One of the biggest rhetorical divides that distinguishes music broadcasting from visual media is the difference in accepted connotations of the word "adult." In film and television, using that word to describe content means that something sexy and/or exciting is on the horizon, but in radio, "adult" formats are the dullest, slowest stations, programmed for the broadest, most boring possible audience. Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 are looked at as background music for waiting rooms, the stations where the lamest pop hits go to die. Those formats have a younger, hipper sibling—Adult Album Alternative—that splits the difference between adult contempo and modern rock stations, but it didn't have its own Billboard chart until this summer, when the mag added Triple-A to its stable of rock airplay charts alongside the long-running Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. Chris Molanphy touched on the new chart last month, but I thought I'd take a closer look since I'll be discussing it a bit more often in the future.

One of Billboard's sister publications, Radio & Records, has been publishing a Triple-A chart for years; Billboard simply appropriated the same data for its own chart, which first appeared in the July 10 issue. So while the Triple-A chart is technically only 14 weeks old, but several of its songs have been on it longer than it's ostensibly existed, including Matt Nathanson's 29-weeks-charting "Come On Get Higher." The most recent available Arbitron data shows that while AAA hasn't experienced substantial market share growth in the past decade, it's held remarkably steady while Alternative stations have declined in listenership.

One of the things that immediately struck me about the Triple-A chart is its resemblance to the Modern Rock chart of the pre-Nirvana years: tons of singer-songwriters, bands that are a little too hip for the mainstream, and bands that are so far behind the curve that most young rock fans are so over them. In an era where the Modern Rock chart is marked by AC/DC's first appearance and Metallica reaching unprecedented new peaks, it's refreshing to have an alt-rock chart that filters out all the insurgent hard rock and metal elements. For the first time in almost a decade, we now have both Counting Crows and Sheryl Crow on a rock singles chart. Classic rockers with declining commercial fortunes like John Mellencamp and the Pretenders are sharing space with young bands from the MOR end of the indie rock spectrum like My Morning Jacket and The Hold Steady.

Since Modern and Mainstream are both top 40 charts, it's always been easy to measure how many songs they have in common (the average is around 50%). Triple-A will be a little harder to triangulate, since it's only top 30, but the crossover is pretty minimal. It currently shares no songs with Mainstream Rock, and only "Cath…" by Death Cab For Cutie, "Take Back The City" by Snow Patrol, and two Coldplay hits with Modern. But that's not taking into account the fact that several songs have been hitting both charts at different times. Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale's "Love Remains The Same" was a blip on Modern Rock months ago, but it's been a solid performer on Triple-A.

And then there are the getting airplay on both Modern Rock and Triple-A with completely different songs. R.E.M.'s up-tempo "Supernatural Superserious" was a moderate Modern hit, but the lighter, piano-driven "Hollow Man" is all over Triple-A; Beck has "Gamma Ray" on the former and "Orphans" on the latter. And while the Raconteurs charted with two singles from their latest album on Modern Rock, it's a non-single, the rootsy "Old Enough," that's getting all the Triple-A love. Just for the novelty of it, I'll be very curious to see what song, if any, will be the first to appear on all three rock charts; my best guess is that it'll depend on whether U2 or the White Stripes releases a new album sooner. But then, if one of those bands releases a single hard enough for Mainstream Rock, I would be surprised if Triple-A stations skip straight to playing a mellower deep cut instead.

I might have a bit of a dog in this fight (uh, no pun intended) because I put in a fair amount of time in the college-radio trenches, but I do think that there are DJs who have a knack for connecting on another level with their audience even when they don't have to fill five and a half hours a day with just talking, which was what Mike and the Mad Dog were charged with. On a national level, there's Delilah, the nationally syndicated adult-contemporary host who serves as a sort of confessional booth for her (mostly female) listenership. Chris Molanphy spoke eloquently about his connection with Casey Kasem in his most recent "100 & Single" column.

As a high schooler who was slowly transitioning out of her hard rock fandom, college-radio DJs were really important to me, turning me on to bands like Tiger Trap, Lush, and Smashing Orange. But the transient nature of college radio and my own transition to the other side of the microphone resulted in the relationship being nowhere near as long-standing as the ones that the other personalities I've mentioned here have enjoyed with their audiences. Is it even possible to have that sort of fan-subject relationship with a DJ anymore? Or has something else entirely filled that void, thanks to the many problems terrestrial radio has had and the explosion of outlets that have taken on the mantle of bringing people music?

"The approach we've taken to establish performance rights for musicians will provide broadcasters the opportunity to account for any promotional value they provide in the course of determining their royalty rate," Berman said.

Under the bill, medium-sized stations would pay "a negotiated and arbitrated rate," while smaller as well as noncommercial stations would pay a discounted rate, possibly even nothing.

The NAB remains unconvinced.

"Today's vote comes as a complete nonsurprise given the House IP subcommittee's history of support for the Recording Industry Assn. of America-backed tax on local radio stations," said NAB exec veep Dennis Wharton. "Despite today's action, there remains broad bipartisan resistance to the RIAA tax from members of Congress who question whether a punitive fee on America's hometown radio stations should be used to bail out the failing business model of foreign-owned record labels."

Wharton said 219 House members and 13 senators oppose a forced performance royalty

Framing this as a victory for musicians rings a bit hollow to me, since from what I understand the royalty will pay the entities who own copyrights on the songs, which in most major-label cases is—surprise!—the labels themselves. (Perhaps I should get in touch with members of those hard-rock bands who re-recorded their hit albums earlier this decade in order to own the copyrights on the performances of their songs for their perspective.) Me, I'm just waiting for the day that the labels start asking radio stations to repay all that payola cash—not to mention the "fruit and flowers"—they doled out over the years. That is when the real fun will begin.

House passes music royalty bill [Variety]

The music industry's gifts don't stop at cans of fish:

The NAB says its members should not pay royalties because AM-FM radio "promotes" the music industry.

The herring present followed another gift — a dictionary, a bid by the recording industry to explain what it saw as the difference between fees and taxes. The NAB describes the latest royalty proposal as a tax.

And two weeks ago, the recording industry, under the umbrella group musicFIRST, sent the NAB four digital downloads: "Take the Money and Run" by the Steve Miller Band; "Pay me My Money Down" by Bruce Springsteen; "Back In the U.S.S.R" by Paul McCartney and "A Change Would Do You Good" by Sheryl Crow.

I sure hope those downloads were paid for! A House subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the royalty-rate issue as early as Thursday. Meanwhile, here are a few other gift suggestions:

A CD-ROM with nothing but ads for local carpet cleaners and prank calls from morning zoos on repeat. Frankly, given Machowsky's statement, I wouldn't be surprised if this was next on the biz's wish list.

