Saleable Compromises
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MARKO ALA-FOSSI SALEABLE COMPROMISES Quality Cultures in Finnish and US Commercial Radio ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tampere, for public discussion in the auditorium A1 of the University Main Building, Kalevantie 4, Tampere, on February 26th, 2005 at 12 o’clock. University of Tampere Tampere 2005 Marko Ala-Fossi SALEABLE COMPROMISES Quality Cultures in Finnish and US Commercial Radio Media Studies ACADEMIC DISSERTATION University of Tampere, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication FINLAND Copyright © Tampere University Press and Marko Ala-Fossi Sales Bookshop TAJU P.O. BOX 617 33014 University of Tampere Finland Tel. +358 3 215 6055 Fax +358 3 215 7685 email taju@uta.fi http://granum.uta.fi Cover: Mia Ristimäki Layout: Aila Helin Printed dissertation ISBN 951-44-6214-9 Electronic dissertation Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 414 ISBN 951-44-6213-0 ISSN 1456-954X http://acta.uta.fi Tampereen Yliopistopaino Oy – Juvenes Print Tampere 2005 “We all can buy the same records, play them on the same type of turntable and we can all hire someone to talk. The difference in radio is like the difference in soap – it depends on who puts on the best wrapper.” (Gordon McLendon in 1961, cited in Garay 1992, 70) The p.d., who had been with the station nine years, asked: “Do you think we can maintain our reputation for quality programming and still pull in a much larger audience?” The general manager leaned back in his armchair, thumped his sales reports, and said, “My defi nition of quality radio is whatever the No. 1 station is doing!” (Fornatale & Mills 1980, 59) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Although some of my very earliest memories are related to radio programs, my fi rst real interest in radio was rather physical. I am still grateful to my parents that I was allowed to study and demolish a few old and obsolete receivers and turn them into all kinds of imaginary devices – and nowadays I am even more grateful that some of those old receivers also survived my curiosity. For a while, another medium took my attention. As a child of the television age, I learned to read from the screen before I went to school. But when I became a teenager, I turned back to radio. Again, radio was an instrument, which opened the gates to an imaginary world, this time to distant lands and exotic places on the other side of the world. I spent many nights DXing, seeking new foreign stations, taping programs and making notes for reception reports. These pleasant experiences with radio at young age established my path towards studies in journalism and work in radio. My career as a professional journalist started at about the same time as private local radio was introduced in Finland. A few times these two paths also intersected. I was eager to start my fi rst real job in a small local paper, because the same company also had a brand new local radio station in the basement. But it was not until I got a job in regional public radio that I became interested especially in commercial radio. From a common sense perspective, certain things at the commercial stations did not seem to make any sense at all. However, it soon became crucial to understand these private competitors as well as their new methods, which were adopted from them also to public radio. That situation gave the original spark for seeking deeper knowledge about commercial radio. Anyway, I got to know the pioneer spirit of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s in Finnish radio – and for that I am grateful to all my former colleagues in radio. I would like to thank three scholars of radio, without whom this study would never have happened. Taisto Hujanen has been my academic advisor at the University of Tampere since 1993, when I started my fi rst studies on radio. His patience and encouragement, and careful guidance have helped me to fi nd my way through one academic project after another. I got to know Gregory F. Lowe fi rst through his writings in the early 1990’s, and since 1997 I‘ve had a privilege to know him also as a friend and colleague at Yleisradio. Our discussions and joint projects have been a great pleasure and also very important for the development of my theoretical thinking about radio. Since September 1997, Alan G. Stavitsky has been my mentor and 5 guide into knowing American society and its commercial radio. His expert knowledge and unfaltering support have been practically irreplaceable for this study, especially when he was my academic advisor at the University of Oregon. My employer, Yleisradio has been most sympathetic and supportive towards my research project and without hesitation awarded me the study leaves needed for the completion of this work. Especially I would like to thank Juhani Wiio, who also helped me to arrange the transcription work of the Finnish interviews. Ari Alm’s