New Years Day Song & Video Preview

Here's a video preview for a song I did off of "The Thrift Shop Experience" called "New Years Day" (thanks to Jacob Huddleston for hooking this up). Today is a sad day for all Americans, and our emotions often get twisted about it because of the aftermath - the politics, the war, the finger-pointing. Just stop what you're doing and just remember how we all felt on the morning of September 11, 2001; It's the best way to honor all of the heroes that died.

Download the song here. The full video should be ready by the end of September. You can stream the song below before you download. Let me know your thoughts. God Bless.

- JP

Rasheed Chappell - "Project: Stance" Album Review

Project Stance – Rasheed Chappell
**** ½


“We enjoyin the vibe, just enjoyin the vibe –
Relax yaself, let ya conscience be free and enjoy the vibe…”
- Rasheed Chappell from “The Vibe” off of Project: Stance


Hip hop in its purest form is escapism. In much the same way as the work songs of American slaves lifted spirits and propelled hopes to ultimate freedom, hip hop music is rooted in that same idea of speaking on reality to move towards triumph. It’s not removing oneself from something in the traditional sense of the word – this brand of escapism is hip hop sitting above the facts and offering a different interpretation. Call it pointless, call it naïve, but it exists outside of rap music’s majority today as a foreign paradox that most find hard to identify with in the current pop music plantation climate. Maybe that’s what Nas meant when he said Hip Hop Is Dead?

“Project: Stance,” the latest from the ever-busy, never-at-a-loss-for-a-verse New Jersey emcee Rasheed Chappell, is an album that attempts to unearth the roots of those work songs and breathe life back into a hip hop that’s confused about which way it wants to go. And for most of the album, he succeeds. Infusing lines with hard-nosed tell-it-like-it-is bravado while still delicately recalling the African-American struggle from slave-times to 2007’s gangster mental, Chappell gives us history as well as future within the same song. The true appeal for the listener, though, shouldn’t be the natural charisma oozing it’s way out of the speakers with each BOOM BAP that tells those stories – it’s Sheed’s ultimate belief that redemption and connectivity can shed light on each other and give rise to understanding that make this album so special.

Many emcees that actually have content in their raps are accused of being soft. Chappell is the answer. Each rhyme is edgy, and the sharp, staccato with which the lines are delivered belie his easy, fluid delivery. Think Kweli’s precision sharpness in annunciation with a voice and flow reminiscent of Q-Tip. But understand the catalogue of content is all his own. Sheed (or Sheedy for the ladies) bounces over topics with schemes that could probably match any beat you threw at him.

And the beats are, well… if you haven’t heard of Cassius Clay yet, you will. Already knee-deep in a project with M-1 of Dead Prez, Clay is a fucking beast, there’s no way around it. Each instrumental is crafted with a powerful, soulful thump that’s as distinct as it is familiar. The soundscape is lush and layered with usually a main sample and an assortment of carefully arranged chopped samples, strings and, of course, percussion. In the same way that Dre has drums, Clay has drums, too. Each pattern speaks to the emcee, guiding the flow not where it should go, but where it can go. There hasn’t been a better beatsmith and emcee combo since Gang Starr. And perfection is attained on several cuts, namely “Soul Possession.” With songstress Rae-Sheen on the chorus, Sheed gives his ode to music with a purity not heard in today’s music, by ANYONE, period.

There are several tracks that borderline on ridiculous. The swagger-laced “Fly” has Sheed channeling Slick Rick over a thunderous drumline. There’s even a “mirror on the wall” reference. If only Kanye had this kind of swagger. For real. “Child of The Ghetto” and “Gangsta Boogie” are two of my other favorites for true, gritty hip hop. If you’re looking for music to take you somewhere else, though, there’s the introspective “Who I Am” and “Not What You See.” From the latter, Sheed reaches back and pulls out memorable lines like, “How can you judge a man, without knowin his soul, knowin his heart and what pulls him apart? What builds him up, what gave him the spark?” And for unabashed commentary on the impartial hypocrisy of the ghetto, look no further than “Salvation” – a story about the parallel paths young men with no options are forced to choose. And yes, that last sentence is meant to be oxymoronic.

