Radio stations began getting scarfed-up by big corporations who sanitized and homogenized their sound/playlists. This song is a takedown of radio, but it started out as a loving tribute. Costello wrote the first version of the song as "Radio Soul" when he was in a band called Flip City. They recorded a demo in 1974, but the song was never released.
In "Radio Soul," Costello sings lovingly about radio, without any trace of vitriol:
I could sail away to the songs that play upon that radio soul
Radio soul
It's a sound salvation
When he reworked the song in 1977, he changed the title and completely flipped the meaning, reflecting his newfound take on the topic.
The big-boys didn't like Elvis's song but Elvis is a rebel. On December 17, 1977, Elvis Costello & the Attractions appeared on Saturday Night Live as last minute replacements for the Sex Pistols, whose various criminal records had made getting visas in time difficult.
At the urging of his record label, Costello was slated to play his current UK single "Less Than Zero," a song about a British politician named Oswald Mosley. Costello launched into a few bars of "Less Than Zero," but then turned to his backing band and told them to stop. He then apologized to the live audience, saying, "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but there's no reason to do this song here," and broke into a full rendition of "Radio Radio," which had not yet been released.
Costello was banned from Saturday Night Live. It is often reported that the corporate brass at NBC (which owned radio properties) objected to the lyrics of "Radio Radio," but it was really because Costello went off-script, and such antics throw the show into turmoil since it's a live production.
Fight the power Elvis.
Released 20 October 1978
"Oh, you might as well just admit now that radio has nothing to do with music anymore—it's in the advertising business. There's a real skill to programming in an intelligent way, but nobody does that anymore. It's all done by computer, by committee. Radio is absolutely the enemy of music. They are my sworn and mortal enemy, and I will have nothing to do with them". -- Elvis Costello