Just a short while ago I noticed this article and read it with great interest.
Some of you may know I spent the early part of my first career at a (now that I look back at it) relatively small AM-FM combo in southeast Arizona. Not KHIL, which is the station featured in the article linked above, although I could receive KHIL just fine from my apartment in Sierra Vista.
As was the author's intent, the Guardian article is showing the truth of the sad state of small-town radio in the United States.
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I remember it well. The year was 1985. Up to then even casual listeners knew small-town radio had a purpose and identity. It reflected that particular community and the spots frequently consisted of local businesses. You could tune in during the morning and hear not only the school lunch menus but also which local individual had passed away and the visitation/funeral times. The announcers lived in town. You saw them at the grocery stores or post office, doing their normal errands just as all of us. High school sports dominated the evening hours from the months of September through February.
If the town was fortunate, the local station was an AM-FM combo. Unlike today, where many AM's are now used to originate programming to an FM translator or HD secondary signal, the station located anywhere from 540 to 1600 on the dial often had a format and announcing staff distinct from the FM side. Such was the case in Seguin, Texas, where I became acquainted with their hometown KWED (1580 AM, 105.3 FM). The AM had a variety of country, polka and Spanish while the FM was country its entire programming day. 1580 was sunrise to sunset while the FM was 6 a.m. to midnight.
Then on a visit to south Texas for Christmas of 1985 I noticed a big change. While Seguin's AM was intact the FM no longer had the local identity or target audience. Apparently the owner(s) sold the 105.3 frequency to a buyer who then increased the power to 100,000 watts, the most allowed for an FM station in the U.S. Gone also was the country music format and the local voices. And the call letters. This station was now known as KSMG, branded as "Magic 105." Top 40 playing 24-7, targeted at the San Antonio market.
What I didn't realize at the time was yet another change for the radio business.
Also during 1985 even FM's near my home area of the time (Albuquerque) were undergoing similar changes. I remember upon moving to the Duke City in 1982 how I had the challenge of hearing the FM's to the north on my lame home radios. Santa Fe had two FM's and Los Alamos had one. By the end of '85 all had kicked up their power and eventually changed their transmitter locations all for the purpose of putting a viable signal into Albuquerque...where the majority of the (potential) listeners resided. More listeners means more money. In the meantime two new FM's licensed to Santa Fe signed on the air and didn't even pretend to be locally-oriented to northern New Mexico.
Suddenly the radio listener had more options and few people seemed to care that their hometown FM stations no longer cared about the community. To be sure, the existing AM stations up north still carried much of the same programming and could fill the void created with the changes on the FM dial.
For the time being.
The aforementioned practice of taking small-town FM's and adding them to a nearby large city's market soon became known as "move-ins."
And if the station is located just too far away from a population base to make a move-in possible, then said station will have to find another way to remain profitable. Or die a slow death.
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During my time working in Sierra Vista I got to witness first-hand another significant change in the local radio business. As was the case in Seguin some years prior, the AM and FM signals had different formats. KTAN 1420 AM was country music and KFFN 100.9 FM featured adult contemporary. The AM signed on at 5 in the morning and had announcers and board operators throughout the day and evening before signing off either 11 or midnight. (It's been so long I really can't remember when they shut down for the night.)
The FM, however, had a live announcer during the morning drive time and occasionally from 3 to 6 p.m. The rest of the time it was automated, using an even-then-ancient collection of reel to reel machines supplemented by carts where the local spots (and my newscasts) kept the bills paid and listeners informed.
A few months into my tenure the general manager together with the owner bought into a satellite-fed service from Drake-Chenault. While this was a great improvement for the FM side (all the staff agreed unofficially there was probably no way the FM could sound worse given the horrid automation system) it also had the result of removing the local, community-based feel the AM team perfected. Morning drive time was the only shift left unchanged when the satellite service was implemented.
Replacing local voices with a nationwide provider--another trend in the industry. Why bother with local announcers when you can have a satellite service that sounds polished and professional? You don't have to deal with on-air staff who might call in sick. The bean counters also appreciate not having to have the headache of payroll and benefits for the necessary number of people needed to really make a station work as it should. And programming? Bought and paid for.
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If you read this blog you know I listen to SiriusXM almost exclusively. To some radio old-timers I might seem like a traitor or sell-out. But does anyone ask me why I choose to pay for satellite radio when there are still terrestrial options?
The answer is in the larger picture of this entry. Why did I ditch AM and FM? Bottom line: they no longer gave me any compelling reason to listen. Drive through any city and the commercial FM's almost all sound the same, regardless of your location in these United States. AM stations in urban areas are relegated to talk, sports, infomercials and various foreign language offerings. Small-town radio? For those stations that still survive, nearly all are satellite-fed to some degree.
Add to the above my ability to listen to whatever type of music I want at any given time and knowing I will not lose the signal if I hit the highway and I believe SiriusXM is worth the monthly cost.
There's just nothing special on the old-fashioned dial anymore.
And that's a shame.
Not long after KTAN/KFFN switched to the satellite service our program director Carlos said to me wistfully: "At (KTAN's) peak, we had something really special. Great people on the air and a real connection with our listeners. We could have gone into Tucson, if such a thing were possible, and given some of those stations a run for their money."
Then and now I couldn't agree more. But radio is a business and an ever-changing business. That's how you wind up with small town radio ending up with a similar fate as Willcox, Arizona's KHIL.
