Letter from the Editor
The initial idea for the Redemption issue sprouted in the spring of 2018, when WYBC briefly suspended operations due to a lapse in licensing payments. As a medium that is oftentimes overly concerned with its position in the age of streams and scrobbles, radio was thrown into a spin, and conversations took place about the legitimacy of the form. At the time there seemed like a need to do something: change the approach, miraculously reinvent broadcasting. But somehow the whole thing disappeared, shows resumed in a couple of weeks, things naturally went back to normal. If there is anything we learned from the fiasco, it’s that the panic was in our heads, and that there was no real need for the great redemptive event. Things just resolved on their own, made up for themselves, withstood the test of time. This is radio’s constant predicament: radio is doomed, but it’s also not going anywhere anytime soon.
Everyone loves a good redemption story, and it’s my hope that this issue will serve as a kind of redemption in itself. This all happened so long ago—Avril Lavigne’s sk8r grrl persona, B.o.B’s flat earth conspiracies, radio’s shutdown—that I’m sure you must have forgot all about it. It’s some old doors we’re knocking on. We didn’t have to bring it back up, but we did so that’s on us and maybe music journalism is evil for it. But when it comes to troubled figures like Kanye, we like them so much that we want them to succeed, to take back their narrative. And when they do, it has to be someone’s job to, you know, narrate.
And so what is the fate of all things dead? Will fidget spinners, chillwave, American Football make exciting returns in 2019? Maybe they’ll be back with a bang. Let’s not forget, cassette sales grew 23% last year, Rivers Cuomo made it big with the Toto cover, and MGMT put out a synthpop record.
But maybe those guys were never really gone. No good thing ever dies, and perhaps everything else is past the point of redemption. But you never really know. Maybe B.o.B has recorded the greatest album ever and he’s just not letting any of us hear it.
Radio is dead, long live radio,
Peter