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In the 1970s, radio as a medium started to
undergo a process of centralization. One
major cause of this change was a new set
of new techniques in the advertising indus-
try. Radio stations previously made most of
their money selling advertising time direc-
tly to local businesses. In the ‘70s, large
advertising agencies shifted their focus
toward branding of national products and
businesses; agencies used radio as a medi-
um for this branding, brokering time on local
stations. A radio station targeting a specific
market – e.g. the African American communi-
ty in a big city – was especially useful in bran-
ding and pushing a specific product toward
a specific demographic.
In order to work with this new centralized
advertising system (and of course, make
much more money than selling cheap ad
time to tiny local businesses), radio cent-
ralized control of its own content. Station
ownership and formats changed such that
there was reduced overlap and competition
for specific local markets. Within stations
themselves, the role of the Program Direc-
tor became much more significant – PDs
ended up strictly dictating the content /
songs that got air time. Individual DJs were
able to maintain their own personas but
had very little control over which records
they played and when they played them. A
station as a whole (especially a dominant
one that reached a specific demographic
in a large market) versus an individual DJ,
became much more important in
“breaking”
a record to a large audience.
The centralization of radio made it extre-
mely di cult for a small production on a
local record label to get any play (and cor-
respondingly to have any sales / commer-
cial success). In the ‘60s, an artist or label
owner could do favors for a DJ in return
for play (e.g. do ’record hops’ or engage in
some form of payola by giving the DJ mo-
ney, alcohol, etc.). It was possible for a small
artist on a local label to have a local hit, sel-
ling upwards of 25,000 copies. In the ‘70s,
especially in larger markets, small record
labels had little chance of getting any play
without significant financial backing.
All these changes made large record labels
much more important – they became almost
the sole providers of content to radio sta-
tions. Large labels had the backing to fund
A&R and promotions departments that
could work with these new larger radio
entities. Labels even tightened up their own
manufacturing methods– when promoting a
song, a label would press mostly promotio-
nal copies of a single with the same track on
both sides to send to stations. This would
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