The Day The Music Moved

Nostalgia, as we've discussed here before, is a powerful drug, especially in radio, and so we saw a bunch of social media posts this week about the 40th anniversary of the flip of WABC/New York from music to talk. It's become known among radio obsessives as "The Day the Music Died," an overwrought "American Pie" reference that ignores the fact that the music did not actually die on that day, or on any other day. It moved. And WABC didn't die that day. It changed, and survived, and does to this day.

Maybe that's something about which the radio industry, and the podcasting business, and pretty much every business, and, yeah, let's just say that everyone needs to be reminded. Circumstances change. In 1982, probably a few years after the die had already been cast, WABC changed because it had to change. People voted with their ears: Music was better on FM, no matter what AM diehards wanted to believe. AM stereo wasn't going to save AM music radio, C-QUAM or Kahn. IBOC wasn't going to save it and still won't. It wasn't even a fair test of "people will find good content anywhere." The game was over. It was time to move on.

WABC did. Yes, they now play music on the weekends now, but that's specialty programming with a very, very old target audience; more power to them, especially if they can find local advertisers for it, but it's not a recipe for long-term financial success to be playing music on AM in 2022. We all know that, but, hey, wouldn't it be great if... Why can't someone just... If only you played the right "good" music (the music you liked when you were 15, of course) and hired the right jocks and...

Accepting that things change is one step, and adapting to those changes is another. Way back in 1982, WABC adapted, perhaps belatedly so. It's hard to let go, but bemoaning "The Day The Music Died" diminishes the fact that, ultimately, what that station did turned out to be the right thing to do, and what was "lost" was just something familiar that most of its fans had already forsaken for other options. The jocks went to other stations. Current music went to FM, where Z100 became its own legend in the wake of WABC's change, and then to streaming, where younger audiences are finding unlimited options and favorite playlists, and YouTube, and TikTok, which is its own thing. Talk is going through the same changes; AM talk is mostly focusing on the tastes of (very) old conservative males, while more diverse audiences are finding more diverse talk on podcasts and sports fans have their own format on FM and on podcasts.

Which is to say that, in the media, formats and genres and stations don't die so much as they move on to new forms. Musicradio 77 begat Z100 begat Spotify. Talkradio 77 begat a zillion podcasts. AM begat FM begat streaming. There's MORE of what you wanted now. If it's not the specific station with the specific hosts you fondly remember, well, you're not exactly the same as you used to be, either, are you?

Have those warm memories of listening to your favorite AM top 40 station, sure. Share 'em on Facebook. Reminisce away. We all love that. But change isn't always a tragedy. You can enjoy the past, but don't let it prevent you from embracing the present and the future. Remember that in 2062, there'll be people complaining that they miss their favorite podcast or Spotify playlist from years past and bemoaning the state of entertainment. Your kids will become you. Their kids, your grandkids, will become them. It's the circle of life.

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Sorry about last week, when I found myself having to do too many things at once and, as it turns out, there's only one of me. That's probably for the best. Anyway, thanks for bearing with me, and, no, I have no comment about the team which shall not be named and their performance in the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals. I'm not really into horror shows, myself, even though I'm writing this on Friday the 13th.

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter @pmsimon