Richard Neer joined the staff of New York City's WNEW-FM in 1971, when that radio station and FM outlets across the country were engaged in the noble experiment of the "progressive" format. Neer's memoir FM: The Rise And Fall Of Rock Radio tracks the origins of free-form radio to FCC regulations that ended the practice of AM stations piggybacking their FM counterparts, which led to the hiring of inexpensive young talent willing to accept low wages for the chance to play their favorite rock records and rant about the Vietnam War. By the time Neer hit the scene, smart radio men were just beginning to figure out that there was money to be made in a free-form rock format, if only the disc jockeys would play more recognizable records and cut back on the chatter: In other words, if they stopped being so free-form. Neer clearly has as much sympathy for the screw-tighteners as he does for the bottle-resistant lightning of many early FM personalities. As FM piles on the anecdotes about the people Neer knew and the crazy things they did, the author tempers his admiration for his peers with examples of how their undisciplined egomania hastened the need for change. Neer openly wonders whether it's possible for DJs to focus primarily on their own interests and still bring in listeners, since DJs are likely to be attracted to esoterica, to burn out on songs that their listeners are just starting to like, or to be influenced by friends and promoters in the music business. But his theories don't diminish the hint of sadness in his prose, especially once the consultants infiltrate the business with wildly varying research data that prompts FM rock stalwarts to squeeze out black musicians and adhere to a tight playlist that eschews new artists. The only real problem with FM is that Neer doesn't make enough effort to tie his stories and thoughts together. Readers who come to the book with no knowledge of New York rock radio may get lost in the netting of names and call letters, which get harder to keep straight the longer Neer relies on a "here's something else that happened, damn the timeline" method of telling his story. On the other hand, the insider's approach gives FM much of its value as a document of the ways commerce and internal arrogance routinely absorb art in America.