Why every radio station sounds the same

The same song, stomping on a human face. Patreon reaction here:   / 84728359  

More info and sources at bottom.

Find me elsewhere:
Instagram:   / philedwardsinc  
Twitter:   / philedwardsinc  
Patreon:   / philedwardsinc  

Where I get my music (Free trial affiliate link):
https://share.epidemicsound.com/olkrqv

My camera, as of February 2022 (affiliate link):
https://amzn.to/3HDcWVz
My main lens: https://amzn.to/3IteXEK
My main light: https://amzn.to/3pjO0M8
My main light accessory: https://amzn.to/3M6eL0j

Get Light Switch by Charlie Puth and over 1M + mainstream tracks here https://go.lickd.co/Music
License ID: 7NJBQBreMgG https://lickd.lnk.to/TqzhQ5ID!Phil+Ed...

Sources: Mainly read a bunch of papers for this. There are a bunch of Clear Channel books, but I thought their focus was kinda dated in 2023 (in the age of the internet). So I prefer the papers, which have a bit less of an axe to grind even though many had strong opinions.

Good 101, includes the station density charts:
The Institutional Context of Industry Consolidation: Radio Broadcasting in the United States, 1920-1934
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20430750

Good overview of increased consolidation:
FCC Regulation and Increased Ownership Concentration in the Radio Industry
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...

A 1934 focused piece:
The Rationality of U.S. Regulation of the Broadcast Spectrum in the 1934 Communications Act
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43550486

Cool MAP Via David Rumsey! https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/serv...

Spectrum auctions/non-auctions is a whole thing. This paper described the tensions in 1970, when auctions weren't a thing.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4224051

Paper specifically addressing programming diversity:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15506843jr...

Really liked this Todd Wirth paper, because he had these nice anecdotes to go with the hard data:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...

World Radio History! My primary source resource for documents, magazines, pamphlets, FCC stuff, etc. I love these people.
https://worldradiohistory.com/FCC-Pub...

Left out this influential paper by Peter Steiner. Basically, a bunch of people thought monopolies would actually be good for programming diversity, and the logic sorta makes sense (except it doesn't apply in radio bizarro land, where you have oligopolies that still compete fiercely in narrowly regulated markets. It's all weird. But here's the paper.)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1882942