Editing Music radio (section)

==Music radio and culture==
Music radio, particularly [[top 40]], has often acted as both a barometer and an arbiter of musical taste, and radio airplay is one of the defining measures of success in the mainstream musical world. In fact, the rise of [[rock music]] to popularity is intimately tied to the history of music radio.  Early forms of rock had languished in poor areas of the South.  It was enjoyed mostly by rural blacks, with notable exposure in [[Memphis, Tennessee]] due to the all [[African American]] programming of [[WDIA]].  Rock music entered the mainstream during the 1950s because of controversial white DJs such as [[Dewey Phillips]], [[Alan Freed]], [[Dick Clark]], and [[Wolfman Jack]] with an appreciation for black music.  <ref>"Music and the Power of Public Sector Radio - Hypebot." (2017) Web. < https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/08/music-and- the-power-of-public-sector-radio.html ></ref>

For many years, many listeners have been dissatisfied with the content of radio programming since the decline of early free form-rock radio.  The popularity of offshore [[pirate radio]] stations in the United Kingdom was an early symptom of frustration with the often overly safe and occasionally politicized playlists of commercial radio.<ref>'' Reconstructing the Past: History in the Mass Media 1890–2005'' (Author: Sian Nicholas) p. 115</ref>

The growth of Internet radio from a small experimenter's toy in the mid-1990s to a huge phenomenon allowing both small do-it-yourselfers and large commercial stations to make their offerings available worldwide was seen as a threat to over-the-air music broadcasting, and was nearly shut down by onerous licensing demands made by the recording industry. Meanwhile, the rise of satellite radio services as a major competitor has brought many of the advantages of Internet radio to an increasingly mobile listening public, including lack of censorship, greater choice, a more eclectic approach to format programming, and static-free digital sound quality. Indeed, one-size-fits-all programming is no longer seen as tenable by some, as the diversity of musical tastes among the listening public has created a proliferation of [[List of music radio formats|radio formats]] in what some might call a form of [[narrowcasting]].