A few years ago, a young woman named Kristin* took an entry-level position running the audio board for the on-air radio personalities at an AM radio station. She loved radio, and hoped that this job would jump-start her career in the industry. “When I went to college to get my bachelor’s degree, that’s what I wanted to do,” she said. Kristin got her break when she was asked to fill in at the microphone while one of the radio personalities went on maternity leave. Soon, she won a regular shift while just a college student. And because the station was owned by Atlanta-based Cumulus Media, one of the largest radio groups in the country, there were opportunities for Kristin to grow within the company. She was transferred to host a show on a popular contemporary hits FM station in a larger market, playing the latest songs. “I was so excited to be living my dream,” Kristin said, so much so that she didn’t mind that she was earning only minimum wage.

*Name has been changed for confidentiality reasons.

That dream soon revealed its darker side—the realities of today’s homogenized radio industry. Kristin’s station was one of three FM stations owned by Cumulus in that market. Kristin was asked to do voice-tracking, a cost-saving measure in which a radio deejay prerecords voice breaks that are then inserted into an automated shift. To the listeners, it may have seemed like they were getting three different deejays on Cumulus’s contemporary hits station, rock station, and country station. After all, they were hearing three different names, with three slightly different personalities. In reality, Kristin was the midday deejay on the contemporary hits radio station; she was the evening deejay on the rock format station; and she was also the weekend voice of the company’s country format station. Some days, due to scheduling, Kristin’s three on-air personalities could be heard at the exact same time. But she would only be paid for the one hour it took her to lay down a voice track for each four-to-five hour shift.

Kristin and her fellow voice-tracked deejays felt disconnected from their listeners. “You can see that the phones ring all day long,” as listeners call in requests, she said. “Even if you voice track, you say, ‘Call in with your request, or leave a message.’” But because the songs are scheduled days in advance in the automated system, if a request happens to be played, it’s only by coincidence.

After four years, Kristin finished her B.A. in communication, left the radio station, and went to grad school. “I wouldn’t be able to pay my college loans with the money I was making,” she said.

But even with the low wages, for Kristin, the biggest disappointment was that the kind of commercial radio she grew up listening to was being phased out by the time she went to work in the business.

The consolidation of stations into massive radio groups like Cumulus and Clear Channel in the 1990s and 2000s resulted in budget-cutting demands from the corporate offices and, ultimately, stations with less connection to their local audience. And even with growing complaints from listeners and community groups about the decline in minority ownership, the lack of musical diversity on the airwaves, and the near-disappearance of local radio news, little has changed. It is simply more profitable for radio conglomerates to use prerecorded or syndicated programming, even if it means losing sight of their duty to serve the public’s interests and stifling their deejays’ individuality and passion for the medium. Kristin’s contemporary hits station had five full-time on-air deejays when she started. Today, it has just one.

EVEN WITH THE ARRIVAL OF TV IN THE 1950s and the “corporatization” of broadcasting in the 1990s, the historical and contemporary roles played by radio have been immense. From the early days of network radio, which gave us “a national identity” and “a chance to share in a common experience,”¹ to the more customized, demographically segmented medium today, radio’s influence continues to reverberate throughout our society. Though television displaced radio as our most common media experience, radio specialized and adapted. The daily music and persistent talk that resonate from radios all over the world continue to play a key role in contemporary culture.

In this chapter, we examine the scientific, cultural, political, and economic factors surrounding radio’s development and perseverance. We will:

As you read through this chapter, think about your own relationship with radio. What are your earliest memories of listening to radio? Do you remember a favorite song or station? How old were you when you started listening? Why did you listen? What types of radio stations are in your area today? If you could own and manage a commercial radio station, what format would you choose, and why? For more questions to help you think through the role of radio in our lives, see “Questioning the Media” in the Chapter Review.