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Why (FM, Not XM) Radio Sucks
wemmick writes "The Washington Post has an article "Can XM Put Radio Back Together Again?" which discusses the history of marketing FM radio, how XM could be different, and about Lee Abrams -- "the man who shackled FM radio to the tyranny of mass market research" and is now program director for XM."
Clearchannel has a virtual monopoly on the AM sector and it's only a matter of time before FM will get acquired by the big interests...
You in the big cities and even you in the more heavily populated rural areas may not realize what this means. But ask anyone who has driven across Montana, Wyoming, and one or both of the Dakotas: There are literally miles and miles where you cannot get any radio at all. I'm not saying "nothing but talk" or "nothing but Hat Act music". I'm saying literally NOTHING.
For this reason, I'm guessing that satellite radio receivers would be a big hit in Ryder/UHaul trucks. It would also keep them from having to reprogram the radio settings at every location.
Everyone knows that to make something sound cool you just put an X somewhere -X-Box -Xtreme Games -XXX (the action movie, not the rating, triple x triple the fun!) -XXX (the rating) -Windows XP -Ximian
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
are all that's needed to show how bad FM radio sucks: Creed marathons.
I don't know.... it just doesn't work to have one station that you can listen to all the time. You miss locality... and people like that. ClearChannel is trying to do an XM like setup but with FM. They own tons of radio stations which they run all under one roof.. and they are all computer run. But, while the music may be there the localities.. and personalities are not. In addition, with XM you don't have the localness that you do with DJ Bob and the morning show talking about something that happened 1 town over the previous evening.
Sooner or later ClearM (Clear Channel Radio) is going to fail as well... due to the fact that they are not marketing to the locals but the masses... they have tons of stations that all play the same ads.. and different music... just doesn't work that way.
It's almost worse when you can get *some* radio, but it's annoying radio. Driving in West Texas is like that. (Not all the time, but ... with enough time, "not all" can still mean quite a bit ;))
Cracker Barrel (which is of course not in plentiful supply in the utter boonies, yet) has an insidious, effective plan to make sure you consume their maple syrup: rent (actually, sell but with an easy sell-back plan) audio books.I think it's about $2.50, if you return a tape within one week. It's worse than the addictive chemical in the Colonel's chicken.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
ClearChannel killed the radio fan.
In my neck of the woods (northern Texas) it's almost impossible to find an FM station that isn't part of clearchannel's network. Lots of ads, nation-wide contests, clearchannel-approved news/propaganda. Et cetra.
Yuck.
We saw something similar happen with cable stations. As channels begin to mature, they will try to go to the widest possible audience. Remember TNN? (The Nashville Network)? it used to have country stuff, now it's all wrestling and star trek. Remember Sci Fi? it used to be THE PLACE for geeks like us. Now their canceling Farscape and such. All niche markets will go mainstream for money. It will only take a few years until the people at XM decide to axe the stations with less popularity... after all they bring in far less profit than the average Brittany Spears station. Why oh Why won't she die? (or at least do some real porn?)
Is a question that is raised in the article.
At first glance I thought "no way!". But then again, I thought the same way about pay-TV.
What do others think?
Reel Big Fish made a good point in their song "sellout"
the radio plays what they want you to hear...
they tell me its cool...
i just don't believe it...
FM radio is horrible. Around here, DJs have stopped taking request (probably because they are owned by clear channel). Music selection is poor, and they over play the good song to the point that you would rather go deaf than hear that song again. I can just burn a cd with the songs i want to hear as opposed to sitting through a crappy creed song in hopes that the next song will be one that i want to listen to
Hopefully XM can save radio, before it is gone for good
[echelon]
i used to be a radio DJ in Sri Lanka (TNL Radio) and i think that XM MAY be a good idea IF they can please people.. by offering 100 channels (like on cable) they are trying to hit the niche markets.. and i think that the niche markets may buy into it.. if only for a while.. people started to buy cable so that they could get stuff they couldn't get in the "regular" channels and now cable has a niche channel for everyone.. but radio is a little different.. like they say in the article "the commercial FM dial has been essentially reduced to six musical formats: Pop/rock, hip-hop, country, classical, Spanish-language and variations on the theme of "adult contemporary," "... lets face it the channels have been split into that because that is what's popular.. sure XM may allow people to listen to Inuit whaling songs or Apache chants.. but will there be a market for them? or will they just all deteriorate into variations on the 6 standard themes?.. with the RIAA not giving publicity to "non standard" artists and also will they actually have a chance to show up on these channels? i am not sure how good this guy panero is.. but i have had to geal with his fallout.. even here in Sri Lanka we had TNL, a station with a great reputation as a rock station, go downhill into britney spears-esque pop.. the owner decided there was more of a market for it.. (what could we do.. his car, his petrol)... but we lost a lot of fans.. and a lot of us (me included) walked off.. now i listen to stuff i download off the net..
