Into The Breech

Times are surreal. The continents are adrift, there's a hole in our destiny, we're out on the brink. Radio is perched on the knife's edge of time, between yesterday and tomorrow.

Conventions of the past have disappeared; some it can be argued, for the better. Now come Eliot Spitzer and Russ Feingold sorting through Radio's underwear drawer, in search of misdeeds under the Radio and Concert Disclosure Act of 2005 (S.2058), which in essence attacks one of radio's indecorous historic shortcomings: play lists influenced by subtle--or not so subtle-- incentification. Feingold, in fact, has asked Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK) to place his project on the committee's agenda.

Spitzer has been on war footing for some time, intimating that certain companies may have a lot to answer for, and that his investigation will yield accurate findings in due course. One conclusion emerges clear, above all else. The old pay-for-play model is an anachronism, as it should be. Over the long years, some independent promoters such as Chicago-based JMA chose the high road. Others took detours that never led back. All the smoke and voodoo that surrounded record promotion is ultimately giving way to a better system: actually playing songs based on their merit and format fit. Technology has also brought us to a new dawn in national music tracking, through 24-7 monitoring of stations in all formats, and for most rated markets. Even in the face of Spitzer and Feingold's parallel crusades, it appears that at least some radio programmers are not much impressed by these preachments.

Spitzer and Feingold may produce substantial evidence from the dark side, yet as with any controversy, history alone will record whether radio's foggy nexus with the recording industry deserves this inquisition, or whether in fact our transgressions can be traced to occasional illegalities, sporadic and ill-conceived by the misguided few.

There are always positive outcomes from misadventure and sanction. Among them, the lesson learned by today's emerging program directors that should remind us all: if you intend to prevail in a highly competitive environment, you had better learn all you can about music architecture. Plunge into songs and artists, the concept of style-coalitions, and the correlation formulas that ensure your station plays the right songs, at the right time, in the right rotation.

Nothing replaces music accuracy in format radio; beyond songs, artists and your music matrix, nothing else matters. There's not enough incentive in the world to play a bad song.