One of my other memories involves my first all-night sleepover. We camped out in the back yard of a neighbors house, and stayed up listening to the ubiquitous local Top 40 station. Whenever I hear certain songs, it reminds me of that time, memories I might have long since forgotten if it hadn't been for that radio. I was a bit naive about the business of radio then, but that changed forever as I moved on in life.
When I went away to college, I met a couple of guys who were majoring in Radio/TV/Film, and they worked at the campus station. They talked me into coming along and working as well, so I went and volunteered. My first time on the air firmly cemented the fact I was a radio junkie. Here I was, doing what I had heard so many countless others doing on those nights long ago. To say it was exciting would be an understatement. We had a really close comraderie at that station; we were doing something we all enjoyed, and we weren't burdened by serious pressure, or strict guidelines. As long as we didn't say any dirty words, and as long as the transmitter stayed on, we had pretty much a free reign. I ended up becoming more involved than I had originally intended, but it was well worth the time I put into it.
A few years later, I found myself in Parkersburg, West Virginia, staying with my father. One day he told me that there was a local station looking for a part-time DJ, so I got a short tape together and went down to see if they would give me a shot. They hired me, mainly because they needed someone in a hurry, and I was the only person who applied. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the music they played, but it was a job, although not a well-paying one. I did Saturday nights from 6 pm-midnight, a pretty lively shift. This station was a 50,000 watt, Top 40 juggernaught, the highest rated station in the market, and listened to by people in a 60 mile radius. But I never really fit in, primarily because I really didn't like most of the people who worked there. My only real friend was the overnight guy, because we hated the same people. The program director wasn't fond of me because I was always making suggestions. Needless to say, I only lasted 6 months, and I was happy to get out. It was tedious, playing the same crappy songs every 2 hours, and having to pretend like you liked them.
That was my first and last brush with radio as a big business. I wasn't disillusioned as much as I was disappointed. Today, radio has become even more of a business, with big companies buying up stations left and right, hoping to maximize the profit potential of controlling a group of stations in the same market. It's led to the homoginization of music, and the Top 40-izing of formats in every type of music. So many people complain that they get sick of hearing the same songs over and over. The fact is, stations are slaves to market research, and research shows that people want to hear songs and artists they are familiar with.
I still listen to the radio today, but I find my choices are limited by my own experiences and personal tastes. I have an idea of what a radio station "should" sound like, and more often than not, I'm disappointed. I don't even listen to any local stations, dismissing them as a bad joke. The one station I listen to with pleasure is WEBN in Cincinnati, which can be difficult, because I live on the farthest reaches of its signal, but it has what I consider to be a distinctive sound. It sounds like what a radio station should sound like--the people on the air aren't mindless goons who read everything they say, they have something of an "outlaw" attitude, and they play good music.
I can only hope against hope that someday we will return to a time when radio created memories for people, that we will be able get away from cookie cutter stations and broadcast school graduates who have to remind us of their name and the call letters every ten seconds. When hearing a certain song reminds us of something happy in the past, rather than what the video of it looked like. Otherwise, we might as well just live our lives through movies.