But, the majority of part 15 stations have always imitated these same formats that 'ruined' commercial radio.
@carl-blare Not mine...I have a freeform format. That's against the grain for commercial stations single "it sells" formats.
What really ruined commercial radio in the USA was deregulation back in the 1990s allowing one company to own hundreds of radio stations. Everything is owned by a handful of coraprations that fired almost all the air talent/DJs in favor of automation and 200-300 song playlists dupilcated across every station they own.
IMO, radio was ruined when it went to an all-whatever format. Music, news, sports. It becomes repetitive and boring, and doesn't take advantage of radio's inherent strength - the ability to entertain using your mind. You can do other thiings while listening.
The BBC has had it right for a long time, and other than my own station, I mostly listen its shows. They've continued producing high quality drama and comedy shows right up until the present, never mind innovative talk and game/talk shows. Their news, although I'm newsed-out these days, is second to none and pretty unbiased. Overall, they're the complete package.
Back before the late seventies or the early seventies and prior all stations were privately owned, ma and pa stations especially in smaller locations and each independently did their own programming like the part 15 stations do. Even in a big city each station was independently owned and run. Even if the same format in the 60s I could go from one to another and even though all rock and roll hit parade formats each played songs the other didn't. In Toronto CHUM and CFTR and earlier CKFH and CKEY all in Toronto all hit parade stations had their own owners and program directors and you went from station to station as one played songs that the others didn't. I could DX at night and heard songs on WLS Chicago that CHUM Toronto wouldn't play. CKOC from Hamilton, a city south west of Toronto played stuff that CHUM didn't and so on. Then there was the DJs that made a show interesting to listen to. All weren't owned by one corporation and the stations didn't get their playlist from a central location by computer. The on air DJs had turntables in the studio and played the records like you see Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti. Artisans shows highlighting the top 20 in a given week and year on CFUN Vancouver and compare that to the top 20 on CHUM Toronto in the same year and week and the songs were different. That's my point that all stations were privately owned and did their own programming which ended when 4 corporations now own all the stations and computers came along and all stations got the playlist from a computer in Texas. There were songs that were hits in selected locations or regional hits as they were called.
When album rock came on FM late 60s you could listen to 2 stations in the same city and hear one play stuff you didn't hear on the other.
Now stations don't have their own record library, no library at all, just a computer and if a live person on air they are just puppets.
The advertisers dictate what a station plays and to what audience. That's why the 18-49 age group is the age group a station cares about. And that age group is abandoning radio as you know. They have their phones that double up as MP3 players and there's Spotify and even in cars they use phones to pair to the car. No one cares if AM is there or not. People don't even have radios in their home anymore although all are available. And going digital won't make any difference.
Radio is a dying I think and 4 songs and an endless string of commercials doesn't help.
Same as TV. Sitting watching 5 minutes of program and endless commercials has ended TV for me long ago as with radio(along with what radio plays). The AM talk stations hurry through 2 callers and we got to break for 5 minutes of commercials. There's more commercials than program time an hour....and that's killing radio, or killed it already. Besides, the age group they target with their adult contemporary programming, another name for synthesized pop, aren't even listening.
The advertisers will go and then radio will follow. You want to know when the buttons are pushed to another station?, when the commercials come on.
The smartphone killed radio, or put the lid on the coffin, as video killed the radio dramas.
Rock and roll saved radio when TV came along. All boomers grew up with transistor radios. And radio now doesn't care about boomers. But what can save radio from the smartphone?
It's up to us hobbyists.
@mark Automation ended my radio career in 2010. When I was pink slipped by a company that fired all the air staff.
Money and the pursuit of it destroys everything in the end , including Healthcare . Like radio the pursuit of massive profits destroyed the Healthcare system in this country . It has also destroyed the environment. .... It seems at first extreme commercial pursuit of profits helps but then there's a peak and a rapid decline no matter what area or subject . Why would anyone want to become involved with radio at this point . There's no future in it .