A Nicole Scherzinger blow-up doll. So those radio meanies can see what they'll be missing if the music industry takes their songs and goes home.

A screwdriver and an eyepatch. To drive the point home. Who knows, someone may even get the bright idea to use them in tandem.

M.I.A.'s Piracy Funds Terrorism mix CD. What better way to intimidate your opponents in 2008 than to tar them with the big, mean "T" word? Although this may backfire if any of the music bigwigs hear all those uncleared samples... OK, maybe we need to rethink this.

Recording Industry Decries AM-FM Broadcasting as 'A Form of Piracy' [Threat Level]

According to Inside Radio, executives from seven companies will hit the road to meet with advertisers across the country to let them know terrestrial radio is a viable media option in the months to come.

Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan says they'll deliver the message that radio is still "vibrant" and its reach has declined just 3% in the past decade. A Radio 2020 goal is to get manufacturers to include a radio on every mobile phone, PDA and MP3 player within five years.

Hey, only a 3% decline? If you picked a different sector of the industry, Jeff Smulyan, you'd be up for a big raise. Either way, is there anyone who's asking for a radio in their iPhone 2.0? I can't think of a single moment where I've thought "All this music I've selected for myself from an nearly endless well of online options isn't quite enough for me...I'd really like to listen to the nu-metal revival going on on my local alternative rock station right now." But maybe that's just me.

Radio goes on offense. [Inside Radio]

The federal case in question involves an FCC policy that allows for fines against broadcasters who let swears flow like it's free booze at a SXSW day party. In this particular instance, the policies are being challenged by Fox, ABC, and CBS, after brilliant commentary uttered by Bono, Cher, and Nicole Richie on awards shows in 2002 and 2003:

No fines were issued in the incidents, but the FCC could impose fines for future violations of the policy.

The case before the Court technically involves only two airings on Fox of the Billboard Music Awards in which celebrities' expletives were broadcast over the airwaves.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Monday that he was pleased with the Court's decision.

"The Commission, Congress and most importantly parents understand that protecting our children is our greatest responsibility," he said in a prepared statement. "I continue to believe we have an obligation then to enforce laws restricting indecent language on television and radio when children are in the audience."

Fox Broadcasting Co. was also pleased. The decision will "give us the opportunity to argue that the FCC's expanded enforcement of the indecency law is unconstitutional in today's diverse media marketplace where parents have access to a variety of tools to monitor their children's television viewing," company spokesman Scott Grogin said in a prepared statement.

It remains to be seen whether the decision will pan out successfully or not. My personal feeling is that if we were really thinking of the children, we could start by keeping some of these folks off the air. TV would be boring and less profitable, of course, so this case review comes at a moment when the networks are looking to capitalize on spectacles of all kinds.

Shock value is also the main selling point of this whole Montclair debacle, too. I don't see what's "edgy" about the alleged violations—has everyone forgotten already forgotten about The Vegetable Report and other shenanigans of radio's past?

Perhaps the wannabe Howard Sterns at WMSU desperately need their 15 minutes of fame in a suburban landscape dominated by the likes WFMU, WSOU, and WPRB (where I DJ). So here are some details:

Montclair State University this week began an investigation into a February student radio broadcast that apparently included naked women, lap dancing and other sex acts.

A faculty adviser pulled the show off the air this week, but not until a parent of one of the women called the school Tuesday to complain about videos on the Web that purportedly showed the scene at the college-owned studio. The university began its probe Wednesday.

"Basically, it is what it appears to be and we're looking into which of these individuals are students," said Minne Ho, spokeswoman for the university. "If they are students here, we will find out who they are." She said they could be sanctioned - from probation to expulsion - for behavior that detracts "from the core mission of the university."

Some of the raunchy videos — which apparently date to a broadcast of the Randy Rogers show in February — were posted on one of the disc jockey's Web sites Friday and were not removed until The Record tried to contact the DJs. One of the videos featured a man writing Rogers' initials in whipped cream on the body of a naked girl in what appears to be the FM radio station's studio.

The intro to the video directs viewers to tune in to the "Kinky Olympics" on WMSC 90.3 every Tuesday from 7 to 10 p.m. Other photos that appeared on the Web show men lining up and receiving lap dances.

Montclair State shock jocks in hot water [Northjersey.com]
Supreme Court Will Review FCC Policy on Broadcast Profanity [Law.com]

Franz Ferdinand
Bruce Springsteen
Nirvana
Coldplay
U2
Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews
The Police
Beck
Radiohead
The Who
Oasis
Arcade Fire
Social Distortion
REM
Hold Steady
White Rabbits
Santogold
The National
Nada Surf

Emmis Launches Innovative New York City Radio Station [PR Newswire]

^* OK, I'm hoping there. But... please?

Considering that my last couple of columns have been full of December detritus, I thought it'd be good to start off the new year in the now, so let's look at Billboard's current Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. I'd talk about them more often, but both charts move so sluggishly that it'd be an exercise in redundancy to base every entry off that data. For example: 13 of the top 20 tracks on the Mainstream chart maintain their positions from the previous week (and 11 on Modern), and no songs dropped out of or entered either chart. Part of that is due to radio playlists in general freezing up for a while before and after the holidays, but I don't think those numbers would be too different in the middle of July.

The Modern and Mainstream charts are currently 40% comprised of the same songs—down only slightly from their 45% overlap two months ago—so let's talk about what they have in common before getting down to their differences. At the top spot on both is "Fake It" by Seether, a South African band that again proves, a decade after Silverchair, that bad Nirvana wannabes aren't a uniquely American resource. But I will say that "Fake It" definitely deserves to be the biggest song of their miserable career so far, if for no other reason than its big, goofy "woah-oh, woah-oh, you're such a fuckin' hypocrite!" hook that's so much fun to sing along to. Still, they lose points for the video (above), which interprets the title in the most obvious way possible with an oh-so-clever "music video that exposes the artifice of music videos" concept you've seen a dozen times before. The other song entrenched in the top 5 of both charts is Serj Tankian's "Empty Walls," a song I find completely charmless despite having enjoyed almost everything System Of A Down ever did.

Other common ground between the charts include the usual hard-rock suspects like the Foo Fighters, Breaking Benjamin, and the hit that would not die, Finger Eleven's "Paralyzer." Now spending its 50th week on the Mainstream chart and sinking slowly enough that it should easily reach a full year's residence there in a couple of weeks, the song has pretty much gotten as high as it can get on every chart that'll harbor an uptempo guitar rock tune these days. I don't know what the longevity records for either chart are—resident chart experts, feel free to chime in if you have an idea—but its run is certainly impressive, especially considering that it only peaked on Billboard's Hot 100 in the past month. Meanwhile, the song's follow-up, "Falling On," which Wikipedia tells me is "another example of Finger Eleven's new genre, Dance/punk," has struggled to capitalize on the momentum of "Paralyzer" for several months, and has yet to make a significant dent on any charts outside of the band's native Canada.

