After scanning over the frequencies offered on the FM dial, radio listeners today quickly become bored, annoyed, and frustrated at what they hear. As they flip from station to station, listeners usually hear the same songs, often songs they do not especially like, repeated on multiple stations despite a change in frequency. Few of these songs are not that month's best-selling singles, unless they are listening to older music, which often only reflects the several dozen most popular tunes of previous generations. Amidst the repetitious music, listeners must also hear advertisements on many of the stations they turn to, waiting through several minutes of annoying sales plugs at each station before hearing more low-quality music.
Perhaps these irritations are the reasons that fewer people have been tuning in to radio in the last several years. Over the last decade, the amount of radio listening in the U.S. has declined by 13%. Between 1998 and 2001, the amount of listening among teenagers dropped by 10% (Kot, "What's Wrong" sc.2). Excessive commercials was the reason one-third of listeners between the ages 12-24 gave for listening to radio less, amidst other complaints about the lack of variety in the songs and programs they were hearing (Boehlert, "Radio's Big" 5). Many music fans and critics from within the music industry blame the decrease in radio's popularity on the large corporate conglomerates that now own and control much of the music entertainment industry. Driven by the desire for profits, Clear Channel, the largest of these conglomerates, deserves most of the blame for mass-producing low quality, inaccessible radio and concerts across the U.S.
After the Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated the radio industry, radio-owning corporations began rapidly consolidating. The National Association of Broadcasters lobbied Congress to pass this bill (Boehlert, "One Big Happy" 4), which would effectively eliminate all governmental restrictions on how many national radio stations one company could own and would loosen the limits on how many local radio stations companies could own. When the act was passed, the Federal Communications Commission allowed large radio companies to own up to eight local stations in any market, a large increase from the previous limit of two stations (Compaine 297).
Perhaps these irritations are the reasons that fewer people have been tuning in to radio in the last several years. Over the last decade, the amount of radio listening in the U.S. has declined by 13%. Between 1998 and 2001, the amount of listening among teenagers dropped by 10% (Kot, "What's Wrong" sc.2). Excessive commercials was the reason one-third of listeners between the ages 12-24 gave for listening to radio less, amidst other complaints about the lack of variety in the songs and programs they were hearing (Boehlert, "Radio's Big" 5). Many music fans and critics from within the music industry blame the decrease in radio's popularity on the large corporate conglomerates that now own and control much of the music entertainment industry. Driven by the desire for profits, Clear Channel, the largest of these conglomerates, deserves most of the blame for mass-producing low quality, inaccessible radio and concerts across the U.S.
After the Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated the radio industry, radio-owning corporations began rapidly consolidating. The National Association of Broadcasters lobbied Congress to pass this bill (Boehlert, "One Big Happy" 4), which would effectively eliminate all governmental restrictions on how many national radio stations one company could own and would loosen the limits on how many local radio stations companies could own. When the act was passed, the Federal Communications Commission allowed large radio companies to own up to eight local stations in any market, a large increase from the previous limit of two stations (Compaine 297).
