I didn’t start out planning to write about radio.

This entire train of thought began after I watched one of Rick Beato’s YouTube deep-dives—specifically his breakdown of the corruption, consolidation, and research-driven decision-making that hollowed out the record industry and helped kill American radio from the inside out.

Beato’s argument hit harder than I expected:

Radio didn’t die because of streaming.

It died because a rigged, risk-averse, monopolized system strangled creativity long before Spotify showed up.

And as I listened, I realized something unsettling:

Everything that destroyed radio is now happening inside the food & beverage industry—almost beat for beat.

Distribution as a weapon.

Consolidation as a strategy.

Research replacing instinct.

Creativity replaced by risk mapping.

Executives convinced the audience will never leave.

Beato was talking about music.

But he was really describing how industries collapse.

This is the story of how radio lost its future—and how food and beverage is walking straight down the same path.

1. Clinton’s Law: The Beginning of the End

Robert Maxwell Clinton’s famous principle explains the slow death of any industry that forgets how to innovate:

“When consolidation becomes the primary strategy for growth, innovation has already died—and the industry will follow.”

That’s exactly what happened to radio.

And it’s exactly what is happening today in packaged food and beverage.

Consolidation creates scale.

Scale creates sameness.

Sameness destroys relevance.

2. How Monopolies Turned Radio Into Wallpaper

The 1996 Telecommunications Act was radio’s asteroid strike—only it didn’t kill the dinosaurs instantly. It starved them.

Ownership caps disappeared.

Clear Channel (now iHeart) bought more than 1,200 stations.

Cumulus and CBS Radio swallowed dozens more.

Local stations stopped being local.

Playlists became national.

DJs became syndicated voices.

Risk-taking died.

Everything became cheaper, safer, and blander.

Radio traded culture for operational efficiency.

It became a product of accountants, not artists.

This wasn’t innovation.

It was consolidation masquerading as strategy.

And consumers noticed.

3. How Research Helped Kill the Music Industry (and Radio With It)

Beato’s video highlights one of the most important—and least discussed—forces behind radio’s downfall: the rise of research-driven programming.

Song testing.

Hook testing.

Callout research.

Burn scores.

Familiarity indexes.

What started as “understanding the audience” quickly became “eliminate anything unfamiliar.”

Research did to music what pesticides do to soil:

It increased short-term yield and killed long-term growth.

Here’s how research quietly murdered music creativity—and dragged radio with it:

A. Familiarity became the gatekeeper

New songs couldn’t test well because people didn’t know them yet.

So radio stopped playing new music.

B. Risk became the enemy

Long intros?

Unusual structures?

Genre blending?

Cultural experimentation?

Nope.

If it didn’t fit the formula, research said kill it.

C. Labels stopped developing artists

If a single didn’t test well in 90 days, the act was dropped.

Art became disposable.

D. Playlists converged

Every station chased the same “safe” metrics, producing identical playlists.

From there, the collapse was inevitable.

Napster didn’t kill radio.

iTunes didn’t kill radio.

Spotify didn’t kill radio.

Radio killed radio.

Streaming simply provided an escape hatch.

4. And Now the Food & Beverage Industry Is Repeating the Same Mistakes

Look at the grocery aisle with the same analytical lens Beato uses for music, and the parallels snap into focus.

The same forces are at work:

• monopolistic distribution
• consolidation instead of innovation
• research-driven decision making
• product homogenization
• fear of creative risk
• executives mistaking dominance for relevance

It’s all here.

A. Consolidation replaced creativity

Big Food isn’t inventing new categories—they’re buying brands created by others:

• kombucha
• coconut water
• cold brew
• functional sodas
• CBD and adaptogens
• cultural flavor beverages

Just like record labels stopped nurturing artists and started chasing predictable singles, Big Food stopped building categories and started chasing predictable M&A targets.

B. Research is killing innovation

Legacy CPG research tells brands:

• don’t deviate from familiar flavors
• don’t take cultural risks
• don’t use unexpected ingredients
• don’t lean into strong personalities
• don’t go premium
• don’t challenge consumer expectations

In other words:

kill any idea new enough to matter.

The “safe list” in food & beverage is as creatively destructive as the “safe playlist” in music.

C. Homogenization is everywhere

Just like radio’s playlists became indistinguishable, food & beverage categories now feel interchangeable:

• the same citrus profiles
• the same sugar-free formulas
• the same seltzers
• the same energy drinks
• the same diet vs zero vs lite variations

Nothing stands out.

And when everything feels the same, consumers look elsewhere.

D. Indie creators are stealing the audience

Radio lost to:

• podcasters
• YouTubers
• playlist curators
• streaming personalities

Food & beverage is losing to:

• cultural beverage founders
• TikTok brands
• functional drink startups
• regional craft makers
• mineral water purists
• gut-health innovators

The audience is gravitating toward identity, function, and authenticity—not scale, sameness, and research-driven formulas.

5. Monopolies Always Make the Same Mistake

Radio’s executives believed:

“We control the frequencies, so we control the audience.”

Food & beverage executives believe:

“We control the shelf, so we control the consumer.”

Both are wrong.

The moment a better alternative appears, consumers will leave—and they won’t come back.

Distribution advantage is not the same as cultural relevance.

Shelf power is not the same as trust.

Research-driven safety is not the same as creativity.

Radio learned this too late.

Big Food is next.

6. The Real Lesson: Industries Don’t Die From Competition—They Die From Complacency

Spotify didn’t kill radio.

YouTube didn’t kill radio.

TikTok didn’t kill radio.

Beato makes the case clearly:

Radio killed itself by becoming allergic to risk.

Now the food & beverage industry is facing its own reckoning.

Consumers are done with formulaic, over-researched, under-inspired products.

They want:

• flavor
• freshness
• cultural truth
• function
• premium quality
• authenticity
• personality
• story
• a brand that means something

The same way listeners wanted music that meant something.

Final Thought: Don’t Become Radio

If you’re building in food & beverage today, take Beato’s warning seriously:

• Don’t research your product into blandness.
• Don’t confuse market share for cultural relevance.
• Don’t become a playlist of predictable flavors.
• Don’t let data kill your instincts.
• Don’t let consolidation replace creativity.
• Don’t believe your shelf guarantees your future.

Radio died when it became safe, stale, and over-optimized.

The brands that win the next decade of food & beverage will be the ones that sound, taste, and feel nothing like the corporate playlist.