FOX News' Roger Friedman, bless him, is shaking his fists at Big Radio for not playing new music by his favorite boomer artists. A couple of years ago, they weren't playing the Stones. Now they're stiffing Springsteen.

Writes Friedman:

Radio will not play "Magic." In fact, sources tell me that Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from "Magic." But it's OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as "Dancing in the Dark," "Born to Run" and "Born in the USA."

Just no new songs by Springsteen, even though it's likely many radio listeners already own the album and would like to hear it mixed in with the junk offered on radio.

I hate to say it, but this is nonsense. When "The Rising" came out, its title track was played on classic rock stations, at least locally. To my knowledge, it gained no traction. Bruce's people tried to shake a tree by moving "Lonesome Day" to country stations and Country Music Television. Why not? It had a fiddle!

Much the same indifference would greet "Magic." For a variety of reasons — audioblogs, iPods, music on TV, the general fragmentation of media culture — radio just isn't important to many people anymore. It's background noise at best. Just think about Friedman's contention that those who've bought "Magic" would like to hear it played on the radio in today's environment of hyperportability: "Magic" owners can plug all 12 of its tracks directly into their ears, wherever they are, at any time of day. Who needs radio?

To digress slightly, I notice WTGB-FM (94.1, aka "the Globe") is losing listeners despite doing what radio bemoaners say it should be doing: broadening its playlist. It plays the likes of Wilco, Feist and the John Butler Trio.

Yet the city shrugs. It might have something to do with the white cords dangling from everybody's ears.