As for tracks that are the sole province of the Mainstream chart, at No. 2 is Sixx: A.M.'s "Life Is Beautiful," the debut single from Nikki Sixx's questionably punctuated new band, which is quickly eclipsing both Methods Of Mayhem and that Vince Neil song from the Encino Man soundtrack as the most successful Mötley Crüe solo project. And... well, I try to accentuate the positive in this column most of the time, and figure out what's worthwhile in a format that, for most critics, is a total blind spot. But pretty much every other song on the chart that hasn't crossed over to Modern is fucking terrible, and they're by several artists you've probably hated since the turn of the century: Kid Rock, Puddle Of Mudd, KoRn, and even Creed, in the form of the slightly less offensive Alter Bridge. The entries by Killswitch Engage and Five Finger Death Punch are admirably heavy for radio fare, but I can't say I actually like them. Godsmack recently released a greatest hits compilation called Good Times, Bad Times...Ten Years of Godsmack, and while it might make a good title track for a career retrospective, "Good Times, Bad Times" is just about the last Led Zeppelin song I'd want to hear the brooding hard-rock band cover.

The Modern Rock chart is at least a little better, despite the presence of The Bravery and Angels & Airwaves, both of whom I'm slightly shocked and appalled to find still have careers. Chevelle's "I Get It" (which peaked and dropped off the Mainstream chart already) is almost as catchy as "Paralyzer," and I'm of the opinion that two Paramore songs are better than none, even if "Crushcrushcrush" is one of the last songs on Riot! that I would've picked as a single. Currently descending down the lower reaches of the chart is Eddie Vedder's sleeper hit, "Hard Sun," which has done pretty well for a song off the soundtrack to a low-grossing Sean Penn movie, let alone the sole acoustic number on a chart full of crunchy, compressed hard rock. Not that the Pearl Jam frontman doesn't have a long track record of success on rock radio, but a cover of obscure Canadian singer-songwriter Indio featuring Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker is certainly one of the unlikelier hits of his career.

Of course, there are more songs from Linkin Park and Three Days Grace that have been on the charts for months, and will probably hang around for at least a couple more. As nice it is to pretend like January brings a whole new year with a clean slate, the fact is that most radio formats will be full of lingering 2007 hits until at least March. I thought last year was easily the best and most interesting in recent memory for rock radio, but based on this evidence I'm not entirely optimistic about 2008.

Over the years I've known a few people in the radio biz, and since starting this column one of them has been particularly helpful whenever I've felt the need to pick his brain about rock radio. My friend Joey Odorisio writes for the radio industry mag FMQB, and has both on-air and off-air experience in the Philadelphia market. So in the Idolator tradition of cutting and pasting from Instant Messenger windows, I decided to pass on some of his wisdom without merely rewording and taking credit for his observations myself. Below, we discuss the effect of changing ratings measurement technology on the landscape of rock radio, and gratuitously quote Anchorman.

FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: So are you up for some rock radio inside baseball chatz 2nite?
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: How long have you been working for FMQB now?
NotJoeysIM: Since the summer of '03.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Do you mainly cover rock for them or everything?
NotJoeysIM: I focus on rock, but in terms of what I write about, it's the whole industry.
NotJoeysIM: But I'm more comfortable writing about Trent Reznor than T.I.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: And you're totally lost when it comes to T.I.P.
NotJoeysIM: I know they're the same person!
NotJoeysIM: Like Chris Gaines.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: What would you say the big stories in those 4 years have been, or what the prevailing trends in radio are?
NotJoeysIM: The Arbitron PPM/ratings accountibility.
NotJoeysIM: Satellite radio.
NotJoeysIM: Technology encroaching on listenership.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: So the whole industry cowering in fear of the future, basically.
NotJoeysIM: Well, not cowering so much as figuring out how to deal with it
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: But shivering, maybe just a little?
NotJoeysIM: Depends who you ask.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Explain the ratings accountability thing to me a little.
NotJoeysIM: Well do you know how the Arbitron ratings system works?
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: More or less.
NotJoeysIM: Written down in diaries/calling people @ home.
NotJoeysIM: That system is losing its accountability with radio.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: I imagine a lot of disputes like in Anchorman when Vince Vaughn yells, "You know those sample audiences aren't big enough!"
NotJoeysIM: (Dorothy Mantooth was a saint!)
NotJoeysIM: Because younger listeners don't A.) bother to use the diaries, and B.) have land lines at home, which is a reason Rock stations started flipping... their ratings were falling b/c they couldn't prove they had these young listeners. The PPM technology has been in the works for years. It's basically a passive ratings meter, like a small pager that picks up what stations are being listened to around it.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: How big has the drop in rock radio ratings been, in a ballpark percentage.
NotJoeysIM: I can find you a graph on that from Arbitron's web site....
NotJoeysIM: But yeah, the PPM has shown that rock listening is bigger, just as was suspected, so stations have been flipping back [to rock] two years later...
NotJoeysIM: However, the sample sizes are not up to snuff, and just this week, Arbitron announced it was pushing back the implementation of PPM. It's in effect here in Philly and in Houston, but nowhere else. NYC was supposed to start in December; now it won't go til Fall '08.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: So the trends that were being observed that led to that period where HFS and all those other alt-rock stations were flipping formats has started to reverse, or
been corrected to an extent?
NotJoeysIM: Reversal sorta...Here in Philly, we now have three rock stations, where
we had 1.5 a year ago, the .5 being Free FM.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Was the one new addition a rock station at some point in the past?
NotJoeysIM: No. It's a station that has been about half-a-dozen formats.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Ah, one of those slutty mistresses.
NotJoeysIM: It was Spanish for barely a year before that.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Is it a rock format that wasn't/hasn't been in that market in the recent past already?
NotJoeysIM: No, it`s an alternative station, but one that is very [Alternative] Gold-friendly, very light on current [songs].
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Do you think the numbers/listeners are telling stations to lean on old stuff, or if there's a preference on the management end not to rely mainly on new music?
NotJoeysIM: A little of both, probably.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: So do you think it's slightly older guys in charge who just have a boner for 1994 making sure that era dominates the playlists?
NotJoeysIM: No it's aiming at late 20s/early 30-somethings who are less interested in new music.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Yeah, and I get the impression that there are a lot guys who are 5 or even 10 years younger than me who are more into Nirvana or DMB than what you'd assume their generational bias to be. And I'm not even really in my late 20s yet. So is the sense that not as many
young listeners are coming to rock radio as they used to, or just that it's a tougher audience to track with the current technology?
NotJoeysIM: Both.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: On that Arbitron chart, "NW Rock" [New Rock] numbers drop off around 2001. Is that just a nascent format that died off?
NotJoeysIM: Not sure, maybe it was a term they stopped using.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Yeah, there's so many tiny semantic distinctions between formats, could be just a phrase that went out of fashion. I can't believe "active rock" has had legs for this long.
NotJoeysIM: It's going strong.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Well, I just mean the name, not so much the format. Although it'd be funny if all the metalhead teenagers in America started pledging allegiance to "ACTIVE
RAWK." What about the rise of satellite radio? Is rock radio's listenership impacted by that any more or any less than other formats' audiences?
NotJoeysIM: I don't think so...it doesn't have that much of a proven impact currently. Except for that it took away Stern, which caused a lot of his former stations to flip.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Yeah, it seems like that impacted talk radio, and indirectly rock stations who had Stern, but that it was just an immediate ripple. Of all the different phases of alt-rock radio in the last few years, the rap-metal and the retro rock and the emo, do you think some more than others are staying and will stay in playlists as oldies, and keep yielding hits and new artists? Or is it just gonna be more bubbles bursting after a couple years and nothing making a big
grunge-type impact?
NotJoeysIM: I think audiences in general are too fragmented for ANY genre/movement to have a true "impact."
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Yeah, I suppose so.
NotJoeysIM: I think if something is a well-remembered hit it will stay. I mean, look at the public perception of the Bizkit now...I could look it up nationally, but I figure it's probably just two or three of their songs that still get played on Active Rock...
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: I just hear those kinds of schizo mood swings in the format from year to year, and I wonder if there's one audience that likes them all, even if I probably like at least a
few songs from each era.
NotJoeysIM: But it's generally the "hits" that test well and stick around, and if people think "Float On" or "Paralyzer" is lame five years down the road, they'll fall by the wayside, regardless of
how big they were at the time.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Is there any song or band that people in your format seem to be really excited about right now, less established bands that people are kind of rooting for?
NotJoeysIM: It really varies from person to person...it's not like a consensus that the industry is rooting for.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: I just wonder "man... who's getting excited about Angels And Airwaves?" It's interesting to me how most of the big famous rock bands now are ones that actually get pop radio play as much as rock, like Fall Out Boy and the Killers. Whereas a band like Three Days Grace can have rock radio chart topper after chart topper but a fraction of that fame or profile. And it's not like 3DG or Chavelle are heavy metal bands who don't make videos or anything.
NotJoeysIM: True.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Do you think AAA [Adult Album Alternative] is going to keep growing or if it's going to stay as the kind of niche format it is now?
NotJoeysIM: It sort of has its own little world. It's not a niche per se...and the AAA format is
sorta divided into non-commercial public radio stations (like WXPN in Philly) and commercial stations that are AAA.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: Right, so it's an umbrella term for some very different stations.
NotJoeysIM: Yeah.
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: You have anything else to add that you think we haven't covered?
NotJoeysIM: Not really...
FlowerSniffinKittyPettin: If only you were willing to say [REDACTED] and/or [REDACTED] on the record.
NotJoeysIM: [REDACTED].

