LL Cool J States Today’s Radio Makes you want to “Throw up”… and he’s right

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I don’t know how well this will sit with urban radio stations considering he has a new single out with Neo but LL is absolutely right and he is saying what MANY artists think and what I have been saying in this blog for years. I cannot defend my craft as a radio pro.   Yes I am a radio veteran, YES this blog targets radio and yes RADIO SUCKS right now and even I have a hard time listening to it. This is an interview with Forbes at the recent CES.


1 COMMENT

  1. I couldn’t agree more! Here’s the deal…it started (imho), with the corporate takeover of radio. Every since the big conglomerate’s (iHeartmedia (formerly Clear Channel), Cumulus, etc.), started buying up every radio station in sight,the demise of our industry began. With an overwhelming increase of syndication programming, streamlining and consolidation of staff, and control of programming,what has happened to the industry was inevitable. You now have people running the industry that aren’t from the industry. They have “National/Regional Directors of Programming”, in most cases a white guy, trying to program OUR music. The problem with that is, they haven’t been exposed to our music to the point of knowing the depth that many of our artist have. How many UAC stations play James Brown in daily rotation? When listening to an oldies station, how come you hear the same 3 or 4 songs from an artist that has over thirty years of hits? Why do they put a 25 year old song in heavy rotation as if it just came out? Why are the play lists so short? Isn’t the whole idea to have people listening longer? There is a reflective component that’s missing in today’s radio(UAC). When you hear songs, you should be able to go back in time in your mind, to a time and place in your life that has special meaning…first job, first kiss, High School, College, etc., and visualize your life from the perspective of a given song! It’s as if they are force feeding us the music THEY recognize! In their research, they look at a market where a particular station is #1, and immediately want every other station of that genre to play the exact same songs, regardless of where that station is regionally…DUMB!!! My listening span now is about 20 minutes, if that long! This is why so many people (myself included), are listening to CD’s to fill the void that radio can’t seem to fill. What happened to the days when you could call your favorite DJ, and make a request? That’s not happening when you have voice-tracking! I could go on and on…