In truth, it’s incredibly difficult to find fault with any of the album. However, as it goes, there are a few, small flaws that prevent this from creeping undoubtedly into five-star territory. Like every great jazz song ever written or sex that was had, there’s an ebb and flow to the experience. Here, the tracking of the songs are a bit choppy and to me, it really prevents the story from unfolding, again, not as it should, but as it can. Additionally, songs like “Paint a Picture” and “Let Me Be Good To You (Spoiled)” could have been left out, as they don’t really add anything to the overall quality of the rest of the songs. The former reminds me of “Life’s a Bitch,” of course a classic in the annals of hip hop history, but one of my least favorite songs. Something about the way Sheed and his guest emcee have their voices hit the notes in the beat, the bare chorus, the monotonous sample… none of it resonates as well as the other tracks on the album. And because they’re all stand-out tracks, nothing less than that will do. Another thing that might have brought the album up was exploring third verses in a few spots. Instead, the tracks opt to go the 50 Cent route of two verses and a bridge/outro. My last request would have been to hear Sheed switch up the flow in spots – something over 120 bpm and a joint with some double-time would have given the album a more rounded, technical sound, something of which the emcee is surely capable. Minor details but they may have helped complete the masterpiece.

The only song I’m torn about is the last song on the disc, entitled “Pain.” It reminds me of “Raging Bull.” I liked the movie but it left such a strong feeling of distaste for De Niro’s character that it became almost unenjoyable and soured the overall experience. Same for Sheed’s “Pain.” It’s by far the darkest song on the album and can be seen to either end the album on the wrong foot or truly serve as an artistic statement, to leave that distaste of oppression, pain, frustration and confinement in the ears of the listener. Perhaps only the artist knows what was intended.

Bottom-line, Rasheed Chappell is a one-of-a-kind artist blessed with a gift of gab and an incredible collaborator in Cassius Clay. His years of grinding in the local area, countless hours in the booth and life experience show in each bar he spits, and as an obvious disciple of hip hop, this album is a beautiful homage to it’s purest form. It’s never more apparent that an understanding of resolution needs to be found than when “What Goes Up, Must Come Down” guest artist and Rasheed’s father-in-law proclaims: “wickedness provides no escape.” That line has never been more urgent. Because while his contemporaries toil with their backs to the sun under the threat of exhaustion, Sheed’s eyes, spirit and soul are turned steady upward, unafraid to stare-down and pursue the light that may ultimately provide him with the ultimate escape – eternal life.



Tracks in Order – (names may be incorrect)

1. Gangsta Boogie
2. Once Again
3. Die For Today
4. Let’s Ride
5. The Vibe
6. Let Me Be Good To You (Spoiled)
7. Soul Possession
8. Fly
9. Who I Am
10. Child of the Ghetto
11. Not What You See (Dream With Me)
12. Salvation
13. Paint A Picture
14. What Goes Up Must Come Down
15. Revolution
16. Pain (Live With Ours)

Hiphop - Is It Really Mainstream?

This is an article I did for a pub called Backstage Pass Magazine down in Daytona Beach, FL. Shouts to company disorganization and being an ill journalist amidst chaos. Real shouts to the contributors of this piece. Czec -



When the Sugar Hill Gang exploded onto America’s dance floors in 1979 with “Rapper’s Delight,” partygoers were still trying to stay alive, but the soul of popular music seemed to be fading with each turn of the disco ball. Twentyfour years earlier, when Rosa Parks decided on that particular day that she was not going to relinquish her seat on that particular Montgomery city bus, historians penning a certain future were forced to adjust their journals.

If we rewind America so that we can see how the past has influenced who we are today, the human side of us should collectively concede that these events are not independent of one another – they are in fact synonymous. But they are synonymous only in the sense that they were both a result of larger forces at work.

Dr. Craig Bythewood is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. He was recently selected by ABC television to co-host the St. Petersburg Martin Luther King, Jr. parade, and he says that African American culture and hip hop culture are not synonymous in the way that most people view it.

