Digitized Honors Theses (2002-2017)

Date of Award

5-2006

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

BA

Department

Music

Faculty Mentor

John Papastefan, Ph.D.

Advisor(s)

David Durant, Ph.D., Steven Rockwell, Ph.D.

Abstract

Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the number of owners in the radio industry has dwindled significantly. What previously was a heavily localized and independently-owned industry has now become a corporate monster, with just a handful of owners controlling more than 90% of the entities and finances in radio. Consequently, local issues and local or independent musicians have become virtually extinct in commercial radio. This could potentially destroy local music scenes nationwide and discourage artists from making new, original music without major label backing for fear of failure or rejection in the eyes of public radio. The purpose of this research is to determine the effect that musical diversity, defined for this purpose as the number of local, regional, or independent acts has on an independently-owned radio station's Arbitron Ratings when competing directly with a corporate entity in the same market

The author believes that listeners desire to hear local and lesser-known artists on their favorite radio stations, and while corporate companies likely will not meet that desire, locally-owned stations are far more likely to comply. The hypothesis is that stations that meet these needs will be more successful in the ratings book as compared to stations that do not. The author's goal is to determine if musical diversity has a positive effect on the competitiveness of an independently-owned station. If so, this approach could be used to help many struggling independent entities change their programming and survive against their much more financially stable corporate competitors.

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