Corporate FM
Corporate FM
February 14th, 8:00PM @ Fine Arts Theater (115 N. Elm)
{rokbox text=|Click Here to Watch the Trailer|}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v40kadobrWo{/rokbox} | BUY TICKETS NOW
Filmmaker Kevin McKinney in attendance!
In 1996 commercial radio underwent a quiet revolution. Local station owners everywhere sold their stations as fast as they could to conglomerates. The new owners gutted the staffs.’Corporate FM’ is about what happens when a city loses a communal microphone. Unlike Facebook or Twitter or web-based music sharing applications, locally owned radio reaches thousands of people across many incomes and ages in a single area at the same time with a message unique to that area. That ability is what once moved entire cities to unite around local bands, local charities, local businesses, and even new ideas. Radio insiders reveal with personal stories how radio was destroyed from the inside. They uncover a financial shell game that doomed radio the moment it consolidated.
Film Details
Duration: 74 mins
Director/Producer: Kevin McKinney
Producer: Jill McKeever
Film Website: http://www.fmfilm.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CorporateFm
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fmmovie
Long Summary
In 1996, commercial radio underwent a quiet revolution. Local station owners everywhere sold their stations as fast as they could to conglomerate groups. The new owners gutted the staffs to compensate for the debt they created when they purchased the stations for outrageous prices.
‘Corporate FM’ is about what happens when a city loses a communal microphone. Unlike Facebook, Satellite radio, or web-based music sharing applications, locally-owned terrestrial radio can reach thousands of people across all incomes and ages in a local region at the same time with a message that is relevant to them at that moment. That ability is what once moved entire cities to unite around local bands, local charities, local businesses, and even new ideas. Our local infrastructure used to depend heavily on radio, but now there is a communication void in our cities.
Radio is the only form of media that does not require us to look at a screen or paper, allowing it to reach both passive and active audiences. This allows it to integrate into our lives even when we are very busy, giving radio a reach that goes beyond the internet, newspapers, and even TV. The exclusively local broadcast of radio signals, which are licensed from the government, gives radio stations the responsibility to serve their community.
The radio industry, like many other American industries, was conglomerated into concentrated ownership due to government deregulation. The problems created by large corporate owners were then exacerbated when the stations were co-opted and gutted by leveraged buyouts. Private Equity companies utilized leveraged buyouts by using tax code loopholes and other financial maneuvers to profit from placing debt on large businesses. In such a system, the radio station is 'purchased' by a private equity firm, yet the station itself becomes the holder of the debt for its own purchase. The private equity firm then extracts as much money as they can as 'owners' even though they are not themselves attached to the debt they created. Then if they can resell the station, they make even more money, so to do this they do mass firings and sell off important assets of the business just to make profits look larger on paper. Of course these 'profits' are short term, and the long-term effect is a collapse of the company.
A good radio station should nurture a city that will in turn support the radio station. Critical masses unite behind local bands, charities, events, and businesses when a radio station focuses its talent and time to help the community. Without radio support, local bands don’t break out of the “indie ghetto”. The civility of the population suffers when there is no civil dialog heard on the radio. A healthy radio station should have at least eight DJs on staff in order to be effectively live and local. Today many stations have 1 or 2 staff members. There is little time or money for them to unite their community. Our nation as a whole suffers because of this.
There has not been a new popular music movement since radio consolidated in the late 90s. All the large new acts now are predictable corporate creations, not brilliant artists who spring up from cultural movements. One may wonder what other cultural ideas have been diminished and impeded since conglomerate radio has turned its back on the communities that relied on the stations.
