Chicago-based media consultant Lee Abrams might seem the least likely person to complain about the corporatization and sameness that afflicts today’s traditional terrestrial AM and FM radio stations.
After all, it was his infamous tightening of playlists at rock radio during the ‘70s that ushered in the AOR (Album-Oriented Rock) format, but now it’s Abrams sounding the alarm about playing it too safe risking death knells for terrestrial formats.
“Radio should be going into creative overdrive. Instead, it’s going backwards, contributing to its own demise by getting more vanilla when they should be alive and well in technicolor,” he says. “Nobody’s bringing their A-game.”
