PR fluff instead of songs
Op-Ed: “Cloned music and idiotic commentary are turning radio into a trashy medium,” Reini Weber laments in the run-up to Radio Day.
Guest commentary In the run-up to Radio Day, Reini Weber complains that cloned music and moronic word contributions are degrading the radio to a waste medium.today I'm making friends again, but it's pure self-defense: we only listen to Internet radio at our agency. And it gets worse. Wolfram, our famous lyricist and electric guitar player, has recently reprogrammed his car radio from "DRS Einerlei" (DRS 3) to DRS 2 "to listen to Brahms instead of junk". And in the office he hums along to "Radiostorm Classic Rock". Thanks to ADSL.
Urs Leierer next door has only liked sound that is "blue" and has "balls" and comes from a silver disk for years anyway. And so, piled up next to me on the windowsill (they are allowed to take notes): Walter Trout (live), Eric Sardinas, Scott Henderson, Curtis Mayfield (live), Free (live), Buddy Guy, Joe Satriani, Donny Hathaway (live), Aretha Franklin (live), AC/DC (live), Eagles (live), Aerosmith (live), Maceo Parker, Jeff Beck, Ben Harper, David Bowie, Till Brönner, James Brown (live), India.Arie, the Beatles' white album, Stevie Ray Vaughan (live), Zucchero, Dan-
ny Gatton, Nina Hagen, Billy Bob Thornton and half a meter of new releases that Blue Balls Music receives.
What happened to us? To be frank: We have probably
listened to a lot of radio. As a reminder: these are those cloned bores who, between word contributions ("Scandal! Basel tram drivers are delivered T-shirts that are too small!") or phone-ins ("And what are you doing about the summer heat?" - "I'm still in the pool on Friday!" - "Genial, schpiiiiiizemässig!") no longer broadcast a music program. Instead, they broadcast unfiltered PR from the music industry. These are the stations with
computers instead of music editors, which is why all
the same MAFO beat into the ether: Girlie chirping, swaying rock and Britpop swagger. Lots of hits. But not a single song.
And in such an environment, we are told, we should please advertise. Would you advertise in the NZZ if the environment no longer consisted of journalism, but to a certain extent also of advertising? If the editor-in-chief was called Stöhlker instead of Bütler? If the NZZ's readership had degenerated into a mainstream movement?
A thousand years before the invention of MP3, I once learned that "the medium is also the message". And that you make more profit with profile, which in turn can be used to create more profile. The rules are obviously different for radio stations and the record industry. And so they screw each other into the swamp of arbitrariness, nonsense and double-digit profit margins - after the zero and the decimal point, of course.
Despite everything. Turn on the radio occasionally. Skip through the commercial breaks. Unfortunately, you will easily recognize them: The advertising has already been infected. Mega fair, right? Scho.
> Reinhold Weber was a radio advertising pioneer in the 1980s and is now the owner of (advertising) Büro Reinhold.
Urs Leierer next door has only liked sound that is "blue" and has "balls" and comes from a silver disk for years anyway. And so, piled up next to me on the windowsill (they are allowed to take notes): Walter Trout (live), Eric Sardinas, Scott Henderson, Curtis Mayfield (live), Free (live), Buddy Guy, Joe Satriani, Donny Hathaway (live), Aretha Franklin (live), AC/DC (live), Eagles (live), Aerosmith (live), Maceo Parker, Jeff Beck, Ben Harper, David Bowie, Till Brönner, James Brown (live), India.Arie, the Beatles' white album, Stevie Ray Vaughan (live), Zucchero, Dan-
ny Gatton, Nina Hagen, Billy Bob Thornton and half a meter of new releases that Blue Balls Music receives.
What happened to us? To be frank: We have probably
listened to a lot of radio. As a reminder: these are those cloned bores who, between word contributions ("Scandal! Basel tram drivers are delivered T-shirts that are too small!") or phone-ins ("And what are you doing about the summer heat?" - "I'm still in the pool on Friday!" - "Genial, schpiiiiiizemässig!") no longer broadcast a music program. Instead, they broadcast unfiltered PR from the music industry. These are the stations with
computers instead of music editors, which is why all
the same MAFO beat into the ether: Girlie chirping, swaying rock and Britpop swagger. Lots of hits. But not a single song.
And in such an environment, we are told, we should please advertise. Would you advertise in the NZZ if the environment no longer consisted of journalism, but to a certain extent also of advertising? If the editor-in-chief was called Stöhlker instead of Bütler? If the NZZ's readership had degenerated into a mainstream movement?
A thousand years before the invention of MP3, I once learned that "the medium is also the message". And that you make more profit with profile, which in turn can be used to create more profile. The rules are obviously different for radio stations and the record industry. And so they screw each other into the swamp of arbitrariness, nonsense and double-digit profit margins - after the zero and the decimal point, of course.
Despite everything. Turn on the radio occasionally. Skip through the commercial breaks. Unfortunately, you will easily recognize them: The advertising has already been infected. Mega fair, right? Scho.
> Reinhold Weber was a radio advertising pioneer in the 1980s and is now the owner of (advertising) Büro Reinhold.