“Hip hop is associated with music and an age group,” he said in a telephone interview with BSP. “It was created by African American males, and because society often jumps on the vilification of the black male, as a result, we see those two ideas put together.”

By pairing them the way that many people outside of hip hop’s inner circle might do, the perception is that the whole of African American culture advocates violence, drugs, partying, lavishly spending money and a subservient view of women.

Comparisons can be drawn to the stereotyping of bikers, rednecks, homosexuals, and ethnic groups – any groups of individuals who draw the ire and scrutiny of the whole for various reasons, largely do to their perceived behavior. In each group, a few can spoil it for the rest.

Bythewood attributes stereotyping partly to human nature, with the media shouldering some of that blame.

“For whatever reason,” he said, “the more negative it is, the more interesting it becomes. Movies, television, newspapers – it’s all there. You’d like to believe that artists and record labels would promote positivity, but that’s not what happens. Hip hop tends to put [the idea] in people’s heads that a whole race is bad, which isn’t the case.”

Dean of Social Sciences at Bethune Cookman College Dr. Sheila Flemming says that Black History Month was originally intended to dispel such views and educate the populace by integrating a race’s history that was largely ignored in textbooks and discussion.

“The goal of hip hop is to entertain,” she said. “But hip hop is not black culture. It’s American culture. Hip hop is the same as R&B and jazz music – it may have grown out of black culture, but now it’s an American form. Simply because it was born in a certain place doesn’t mean those particular individuals are doing it. We don’t live and breathe different air. Separateness is what destroys a society and to think about hip hop and black culture like that is to keep it separate from everything else.

“Hip hop is a genre [belonging to] young people, and every generation has a rebellious nature. As far as America goes, we haven’t lived up to our decree of freedom, of an equal society. Hip hop is their rebellion to an imperfect society. The negative side you see is not necessarily African Americans acting out – it’s individualism. I think that idea has taken over more so than race or a specific group identity. Young people are individuals and feel a need to express this. Hip hop is a result of the American experience.”

Rosa Parks’action on December 1, 1955, was a result of her American experience. Her decision, though spontaneous, was likely rooted in her beliefs developed as an active member of NAACPand a sense that being tired of something was all right. She was tired from work that day. In the subsequent speech that the newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association gave in the wake of the courtlevied fine against Parks, there rang the same message: “There comes a time,” Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “that people get tired.”

Hip hop’s growth and evolution is a result of change within a population, regardless of its particular race. That is what makes it what it is – an expression of the soul that was fading from the music in a smoky, laser induced haze, and an expression of soul from a group of people tired of their situation.

The odd thing about music, though, is that it crosses boundaries – it just takes awhile before everything that comes with it is finally allowed to be mainstream.

Lifesavas - "Guttafly" Album Review

Lifesavas – Guttafly
**** ½


It’s hard to define a classic hip hop album. I’m not sure if it’s because the music’s catalogue is only about 30 years old (if you count the release of “Rappers Delight” as the music’s official birth) and there aren’t many definitive works to compare new releases against, or if it’s because a classic hip hop album is so different than the best of other genres. Sure, there are a number of releases that sit on the bubble and can fall easily either way, but that said, I surmise it’s not necessarily describing the album so much as processing the feeling one gets from actually listening that is the truly difficult part of giving the creation that timeless label.

What’s easy to understand though, is that classic hip hop records launch stars from obscurity or solidify reputations more powerfully than other genres because so much depends on an emcee’s credibility. That fact makes hip hop unique, and it’s understood a classic album attains that status because of the story and character behind the music that’s already so good. “Guttafly,” the latest release from Portland’s brightest stars, Lifesavas, fits somewhere in between. Mainstream America has no idea who Lifesavas are, but their underground fanbase is huge and extremely protective, mainly because Lifesavas make accessible music. And that’s where the argument for “classic” begins.

“Guttafly” has been described as a concept album, but the duo, emcee/producer Jumbo the Garbageman and emcee Vursatyl, maintain that wasn’t the intent when they began recording it. More accurately, they’ve explained in interviews, “Guttafly” was inspired by Baraka Feldman’s obscure film concept by the same name, several blaxploitation films of the 70’s like “Coonskin” and of course, the Zatoichi series of Japanese cult films. The album allowed Lifesavas to step into the minds of imagined characters (Bumpy Johnson – Vurs, Sleepy Floyd – Jumbo, and Jimmy Slimwater – played by DJ Shines) and reveal more of themselves through that experience.

