Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
the point is that at some point Radio Stations were seen as cash cows and therefore become hot properties to buy and sell. with large companies and corporations swooping in and paying high prices to buy them. often by going well into debt to do so. the owners then need to recover thier investment and payoff loans etc. so they want to maximize profits but targeting specific audiences in order to lure ad dollars. it got even worse when the Clear Channels of the world starting buying up multiple stations and carrying alot of debt. now they also have to satisfy the shareholders by turning a profit.
so yes the current business model for FM radio is flawed and it will never change until Infinity and Clear Channel have to have a firesale, the price comes down and let radio stations fall back into the hands of owners who care more about the music, community than trying to cover their debt.
excellent point, btw, kosmo...
oy vey...it's amazing how all of these hfs lovers come out of the woodwork now. guess cinderella was spot on with "don't know what you've got until it's gone". if i really wanted to waste some time at work today, i could probably go back through old threads and find hfs-bashing statements from some who are now boo-hooing over its demise.
just to preface the following statements, i've been living in dc proper for over 3 years now and have lived in the general area (hfs listening radius) for over 15. so, i'm not a dc "native" per se and neither do i plan to stay forever.
with that said, my general opinion is that this city is really lacking in independent music outlets. can you count the number of (decent) independent record stores in dc on one hand? go ahead and use the other hand to count the number of decent live venues (as in you consistently go to shows there)...granted there's a big difference in size and population BUT you can't look at a nyc or chicago and tell me honestly that dc isn't sorely lacking. HFS DID NOT HELP THIS SITUATION PEOPLE!!!
maybe if people in dc weren't so used to being spoonfed the latest and greatest bands via a pseudo-alternative such as HFS, they would, as celeste pointed out, be forced to find music through other channels. what happened to digging into the bins and old record stores and checking out obscure bands to find something that really knocked you out? no need to do that with your friendly alternative HFS to show you what's really cool and hip!
screw HFS for making people think muse was really cool just because they were playing them and promoting their 9:30 gig. muse was f-ing cool long before that and some of don't need the stupid corporate whores to tell us so.
finally, you think interpol and such won't come to dc anymore simply because hfs is gone? i may be deluded but i think that's crazy talk. the dc/balt area is a major market whether or not there's a station here to play it. you think they're just going to hit nyc, phila and skip over us to head to atlanta? not gonna happen.
