We have 17 radio stations here on Grand Cayman, 4 on Cayman Brac/ Little Cayman.

From that pack there must be something to listen to, something that appeals to my listening taste buds? My answer is Yes and No.

At one time I lauded the radio stations we were blessed with. Look at the diversity:

Religious (2), Talk (2), Rock/Pop/Caribbean (6), Country (1), Easy Listening (2), Diverse – all sorts (2), Weather (1), Training (1).

A number of these stations also have their Talk Shows. They are cheap to produce and seem to be popular.

There is no independent body here that monitors audience numbers and advertisers rely on perception and not real demographics when they decide which radio station is going to be the recipient of their money.

The actual categories of the music stations are also becoming harder to define. Cayman’s only dedicated country station, has over half the morning taken up with a talk show most weekdays and if that if that isn’t enough, plays excerpts of it again on Saturday mornings. The station plays mainly the “New Country”. New Country has exploded with the teenagers and younger adults with mainly a heavy rock base, no fiddles, is fast paced, noisy and now even has country rap getting into the mix. As long it has a few words of drinking, being drunk, down on a farm, a tractor, and the like, that makes it ‘country’ no matter what the actual noise sounds like.

If you change stations, as I am now apt to do, it is difficult to distinguish between the country and the rock/pop/Caribbean. The Caribbean part is sometimes difficult to find even though we are in the Caribbean.

The one item they all have in common is noise. And it’s not just the music. Nearly every advert you hear has someone screaming many words at you as fast as he can get them out of his/her mouth. This is accompanied with various forms of echo and sound on sound effects on the voice and a blast of heavy discordant ‘music’ in the background.

How any advertiser thinks that racket is going to make anyone actually buy their product or listen to the announcement of a venue they are pushing is beyond me.

As for my idea of “Easy Listening” or Love or Kiss I am definitely not on their list of listeners they are aiming at as easy listening or music to make love or kiss your partner with it most certainly isn’t.

The two diverse – all sorts stations  – are exactly that. Most of the time you never know what you are going to get. Diverse it is.

The Top 40 music charts are not based any more on actual sales but on the station air plays and it is the radio station that makes that decision not the listener. We listen to what ‘they’ say we will listen to. And how do they determine that?

So now, instead of lauding our local radio stations I say, No laud, I am going to play my iPod”.

The following article appeared in my inbox this morning and the writer is right on the money:

Content and Craft by Paul McGowan PS Audio

In yesterday’s post (Wed 18) I spoke about radio stations and how most terrestrial based AM/FM stations have gone down the tubes in their listenability. They are not alone: even the very music these stations play are suspect as well. Yet, there ARE good stations, just like there IS good music. One must seek it out.

I was in radio for years, as both an on air talent and a program director, so I have some level of insight into the field. I was fortunate enough to be involved during the heyday of music based radio, both top 40 as well as what we used to call AOR (Album Oriented Rock). Top 40 radio was at its peak in the mid to late 1960’s thanks to a brilliant programmer named Bill Drake who syndicated his sound through the Drake Chenault outlets. In the 1970’s FM radio went from background music to a medium that crushed AM in a very short period of time; and for the same reasons.

Throughout all these cycles of wild success to crashing failures, there were two common threads: the first was content the second was craft.

Content. Top 40 radio was not invented by Bill Drake, but he revolutionized it none the less. He took control of content from the sales department and put it in the hands of programming, maintaining tight standards in every respect. Instead of pandering to the advertisers, he ignored them completely and played to the listeners. This strategy went through a classic cycle: first upsetting the advertisers who bailed on the station, then building an audience who loved the content. The advertisers returned, hat in hand.

Craft. The very best FM radio stations of the day gave the content decisions to the air talent, each crafting their own mix of music. If the audience didn’t respond well to the mix, the air talent was replaced with someone who could do a better job. This is the exact opposite of what Bill Drake did. Drake controlled content with brilliant (but controlled) programming aimed at building an audience. AOR depended on the skill and craft of the individual to build audience.

Today. Most radio stations, music services and many musicians are back in the hands of the sales and numbers people. Content and Craft suffer.

When we do discover Content or Craft, let’s all make a point of sharing and supporting those that “get it”.

For more: http://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/content-and-craft/

Mr McGowan is almost the same age as me. Aged yes, but we both can appreciate the difference between M-U-S-I-C and N-O-I-S-E!!!!