From jumpstreet, the album has a rich, hypnotic feeling. Interludes tie the songs/scenes together, and ratchet up the tension and overall mood quite effectively. More importantly, though, the beats bang with a tough organic, live-instrument quality that hip hop is missing today (think harder Soulquarians or Roots band music). But even then, Jumbo and the few guest beatsmiths are able to lace enough odd tweaks and clicks and blips in each track to remind you that hip hop production was born out of sampling. It creates a lush landscape here for the emcees, and they capitalize on it. Every song has a mature feel and evokes a swagger and command usually reserved for hip hop’s greatest storytellers. It’s a treat to hear Jumbo and Vurs, with two distinct styles, bounce effortlessly together over the production, from the staccato “Shine Language” to the syrupy-smooth “No Surprise.”

The choice of chorus’ are interesting, too, like a mix of underground lyricism and mainstream melody. “Serpents Love” is a perfect example. The title doesn’t roll off the tongue, but it’s a slick and sexy enough song that it was one of Stuff Magazine’s Top 10 Downloads. The track is gritty; I can see the instrumental providing a Bruce Lee film with some great stalking music or even have the lyrics explain a few frames of recon work in a Smokin Aces-type movie. There’s a sing-along and breakdown element to each song (“Dead Ones”), but it’s done so well that it does nothing to interrupt the flow of each song. Each part of the song works together to enhance another.

But I think the illest part about the album is that each track borderlines on commercial appeal. “Superburn” is a braggadocious joint with the right format and energy to be a hit, no doubt. Yet it’s comparable to all those De La joints that keep the crowd hyped at a show but still have pop kids driving home from school wondering if it is cool enough to dance to. The title track has the most potential for cross-over, and I’d go as far to say that if Kanye’s name was on it, you’d see it on 106 and Park tomorrow (he’d of course let everyone know that his name was on it, too, though, so it’s hard to imagine it not being a hit).

I can’t say enough about this album. There’s so much going on, but it’s all so simple and natural to the ear that all you can do is embrace the feeling in your gut and your chest, that tightness, that calm excitement that tells you you’re hearing something special for the first time. “Guttafly” is a tremendous achievement, ya’ll, it’s a collection of songs that spans the absolutism of obscurity and respect mentioned earlier, but beyond that, it acts as a coming out party for a group with the potential to put a new face on hip hop. It’s genre-bending because it’s accessible, sensible, sexy underground music. This album hit me like Mos Def’s “Black On Both Sides,” one of my fav albums of all time. And with Common, Kanye and Lupe all gearing up for impending releases, Joell Ortiz’s gem “The Brick,” and Talib Kweli’s “Eardrum” and Pharaohe’s “Desire” on the horizon, this year could be an excellent one for hip hop.

If you’re still lost, think of “Guttafly” as a more accessible turn of Little Brother’s “The Minstrel Show.” I loved that album, but there wasn’t the continuity that “Guttafly” has, or even the overall individual build-up with each song. Bottom-line, Lifesavas have turned in a record that’s classic with a lowercase “c.” I’ll let ya’ll fight over the true, correct grammatical nature of it, though. John said.

- john public

Satellite Radio - Orbiting Circles Around Tradition?

This is an article I wrote for a local Daytona magazine in early 2005, right about the time satellite radio was really taking off. The pub itself was pretty bootleg, with the website (which still lists me as the assistant editor aha!) simply uploads of the issue's actual pages in PDF format (uh, no chance for archives), so this is me sharing. Word.

What's interesting to note is the leaps forward sat radio has made in the last two years. There's some really great programming available, and re-reading this piques my interest as to some of the newer stats on how the landscape has changed again. Definite props to Jay Clark at Sirius for a last minute interview, his input was crucial, really nice guy.

Oh, and for all you bastards lookin for the cliff note version, go cry about the length elsewhere, this ain't the 4th grade or an email to the boss. Haller.

