Music Radio Research Articles

Challenges to and Perspectives on Mainstream Music Radio Programs in Germany

ABSTRACT Although radio still holds a high status among everyday media users in German society, there has been a clear downward trend in the usage of mainstream pop radios in recent years. In this essay, we highlight six central problems of current linear mainstream music radio and present possible solutions for creating more attractive and contemporary programs. In sum, we argue for greater inclusion of music editors’ creativity and experience, which is connected to the conscious downgrading of music-based market research, and for a stronger harmonization and curation of at least parts of the program by editors and moderators.

On the Wire: Analysing the evolution of BBC Local Radio, music radio and public service broadcasting

This paper examines the significance of On the Wire, a BBC local radio programme, that provides a unique lens through which to examine changes in local radio, music radio in general and public service broadcasting. The paper provides a concise history and an account of the On the Wire, along with an explanation of its impact. The paper offers reasons for the programme’s enduring appeal, including its ability to change and adapt, its emphasis on the local in a global context and its innovative approach to audience participation. The paper concludes by positing that the history of On the Wire provides valuable insights for broadcasters in general, highlighting key aspects that radio programmes can learn from its approach. By showcasing the possibilities of what local radio, music radio and public service broadcasting can be, On the Wire sets a positive example for what radio can achieve.

An Aesthetics of (Popular) Music Radio

An Aesthetics of (Popular) Music Radio

The Use of Market Research and Radio Consultancy in Spanish Music Radio: The Case of Kiss FM (2002-2010)

ABSTRACT Kiss FM brought a new programming methodology to the radio sector in Spain. Previously, market research tools were used merely for orientation purposes but from 2002 onward the use of music testing and audience panels began to take on a decisive role. In this paper we analyze the application of market research and radio consultancy in music radio in Spain, identifying the reasons for the success of Kiss FM and its impact on the sector as a whole. We use a methodology which combines participant observation and in-depth personal interviews, examining the market research techniques of the Kiss FM model and its impact.

“Indigenous for Days”: Indigenous Internationalism in Native American Music Radio

This article identifies and explores community-building in Indigenous music radio, drawing on music programming examples and practitioner insights from two Indigenous radio stations: KPRI FM and KSUT FM. The article considers ways in which multifaceted music programming across the two stations embodies the concept of grounded normativity (Coulthard and Betasamosake Simpson) and expands capacities for tribal community-building on-air, in turn reinforcing a cultural Indigenous internationalism. In particular, this article argues that Rez Dub Reggae and Songs of the Southwest at KPRI and the Tribal Radio Morning Show at KSUT enable and encourage Indigenous community-building through place-based practices of music radio production which in turn embody possibilities for Indigenous resurgence (Corntassel).

Between Exoticism and Ethnomusicology: Musical Representations of Greenland and India on European Interwar Radio

ABSTRACT In this article, I investigate how colonized cultures were presented to “home” radio audiences through sound (music, speech, sound montages) during the inter-war years. The focus is on how a small group of broadcasts containing musical representations of the colonies of Greenland and India afforded the imaginative work and temporary imagined communities to Austrian, Danish, and British radio listeners in relation to the spatiality and otherness of distant peoples and locations. I suggest a typology of four modes of musical representation in broadcasts reaching from the European tradition of musical exoticism to the use of recordings of indigenous music. Biography: Morten Michelsen is a popular music scholar and professor of musicology at Aarhus University. His research interests include popular music and mediation, music radio and sound studies, historical radio studies, questions of taste and music criticism, and popular music historiography. 2013–2018 he led the research project A Century of Radio and Music In Denmark ( www.Ramund.ikk.ku.dk) and contributed to other large research projects concerned with radio. Among his recent publications on sound, music, and radio are three anthologies on music radio, including Tunes for All? (Aarhus University Press, 2018) on Danish music radio and Music Radio: Building Communities, Mediating Genres (Routledge, 2019) on international music radio.

„In naives Plaudern“ geraten?

