Classic & Current Contemporary Non-Schlock-Rock Metropolitan Music

1980s AOR Radio - College Radio Influence

College Radio to the Rescue

While AOR radio and corporate rock were doing the tango in the second half of the '70s, a new musical revolution was germinating in garages and small clubs in America, Europe, and Australia. Terms tagged to this underground movement included "punk" and "new wave." This music was new in that it was a departure from mainstream commercial rock, Top 40 and disco of the '70s. CBGBs in New York was a hotbed for these artists including Television, Talking Heads, Richard Hell, Patti Smith, Blondie, and the Ramones, just to name a few. When the Ramones crossed the pond and invaded London, punk exploded in England with the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Generation X.

The new concept stripped out the over processing of '70s rock and vowed that creativity lies in the conception of the song, not just the execution of it. There was a mass reaction among young musicians -many who had just picked up their first guitar – to go for a more back-to-basics sound, be it raw (Dead Boys), poppy (The Cars), electronic (Devo), or experimental (The Residents). Playing smaller venues became more important to play in than large arenas because the smaller ones allowed for more intimacy between the artists and the audience. Rock music was becoming danceable again. But this entire phenomenon, for the most part, was ignored by commercial American radio until 1980.

College radio stations, however, continued to explore and promote non-corporate acts. Having the luxury of being non-commercial, or at least not having the noose of ratings around their necks, campus stations were able to take chances. College radio did not have as much to lose if a record bombed. Because of the desire of college radio programmers to take chances, progressive bands were getting exposure. These stations helped to lay the groundwork for the acceptance of modern music on commercial radio.

Mark Josephson, publisher of the radio trade publication Rockpool says, "College radio has had a very significant role (in exposing new product), but they haven't gotten very much credit for it. For years and years the college stations were playing highly significant amounts of this stuff. They've generated an audience for it. When nobody else was promoting this stuff, college radio was playing it. It's the artists that the college radio stations supported a long time ago that are becoming the new wave superstars. They have been quite utterly correct at predicting which of these artists were going to become big." Some cases in point include U2, Duran Duran, Thomas Dolby, Psychedelic Furs, Joe Jackson, and The Clash.

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