheat from the chaff, the good, from the bad, and the ugly. These long respected and trusted ears are no longer there, and current dictates from on high to assure a consistent and familiar sound relies more on focus groups, computer analysis, and format restrictions. Even the voices of the fans no longer reach the ears of the people in charge, and the ears that did listen to the listeners have been sadly (and wrongly) dismissed.

The legacy and import of radio and records will always be remembered fondly by those of us that grew up with them, but I am doubtful if it will ever rise to those heights again. Even so, there may be surprises ahead.

Only time will tell.

I like to hope that some courageous ones still exist in the country format on both sides of the promotion/programming job divide and I would even start to name names and radio stations if I wasn't fearful that I'd forget to mention someone.

It's time for a rebound, isn't it?

Some stations are doing particularly well right now in the latest trends. I think those are the ones worth studying, while listening with an open mind to what is exciting the folks we want to spend more time on their FM and AM radios. That is, and always has been, a powerful catapult

Bob's entire series is online, grit your teeth, know that whether you're in records or radio, it's gonna hurt a bit, you won't agree with everything, but you'll have to admit that there's a lot of truthful perspective in Seg's views.

The Rock Files: When Radio and Records Ruled the World Part 17: What happened, and The Epilogue. Part 16 and links to 1-15 can be found here.

PS: “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now provides content for radiothatdoesntsuck.com with RadioZombie, The Iceage, and PsychShack. Along with the love of his life, Jade (Pie) Dunlop, (who hosts and writes “I’ve Heard That Song Before” on RTDS), continues to write, make music, and record.