When WKNR-FM moved from a Keener simulcast to become one of the early Underground radio stations, Frank Maruca's direction was that the FM format should be the opposite of Keener's high energy, personality driven presentation. The play list was longer, there were fewer commercials and the announcers were low key. The focus was on the music and the jocks knowledge of the tunes and the artists was encyclopedic. The sound was hip, the station connected with the community and the concept was soon synergized by WABX, WRIF and a host of others. 35 years later, everything old is new again.

On June 30, NPR brought "NEO Radio" above the radar, And once again there is a Detroit connection. Fred Jacobs, who broke album rock ground at WRIF and developed the Big Chill sound that is still the foundation of today's classic rock formats, believes that radio is at another fork in the road.

The President of Jacobs Media, one of the industry's most respected programming consulting groups, contends that the Satellite guys are making inroads precisely because their formats offer a freshness and variety that's absent from the tight, predictable play lists that permeate almost every radio brand today. NPR's listenership is soaring because people want "credible, balanced information" presented in a "calm, hype free environment that values the listener." And in certain corners of the commercial broadcast realm, a different philosophy is beginning to emerge. It's "depth-driven, somewhat anti-corporate and hosted by DJs who know and get the music. The air staff is empowered to make musical choices and that is communicated to listeners who appreciate this value."

Sound familiar? It's exactly the approach WKNR-FM and others used at the dawn of album oriented radio. It's not a true clone. You don't hear Dan Carlisle brain-wrestling with Iggy Pop, but my guess is that as it continues to evolve, it's hippness will attract artists to the microphones and the time spent listening will increase from the 20 minute drive to work, to an all day affair.

Fred Jacobs coins the phrase NEO Radio to describe this value-based listener relationship. It requires programmers and announcers who have brains, guts and vision and the courage to carry it out. Listen to KQMT in Denver and you'll hear automotive ads, but you won't hear the screaming and the sound effects. That doesn't jive with "The Mountain's" listener values. It's not what the listener wants.

What a concept.

When I talk to my friends who are still on the front lines of this business, they complain that we test the same song library over and over. Each year's brilliant new idea is to drop off the oldies at the bottom end of the target demographic and throw in some of the newer stuff to replace it. Some believe that hit radio play lists are in another creative drought. Even with the FCC crack-down, too many morning shows are still driven by sex and shock. And the stop sets are so long that you can punch through the entire dial, stop for gas and play a CD cut and still come back before the music starts. The advertisers know it and don't like it. And an entire generation of radio listeners looks to XM and MP3s as their primary road-bound entertainment.

But there are signs that NEO Radio's time may be coming. Steven VanZant's Undergound Garage plays untested music that works. It's attracting the same kind of cult following that was at the vanguard of the Underground radio revolution. Jim Atkinson's web radio station 3WK features a large play list and attracts an audience who is willing to pay $100.00 a year to support the brand.

Look a bit deeper and a precursor to NEO can be found on the scratchy, unprocessed pirate radio airwaves. One of my favorite radio books is Sue Carpenter's "40 Watts From Nowhere". Its the story of KBLT, an unlicensed station she ran out of her apartment in Los Angeles. Her vision was at the edge of the envelope, a free form approach that allowed the DJ's total control over everything that was played and said. The jocks were amateurs and the four letter words may have flowed a bit too freely, but they played a wide array of music, knew their subject and presented it without the hype. Sue had no money for promotion so the listeners had to find the station and so many did that the Feds finally took notice and clipped KBLT's wings.

Think of the things that have connected with your psyche. If you grew up in the Keener era they probably included Scott Regen's Testifiers, most Beatle records, the original Creem Magazine, a concert at the Grande, Johnny Ginger, The Ford Mustang, Vietnam, Bob-Lo and the '68 Tigers. These things bring back visceral memories. They influenced us then and they influence us still. There is WKNR music that we associate with each of these events (much of it absent from the airwaves today), and WKNR's programmers, air staff and sales force had a connection with them all.

NEO Radio won't change the world overnight and there will be a strong market segment that will still be satisfied with the tightly programmed approach that's today's norm. But those of us who loved Keener and WKNR-FM in their prime still believe that radio is a as much an art as a science, requiring talented programmers and announcers who are given the "intelligent flexibility" to entertain and inform an intelligent audience. NEO Radio gives us a glimmer of hope that the industry may again value these skills and encourage a better connection with the public interest.

After all, that's what it's all about.

LINK: The full text of Jacobs Media's memorandum on the NEO Radio Movement.