Fallen Kingmaker: How Radio Gambled With BTS, Lost & Hopes Nobody Noticed (Part I)

DISCLAIMER

I fully acknowledge that what I have to say in this series is going to controversial as heck. Some accusations are proven. Others ambiguously assumed. But what I acknowledge is that the opinions expressed here are my own, and you're welcome to disagree.

Also, as I'm American, I'll be discussing US radio.

INTRODUCTION

I gave up on US radio many years ago. I can't tell you the exact year, but I can tell you it was on a Friday morning. I was sitting outside of a post office waiting for my mom to mail a letter. The DJ was taking requests so I called in to make one.

The song I wanted to hear was was was Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love"

I was told by the DJ that there was no way my request could get played because, and I quote, "Today's Friday and I only ever play happy songs during my hour!" I should state that I happened to be listening to the radio because I was in my mom's car.

I should also mention that I owned an mp3 player, so I didn't exactly need this format to hear my favorite songs. I heard that the station was taking requests and then found out because my request didn't fit someone's stipulation, it was impossible to accept the request.

Hmm.

That Friday many years ago, I had the epiphany that if I can listen to my favorite songs on my own, radio be damned, why bother?

Especially if I'm going to be told by a complete stranger to jump through hoops regarding my song requests at a time people no longer needed radio to-

create their own playlists. I came of age as the CD Walkman gave way to mp3 players and in the years since, smartphones, tablets, and laptops allow people to listen to whatever songs they want, when they want, as many times as they want, etc.

Radio has survived into the 21st century and I only began to care about it again as a format because of BTS and the hope of seeing this group get their songs played.

Unfortunately, US radio is *still* playing by 20th-century rules.

After getting referred to an interesting article about the situation between US radio and BTS I decided to write this thread. The article wasn't bad, but it didn't dig nearly deep enough into how radio operates and why BTS was always destined to get treated so badly.

BTS, by their nature, do not represent a plus for radio. They are, instead, a harbinger of disaster and a major source of humiliation. But it's not something that will ever be willfully admitted. So you need to peel back the layers and understand the blow BTS dealt.

It's sort of like how people really believed BTS was messing up by sticking to the album artist lane rather than surrendering to the new norm and becoming singles artists.

Bullet dodged. https://twitter.com/sweetbtstea/status/1239242235490832385

One aspect of this topic I never explored was the part radio plays as a single-friendly format. US radio's particular role as kingmaker works against BTS's best interests in this type of climate.

But then, I think BTS's success works against radio's best interests, too.

I. ON THE RADIO: ORIGINS OF A TASTEMAKER

In order to understand the "why" of radio, you must first understand the "what." Defining radio can get very technical if you don't know the ins and outs of physics (I don't), so let's just make it simple by using this chart:

^^^^

CREDIT: https://slideplayer.com/slide/8286918/ 

In the United States, it's commonly believed that KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the first licensed radio station to exist in America. It received its license in October 1920 but didn't begin regular broadcasts until 1921. There were unlicensed broadcasts prior to this.

One thing I wasn't expecting was for the "Golden Age of Radio" to be defined as lasting from the 1920s until the 1940s. At this point, the established stations suffered a decline attributed to two things: FM radio and the arrival of television.

Decades before "Video Killed The Radio Star," video didn't kill the radio star, as the medium survived the ups and downs of the coming decades, with music stations jumping from FM to AM and back again and then onto digital and so forth.

Because eras are often described in this way if the golden age of radio was from the 1920s until the 1940s, I'd say the silver era ran from the 1950s into the 1970s, and the bronze era lasted from that time until the very early 2000s and the rise of CD burning and mp3 players.

II. The Decline (That Nobody Talks About)

Reading the NowThis article is surreal because it's written from the point of view that radio has always been for older listeners when I find the exact opposite to be true.

Plenty of kids and teens once enjoyed the radio.

In fact, there was a Life magazine article that ran in 1944 (during that Golden Age of Radio!) about teenage girls enjoying the radio. You know, that demographic that radio somehow *never* cared about

http://onetuberadio.com/2014/12/21/1944-teen-girls-homework-with-the-radio-full-blast/

Article in question, (with NOTHING but white teenage girls loving themselves some radio that was somehow always about the tastes of older people): https://books.google.com/books?id=10EEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA91#v=onepage&q&f=false

Though the tastes of the youth have always been quick to change, the one constant over the years was waiting to hear one's favorite song on the radio. Those of us of the cassette tape generation enjoyed waiting around for a song we liked so we could record it.

I guess this misunderstanding of who radio is *for* is born out of a debate about the nature of what radio should be that's raged for a long-time.

Some felt that radio should be for "intellectuals" and only play certain types of music.

It should be of little surprise to anyone that for the longest time, black music was largely stigmatized with assumptions of it being too sexual, low-brow, and not for anyone (white) with taste.

NowThis's article politely sidestepped the fact that the argument-

as to why POC artists didn't belong on American radio or weren't deserving of spins or needed to jump through a series of hoops for the bare minimum is not an old or unfamiliar one.

In any case, whomever the US radio industry decides to turn their nose up at these days, the impact isn't as sharp as it once was. Once upon a time, if radio didn't know you, NOBODY in America did.

And so, the fact that we're even having a conversation about BTS's treatment by radio at all is the dog whistle that some probably don't want you to hear. Because if ever there was a potential death knell for an industry, it's *THIS* conversation specifically.

/END PART ONE