I had been all over the place for a couple weeks, it was the holidays and new years, so maybe I had missed some advance warning. All I know is that one day I tuned my radio to Indie 103.1 only to discover that it had transformed into El Gato. Just like that, the frequency that had until recently been carrying both legitimate and faux indie rock began broadcasting Spanish-language music, repurposed at the whims of the frequencies’ licensee Entravision (Indie was run in partnership with Clear Channel Communications).
In the past, perhaps I would have made a defiant stand and condemned Clear Channel and Entravision for betraying the community of listeners that had developed around the channel. At the very least I will say that closing down operations abruptly and firing the entire workforce without any notice is pretty ruthless. But what I am more interested in is how a radio channel can change its identity so suddenly. Of course there is a limited amount of radio spectrum to go around, so it’s not as if Entravision could have just created a new frequency to broadcast on, but it all goes to show the malleability of radio waves as a content delivery channel. Despite that, it is hard to ignore the real social consequences of this metamorphosis of the 103.1 MHz frequency in the Los Angeles area. The radio spectrum is a public good, and to be sure its licensee has the right to do as it pleases within the limitations of their license, but there are evidently different kinds of responsibilities when managing a public good as compared to a private channel, and the risks of offending that public trust are worthy of consideration. On the other hand, of course, one must consider the audience that will now be served by El Gato that was previously not listening to the station – we cannot allow the frustration of one group’s loss erase the potential benefits of another group’s gain.
Still, it leaves us with the question of where the Indie (or most any other non-mainstream music genre) lover has to go. Although the internet has blossomed as an avenue for musicians of all degrees to get their music out (through channels like MySpace, iTunes and the thousands of internet radio broadcasts), it too is no panacea. Its resources, like the radio spectrum, are finite (these ones too). There’s plenty of room yet to create considerably more focused channels online, (although some people do talk about the potential limits of the present system of Internet Protocol (IP) allocation), and it’s worthwhile to note that an online El Gato wouldn’t need to replace Indie 103.1 in order to succeed; it could simply outperform it on its own channel.
Terrestrial radio isn’t going to go away – indeed, swathes of new spectrum have recently been auctioned for additional uses, and the impending switch to Digital TV transmission will open up further spectrum allocation battles. But fortunately for my desire to hear Henry Rollins play 63 minute long experimental hardcore songs, Indie 103.1 understands the preferred value among its target audience of a direct channel through the internet. Click here to listen to their live stream at indie1031.com. El Gato, for its part, is still en construccion.