Kurt Pahlen’s activities in the Ibero-American region from 1939 to approximately 1970 were based on his musicological studies and musical activities in Vienna until 1938. Certificates of his studies at the university or press reports on his engagements in Vienna’s musical life shed light on Pahlen’s formation before his emigration to Switzerland, Argentina and Uruguay. In exile, he transmitted his knowledge of classical music to the Spanish-speaking world via articles and books on music history or radio and television broadcasts. His writings were commercially successful and, after their first edition in Latin America, they were often translated into German. As a result, Pahlen acted as translator between cultural contexts, audiences and media. An analysis of selected paragraphs of the books demonstrates, however, that he mainly transmitted his particular view of music, which was extremely time-bound and lost its relevance in later reprints. The reason for the divergent opinions of Kurt Pahlen’s work Spanish- and German-speaking scientific communities can be found in his rejection of academic musicology as he had got to know it in Vienna, and the increasingly superficial and subjective prose in his German reeditions. (Vorlage)

The Treatment of Cultural Services in Latin American Countries’ Trade Agreements

Abstract Cultural products (including goods and services) encompass visual, performing and literary arts as well as newspapers, magazines, books, movies, video and music recordings, radio and television, and now multimedia. To the extent that they are associated with the cultural identity of various States, their treatment in international trade has been debated as to whether, or the extent to which, they should be exempted from trade regulations. The proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) has further complexified this debate. The article summarizes the provisions relating to cultural services in Latin American PTAs and discusses the scope of these provisions, notably in light of the cultural policy measures involved and States’ ability to conduct cultural policies. The focus is on Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru as these are the leading countries in the negotiation of PTAs in Latin America as regards the number of agreements and the scope of cultural provisions.

Listener Discretion Advised: The Power and Politics of Intercultural Encounters on Music Radio

Listener Discretion Advised: The Power and Politics of Intercultural Encounters on Music Radio

A Multimodal Methodological Path to the Analysis of Radio Discourse in Music Radio

ABSTRACT This article argues that quasi-Conversation Analysis (CA) combined with sound semiotics provides an opportunity to investigate radio language in a more comprehensive manner by paying full due to the distinctive multimodality of radio language and the intricate patterns of interaction among music, discourse, and sound. This innovative methodological approach is used to analyze a legendary music radio show on Greek radio. The results of the study indicate both in terms of quasi-CA and sound semiotics that the personality of the DJ, the multipurpose interaction among the radio producer and the audience, and the unique concept of music journalism that the show introduces dynamically form radio language. The show is a unique example of high-quality music journalism on Greek music radio, and therefore it raises particular challenges both for the study of radio language and for the application of new methodological approaches.

(Residual) Public Music Radio in the Streaming Era: Listening for Diversity and Frequency on CBC Music

The aim of this article is to assess whether and how the CBC’s music radio programming reflects the corporation’s mandate of showcasing a diversity of music and culture. I argue that a program logic that privileges an international corporate music industry strategy persists (particularly during the peak morning and afternoon drive time programs) and limits the capacity for public radio to imagine and project alternative musical trajectories. My aspiration is to imagine CBC Music’s over-the-air radio as a residual broadcast service, one that presents novel opportunities at a time when digital and online streaming music is dominant.

Of “Tomatoes” and Men: A Continuing Analysis of Gender in Music Radio Formats

The 2015 radio controversy “SaladGate” revealed a lack of female music artists gaining airplay. This study expands a previous gender analysis of American music radio into a longitudinal study. A content analysis of 192 stations revealed that airplay is increasing for females. However, most of these gains came from the Top-40 format, echoing concerns about the recording industry’s preference that women become pop stars, leaving all other musical genres to men. The results suggest the existence of a gender order in music radio, one that works hand-in-hand with the music industry to exclude women.

Is There Diversity on Popular Music Radio? Developing a Methodology for a Quantitative Analysis of Radio Playlists

Due to product differentiation and targeting policies, radio stations applying the same music format may show distinct differences in their music offerings. This article contributes to the methodology and development of practical measures for the analysis of radio playlists. Drawing from Philip Napoli's model on the dimensions of diversity, the authors develop indicators that cover four components of musical diversity: origin, ownership, repetition, and epoch of music. To demonstrate the feasibility of these indicators, this article compares the music played by Finland’s three leading adult contemporary stations.