Until this summer, Arbitron measured listening by having participants record it in diaries.

As of October, it switched to the "personal people meter" (PPM), with participants carrying an electronic recording device.

Under the diary system, WBLS was No. 1 among listeners 25 to 54, averaging 5.2% of the audience.

In the first PPM ratings, WBLS was No. 12, averaging 3%.

WBLS's afternoon Wendy Williams show, Brown noted, fell from No. 1 out of the top 10.

"We're the same station," said Brown. "What happened?"

Arbitron has already taken lumps from radio stations for the buggy nature of the PPM system during its initial run this summer—though it is "still fine-tuning the system"—but the first month's results in NYC have "[revived] fears the new system undercounts black and Hispanic listeners." It's definitely interesting that urban and Latin stations took such a uniform hit, and it wouldn't be the first time that marketers have actively or inadvertently discounted non-white audiences. On the other hand, maybe people really do want more Colbie Caillat.

New "PPM" Ratings Do A Number On Urban Radio [NY Daily News]

Frankly, Darren Davis, Clear Channel Radio Chicago vice president of programming and operations, was pleased [by WCKG backing off].

"Everyone thinks it's a good idea to be the alternative for all those people who don't like Christmas music," Davis said. "But I see the ratings every year that show those people don't exist."

WLIT also launched its Christmas offensive on Nov. 2 last year. Its cumulative listenership among women between the ages of 25 and 54, which had been 250,000 for the first six weeks of the ratings period, shot up past 400,000 in the first week of yuletide fare.

"And it grew steadily until the week before Christmas, when it was over 600,000," he said. "The sweet spot is clearly right around here, so what the heck."

How can people want more of this stuff after six or seven weeks of solid merriment? There's some Twilight Zone-esque mind control plot going on behind the scenes here, I just know it.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Chaos At WCKG [Chicago Tribune]

WCKG's "Deck the Halls" gambit of making a playlist and checking it twice may very well set the stage for a competition on a larger scale since a leading candidate for the station's new format is an adult-contemporary brand that would have it going head-to-head with the WLIT for female listeners.

Last year, WLIT, or The Lite, began playing Christmas songs on Nov. 2, attracting strong ratings over the next eight weeks according to Arbitron. As of late Thursday night, a countdown clock on WLIT's Web site indicated the station would switch to a holiday playlist at midnight on Nov. 9, but obviously that was hardly etched in stone.

So since this stunt programming is an obvious ratings grab, it means that—like those Kansas City nutjobs counting down every year until the format switch—a lot of Chicago area listeners are actually waiting for radio stations to begin their double-barreled Yuletide assault. Who are these frightening people? Certainly not the helpless retail employees—like this poor commenter—now forced to live through more than two months of forced cheer. Nothing inches a person closer to suicide than hearing Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" for the umpteenth time in a single day while stuck behind a register.

Christmas Music Already? Yule Bet [Chicago Tribune]

I'll give you a topic: rock radio is neither modern nor active. Discuss.

This week, I thought I'd compare and contrast Billboard's two big rock singles charts, Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock. And I also thought I'd precede that with a brief history of the industry developments that led to these two vaguely defined formats—if that old chart-hound Molanphy hadn't stolen my thunder by doing just that in the comments section earlier this week.

