There was a time when radio stations were community owned. Your local D.J. made the programming choices and most local bands got their foot in the door by getting A and B side rotation on the local radio station.
Those were the good old days. Today, in 2006, the ballgame is different.
Former President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which was basically the death blow to community radio stations. Corporate moguls, Clear Channel, started buying up mom and pop stations, upgraded the equipment and then, started dictating the play lists and the artists to be played. This left the local artist out in the cold.
In the old days, the local D.J. was the program manager. For these big corporate conglomerates, your program manager may be 300 miles away in another town. These big wigs don’t know your community and the communities listening style.
Radio was created to serve the community at large. Corporations have made much mint off of stripping communities of its sound that defined them. Can you imagine if this would have happened to the local radio scenes in Detroit, Memphis and Trenton N.J in the 60’s?
As an indie artist, there is still a way to get to your audience. Many cities still have thriving community radio scenes that play great indie music. You can find these stations on the internet by Googling “Community Radio Stations”.
Even though the corporate big wigs think that they are getting over, the community radio scene is going to come back through the Internet and alternate routes to getting heard.