Assessing the Social Media Maturity of a Community Radio Station: The Case of Rhodes Music Radio in South Africa

Assessing the Social Media Maturity of a Community Radio Station: The Case of Rhodes Music Radio in South Africa

Recognizing Musical Entities in User-generated Content

Recognizing Musical Entities is important for Music Information Retrieval (MIR) since it canimprove the performance of several tasks such as music recommendation, genre classification or artist similarity. However, most entity recognition systems in the music domain have concentrated on formal texts (e.g. artists’ biographies, encyclopedic articles, etc.), ignoring rich and noisy user-generated content. In this work, we present a novel method to recognize musicalentities in Twitter content generated by users following a classical music radio channel. Our approach takes advantage of both formal radio schedule and users’ tweets to improve entity recognition. We instantiate several machine learning algorithms to perform entity recognition combining task-specific and corpus-based features. We also show how to improve recognition results by jointly considering formal and user-generated content.

Música para tus (jóvenes) oídos. Usos y costumbres de la audiencia de Gaztea Irratia

La radio musical pública juega un papel importante en la promoción de la industria, la cultura musical y el idioma de un territorio. Con este contexto, se plantea una investigación que incluye a la audiencia del sistema de medios públicos: la ciudadanía. Así, la pregunta de investigación es la siguiente: ¿cuál es la percepción ciudadana de la radio musical pública en Euskadi? Se plantea el caso de estudio de Gaztea Irratia, emisora musical de la corporación audiovisual pública EITB. La metodología cualitativa se compone de focus group con oyentes de la emisora seleccionados entre estudiantes universitarios de la UPV/EHU.

The Value Gap in Music Markets in Canada and the Role of Copyright Law

The Value Gap in Music Markets in Canada and the Role of Copyright Law

Lean back: Songza, ubiquitous listening and Internet music radio for the masses

Abstract Launched in late 2010, Songza was a small player in the Internet radio universe, available only in the United States and Canada. However, the trade press celebrated Songza for its novel solution to bringing Internet radio to mainstream and profits back to the music industry: ‘lean back’ listening. In June 2014, Google acquired Songza, incorporating its staff, ethos of expert curation, context-sensitive playlists and staunch ‘anti-snobbery’ into Google Play Music, now available in 62 countries and a major competitor in online music. In this article, I investigate how ‘lean back’ listening helped Songza court a wider audience for Internet radio. To do so, I examine how these efforts were framed in the trade press, arguing that Songza’s mass appeal must be understood in relation to histories of domestic ambient music listening, including how it has been devalued and feminized. I also consider the Canadian context, countering how the US context has been generalized in the far from borderless world of streaming music. Ultimately, I argue, Songza’s ‘solutions’ obscured problems involving what happens when music becomes a service; the relation between domesticity, the public and the media; and the place of gender, labour, pleasure and democratic practices in the discussion.

Local Media in Turkey: The Growth of Islamic Networks in Konya’s Radio Landscape

Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, the greater visibility of religion and the emergence of a conservative middle class have reconfigured the boundaries of what is thinkable and sayable in Turkey, particularly in the media. Despite its importance to media consumers, academic analysts have marginalized radio compared with television and the press. Yet increasing commercialization and local concentration have affected mainstream music radio and reshaped religious broadcasting. This article focuses on local radio in the periphery. How does the radio landscape in Central Anatolia, a region reflecting the conservative bourgeoisie’s new dominance, mirror and link to the dominance of the AKP? Fieldwork conducted in Konya, one of the Anatolian ‘Tigers’ and a centre of AKP support, provides the empirical data for this case study.

La radio musical entra a internet

Este ensayo explora cómo la idea de la radio musical ha cambiado profundamente en la última década. Ofrece ejemplos de la forma en que los servicios de radio musical tradicionales han tratado de negociar su transmisión vía internet; junto con una investigación más detallada de los nuevos servicios de música, los cuales imitan o modifican la experiencia de escuchar radio. No obstante, debemos ser cuidadosos para evitar el supuesto de que son las propias tecnologías las que determinan la forma en que se han desarrollado la radio musical y los servicios de radio vía internet. En muchos sentidos, la experiencia del escucha de servicios como Last.fm es superficialmente similar a la generada por una estación de radio tradicional, pero sus diferencias –una transmisión continua de música sin interrupciones de DJ– representan una revolución en la radio musical. Por ejemplo, el servicio de streaming de música de Last.fm se basó en la idea de listas de reproducción personalizadas creadas a partir de "mapas musicales" compartidos. Estos y otras modificaciones son indicadores de cambios fundamentales en la forma en que la economía política organiza la producción, la distribución y el consumo de la cultura.