Friday, September 06, 2002

RADIO SILENCE: Talk-radio comic Pat Cashman, one of the airwaves' last stalwarts of good ol' Northwest Quirk humor, was fired from his third station. He's shown above left, preparing greet a couple dozen of his loyal "Pat Pack" fans who stood outside the Tower Building on his last airshift today. (He's accompanied by a frequent guest on his show, street musician Richard Peterson.) At least he's being replaced by a local-news block, rather than by a syndicated bad boy or a right-wing demagogue.

This reminder of commercial radio's ever-increasing vacuity, here and around the country, comes as the National Association of Broadcasters prepares to hold its big national convention in Seattle the week of Sept. 9-14. As you might expect, the anti-corporate folks are planning protests and counter-convention activities; you can learn about some of these at Reclaim the Media.org.

Certainly there's much to complain about with the current radio-TV industry. Today's hundreds of cable and broadcast TV channels are increasingly controlled by just a dozen big corporations. These firms, in turn, are increasingly obsessed wit. Broadcast news coverage has become an unquestioning lapdog for conservative and corporate views.

And the radio? Even worse. Even more tightly controlled by even fewer major players (led by the contemptable Clear Channel Communications, about whom we've previously ranted). Companies that care naught for local communities or for responsible broadcasting, and don't even care much for drawing or entertaining audiences. Their obsessions are with further consolidating their stranglehold on the biz, with cross-division "synergies" and stock-price manipulations, with ruthless cost-cutting and centrally-planned station formats, with payola skimming, and with crushing any would-be challengers to their empires (such as independent Internet radio).

The result of all this manipulation? Not profits--Clear Channel's bleeding cash, and the other giants (Viacom, Entercom, AOL Time Warner) aren't doing much better.

No, it's all about the big power grab, about the creation of an authoritarian, anti-freedom culture in which everyone will be isolated into advertiser-friendly sub-segments, all obediently viewing/reading/listening to their demographically-segmented branches of the same media combines.

It's way past time to take back the airwaves, to bring locality and responsibility back to broadcasting. If not to make this country safe for democracy, at least to make it safe for the likes of Cashman.

posted by clark 1:46 PM

Tuesday, September 03, 2002

SHOOTING THE BUMBER: I love Seattle's annual great all-you-can-eat buffet-O-culture; and this year's version was better, overall, than those of the previous few.

A relative dearth of bigname touring rock acts (whose summer schedules are increasingly tied up in package tours) meant the spotlight shone a little higher on the locals, and on acts such as Wilco and Blonde Redhead that can draw and wow a crowd without having been on TRL.

A brief history of the Shoot: It began as an early '70s free fest, designed to use all of Seattle Center for the first time since the World's Fair a decade before. It started relatively small, but blossomed when national stars were added to the mix (necessitating a cover charge).

Early programming was heavy on the already-calcifying tastes of bland baby boomers; white blues bands and Ronstadtesque commercial balladeers predominated the main stages. Black performers younger than B.B. King were seldom booked. Rock n' roll bands were mostly of the nostalgia-reunion variety.

By the late '80s, somebody at One Reel (the former hippie-vaudeville production company that's run the festival since almost the start) finally wizened up and started inviting new generations of performers to the main stages. That coincided with the rise of "alternative" rock (some of whose local legend-makers performed at the festival), alt-country, white hiphop, and even punk/new wave reunion tours.

But it also coincided with the rise of big corporate-rock arena tours, in which the likes of Sonic Youth were pushed onto stages previously reserved for acts of Rolling Stones-level popularity. As the '90s progressed-regressed, the big acts became Bumbershoot's main draw, causing ticket prices to go up every year and causing the phase-out of less-commercial costly fare (such as the Seattle Symphony).

Now, the tide might be turning again. This year's B-shoot had more of a balance. Local and smaller national acts got more attention. The emphasis was less on getting that precious wristband and/or spot in line for the superstars, more on just being there, having fun, and exposing oneself to something new and intriguing. Which is how it oughta be.

My personal memories of this year's fest: Kulture Shock's rousing ethnic-melange at the EMP Sky Church (followed by Yva Las Vegas's empassioned set in the same building's open mike later that night). Ani DiFranco's forceful anti-Bush rant in Memorial Stadium. An eight-woman klezmer band at one of the smaller outdoor stages. The welcome arrival of clammy skies on Monday, marking the all-but-official end of summer. And the ambient sounds heard passing through the gorunds late Monday night, especially those of the Fun Forest amusement rides winding down for the night.

posted by clark 5:03 PM

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