But the long and short of it is that Modern Rock and Active Rock (the radio industry's name for the heavier "mainstream" variant) stations have always been slightly at odds with each other, even while having a lot in common on their playlists. Growing up in and around Maryland in the '80s and '90s, I had a front-row seat for the development of both, thanks to pioneering stations in each format: the Annapolis/D.C.-based WHFS, which was arguably the flagship modern-rock station of the East Coast, and 98 Rock in Baltimore , which cemented the mid-Atlantic as a hard-rock mecca as much as Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

WHFS thrived with the '90s alt-rock explosion, hosting the massive HFStival every year and setting trends nationwide with its playlists. But as the format declined, so did the station, and in 2005 corporate parent Radio One flipped a switch and gave HFS' frequency over to reggaeton. Around the same time, several other modern rock stations went off the air—although, as we learned yesterday, one station in Connecticut just switched back to rock. WHFS briefly made a comeback, playing music on nights and weekends via the auspices of 105.7, a talk station, but even that was short-lived, and the station now exists only as an Internet stream.

While 98 Rock openly gloated about its victory (one wonders if Active Rock jocks have an "anti-choice" style cutdown for their competitors. "Inactive rock," perhaps?), if any station killed WHFS, it was DC101, the Active Rock/Modern Rock hybrid station that covers most of the same broadcast area. Perhaps it's because the rock radio audience is no longer big enough to support two distinct audiences for different types of new music, or perhaps no one wanted to listen to a station that was heavy enough to play Nirvana but not heavy enough to play Metallica. But cross-format mutants like DC101 are likely the way of the future for rock radio, especially if the respective charts stay as similar as they are right now.

Billboard's current top 20s in Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks and Hot Modern Rock Tracks have nine songs in common, and if you give them a week or two to change, the two charts could probably reach 50% synergy. The usual suspects that have been dominating rock radio for half the year—including the Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and Finger Eleven—are on both charts, but when the formats diverge, it's hard to even tell where the dividing line exists. It's not surprising that Ozzy Osbourne, Godsmack, and Atreyu are on the Mainstream chart, but not the Modern one. But why exactly are some hard rockers, like Kid Rock and Papa Roach, fair game on both charts? And most confusingly, why is the girly alt-metal act Flyleaf in the Modern top 10, but completely absent from the Mainstream chart? Sure, there are no female-fronted bands at all on the Mainstream chart right now, but the slightly less metal Evanescence has done just fine on Active stations in the past.

One wonders if it's only a matter of time before Billboard re-evaluates the necessity of two separate charts that are so frequently similar, with both moving toward the homogenized neo-grunge soup that has made Chad Kroeger an unstoppable force in popular music. Unlike the Hot Rap Tracks and Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs charts, there's no easily defined musical component like rapping or the absence thereof to help parse the difference, just the whims of each format's various program directors. If I had to make a prediction, I'd say that hybrid stations like DC101 will keep swallowing up the remaining Modern Rock stations, leaving a respectable number of Active Rock stations standing. In a few years there may be only one kind of station for contemporary loud guitar music, while the quieter, more artsy strain of alt-rock will slowly rise to an increased number of Adult Album Alternative stations. Except by then, the format will probably just be called Blog Rock.

Star 102, called KSRC-FM until 2006, says they are one of the first stations in the United States to play nothing but Christmas music in December, doing so in 1998. However, rival station KUDL that has been a Soft Rock station since 1987 actually played all Christmas music closer to Christmas for several years before Star 102. Each year many in Kansas City speculate on who will be the first to make the switch. In 2006, KUDL began in early November, with KCKC following suit the week of Thanksgiving. This led to a few listeners (who believe Christmas music belongs to the Christmas season, aka December^*) boycotting both stations.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, it sounds even moreso when you realize that the "Christmas Music" section of this page has been edited more than anything else. Seriously, people—even those of you whose proximity to Hallmark HQ has forever linked the holiday season with "profit"—this time of year is supposed to be about fun, not ditching your Celine Dion songs for, uh, Celine Dion Christmas songs. Are we really going to have to settle this by having both stations lay down their "Pretty Paper"-covered arms and play nothing but Paul McCartney's "Pipes Of Peace" for 24 hours straight come Dec. 25?

Christmas music on Halloween? [KansasCity.com]

^*Try reading that aside in a Comic Book Guy voice. Hilarity!

The change happened with little fanfare last Thursday after comedian Steve Harvey's nationally syndicated show wrapped for the morning. The station went to a commercial break, returning with the song that would trumpet its new direction: The Clash's "This Is Radio Clash."

C'mon, it's a least little ironic that a Clash song—and one of the funkiest Clash songs to boot—was used to herald a radio station's shift away from African-American music and back to pasty alt-rock. You know, given all the hubub about a certain recent New Yorker essay.

Alternative Rock Radio Returns To Airwaves [ via Coolfer]

1. The Pretender, Foo Fighters (eight weeks on chart)
2. Bleed It Out, Linkin Park (15 weeks)
3. Never Too Late, Three Days Grace (18 weeks)
4. Paralyzer, Finger Eleven (32 weeks)
5. Misery Business, Paramore (12 weeks)
6. All Around Me, Flyleaf (16 weeks)
7, Big Casino, Jimmy Eat World (four weeks)
8. Supermassive Black Hole, Muse (21 weeks)
9. Icky Thump, The White Stripes (22 weeks)
10. What I've Done, Linkin Park (25 weeks)

Now I've beaten this drum before, but honestly. 32 weeks for that Finger Eleven song? Eight of the 10 tracks in the top 10 being on the chart for three months or more?

In the Kings of A & R diatribe, the author says, "Do you know why the modern rock ring tone business sucks? Because modern rock doesn't have personalities." Fair enough, although I would like to throw out two corollaries to that theory aside from the fact that this stuck-in-1999's-amber playlist seems to age the audience out of the ringtone market: One, there's so little movement within the genre—both in terms of how quickly songs get rotated in and how quickly artists get rotated in—that people won't really be inspired to change their ringtnes too often, and two, that there aren't really many hooks in any of these songs that can be sliced out for the purpose of annoying the people next to you on the bus. Not that "ringtone rap" and the inanities dictated by the genre are a good thing, but really: can you hum the hooks of more than half these tracks? (And no, screaming in a strangled-cat voice and saying "That was one of the Linkin Park songs!" doesn't count.) Is it any wonder that people who want a guitar to chime when they get a call would stick with the opening chords to "Welcome To The Jungle"?

(Although that Paramore song is still pretty darn catchy.)

Modern Rock: From Hero To Zero... [Kings Of A & R]

WCBS-FM will return to the oldies format sometime next week, according to an industry insider with knowledge of the decision. A spokeswoman for the station's operator, CBS Radio, declined to comment.