........


“Satellite Radio: Orbiting Circles Around Tradition?”

by Bryan Munson
(originally published in Backstage Pass Magazine, Jan 1 - 15, 2005 Issue)



A long, long time ago, in a house not too far from where our Greatest Generation grew up, a large, hulking chunk of furniture entertained a family. Beautifully carved and often the centerpiece of a living room, this machine would bring tales of a “mysterious aide to the forces of law and order,” the CBS news with Lowell Thomas and a rousing game of Professor Quiz. Imaginations were captured, and communication grew in leaps and bounds. It was what many consider to be the golden age of radio.

Fast forward to the present. Somewhere in the office, the click of a computer keyboard plays a soundtrack to your day like cicadas would for a night outside. The lone television in the corner of the waiting room flashes in MSNBC-blues and yellows, blending a scrolling marquee with the talking head on the screen reporting the latest news in Iraq. An Usher song suddenly erupts from the young woman’s purse in front of you in line, and the whole supermarket turns to look as she pulls out her cell phone.

All around you there is evidence of our technological past. It’s the object in the user’s hand; it’s progress in the face of need. Everyone is affected by it, and either we adapt and overcome, or we fall behind.

Just as we are forced to keep up with what tomorrow brings, radio must now, too. But the challenge that terrestrial (ground-based) radio faces is a different one entirely from the one television posed in the 50’s and the one the dotcom boom presented in the early 90’s. This time, the competition has the potential to undercut radio’s financial backbone, the advertiser, right from within its own industry. Satellite radio is the future; and some predict it might just be the killer blow that ultimately leads to terrestrial radio’s demise.

But while some argue this is the case, others adamantly do not believe commercial radio is in dire straights at all. They believe that it will find a way to survive, like it always has, and that perhaps the age of consolidation among the larger broadcast companies is now over. To understand both sides of the argument and how the issue came about in the first place, though, you have to look at the past.

Radio wasn’t always like it is now – national sponsors, formatted programming and restricted content. You can call Janet Jackson a scapegoat for the latter part and Howard Stern a pioneer, but if you are a disgruntled radio-listener, the blame for the first two falls squarely onto the shoulders of a man named Todd Storz. According to the book Media Culture by Richard Campbell, Storz and his program manager noticed that bar patrons and waitresses would often play only their favorite songs from the 40 records available in the jukeboxes of the time. Seeing an opportunity, they began in 1949 to experiment with formatted radio. Storz came up with the idea of rotation – instead of a deejay selecting his favorite songs, only the top songs would get spins. Campbell writes, “the management-control idea had combined with the rock-and-roll explosion and Top 40 was born.”

As the format was modified and honed to rigid perfection, deejays talked less and day parts (the morning show, the mid-day show, the afternoon and drive home, the night show) became the norm. Ads, news, weather and station identification all began to blend into the music. By the mid-1960’s, listeners were only getting about 12 songs per hour.

All that is important because it shows how content began to take a backseat to revenue. Advertisers were clamoring to get spots on the air. And as they say, history repeats itself. Enter Clear Channel Communications.

Widely regarded as having ruined modern radio, Clear Channel is a throwback to the past. Their acquisition strategy and almost monopolistic approach to business draws parallels with the RCA group, a group formed under the watchful eye of the federal government in the 20’s, meant to develop and standardize radio in America. Legislation was eventually passed that curbed RCA’s continued domination, but years later with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, President Clinton’s signature enabled any company to, effectively, own as many stations as they chose. And the company that either leapt over or ate up the rest of the pack was Clear Channel.

In an article for Rolling Stone, Damien Cave writes: “Forty-nine stations joined Clear Channel in 1996, seventy more in 1997. (They) bought Jacor – owner of the Rush Limbaugh Show – in 1999. Then in 2000, the company paid $24 billion for AMFM’s radio holdings; $4.4 billion for SFX, the nation’s largest live-entertainment company; and $776 million for Ackerley Group, a major billboard company.”

