PhotoDude.com

Thu. Oct 24, 2002

Mass Produced Mornings

Mass Produced Mornings – I was quite struck by something tangential within this story about an unfortunate programming coincidence: "Immediately after reporting the latest sniper attack Tuesday, the ’John Boy & Billy’ radio show played the song ’Another One Bites the Dust,’ spurring complaints to WRFX- FM’s signature program [...] Brazell said the song was inserted weeks ago into the show’s computerized log for play at 6:40 a.m. Tuesday, the first music track coming out of the newscast. News of the shooting broke about 6:30 a.m."

And I believe it. Radio has become so pre-programmed that songs are dictated weeks in advance. So much for the ”request line.” But, of course, there’s more to the story. ”John Boy and Billy” do a syndicated morning show, meaning, it’s not localized to anywhere. They want you to believe they’re your favorite rock jocks from WhereYouLive, U.S.A., but not only are they not local to you, they’re not even rock jocks!

"Though broadcast live from Charlotte, the songs on the show can be different on affiliated stations, depending on their music format. Stations with classic rock formats like WRFX FM (’The Fox’ 99.7) got the Queen song, while stations with country formats got ’Wish I Didn’t Know Now’ by Toby Keith and oldies stations got ’But It’s All Right’ by J.J. Jackson."

They do rock. They do country. They do oldies. All at the same time. "The switching is accomplished by an elaborate computer program. Music and other elements are inserted in advance. ’There is a lot of high technology involved in this redneck show,’ Brazell said."

That’s one way of putting it. Another way is, ”the concept of local radio has become one big intentional deception, from the DJ’s to the music they don’t play.”