The RUsirius.com Manifesto

Ever since Marconi figured out how to modulate and detect radio waves human beings, in some capacity, have been trying to figure out what to do with them. The skipper of the Californian didn't believe in them, and over a thousand died on the doomed Titanic. KDKA used them to broadcast the Presidential election in 1920. British scientists bounced them off ships and planes during World War II, and radar was born. Smart guys like Zworykin and Farnsworth coaxed them into transmitting pictures and changed the habits of a generation. But throughout history nobody has really figured out exactly what content works best, what combination of sounds and pictures should be modulated onto the waves that eventually find their way into radios, televisions, satellites, and cable systems. The content eventually winds up in the ultimate demodulator, i.e. some guy's brain, or else drifts out into space never to be detected again except in some galaxy far, far away.

The technology of broadcasting has gone through numerous changes since Marconi first tweaked a few dials and forced a few photons out of his antenna. We've leaned how to transmit voice and music via either amplitude or frequency modulation. We've tricked the waves into transmitting images and digital information. Sound, images, and data have been broadcast far into space and into fiber optic cables, as far as Neptune and as close as the next cubicle. Television has gone high definition; the Internet has gone wireless; wireless holography isn't far behind. The limits seem endless! And yet it seems that the higher the technology soars, the lower the content sinks. To quote Vince Lombardi, "What the hell is going on here?"

The story of the broadcasting business is far more interesting, and more enlightening, than the history of the technology. As is distinctly not the case in the computer industry, advancements in communications technology have had very little immediate effect on the marketplace. The development of television did not immediately cause consumers to rush out to stores to purchase the latest boob tube. Instead, the general public gradually weaned itself away from huddling around the radio while it was discovering the delights of sitting catatonically in front of an illuminated screen. Entertainers, meanwhile, were uncertain as to how to handle the new medium. Motion picture stars had a hard time adjusting to a situation in which the entire presentation had to be over in half an hour and with no possibilities for retakes -- none! Similarly, the development of FM stereo multiplexing did not cause everyone to trash their old radios and HiFi's and run out to acquire new equipment. FM stereo eventually became ubiquitous but it took years to happen. So did cable television.

There is a reason why developments in communications technology take years to transform the marketplace. It's because people resist change. What's good enough now will be good enough later -- at least for a few years. It's just human nature. People also don't like to take risks. Nobody wants to spend money on something that may not last very long. Staying power is important and history bears this out. Folks who bought into quadraphonic stereo lost their investments. Anyone who purchased a Sony betamax VCR found out too late that video rental places only carried VHS. Anyone remember AM stereo? All this fickleness has meant that anyone who wants to make money in broadcasting had better be on the content side rather than inventing widgets. The engineers make a few dollars here and there. The producers make millions.

Hunter Thompson once characterized the entertainment business as an open money trench. This was seldom truer than in the commercial broadcasting business. What was once an open field where creativity and imagination reigned eventually became a vapid landscape of sameness and ennui. It didn't happen by accident. The moguls of the entertainment biz decided that the best way to make money was to milk the market as much as possible, to promote the same ideas, to sell to the highest bidder, to compete for an increasingly smaller piece of the same big pie. The end result of this was the convergence of broadcast radio to the sorry mean. In other words, classical stations were replaced by rock, jazz by country, R&B by hip hop. Radio personalities who entertained us with flashes of wit and wisdom were replaced by digital CD changers and canned announcements. The soul was gone; only the facade remained. Devoted radio listeners gradually turned to tapes and CDs to replace the numerous radio programs they had once enjoyed. The business continued to make money, as always, but the thrill was truly gone.

The whole sick process of commercial broadcasters relentlessly seeking the holy grail of market share would have meant the end of creative audio broadcasting were it not for a few visionaries with a better idea. They've realized that it's impossible to compete in multiple local markets with formats that appeal only to small bands of aficionados. The only way to make a profit with a diverse set of programming options is to go large -- forget trying to compete with local broadcasters and target a far wider audience. The only reasonable way to do this is to broadcast to the global community concurrently...and the only reasonable way to do this is through direct satellite transmission. It can't be done with cable or internet connections because the primary audio customer is attending a sporting event, working in the back yard, or sitting in a car. They may not realize it, but the powers that be in the satellite biz are bringing back radio as it once was...and even improving on it.

Which brings us back to the subject of content. If, as Marshall Mc Luhan said, "the media is the message," it is the content that is truly the operational force in broadcasting. All the high tech innovations are meaningless if there is nothing to hear. Four progressive rock stations, three country formats, five raps, and two oldies don't sound any better in digital than they do in analog. Mindless wooden disk jockeys supplemented with digitized commercial announcements can't replace the jazz, blues, traditional country and classical formats that used to exist in most major markets. Babbling talk show hosts are no substitute for live concerts, imaginative comedy and unbiased news coverage. Conventional broadcasters operating within the current competitive commercial environment cannot restore radio as it used to be. On the other hand, the satellite radio industry can ... but only if the listeners are aware of what's going on and hold the new moguls accountable for what they broadcast. Allowing the new medium to sink to the depths of the cesspool that the commercial radio business has become should be neither encouraged nor accommodated. Fortunately such a plunge is not currently anticipated.

OK, OK ... so maybe the good old days of broadcasting weren't so great. Maybe they didn't even exist. But before the medium became a sea of sameness, it was a field of variety and diversity. It was Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra. It was Will Rogers and Edward R. Murrrow. It was Alan Freed introducing rock 'n roll. It was William B. Williams welcoming us to the "Make Believe Ballroom". It was Bob and Ray. It was Robert W. Morgan. It was Larry Lujack rocking Chicagoland and Jackson Armstrong screaming into the microphone in Buffalo. It was Bruce Morrow talking with his cousins and The Real Don Steele entertaining harried commuters in "Boss Angeles". It was Hudson and Landry and O'Brien and Garry. It was classics with Keith Lockhart and jazz with Felix Grant. It was wild, it was tame, it was crazy, it was rational, it was speculative, it was informative. It was radio. An it's damn good finally to have it back again!