Death of Urban Radio Part 3 from FMC

Eric K. Arnold's series "The Effects of Media Consolidation on Urban Radio" concludes today on the Future of Music Coalition blog with the third installment. Towards the end of the piece Eric discusses where artists and fans can seek out urban and local music since commercial radio has mostly turned its back on local musicians. He writes:

"...many artists are turning to user-generated content and social networking sites like YouTube and MySpace to find their fans and post their music or videos, while listeners starved for content and substance can log on to Breakdown FM or stream Hard Knock Radio online. Another buzzworthy outlet is Current TV, which is making an increased commitment to covering urban music and trends in their mini-documentary 'pods.'

Still another option is low-power FM radio, which doesn’t offer the cachet (or advertising dollars) of commercial radio, but is affordable, accessible, and locally available. Recently, there have been encouraging signs that the FCC and Congress will remove caps preventing LPFM stations in urban markets, a condition originally imposed by powerful commercial broadcasters."

He also implores radio listeners to voice their opinions and concerns to commercial stations and the FCC in order to encourage radio to cover local events and play more local music and community affairs programming. Likewise, college and community radio stations can be encouraged to do their part in representing the local scene.

You can read my other posts about this FMC series here and here.