Bloomington radio stations maintain local personality amidst shrinking market

Ryan Bruce says he knows people will never believe him, but he really does spend more than 100 hours a week working as the station manager of WFHB (91.3 FM). Watch him adjust the ballcap that hides his unwashed hair or see him rub his eyes that are red from a long work week, and it's not so hard to believe. \n"I've been here for the past four days," Bruce says of the demanding work schedule in preparation for the annual Spring Fund Drive, which happened last week. Bruce, an IU graduate, is one of two paid employees at the station -- the other 100 DJs are all volunteers. \n"The type of people that this idea draws in is such a cool group of people," he says. "They're not getting paid so they've got to love what they do."\nFour blocks north at Bloomington's other independent radio station, WTTS (92.3 FM), employees are also loving what they do. Program manager Brad Holtz says America is saturated with more than 12,000 corporately-owned radio stations, but only a light sprinkling (fewer than 100) of independently-owned stations sweeten the airwaves. \n"Radio is most intimate media out there," Holtz says. "But independent radio as a genre is miniscule and extremely unique. (WTTS) doesn't have to worry about consolidation. We have comfort that we'll remain an independent station that serves the community."\nFor Bloomington to have two independent radio stations is certainly rare, as today's radio is littered with generic programming. Clear Channel Entertainment dominates the industry and owns more than 1,200 stations coast to coast (www.clearchannel.com). This tremendous growth began when the Telecommunication Act of 1996 increased the number of stations one entity could own in a single market. According to a Feb. 20 New York Times article by Brad Staples ("The trouble with corporate radio: the day the protest music died"), before the Act "the top two owners had 115 stations between them. Today, the top two own more than 1,400 stations. In many major markets, a few corporations control 80 percent of the listenership or more."\nIn an industry that suffers from corporate mergers and predictable playlists, both WTTS and WFHB continue to thrive and provide Bloomington's ears with original community programming. \n"The state of radio will never be a reason to give up. We should never think we don't have a place," Bruce says. "We might be marginalized by the big guys, but we as a community radio system have a strong infrastructure. I believe media for the people and by the people, a theory that's as retro as you get dating from the basic ideals in the documents that form this country. Radio is taking the essence of free speech and testing its limits."\nWFHB and WTTS have the luxury to say and play what they want, as there's no corporate office from which to ask permission. Both stations follow the AAA format, an acronym meaning Adult Album Alternative. WFHB is not playlisted, so each of their DJs are free to dictate their programming, which spans a wide spectrum of sound. Sunday morning it's "reggae children," Saturday morning is "roots for breakfast" and Wednesday evening is "all that jazz." WTTS is playlisted, as it's a substantially bigger station, and sculpts its personality with a playlist that includes 600-800 songs at any given time. Artists on their playlist range from Bob Dylan to Beck, from the Dave Matthews Band to The Rolling Stones, from Bonnie Raitt to Dar Williams.\n"Independent radio stations that once would have played edgy, political music have been gobbled up by corporations that control hundreds of stations and have no wish to rock the boat," writes Staples. "Corporate ownership has changed what gets played and who plays it. With a few exceptions, the disc jockeys who once existed to discover provocative new music have long since been put out to pasture."\nHoltz says this conformist radio culture is disheartening. Before working at WTTS, he worked at a corporately-owned station in Indianapolis. Seeing both sides of the industry has led him to believe the attitude and personality of a station is dependent on its ownership.\n"My problem with mainstream radio is it's too afraid to swim out to the middle of the pool," he says, "It's just hovering in the shallow end; It needs to swim deeper in. It's too safe and too conservative, and unwilling to take a chance on new artists." \nWTTS' Cagematch feature allows the station to experiment with new music weeknights at 7:45 p.m. The program not only garners feedback from listeners, but also lets the station springboard lesser known artists to the airwaves. They also use the Time Capsule (weekly at noon) to revisit the music of a certain year, in which WTTS plays music that's probably been off their playlist for years. Midday show DJ Laura Duncan helped develop the Time Capsule feature when she began working at the station last year. \n"It's about having a party of friends over to listen to music and turn them on to your favorite new music," Duncan says. "The style and information is mine. I'm free to do what I want…It's a rush when someone calls and says they love a song."\nBruce says encouraging DJs to dictate their own format is integral to keeping independent radio alive.\n"Without being too harsh or negative, the state of radio is disconcerting," Bruce says, pausing to justify his criticism. "Disconcerting because the number of voices on radio are decreasing. The freedom of speech is being restricted; it is just a business practice that allows money to reign."\nThough indie radio station employees may be adamently opposed to corporate growth, those who work at a Clear Channel owned station feel entirely differently. Program director for Indianapolis' WRZX (103.3 FM) Edsel Ferrari has worked in radio since college and disagrees with Bruce's opinion that free speech is decreasing.\n"Maybe in some industry's, but not radio," Ferrari says. "Our foundation is based on creativity and freedom of expression. Have you listened to our DJ's lately? I don't think 'stifled' describes them at all. Insane, perhaps; stifled, no." \nFerrari admits radio has changed, but not necessarily in a negative way.\n"(Corporate growth) has made us all more accountable and responsible for our actions," Ferrari says. "Sex, drugs and rock and roll is over."\nAlong with this heightened responsibility comes more structured programming. Many corporately owned stations have begun using a controversial process called voice tracking, which involves the insertion of pre-recorded announcements between music and commercials, to simulate a live, personal radio broadcast.\n"People are blowing it way out of proportion. Some people think voice tracking is some kind of robo-tech DJ, when in reality it's still the human voice, the human spirit, the creativity, the spontanaiety, everything that makes radio better than TV," Ferrari says. "The opponents of it are scared because it forces people to be better than their competition. Not too many people will agree with me, but voice tracking has made our industry work harder to be better."\nAs more media moguls are forming within the radio industry, Holtz says the creativity that once colonized the airwaves has been overruled by the demands corporate ownership places upon employees. Corporate stations require program directors to multi-task and coordinate three stations, which Holtz says makes them lose their focus and dedication to creating original, specialized programming. \nConsequently, even though owning several stations in a listening radius might demand more original programming, the responsibility of programming three stations results in an adverse affect. Bruce says because radio potentially reaches so many people, it's essential to provide those ears with original sounding music, but because of the shift toward corporate ownership, much original music never reaches the airwaves.\n"Corporate radio is killing music. It is essentially limiting what you hear to any of those people who can sell a million albums committed to airwaves, point blank," Bruce says. Although he feels some hostility toward the commercial wave of radio, he also believes the trend is helping their audience grow.\n"Corporate radio, thank you, because you continue to alienate more and more people who want to hear what we do. They've polarized it so badly it's given us more freedom to pick up small artists," Bruce says. "They're doing us a great service. We could even format our station to be a little more predictable and still be light years away from what they do. It helps our audience grow."\nBut Holtz doesn't subscribe to Bruce's school of thought: That the growth of indie stations is caused by the polarization of corporate stations. He says the rapidly fading freedom of radio is just another phase of this old media form.\n"Radio has always been on the verge of death, for the past 50 years, but it's as vibrant as it's ever been," Holtz says. "It's not the golden age, but it reaches more people every week than anything else. Its reach is unprecedented"