theoretical approach to quality and quality culture in radio has been one of the main inspirations of this study, and Pentti Kemppainen has shared his ideas and provided me with lots of important information and material about radio. In addition, I would also like to thank also Tapio Siikala, Minna-Mari Parkkinen and Sari Virta. Without your support this project would have been much more diffi cult. Once again, Tarmo Niemi has helped me in all technical problems and also provided the necessary recording equipment for the research interviews. I had a privilege of spending the academic year of 2001–2002 as a visiting doctoral student at the University of Oregon, Eugene. Those twelve months of full-time studies in an exceptionally inspiring academic community really had a deep and profound impact on my thinking in general and especially on this research. I wish to thank all my teachers and all my fellow students at the Journalism School. It was great to get know you – and I still miss those stimulating discussions we had during that year. Along the way, I have also learned to know other graduate students of radio. Lars Nyre and Eeva Mäntymäki have been my fellow travelers on the long and sometimes windy road towards this doctoral dissertation, and they have also read and commented on parts of this study. In addition, I would like to thank Veikko Pietilä for commenting the fi rst full version of the manuscript as well as Michael Huntsberger for both commenting the text and correcting my English. This study has been fi nancially supported by several different institutions. I am grateful for the generosity of the University of Tampere, Suomen Kulttuurirahaston Etelä-Pohjanmaan rahasto [The Finnish Cultural Foundation, South Ostrobothnia Fund], Viestintäalan Taloudellinen Tutkimusssäätiö (VTTS) [The Economic Research Fund of Communications], Journalistisen Kulttuurin Edistämissäätiö (JOKES) [The Foundation for Development of Journalistic Culture], Koulutusrahasto KOURA [Training Fund KOURA] and Alfred Kordelinin säätiön Seinäjoen rahasto [The Seinäjoki Fund of Alfred Kordelin Foundation]. In addition, I want to express my special gratitude to the Fulbright Center for the ASLA- 6 Fulbright Graduate Grant that provided me an opportunity to study in the United States. The last fi ve years have been an adventure for me and also my family. I want to thank Tarja, Mikko, Jukka, Hanna and Heta for sharing this journey with me. My passion for radio took us all to the other side of the world for a while, but your fearless and high-spirited attitude made that year a memorable experience. I owe you all a lot: you have patiently tolerated my absence as well my absent-mindedness, and my wife Tarja has taken care of almost all of the responsibilities of our everyday life, while I have concentrated on this study. Without you, I would not have been able to carry through all those lonely hours of work. Ilmajoki, May and December 2004 Marko Ala-Fossi 7 ABSTRACT Ala-Fossi, Marko Saleable Compromises. Quality Cultures in Finnish and US Commercial Radio. Academic Dissertation University of Tampere, 2005 Department of Journalism and Mass Communication The focus of this study is on the comparative analysis of the quality cultures in contemporary Finnish and US commercial radio, and its major theoretical objective is to understand and defi ne the quality culture in commercial radio. The study examines how the conceptions of quality in Finnish and US commercial radio are historically constituted, what are the major differences and similarities in conceptions of quality in contemporary Finnish and US commercial radio, and what is quality and quality culture in commercial radio broadcasting and how it is composed. The cultural history of the quality conceptions in commercial radio in both countries is examined using qualitative methods from the perspective of political economy and media economics as an historical process of value transformation. The contemporary quality cultures, based on quality conceptions refl ecting the underlying values, are studied using an integrated theoretical approach, drawing on multiple theories from communications studies, media economics, political economy, quality management and cultural studies. This approach is the basis for the idea of six-dimensional quality culture, which is the framework for the qualititative analysis of 24 research interviews of people working for commercial radio in Finland or in the US. The major fi ndings of the study are that, although the conceptions of quality in commercial radio have eventually been shaped by economic considerations, these considerations have also been informed by social, political and cultural aspects of quality. The main difference in quality cultures in contemporary Finnish and US commercial radio is that the quality conceptions in the US are more uniform and primarily industrial, while in Finland there are still two main co-existing quality cultures.