The end result, he goes on to write, was a “behemoth that, at the end of 2003, controlled 1,182 radio stations, 788,000 billboards and 103 venues in the U.S., not to mention an event-promotion business that sold more tickets in the first half of 2003 than its closest forty-nine competitors combined.”

With the economic boom of the late 90’s, Clear Channel was running at full speed. Businesses were doing well, and as a result, advertisers became plentiful. The programming format changed again. But even after all of this, it seems, historically, radio revenue only grows slightly ahead of any economic growth. Despite their success, statistics show that Clear Channel’s share price has fallen by almost two-thirds since 2000, down 17% in the last year alone. Partly due to 9.11 and the stock market’s tumble, and partly because, as Sandra Ward writes in her article “Radio’s Long Term Decline,” “business (got) so good, there was no need to advertise.”

So how does satellite radio growing influence and commercial radio’s waning popularity fit into all this? Simple. As people have begun to migrate over to the commercial free and specific programming choices that satellite companies offer, there is the potential that radio may lose its financial backing. In essence, satellite to terrestrial radio is what HBO is to basic cable. It represents a creative threat and could be a venerable cash cow if a company was to market itself and it’s technology correctly. The problem for the AM/FM format is that if, for example, more people in Florida are flocking to satellite to hear what they want to hear instead of what the South Eastern Programming Director for Clear Channel wants in rotation, that means no one is listening to local advertisements and revenue falls for the radio station and the business. But with businesses doing well at the moment on their own, radio is still then left out of the loop. While most in terrestrial radio are reluctant to admit it, the possibility for huge losses exists.

But as with anything, there are two sides to the coin. The tricky part is that, between heads and tails, the edge of chaos is the only way to find a balance between them.

Sirius Satellite Radio has quickly become a major player in the world of satellite radio. Though having had to work through early technical problems which enabled XM Radio to gain a slight head-start, improved technology and an aggressive marketing campaign has allied Sirius with the likes of Howard Stern, Eminem, a good portion of the automobile industry, and the NFL, just to name a few, and has put them in a very good position with the competition.

Jay Clark, Executive Vice President of Programming at Sirius, has been around radio since he was 16. In terrestrial radio, he’s run the gamut, from news/talk to sports, to once even pitching a 24-hour comedy channel that didn’t fly initially, but has grown into two channels at Sirius, one of which performs consistently in the top 10 of stations being heard.

He believes satellite is a natural progression of several elements, and acknowledges that, as listener choice broadens with iPod and download technology becoming almost ubiquitous, there is evidence that might suggest radio is finally ready to stop fighting the good fight. But contrary to what you might think, he believes that satellite radio is actually healthy for terrestrial radio.

“I’ve been in this business a long time,” he said. “Radio morphs to its competition. Every once in awhile it gets stagnant, but when television came along, there was FM radio to save the day. Radio now has gotten a little heavy in their need for bottom-lining, and they’ve stopped putting money into developing programming. But there are glimmers of hope that innovation is on its way back.”

When asked about whether advertising dollars would be well spent on terrestrial radio when satellite looms larger overhead, his answer was a flat out no.

“There’s always localism,” he said. “Consequently, you always have advertisers who are going to pitch to them. And locals want to hear about their town. In my opinion, audio never really got a fair share of the pie. If you have one country station, and then add a second, the overall volume of country radio listeners grows but revenue doesn’t double. There may be a dip in advertising sales as satellite grows, but I don’t think it will be the end of radio. As long as they have a great product and not just inventory, they should do fine.”

While Clark is optimistic about radio’s future, others don’t share his same sentiment. Sandra Ward suggests that because consumers “are changing how they choose to receive music, news and talk radio,” that “trends like that are causing companies to reassess advertising choices” and could lead to the bottom falling out of terrestrial radio. She sites music downloading, streaming audio from the Internet and satellite options as the reason.

Among all people older than 12, she writes, only 14.6% are listening to radio during an average 15-minute period, down from 16% in 1998, in a survey conducted by Arbitron. While niche programming has found a warm spot with advertisers and programmers, “local advertising – the source of 80% of all radio revenue – has only shown a 4% jump instead of the predicted 6%.” The reason being? Advertisers felt their spots were getting washed away in a sea of promotional fluff, and as the market began to recover following 9.11, businesses started to rebound on their own.

