There are a few interesting singer-songwriters around, mostly women
afaik.  Insomnia leads me to pop music selected by thoughtful overnight
Montreal DJs; some of it's quite good: instrumentally, lyrically, etc.
Toronto cafe scene regulars -- singer-songwriters with acoustic guitars
-- can also be imaginative and well worth a listen.  And I'm not even
seeking out any of this stuff!

So I'm not so sure about that alleged dearth, your "degraded state of
songwriting."  Also, many styles get aired these days, even on the same
station: hip-hop, heavy metal, grunge, weepy ballads, nouveau-soul, etc.
I recall (KFRC, for instance, in San Francisco) stations pumping out
just mainstream pop and soul, and, very rarely, something different.
Or a week of wall-to-wall Beatles, when they broke up.

But granting that there may be a narrower compass to what gets aired on
AM radio (going on possibly archaic AM/FM distinctions; I mean the top-30
"mainstream"), every now and then some real talent does rise from there
-- as ever.  Avril Lavigne is a recent Canadian of note; boppy/poppy,
yes, but not dreck.  Sarah McLaughlan's a now-established songstress of
some merit.  Others abound.  Again, however partial I may be to the music
of the (glorious) 60s, I just can't agree with your claim about the
"pathetic state of popular music."

So, while there may be something to your point about the 60s' international
eclecticism -- with Volare, Sukiyaki, Dominique, etc. -- there's stuff
of merit still 'out there.'  But how the lesser elasticity of what gets
aired relates to a distaste or little appetite for CM, I don't quite
see...

It was my dissatisfaction with what pop/rock music offers musically,
together with an initial exposure, which drew me to CM.  Maybe it's
audiences that have changed.  There's a lot of scary conformism out
there.  'Hate to sound 'in-my-day'ish, and I don't want to mar this List
with politics (though how could one put one's finger on the pulse of an
era without touching on its political responses?), but the weak syllogisms
used to spark a very real and already bloody war, the way those are/were
being swallowed by a remarkable proportion of the populace, even many
of our young, show this, I think, in spades.

Certainly I think, without a home setting where CM music is heard, and
without CM radio, there's a lack of exposure -- an essential ingredient
to give one a taste.  And at least an awareness that "Das Lied von der
Erde" is not all there is to CM is also crucial.

Bert Bailey