In a bid for younger listeners, WCBS abandoned oldies music two years ago, flipping to the iPod-like Jack format and firing heritage on-air staffers like Bruce Morrow, a.k.a. Cousin Brucie, and Harry Harrison. The station, 101.1, had been playing oldies for 33 years.

The move to Jack also hurt ad billings. Revenue for 101.1 plunged 31% in 2006, to $16.1 million, according to BIA Financial Network....

The revived oldies format may be modified to appeal to a slightly younger crowd says the industry insider, who expects the station to hire some veteran deejays. A rumor that WCBS would be switching back to oldies was first reported on Thursday by Radio Business Report's online newsletter.

Sure, it's not flipping to "KEXP-E" or anything, but it's hard to not be excited; CBS-FM was one of the stations I grew up with—upon reading this news, the doo-woppy "we play your fa-a-v'rite o-o-ldies" jingle got stuck in my head, and then I texted my parents to let them know—and its on-air personalities at least had personality, instead of the robo-doofosity supplied by Jack-FM's pre-recorded bumpers. Let's hope that CBS will allow the station to retain some of its local personality—and allow the stations that inevitably replace the Jacks/Freds/etcs. in other markets to do the same.

WCBS to return to oldies format [Crain's New York Business]
WCBS-FM Airchecks And Jingles [wbcsfm.org]

WERS 88.9 FM (Emerson College)
Slogan: "Music for the Independent Mind"
A student-run, professionally managed station that broadcasts to the greater Boston area and eastern Massachussetts. A recent playlist included Joan Baez, Rogue Wave, Ellis Paul, Lightning Dust, Pavement and the National—almost in that order. Transitions are tight and the on-air talent evades the usual plagues of a college radio DJ, but with all that said, it feels almost too robotic.

WSBU 88.3 FM (St. Bonaventure University)
Slogan: "The Buzz"
Completely student-run and managed, broadcasting to upstate New York. I'd be willing to overlook the station's slogan—if it were broadcast year-round. Most recent charts included hot hits like the Shins, Muse, My Chemical Romance. Sounds like they're cribbing playlists from the teenagers on my block!

WGRE 91.5 FM (DePauw University)
Slogan: "Your Sound Alternative"
Students, where is your commitment to radio!? Another station that, sadly, does not broadcast in the summertime. I envision hundreds of bored teenagers in west central Indiana who are longing to hear Guster and the Arctic Monkeys. Look at what you've done—you've driven them to downloading!

WICB 91.7 FM (Ithaca College)
Slogan: "The station for innovation"
This station's signal spans two states and ranges from northern Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario. A recent playlist includes White Stripes, Robbers On High Street, Immaculate Machine, They Might Be Giants, and a hyperactive DJ who complains about iPhone. If I was living in Ithaca, I guess I'd be happy with just about anything. Not bad, not bad.

WVCR 88.3 FM (Siena College)
Slogan: "The Saint - We Play Anything"
If that slogan sounds cribbed from a JACK-FM commercial, you're getting warm. This student station is going where few independent stations dare to venture—formatless, shuffle-esque programming, interspersed with news. And while this station is probably a great training ground for tomorrow's radio professionals, the lack of character makes for a depressing listen.

In a study published earlier this year, University of Texas at Dallas economics professor Stan Liebowitz argues that radio acts as a substitute for music sales. "I am not disputing that radio is very good in picking which songs are going to become very popular," says Liebowitz, the director of Center for the Analysis of Property Rights & Innovation at the university. "But if radio didn't exist, we could see a 50% to 60% increase in record sales." How so? Instead of listening to the radio in their cars, Americans might buy more CDs or digital recordings, he says.

"Oh, haha!" we thought. "Killing radio to spur record sales? That's kind of funny, especially considering that digital track sales aren't doing so badly!" But then we realized he might have a point, or at least half of one:

Radio stations that place new music into their mix, for the most part, have super-tight playlists that probably play songs more than any sane person wishes to hear them—thereby sidestepping the need to buy those tracks. This phenomenon isn't just limited to Top 40, either. What other explanation is there for that Linkin Park song being No. 1 on the Modern Rock chart for the past 13 weeks?

The number of radio stations devoted to playing only old music—your Jacks, your Freds, your Freshes, even your Lites—seems to be ever-expanding. Perhaps it's because of the Idolator flophouse's location in radio-deficient New York City, but more often than not, flipping around the dial presents the listener with a playlist of music that's not dissimilar to that played at a bad Sweet 16 party. In 1993. And not to quote Grandma, but the old maxim about cows that you can buy and ones that you can get for free does, in fact, come to mind upon hearing"My Sharona" on the radio for the 800th time.

But while both of these are true, a maxim more important, and one that is even more key to the current cause for panic, is what made Leibowitz's quote seem so counterintuitive on first read:

Don't be so sure that people will magically start seeking out new music on their own. Ask yourself: If radio were to go away, would the masses really be seized with the urge to buy new records? Doubtful; they'd probably just be content with the CDs they currently have in their car—you know, the ones that they're probably listening to instead of the radio right now.

Traditional Radio to Pay for Play? [Business Week]

The increased royalties set by the Copyright Royalty Board on March 2 came with a distinct catch. Webcasters are free to ink direct licensing deals with labels for a lower rate than the one set by the board. Direct licensing allows major labels to apply economic pressure to Webcasters who were formerly concerned with playing the best music.

If Net radio stations don't win their fight, playing whatever they want will become prohibitively expensive. Playing crap, however, won't be. Under the new rules it would be economically logical for cash-strapped Webcasters to take discounted rates to play music the labels want them to play. Instead of the labels paying the Webcasters, the Webcasters pay the labels less. Dark payola.

Evidence of this practice has already appeared with the launch of Slacker.com. The Internet radio startup has stated in the press that it made direct license deals with the majors that have saved it the hassle of paying higher royalties.

If anything, this sounds like the situation that commercial radio is currently living in—only playing "emphasis" tracks or singles, despite theoretically having access to a wider database of music. While radio analysts will claim that tighter playlists are what the public wants, that is, of course, not the case with the widely dispersed styles and audiences that Internet radio stations currently enjoy.

So is this provision's insertion actually there to help speed the homogenization process along? It's hard to tell—and the argument that anything on a major label is "crap" is particularly specious—but the bad-faith arguments that SoundExchange have put forth to defend the rate hike (particularly the $1 billion in "administrative costs" they want to collect from larger Webcasters) aren't really going to make the Web radio-listening public pleased by seemingly big-business-friendly provisions like this one.

(Also: We completely forgot that Slacker was an Internet radio startup—our SXSW memory had fogged just enough that we thought it was a particularly scummy dating site, thanks to our first impressions of its stripper-filled marketing campaign, which we sadly have not been able to bleach from our brains.)

