Should Sage Francis have named his tour F*ck Clear Channel or F*ck Lee Abrams? As a growing population of counter-culture kids and adults unleash their inner angst by deriding Clear Channel and its peers (for horrendous playlists and lack of variety among other things), this man supposedly goes to work everyday trying to undo some of the things he has been credited for – like significantly contributing to the “watering down” of radio programming. Abrams pioneered certain methods of mass programming and he is now trying to counter this by giving niche markets “what they really want” through a new medim, satellite radio.
Should we really attribute so much blame on one man or should we be blaming Clear Channel for fighting the war and profiting from it? Or maybe we should just blame the people who listen to crap music? Peep this article which digs a little into the past and future of radio:
Would You Buy The Future Of The Radio From This Man?
Seven years ago, Lee Abrams found himself in exile. Once the most influential radio guru of his generation, Abrams pioneered systematic audience research and “psychographics,” connecting people’s lifestyles to their listening habits. He invented a music format called album-oriented rock, or AOR, which in the 1970s shifted the music industry’s focus from singles to albums and showed radio execs how to hold listeners and attract advertisers – to make money in the new, boundary-free world of FM.
But his success had a cost. The rise of AOR was the beginning of the end for the brief, storied era of free-form radio and iconoclastic DJs – “some guy in a basement in Brooklyn, burning incense and playing whatever he pleased,” as Abrams describes the late-’60s scene. The format ushered in such airwave dreck as classic rock, teen pop, and … there’s no easy way to say this … smooth jazz.