In game four of the National League Championship Series, Shohei Ohtani delivered the best single-person performance in the history of baseball. After pitching 10 strikeouts in a nearly seven-inning start and hitting three home runs, the Dodgers’ superstar redefined excellence in his sport.
And the super cut of the Los Angeles Dodgers radio broadcast on AM 570 is just incredible.
Regardless of fandom, you have to respect the way Stephen Nelson delivers this play-by-play. Please stop and listen to this now.
You don’t need to see what Ohtani did to feel the power of the performance when listening to Nelson. The way he uses words, puts more or less power behind them and even uses blank space to allow the crowd to travel over the airwaves into cars and offices around Southern California is art.
A few years ago, I started listening to AM 570, just for Dodger games. Nelson’s voice provides the perfect tone and tenor for these games. I prefer his play-by-play over anyone else still in the business. But it’s his use of details that gets me.
Nelson’s excitement and inability to comprehend what just happened while narrating the scene, and his focus on the littlest things — the way Ohtani hands the ball to his manager — make it feel complete, especially without the picture.
I love radio shows. I listen to The Boots and Saddle Show on CKXU 88.3 FM in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Both Kinds of Music on KOOP 91.7 FM in Austin, Texas, the Americana Matinee on The SoCal Sound, among a few others, most weeks.
Each program provides at least an hour of music, most of it by artists I enjoy, but I don’t often choose to add to my playlists or keep in my hard-copy collection. As I told Sean Burns, host and producer of The Boots and Saddle Show, it’s the hour a week I don’t have to think about where to get good music — I just put it on and trust that I’ll be entertained.
This trust is key to the art of the show, he told me in a recent interview.
He explained that his role “behind the mic” is to program his own show and share his thoughts and opinions, something that streaming—or its curated playlists—cannot deliver.
“There’s a connection in providing a real human touch to the show. I’m sure that existed regionally 50 or 60 years ago with certain DJs, but I don’t think it’s the same today,” with playlists and such, he told me.
Kat Griffin, host of the long-running Americana Matinee on 88.5 FM in LA, thinks about it a bit differently.
“I think of streaming like an addition on a house,” she told me recently. “It’s a new part of the house that adds value to the original structure. People may use that addition in ways they don’t use the rest of the house.”
Without the constraints of a radio single, streaming transcends geography, so audience reach is only limited by internet connections, she explained. But music streaming services don’t replace radio.
“Music streaming platforms are fine if you just want background music, but that’s very different from a curated music program that provides insight and background on the songs you hear,” she said. “Internet-only radio stations like LuxuriaMusic are the best of both worlds in terms of unique content and curated programs that share audiences with traditional radio and Spotify. You can listen to it all whenever you feel like it.”
Don Sticksel, aka DJ Salty Cracker, the host of Both Kinds of Music, agrees with Griffin, as there is something special about the curation and guided discovery.
“New music is hard for people. They want comfort and ease. New music means they have to listen and judge. If you don’t like the music I’m playing, then it’s back to the streaming. But I think I have good taste and, after all these years of listening, know what works. To that extent, I’m a living algorithm; trained to push out the best to the new and recent releases.”
He’s like AI without the artificial stuff.
As someone who digs for new music through social listening, algorithmic dependency and luck, I respect the work and experience Sticksel and the other bring to developing these shows.
But what I like the most is how they talk to me. They engage me in a conversation about the music we like — it allows me to get to know them and the music they play. And that relationship they build is valuable.
Sadly, the art form of radio — the curated, creative process of telling stories with only words, filling just enough airtime to paint a picture in the listener's mind and keep them engaged— seems to be dying.
Sticksel believes that since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the role of radio has shifted away from entertainment and sharing experiences, towards consolidation and homogenization in the service of the industry. There was always a balance between the two, but it was in the mid-90s that the shift became so pronounced.
He notes that iHeartMedia/Clear Channel owns 870 stations, Cumulus owns 404 and there is one satellite provider. Sadly, he doesn’t remember the last time he tuned into commercial radio. “There’s nothing out there for me.”
The streamlined efficiencies enabled by automation and consolidation may drive profits but diminish the value of the art shared across what was once seen as the most important medium for music. Without local discoveries, like those on Griffin’s show, and lively banter about the lives of our DJs, like what we get on the Boots and Saddle Show or the absolutely off-the-wall songs that Both Kinds of Music feature regularly, these platforms fall flat.
Commercial radio still has splashes of brilliance, and it can still help launch careers.
I’m specifically thinking of Bobby Bones’ support of Kaitlin Butts’ viral sensation “You Don’t Have to Die to Be Dead to Me,” earlier this year. He took the time to play the song, talk about it and play it again on his show. Then she was on his show to play the song. This was a huge turning point for an already fairly popular song, bringing a respected emerging and alternative artist into the mainstream.
But folks listening to iHeartRadio stations don’t regularly get this level of program diversification. And Bones holds a unique position in this ecosystem. It’s unlikely that the local commercial country radio station DJ will be in a position to play an up-and-coming regional or local band. The curation is without nuance. It’s tested and the same in every market.
There is no art in that.
This past spring, we took a trip to the Midwest in an area with less-than-ideal cell service. We dedicated our bandwidth to GPS and tried to listen to country radio. In the two hours we drove each way from the airport and around town, we heard about a dozen songs, none of which were new besides the latest Morgan Wallen releases.
Without judgment about the music's quality, it was boring to hear the same 12 or so songs every time we turned on the radio.
The art is in the unexpected. When you know what to expect, there is no growth, its comfortable.
I try hard not to be nostalgic for a past I never really experienced. But the idea of passively putting on the radio to hear something unique to my community seems valuable, perhaps especially now.
The Wildwood Flower Radio Hour, a Tuesday Night Show on KXLU 88.9 FM in Los Angeles, does this very well — and I love listening online or on the socails, usually as dishes get done or kids get clean. But this is a specialty show on a public radio station.
We need more investment in our communities. This will drive human engagement and better relationships. It will provide a stage for artists and improve our mental health. Radio isn’t a social panacea, and we were never as good as we want to remember, but meaningful connections can help us be better.
Or at least I want to believe that.