Keep Austin Weird, Keep Austin Local, Long Live the Underdog?

In yet another painful blow to local independent music, the Austin Music Network will be taken off the air beginning September 1st. Much as the FM spectrum consolidated under heavily-regimented corporate media dictatorships in the last decade, most non-profit community channels on TV are succumbing to the unstoppable expansion-assimilation by our country's few and mammoth "diversified media enterprises."

It's not that we rail against anything touched by the death hand of media corporations as a rule - indeed, an elite cadre of radio personalities on larger stations here in Austin are uniformly brilliant and, owing to their relatively grandiose budgetary means, are able to entice many fantastic bands into playing in our beloved city. What saddens us is that for many of these mammoth entities, the bottom line is - almost without exception - their stock valuation. Case in point - Clear Channel's "Corporate GCreed", which states, balls-out:

We are in the business of helping our customers grow their businesses. We do this effectively with our wide variety of media and entertainment products. We believe in maximizing our customer's satisfaction, we will deserve and will earn their continued loyalty. Our goal is to have long term, mutually profitable relationships.

Where, pray tell, is there even the slightest suggestion of a love for the music itself? But we digress.

Next month, Austin Music Network ends an extraordinary 11-year run that saw the production of numerous award-winning local programs, provided a venue in which small or no-budget film and TV projects could be shared with the community, sparked the creative fires in countless high school and college kids through outreach programs, and rallied Austin around a singular, unequivocal message: this city thrives on our creative community.

For the time being, they will retain their internet broadcasting - you can always tune into the 24/7 live stream. It now remains to see whether the City of Austin decides that AMN provides an "important service to our local community".

Perhaps you might write the city council and tell them what you think.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Allen Y Chen in Arts & Entertainment on August 9, 2005 1:12 PM 0 Comments

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Clay

The Austin Music Network has actually been self-sufficient (absolutely zero city funding) for a full year now. The timing is unfortunate, just as AMN proved itself capable it was replaced. However, I am hopeful that the new Austin Music Partners will continue forward with the mission that AMN began.

Clay

The Austin Music Network has actually been self-sufficient (absolutely zero city funding) for a full year now. The timing is unfortunate, just as AMN proved itself capable it was replaced. I am hopeful that the new Austin Music Partners will continue forward with the mission that AMN began.

James S.

Both of you, please. The Austin Music Network lives on as an entity. Austin Music Partners is a group of investors who are going to try a model out. Taking the AMN into the private sector.

You're both right. The AMN - the idea of it anyway - is important to the city.

And, the AMN had to learn how to subside on it's own, it never did and wouldn't under the old model.

Let's take the positive route and cheer on the success to a new model that may do what the AMN needs to do, promote Austin Musicians to Austinites and people worldwide through cable broadcast and streaming with adequate promotion and scheduling that they've never had.

I'm looking forward to it.

allen

You're right on both counts. AMN spent ages dealing with crippling budgetary crisis before finally - and only recently, as it turns out - achieving some measure of self sufficiency. 60 days worth, to be fair - but it was a start. The whole story is retold here.

And while I hardly hate corporate media ("hate" being an extreme feeling reserved for brussels sprouts and three-hour conference calls), I admit to harboring a strong frustration towards these massive entities who are so clearly more concerned with their bottom line than playing great music. It's not just we who feel this way - sadly, this comes straight from the mouths of people who work for these companies.

The two aren't necessarily correlated - AMN's demise you might attribute to their own miscalculations. Or you might choose to see it in a larger context of the populace growing comfortable with easily-digestible, master-planned media and opting not to consider anything that isn't presented in glossy packaging.

And I'm happy to say that in the two weeks I've lived here it's been amazing to witness just how entrenched in the creative community are the artists, musicians, writers I've met. Call it a naive optimism if you want - I don't want to see it change.

Ron Mexico

maybe if you'd live in Austin for more than a few weeks, you'd realize this has less to do with your misguided hatred for corporate media than it does to do with a municipally funded problem child that's been unable to figure out how to subsist on its own for years now.