Metal and Radio

Commercial radio has always been about revenue - getting the highest return for advertisers. It's no surprise then that commercial radio has traditionally ignored metal and hard rock (more about that later). But even non-commerical radio has shied away from metal shows.

I did my first on-air show for a non-commercial station the other night. Yes, it was a metal show. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the first metal show they've ever aired. I chose the bands and songs very carefully, mostly to avoid the restricted lyrics, but also to make sure I featured a very diverse list of bands and songs you would never hear anywhere else.

This made me consider why radio has always had such a disdain for metal and hard rock. There's the obvious reason of profane lyrics (including the dreaded "seven words you can't say over the air", courtesy of George Carlin). I suppose the station managers don't see much ad revenue potential beyond beer and motorcycles. That's rather shortsighted.

The "classic hard rock and metal" format is probably the easiest sell. The prime example is the popular "Nights with Alice Cooper" show, featured on numerous mainstream commercial stations. I love this show. Alice Cooper cracks me up, and in between the stale classic rock he features some obscure metal bands and cuts. Believe it or not, he's even played bands like WASP and Krokus. There are other "classic" syndicated shows out there, such as Dee Snider's "House of Hair". It's been nice to see these shows gain widespread acceptance. You wouldn't have seen these types of shows even ten years ago.

Power metal and European metal is very rarely heard on commercial radio in the U.S. I would guess it gets some airplay on college stations. I think the main reason is that this style of metal is not well-known in our country and you have to really know the genre in order to learn about the bands and find out about new releases. It's a shame because there are some talented musicians out there. Europe has always been more supportive of the metal scene than the U.S. Even during the grunge years in the U.S., the traditional metal bands maintained their following in Europe.

Death metal is not on commercial radio for the profanity reason, but also because of the dark and "non-P.C." messages inherent in many bands' songs. I can't imagine how one would sell a death metal format to advertisers. It might work as an overnight "niche" show in an overall hard rock and metal format, but never on a commercial station.

Stoner/desert metal and doom have other barriers that prevent them from being on the radio. The length of many songs is a barrier for this genre. Most stations would not feature a song that plays longer than maybe five minutes, and some of the best stoner bands have songs that can top six, seven, even eight minutes. I did feature a few stoner metal songs on my show, but the longest was around six minutes. I can't imagine a commercial station doing that.

Perhaps satellite radio will be the medium that finally breaks many of these talented outsider bands to the general public. Satellite radio seems to be the only place that allows niche shows and places fewer restrictions on what can be played. Commercial radio is probably never going to turn a friendlier eye to metal other than the syndicated shows I mentioned earlier. At least there are still non-commerical and college stations that allow this music to be heard.