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I’m at the Bandwidth Conference. The first panel I’m attending is called The Tuning Fork, which promises to be “a look at the future of programming in all its forms.” It’s moderated by Ben Fong-Torres, and the panelists are David Benson, Mark Lam, and Chris Mays.

As with all of my liveblogging, these are my own impressionistic notes on the proceedings, and they are not intended for attribution either to me or to the speakers.

Q: What is the state of radio today?

Mays: Our demise is over-recorded. Radio will outlive many other media. Competition is revving up again. You can’t go in as a group platform; there has to be competition even among stations owned by the same conglomerates. Local, compelling content is what we do; it’s immediate. As things grow more homogenous, this local, immediate nature is what will lead us into the future.

Benson: Go ahead — think that radio is dead. We’re just doing what we do. We’re part of the digital world. The writing about the subject has been strangely skewed — we’re in the audience business, and it’s not about the medium. We’ll be around, whether it’s over FM or satellite or streaming. We know music. We’re not threatened by iPods or streams — people liking music is great, and when they want our experience, they’ll choose it. It’s 97% instead of 94% now — that’s not so bad.

Q: What do yoour numbers show you, Mark?

Lam: Content is king. Radio is local, I agree. We offer the world’s most diverse contents — 10,000 broadcasters, and listeners in 216 countries.

Mays: Satellite radio generates a lot of good press. In reality, penetration in SF of satellite radio is less than 3%. they’ve done some things well — they got to Detroit first, and they’re in cars where HD radio should be.

Lam: They’re burning through cash very fast. $5 billion. They’re not breaking even any time soon.

Q: What’s happening 3-5 years down the line for them?

Lam: XM just went for another round of financing. New technologies are likely to overtake them.

Q: Has their widening of the palette been a challenge to you?

Benson: We at KFOG are doing a lot more local music. It’s not a challenge — this is just what we do. The satellite model may be broken.

Q: What did you hear when you came into the SF market? What prompted the adjustments you made?

Mays: Radio programmers are entertainment directors. There are too many radio stations programmed for women by men. Many women grew up with rock and roll, and maybe they don’t want to hear Metallica, but they do want to hear great music. Less Beyonce, more Death Cab. Less Mariah Carey, more U2. Even the commercials — the good ones — are local content. There’s a new kind of local — “tribal”, perhaps. As we interact socially less, we need things that generate a sense of belonging. A radio station that plays the right music and has the right style of DJs can create a certain vibe, creating a community that could be international.

Q: Mays is starting a new SMS program on Alice. Dave Benson has a Music Matrix — very broad, much broader than you’d expect for KFOG. What does this mean for Mark Lam?

Lam: We offer a platform — we’re content-agnostic. HD radio has potential, but it depends on execution. We have all kinds of stations. We have a station from Mexico playing nothing but various renditions of Ave Maria. Hundreds.

Q: HD radio gives commercial stations subchannels. Alice and KFOG have started streaming your subchannels.

Benson: You can’t get that many channels out of it. We put out our regular FM program, and then also our side channel — we’re doing a straight-ahead CHR top 40 station. There isn’t one in SF right now. But nobody’s listening at this point other than radio and music geeks with $400 HD radio receivers.

Mays: As an industry, we’re not running commercials on our side channels for the first year and a half. This is to get traction.

Q: A little Texas company called Clear Channel got in the news for asking the FCC to relax ownership requirements. There’s a sense — true or not (Benson: That’s baloney!) that all of the stations are broadcasting from some compound someplace.

Benson: It’s never been easier to get airplay. It’s always been hard. There was always Eric Clapton to compete with. Who are we to say that people shouldn’t like the music they listen to, or the stations they listen to? People try to find community

Audience questions.

Q: Chris, when you cut Beyonce, did you get a lot of complaints. When you read Billboard, you hardly recognize any of these artists. Do you believe Soundscan?

Mays: You develop your musical taste at a certain time in your life. Everyone has those favorites. We have to have a sense of the sound and style that allows us to develop a community. Give them the new so our listeners don’t have to go find them on Myspace. I’m a filter. If you like U2 and Coldplay, you’ll like THIS. I’m not always right, but I do pretty well.

Benson: I don’t think they manipulate Soundscan. I started as a DJ who wanted to play the music I liked. We have to separate our personal perspective, and see a larger viewpoint. It’s all about the audience, and WE are not the audience. Millions of people care about Mariah Carey.

Q: How do you discover new music? Digital sources?

Benson: We get 300 CDs a week. We’re using the same universe that’s made available to everyone else. Music blogs. We do make decisions. We narrow it down. There are some who think it shouldn’t be narrowed down, but that’s not the best entertainment. Audiences just don’t prefer that.

Lam: We are limited only by the section 114 royalties we pay to SoundExchange. Terrestrial radio doesn’t pay performance royalties for sound recordings. It’s over 20% of our costs.

Q (from Colette Vogele): Are you involved in the Copyright Office proceedings settign the new rates? What’s your impression?

Lam: There’s no way of telling. i’m involved. RIAA/SoundExchange is arguing for 2.5 or 3 times what they’re getting now. They’ve already destroyed the entire commercial webcasting industry, other than us. It’s about making sure that there’s a platform for the people who want to share music with the world.