From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxa!mhuxh!mhuxm!pyuxjj!rlr
Newsgroups: net.music
Title: Rock radio parse date stringawaw
Article-I.D.: pyuxjj.388
Posted: Sun Jan  9 18:25:08 1983
Received: Mon Jan 10 01:55:23 1983
References: mhuxt.1201

(In a more rational vein...)
There was an article in Rolling Stone a few weeks back describing the mentality
of the music programmers at AOR (album-oriented rock) radio stations and their
listeners.  AOR, for those of you unfamiliar with the acronym, refers to a
musical classification consisting mostly of hard rock (???) and heavy metal,
with the intended market of the 12 to 24 year old white male, which is thought
to be the main population group involved in purchases of music-related items
(records, posters, jackets, ...).  This is where the big money is thought to
be in radio today.  The programmers at these stations consistently play the
same brand of music (heavy metal, sprinkled with 'acceptable' oldies like the
Doors, Stones, Beatles) and refuse to open the airwaves up to new artists.

Since up until recently these were the only "rock" stations around, new
artists with new styles (read "new wave" if you like) could not receive airplay
because the programmers felt the audience wouldn't accept it.  This, despite
the fact that the records were making a dent in AOR sales (or perhaps because
of that fact).  What would happen if some adventurous programmer played
some "new wave" or (God forbid) black music on an AOR station?  Those in charge
were afraid that their audience would call in and say "Stop playing that junk"
or "Get that nigger music off the air" <-- not my words, the words of HM
listeners who *did* call in to such stations!

I speak not just as a listener but as a musician as well.  The monopoly that
AOR music has in radio today hinders the creative musician and his/her ability
to gain a following in the be-all-and-end-all, the marketplace.  No airplay,
no sales.  It is the hope of such people that the dinosaur known as AOR radio
will collapse of its own weight (it is, after all, *heavy* metal).  Perhaps
I speak *more* as a musician than as a listener when I complain about how
the proliferation of AOR and HM hurts those who really want to make new and
different *popular* music.  It won't get popular if you don't give people a
chance to hear it.  What are they afraid of when they keep this music off the
air?					Rich