COVER STORY
R A D I D V I O O C
Local stations strategize how to be socially distant while staying socially relevant CRAIG S. SEMON
10
WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
A U G U S T 6 - 12, 2020
WOR
CESTER
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ho can forget Elvis Costello’s “Radio, Radio,” R.E.M.’s “Radio Free Europe,” The Clash’s “This Is Radio Clash,” Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio,” Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerrilla Radio,” Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga,” Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio,” the Ramones’ “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Radio Nowhere,” Donna Summer’s “On the Radio,” as well a Golden Earring’s “Radar Love,” The Velvet Underground’s “Rock & Roll,” and Jonathan Richmond’s “Roadrunner”? Whether it’s an AM or FM station playing some forgotten song that offers rock ‘n’ roll salvation or the corporate machine being chastised for trying to anesthetize the way that you feel, there has been some great and not so great songs that have celebrated and eviscerated radio in the annals of pop culture. But that was all before what I like to term COVID Radio, radio in the age of the coronavirus.
Yes, like everything else, radio, the staple of the morning commute, your number one place for last-minute snow cancellations and the first thing many sleepy heads hear when their clock radio goes off, has been affected by the recent pandemic. For instance, Howard Stern has been broadcasting his popular Sirius Satellite radio show since March 23 from remote ISDN lines from his home. And, if you have ever listened to his coronavirus pandemic broadcasts, it doesn’t sound like the 66-year-old shock jock, whose five-year contact lapses at the end of 2020, wants to go back to the studio, due to his fear of catching the coronavirus and his constant criticism of the alleged lack of cleanliness of some of his staffers. Closer to home, Bob Goodell, the regional vice president of Cumulus Media (which includes WXLO 104.5 FM, and it’s sister stations The Pike 100 FM and NASH Icon 98.9 FM) said the radio world changed around the Ides of March.
