FM - No Music At All?

FM news radio is taking over America like a blight on the landscape.  At the same time rock station WRXP-FM in New York became news station WEMP-FM - leaving many Tri-State fans of alternative rock to find an alternative to radio - an alternative station inChicago, WKQX, became news station WIQI-FM. (The stations share anchors with each other.)  In Philadelphia, WKDN-FM, a Christianstation, is now WWIQ, preparing for a similar news format while currently delighting listeners with Sean Hannity's radio program.  

All of these stations have one thing in common: Merlin Media.  Merlin Media is the company that bought these stations and threw out their rock and religious programming in favor of "news you can use," the kind of useless reporting that no one should care about.  The genius behind all the this is Merlin Media head honcho Randy Michaels, who seems to have the knack for selling people what they don't need and didn't even think they wanted.  WEMP-FM, like its Chicago sister station and, soon, its Philly sister station, is aiming this format at people 50 and under who care less about the world at large and more about their insignificant little place in it.  I'll let Merlin's chief operating officer, Walter Sabo, explain the format:

"To our listener, a story on the economy is not about a trillion-dollar deficit.  It's 'Will I get fired?' or 'If my car breaks down, can I afford the repair?' We want to move every story immediately to what it means for the listener.  We're sharing, not preaching."

"What it means for the listener?"  You know, important but complex stories like the European debt crisis may not mean anything personally to the listener, especially a listener who's never been to Europe (hello!), but it means a lot for the country and the world at large.  A news story on the economy, be it from the radio or some other medium, should inform listeners about how the world operates and should help make them make savvy, informed decisions - especially when they vote in general elections.  David Hinckley of the New York Daily News noted that stories WEMP-FM "shares" have a conversational tone that's supposed to make the listeners feel like the anchors and the reporters are their friends (something I noticed when I listened to WEMP for five minutes, which was all I could take), and the on-air staff has even often added editorial interjections like "Thankfully" or "Duh!" in their "news" stories.

This isn't news radio, this is Archie and the gang hanging out at Pop's Choklit Shoppe.

There is a precedent for FM news radio, and it's not the NPR stations that present the news the way it should be presented, with thoughtful reporting and analysis (the kind of FM radio Alvy Singer fears that he sounds like when talking to Annie in Annie Hall).  It's not even the long-defunct New York FM news station WNWS-FM.  It's New Jersey 101.5, an obnoxious loudmouthed station broadcasting on WKXW-FM in Trenton.  Once an evenly balanced music and news station, it's now news and talk on weekdays with music only on Saturdays and Sundays.  Its news and talk put a strong emphasis on New Jersey, which is fine by me, but it does so in a brash, attitude-laden style normally associated with Chris Christie.  But their music programming on weekends means that they're not exclusively news, while WEMP obviously seeks to be all news all the time.  However, WEMP's programming ;seems to be more touchy-feely than the bitching about state government that New Jersey 101.5 is famous for.

Oh yeah, Merlin isn't the only conglomerate cluttering FM with "news" radio. The Radio One company established a news format at KROI-FM in Houston in place of . . . gospel.

This is so wrong . . ..

When Pete Fornatale, the legendary New York rock DJ, died suddenly last week, it seemed that the spirit of radio died with him.  The truth is, American commercial radio has been dying for a long time. The music you hear on commercial radio is empty and unsatisfying.  Commercial news radio is even worse.