Dark Payola Emerges [SF Weekly]

The Future of Music Coalition contends that Clear Channel is forcing independent musicians to sign a contract containing language that gives up musicians' rights to a performance royalty if the company uses their music for Webcasts.

"This is outrageous," FMC executive director Jenny Toomey said. "This is like the fox getting caught in the henhouse a second time and arguing that he shouldn't get in trouble because he was leaving the hens alone. He was just eating all their eggs."

A copy of the license agreement on WWDC 101, a Clear Channel station in Washington, includes language saying: "You grant to Clear Channel the royalty-free nonexclusive right and license in perpetuity (unless terminated earlier by You or Clear Channel as set forth below) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, digitally perform, publicly display and distribute any sound recordings, compositions, pictures, videos, song lyrics ..."

Specifics of what, exactly, Clear Channel would do with those songs (maybe play them?) aren't offered up by the eight-page document; Contentinople is theorizing that this little bit of legal dancing is merely laying the groundwork for Clear Channel to start its own record label, which we guess would technically be an "indie"—and it's an interesting theory, given that the promotional apparatus of radio stations and billboards is already in place. But wouldn't that seem like some sort of unfair vertical integration as well?

Musicians say Clear Channel cheats on pact [Hollywood Reporter]

"We're asking everyone participating to commit to a stream that is PRIMARY — more than 50% — silent (although bleeps, surf noise, and static could all count as 'silence'), with occasional PSAs interspersed (or maybe, as you suggest, brief song excerpts; full songs would not be in the spirit of 'silence,' though).

Bleeps, surf noise and brief song excerpts? Is this going to be a 24-hour Paul Oakenfold marathon?

Plans For "Day Of SIlence" Rapidly Taking Shape [KurtHanson.com]

While ratings for traditional radio broadcasters have been lackluster, Internet radio listenership in the U.S. has risen to 29 million a week, up from 20 million three years ago, according to Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research.

Even so, the nascent industry has yet to capture the biggest prize — portability. Some halfway solutions exist, such as music devices that allow people to stream Internet radio on speakers, or software that allows technology buffs to access Internet radio from their phones. But results can be glitchy, expensive and technically against the terms of contracts with mobile-phone service providers. Now, start-ups and giants are jockeying for position in mobile Internet radio, in a race that could rearrange the business model of music and broadcasting.

There are some big names involved here, including Pandora, Sprint, Yahoo Inc., Last.fm Ltd. and XM; we're hoping that an industry leader emerges early on—not because we love monopolies, but because we've undergone several frustrating high-tech showdowns over the last decade (Replay vs. Tivo, XM vs. Sirius, Chicago Hope vs. ER), and we have sad-looking boxes full of cables and antennas to prove it.

Internet Radio Races To Break Free of the PC [WSJ]

But a bigger question was left practically untouched: why would a major commercial radio station resort to playing pirated MP3s in the first place?

"It's hard to be the leader in new music," says Spike. "Say a record leaks and kids are passing it around on the Internet for two weeks. [Record labels] still want me to talk about the world premiere broadcast I'm gonna do. And you wonder why people listening to the radio don't think of us as a source of new music anymore. They're getting it before we are."

Listening habits have changed dramatically in recent years, due in part to the rise of on-demand media and the popularity of products like the iPod, which allow people to choose not only what they consume but when they consume it. Satellite radio networks XM and Sirius both offer upwards of 200 commercial-free channels, and there are countless Internet radio stations and podcasts catering to even the most esoteric niches. If none of those options suits you, and you don't have any qualms about copyright infringement, downloading music illegally has never been easier.

The entire radio industry is struggling to adapt, but for stations like Q101, geared toward audiences between the ages of 18 and 34, it's an even bigger challenge. "Alternative is under an immense amount of pressure at this point," says Fred Jacobs, president of Jacobs Media, a nationwide consulting firm that helped popularize the classic-rock format in the mid-80s and advises both Q101 and its sister station, the Loop 97.9. "The Gen-Y audience in particular has a tremendous amount of media and tech options available to them. When it comes to the use of FM radio as the primary medium for exposure to new music, those numbers are lower for alternative than for mainstream rock or classic rock. I mean, it's still the number one source by a long shot, but a lot of other factors are coming into play: everything from social networking sites to iTunes to sites like Rhapsody."

If anything, Q101—which has as its current slogan the unwieldy phrase "Everything alternative, now on shuffle"—was probably hoping for one other outcome: gaining in alternative rebel-cred what it's lost in the possibility of an exclusive White Stripes interview. After this kerfuffle, which garnered the station a lot of attention, Q101 can now tell prospective listeners that it loves music so much, it's willing to risk the wrath of Jack White to prove it. Of course, proof of the station's love for music would probably be better provided by not having warmed-over bands from 2001 comprise the lineup for their signature show of the summer, but that move probably wouldn't get nearly as much ink.

Why Play Leaks? [Chicago Reader]

Yesterday, we received an email in our tips inbox with a subject line that couldn't be ignored. It was short and to the point, and it had us at the very first grammatical misfire: "Who's @$$," it asked, "Is Fat???"

How could we not investigate further?

As it turns out, the email blast was from a radio "personality" named Jackson Blue, who appears on Boston's KISS 108-FM, and who apparently just hosted a concert with Lady Sovereign and Perez Hilton. After watching the enclosed YouTube clip—which, oddly enough, occasionally uses the proper form of "whose"—we were taken aback: Have radio DJs really become this crapdragony?

Of course, it's not news that radio-show jockeys occupy the lowest rungs of society. In fact, according to a 2005 survey, this is where rank in the world's social hierarchy:

REPUGNACITY RANKING (FROM MOST LOATHSOME TO LEAST LOATHSOME)
1) Dog molesters
2) MORNING RADIO DJs
3) The walking dead
4) Email spammers
5) Phil Spector

So, as you can see, they fit in right between pooch-poppers and zombies, which is just about right ("music bloggers," by the way, are at No. 11—we beat George Tenet!) But even though radio DJs have been go-to punchlines for a while now, we've isolated ourselves so effectively, we had no idea how bad the airwaves had become. Is it like this everywhere? Are all of the country's big-market stations now staffed by catchphrase-copping fart-shtickers? We usually don't beg for comments, but we want to know your thoughts, your prayers, your slide-whistle nightmares. Please feel free to share below.

WWPR (105.1 FM), one of two city radio stations that feature hip-hop music, said yesterday morning it's going to stop playing songs with degrading images.

"The station won't sound that different, because we weren't playing a lot of that anyway," said program director Helen Little. "What we're doing is holding labels and artists accountable for what they say and how they say it "We want our listeners to know that whatever they hear here, we thought about it."

