Don Henley on radio

[Jeremy Mixer]

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, Paul Hopfgarten wrote:

> > "Radio stations used to be local and diverse. Deejays programmed their
> > own shows and developed close relationships with artists. Today radio
> > stations are centrally programmed by their corporate owners, and airplay
> > is essentially bought rather than earned."
> > - Eagles frontman DON HENLEY in the op-ed page of the Washington Post
>
> What planet has he been on for the past 30+ years?  DJs haven't programmed
> their own music since the 60s.  Do you think Bruce Bradley played what he
> felt like on WBZ in their Top 40 days?

I have to stand up here in Henley's defense........even in the early 90's,
of course depoending on the station and the format, but just since then
radio has become much more corperately run with the "DJ's" having less and
less control. Does anyone remember WCDQ out of Sanford? How about WTOS
before they were sold to Cumulus and then to Clear Channel? Sure, they all
had their guidelines to go by, and some music that just would not fit on
the station, but the DJ's then had a LOT more freedom to play what they
wanted rather than they do now.

I'm proud to also say that I work at a station which, while we have our
guidelines, there's no one looking over our shoulder and making us play
every song on the log. I play people's requests, modify the playlist
where I feel it is not going with the flow of my show (while keeping with
the station's sound) and get paid hourly to do three overnights a week.

I also know that this in itself is a complete rarity in the industry these
days, which is wehy I've stayed in the wasteland of Bangor for waaay
longer than I ever intended to :) (no offense to anyone from bangor- I'm a
southern Maine guy at heart!)

It's right along the lines of Tom Petty's album "The Last DJ" which not
only has  theme of being anti-corperate radio, but just anti-corperation
in general.

Sure, I'm young (25) and you can tell me that I don't know what I'm
talking about, but I've talked to enough [people that have worked in the
radio industry for years who would abck me up here.

Jeremy
Bangor, Maine