There's no denying the Detroit sound -- that deep Motown groove, the relentless rock beat, and the spacey thrum of techno. At one time Detroit radio was known for taking that sound and spreading it to the masses.
Excited voices of deejays like "Frantic" Ernie Durham, Lee Alan, Scott Regen and the Electrifyin' Mojo were as compelling to listen to as the records they spun. Because of them, artists such as Bob Seger, Parliament-Funkadelic and the MC5 launched from Detroit radio to national stardom.
But that once distinctive sound has been diluted by playlists controlled by media conglomerates airing predictable music that could be heard anywhere in the country.
Today, radio programming leaves little room to showcase local musicians, and there has been an invasion of syndicated shows and on-air personalities spliced in from distant cities via computer. The end result: Listeners are tuning out.

Personally, having been someone who was *greatly* influenced by what I heard on Detroit radio, I find this a terrible crime. It was DJ's like the Electrifying Mojo and Mike Halloran that introduced me to MC5, Kraftwerk, Parliament-Funkadelic, Run DMC, Afrika Bambaataa, the Damned, the Clash, the Cocteau Twins, the Legendary Pink Dots, Skinny Puppy, and a ton of other brilliant artists. WDET was almost single handedly responsible for bringing the Detroit Techno sound to life by playing Carl Craig, Richie Hawtin, Kevin Saunderson, and Jeff Mills, not to mention contemporary classical composers like Wendy Carlos, Todd Machover, Suzanne Ciani, and the Art of Noise.

Having this resource gave me a tremendous encyclopaedic knowledge of music and exposed my palette to stuff well beyond that of most PEOPLE, much less most teenagers. It was a huge reason why I became a musician in the first place, because I was constantly being surprised and excited by what music could be and the ideas that it could express. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Detroit radio for enriching my life in such a profound way.

Perhaps it's anachronistic to lament the passing of radio now in our digital age. Hell, I haven't listened to anything other than NPR and college radio since 1990. But with each passing year, it gets harder and harder to find truly exciting and original works of art, and not coincidentaly, the dross that passes for pop music gets more and more staid. While I can see the economics behind it all making sense, does that make it right? At what point do we stop engorging in profits at the sake of destroying the future? Is this even a dumb question?

Once distinctive sound fades into predictability