Right now, the station's playlist includes tracks by Pretty Ricky and R. Kelly, and while those songs are hardly in the "Me So Horny" realm, we know a few people out there for whom the "cuff your chick" like in "I'm A Flirt" qualifies as "degrading." We also know that controversy-fueled about-faces tend to last for about five weeks, at which time Ludacris' "Area Codes '07" drops, and everyone forgets about the whole thing.

'WPR cracks down on hip-hop lyrics [NY Daily News]

Specifically, elsewhere in the FAQ, the question of whether or not terrestrial radio pays performance royalties is brought up, and the reply begins "Not at this time." Colangelo saw this not as a mere no, but as an indication that SoundExchange was going to try and get radio to pony up next:

This is going to get ugly.

The record labels are clueless as to how to reengage the music buying public with what the public wants. You don't have to be a genius to know it's not CDs and that CD sales will continue to erode. So why take it out on radio?

Radio is a chump.

All those music stations have been exposing the record industry's new music and future stars and the labels have been making all the money from this free over the air exposure. Meanwhile the stations are also paying rights fees for the right to make the record labels rich.

Such a deal.

Who wouldn't want it? Apparently the record industry. And that's why you don't have to look any further than the CRB flap over royalty rates for Internet streamers to know that radio stations are next.

Colangelo's theory makes sense: Back in the days before album sales tanked, the exposure-to-sales relationship, at least as far as radio play spurring album sales, seemed a lot more symbiotic. (It's worth noting that the higher-margin unit of the CD is used as the benchmark for declining sales in SoundExchange's FAQ, and the idea of digital-track sales being sparked by exposure on radio and Webcasts is rarely, if ever, mentioned at all; in fact, elsewhere in the FAQ there's an attempt to create a causative effect between the increase in Webcast listenership and the decline in CD sales.) Still, if SoundExchange does decide to go after the cash reserves of terrestrial radio, will it really try and upset the apple cart that it shares with radio's largest players—or will it lobby for a decision, like the webcasting one, that hurts smaller stations more than the corporately owned ones? Either way, the direction seems like a colossally bad one, and one that will only really help the ever-shrinking number of artists who actually get played incessantly by Big Radio's affiliates.

Questions And Answers: SoundExchange Webcaster II Decision [SoundExchange; PDF]
Record Industry About To Stab Its Last Friend (Radio) In The Back [INSIDE MUSIC MEDIA™]

Still, there is a reason to root for a merger, and it involves the group most actively opposing it: the broadcast lobby. When XM and Sirius made their announcement, a spokesman for broadcasters said the satellite-radio companies were looking for a "government bailout."

But this argument is from the possessors of one of Washington's most potent lobbying forces. If any group is skilled in the ways of governmental largess, it's broadcasters.

If you fret about diminished choices with a joined Sirius and XM, think for a second about commercial radio in the U.S. Its ownership is highly concentrated, its programming is most commonly described as "soulless" and it is missing most of the public-interest programming we used to take for granted.

A radio station, after all, is but a state-approved monopoly on the public's airwaves. Remember when radio stations turned out news programs? (Broadcasters say listeners can fill any vacuum with a host of other sources.)

Compared with commercial radio, a merged XM and Sirius would look like Florence in the Renaissance.

It is said that one test of how much competition will exist after a merger is the extent to which a competitor squawks; the more complaining, the more there will be a thriving market. Judging by the decibels from the broadcasters, satellite and broadcast radio would soon be at each others' throats.

What's not to like about that?

While we're always wary of consolidation of any kind, we do have to admit that the idea of building a fire under terrestrial radio's ass is appealing; even one of the satellite-radio companies' offerings beats the pants off the forest of Jacks, Zs, and Lites that big radio has blanketed across the nation. Sure, the broadcast spectrum may have its limitations, but terrestrial radio's advantage in making individual stations more "niche" would be its ability to localize content—which may cost money in the short-term, but surely that's preferable to complete irrelevance. (Right?)

How Radio Listeners Will Fare in a Merger of Sirius and XM [WSJ]
My Near-Death Experience With Clear Channel [Inside Music Media]

If you're a lawyer and a music lover, you're going to be asked why you're not doing music law. The answer is easy: Nothing will make you hate music more than having to read about copyright—especially when the legalese in this field is so dry, songs are referred to as "nondramatic musical works." While this description may be true of the latest Shins album, your Idolawyer was not going stand idly by while "law" threatened to annihilate the Internet radio that was playing those Shins songs for three months before the album's release.

It was time to jump into the briar patch.

Here's the issue: The Copyright Royalty Board, which is an arm of the Library of Congress, recently set potentially devastingly high royalty rates for Internet radio broadcasters. The ruling affects independent Internet outlets, as well as the Internet operations of traditional "terrestrial" radio stations, who otherwise pay a relatively low rate.. And while the legalese can be mind-numbingly dull and doctorate-level difficult, we'll attempt here to make it relatively painless. The basic concept to understand is that every song has several different owners—including the composer, the publisher, and the record label—and each of these entities gets to drop a bucket in the song's income stream. Modern-day copyright law is the result of years of Three Stooges-style wakka-wakka-wakka bickering between Congress, industry and end-users about who gets paid, and for what.

In the Internet radio situation, a 1998 law established that both the record labels (who own the "sound recordings") and the composers (who own the musical concepts), have a "performance right" in music that is played on Internet radio. For terrestrial radio, there is no "performance right" attached to the sound recording, which, again, the labels own. So the composers get paid, through ASCAP or its equivalent, and the labels don't. The labels take the hit because, in theory, they get great publicity from terrestrial airplay—which, by the way, would be a semi-decent album title for the next Nada Surf outing (just a thought!).

Don't concern yourself with how we got to splitting these particular hairs. If you want to preserve any non-cynical view of the industry you may be harboring, it's best just to look for the humor. Sometimes fuddy-duddyish copyright cases are good for a laugh, and have changed the law by being so very out of touch. Truly extreme court decisions can force Congress to wake up to the fact that the law needs to be, in effect, remastered.

One of the few actually entertaining entertainment law cases, for example, is White-Smith Music Publishing Company vs. Apollo, which was a litigation landmark of 1908 (picture Lars Ulrich playing ragtime wearing a bowler hat, and you're there). In the 1900s, there were approximately 75,000 player pianos in use in the United States and over one million player piano music sheets in circulation. The question before the Supreme Court was whether the perforated rolls of paper that told the player pianos what to do counted as "copies" of protected songs.

The Court took great pains to define the word "copy" and to make sense of how a song, which is more ethereal than other published things, could be copyrighted. But the justices ultimately concluded that the copyright laws, as written, didn't prot