Tom Pelchen, general manager of Mercedes-Benz here in Daytona, agreed with Ward’s assessment.

“We offer Sirius in our newer vehicles, and I always wondered what the implications on radio might be,” he said. “First and foremost, as an advertiser, I cater to the local people. But as the percentage of people using satellite grows in the future, it could definitely effect the way we all do business.”

Similar to how radio matured from the vacuum tube monsters that occupied a corner of the living room in the early part of the 20th century into tiny earpieces that you could slip into your palm to catch the middle innings of the Yankees game during 9th period, satellite is already there. Both XM Radio and Sirius are developing wearable satellite receivers, so now, just like the iPod, the listener has a virtually unlimited range, kept only from commercial-free heaven by the life of their battery. Developments like these only solidify the need for radio to adapt if it’s going to survive, because as choices expand, their slice of the advertising and listening pie shrinks.

Here in Daytona, Black Crowe Media owns and operates four stations, and is clearly an established powerhouse in such a small market. According to Arbitron’s 2002 Sales Insight report “Radio’s Biggest Local Spenders Speak Up!”, radio’s biggest competition now comes from local cable and the Internet. And although that data is two years old, one might presume that it still holds true today, especially since the stock boom from the radio consolidation phenomenon has waned and more people are spending money freely.

In the survey, radio was perceived as being the best medium to reach the audience and also the most cost effective. But if the number of people listening tumbles, what then? Print is not immediate, and the Internet is a faster form of print, but they both have the quality of being long term; you can put a newspaper down and pick it back up, and it says the same thing, days later. Television is almost instant, but it has to be seen in order to be effective. Studies show, though, that retention is better with both an audio AND visual medium.

Radio, on the other hand, is immediate but requires repetition, to the point where a search of the dial doesn’t always guarantee you’ll find what you are looking for. The combination of all three mediums, though, directs communication, commerce and entertainment in our society today. So when it comes to advertising dollars and consumer choice, one must look at the big picture facing radio: is it effective to advertise there anymore?

Kingbird, an on-air personality with 93.1 KRO Country here in Daytona, has been around radio for 37 years. He believes radio is still effective as an advertising platform, but like many others in the business, hinted that in the near future, that may change.

“Competition inside radio has always been fierce,” he said. “Clear Channel owns four fifths of the Orlando market. Stations are being forced to individualize. We’ve seen Howard Stern preparing to move to suit his needs. And look at how regular TV has lost revenue in the face of cable. There’s a possibility that could happen to radio.”

He than raised this reporter’s eyebrow as he wryly laughed and said, “I’m just glad I won’t have to deal with it.”

Maybe the answer is for local radio stations to in effect, “buy time” on an orbiting satellite and charge subscribers similarly to satellite, but instead, have a local playlist available anywhere. Have one button for announcements, broken down into files for your needs, so if you want to know what’s happening at the YMCA this weekend, you can do that, all on your own time. Buy one receiver, and get the channels you want locally. Impossible? At this point, the only thing impossible is traveling at light speed through outer space, but even once that’s figured out, there will always be more out there that seems impossible. Improbable is more the appropriate word in this case, but either way, it’s almost certain the technology could be developed if the demand was there.

The truth of the matter is that no one knows now, and they won’t know until the smoke from the rocket that blasted those satellites into space clears. But it’s assured that the industry and its advertisers will be watching to see how many listeners begin making plans for an outer space vacation. Will they enjoy the burn back into Earth’s atmosphere with Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight” playing via a satellite radio, or will they pick up KKRW 93.7 Classic Rock as they streak over Houston?

History often repeats itself, but it’s never history until it’s history.

Welcome Me

first post ever. i have no clue what this blog will be about. perhaps my quest to become a part of hiphop and save the culture from itself. quite a lofty and pompous statement. let me retract - re-insert - perhaps my quest to become a part of hiphop and show the culture what it's capable of. that works. in the meantime, holler at the god on the inevitable digital dwelling of - http://www.myspace.com/johnpublic and do yourself a favor - listen.

john said.