i guess the point i am trying to make is this.. human nature being what it is.. XM will start off with a bang.. but soon deteriorate into yet another generic music station.. sure they won't have any advertising.. and maybe the choice will be marginally better.. but do you REALLY want to pay $150 + $9.99 per month to hear the Butts Treat Boys?.. remember MTV? and how they had to launch M2 so that people would play them for what they WERE supposed to deliver.. namely music?
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
OK, your wrong. And corrected. XM is radio waves, delivered from a satelite. The signal delivered is a digital signal, but that doesn't keep it from being a radio signal. It's an electromagnetic signal in the radio frequency part of the spectrum (several gigahertz, but much lower in frequency, and longer in wavelength than light), so it's radio. You can't tune it in on your Walkman, but that's because 1) your Walkman doesn't tune to that fequency, 2) The Walkman antenna isn't designed for that frequency, and 3) the Walkman demodulator was not designed to demodulate and decode the digital signal; but that doesn't mean it's not a radio signal. You can't tune in a taxi cab or a cop car on a standard unmodified AM/FM broadcast band radio either, but they still use radio signals.
Standard AM radio is both analog and amplitude modulated (the strength of the signal changes in relation to the analog signal). FM radio is frequency modulated, in the normal FM bands the analog signal is used to change (modulate) the frequency of the radio signal. But there are plenty of digital formats that can be and are sent over radio waves, including XM radio.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
We have already trashed one commercial band, namely, AM, when we could have easily fixed and extended it with AM stereo. (Which has some very nice qualities BTW.)
Now are we going to give up on FM as well?
I can see a lot of advantages to the satellite radio systems particularly in rural areas where you find little or no radio. So these systems have their place. However we still need local radio. Not the clear channel kind, but real local radio.
Here in the Portland area we had a nice station in the early 80's called KSKD. They were innovative. Dolby FM (Which we all should be using today.), very low key DJ's, well defined commercial blocks, and an interesting playlist were all part of this local station. Many of my early musical tastes were formed while listening to the music played on KSKD and when they went off the air, I missed them.
Listening to the radio while on trips used to be pretty interesting. As you went from place to place, the music was different. Each city seemed to have a station or two, like KSKD, that played what they thought was cool. Their listeners became loyal because the combination of music and its presentation was not to be found elsewhere.
Companies like Clear Channel have done the public a dis-service in that they have ruined local programming in all station except community and educational ones.
So for now, satellite radio is a new medium that shines right now. But will it go the way AM and FM did?
Blogging because I can...
unfortunately, U.S. radio is dead, and XM is essentially U.S. Radio. Even if it doesn't suck now, it will soon enough. Program lists are chosen by consumer data, fed into computers and printed on 20lb white. Actually, they probably don't have to bother printing anything - feed the data and the machines will play it - humans just have to drop in the scripted patter from the cloned DJs every station manages to find. Anyways, record companies lean on the broadcasters for support, the broadcasters lean on the record companies for support, and they both end up not moving anywhere worthwhile, and besides they both like to play it safe. The result is playlists that have the same songs played day after day, month after month, from one city to the next. With very few exceptions there is nobody out there willing to take a leadership role, to break new ground, or *gasp* take any chances (chances are bad for business, after all) and not just take what the labels hand-feed them.
If you're interested, you can listen in online at CBC Radio (Radio One or Radio Two) or BBC (1,2,3,4, etc., etc.) and find out what radio that isn't tied by umbilical cord to Big Business can be.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
XM uses 96kbit and a propiertary codec to send programming to the XM receivers...why can't they or someone else use something like ogg vorbis (very acceptable stereo sound at ~45kbps) and peercast combined with 802.11x(b,g,whatever)/CDMA/WISPs?
Here. I got all this from www.howstuffworks.com
XM Radio uses two Boeing HS 702 satellites, appropriately dubbed "Rock" and "Roll," placed in parallel geostationary orbit, one at 85 degrees west longitude and the other at 115 degrees west longitude. Geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) is about 22,223 miles (35,764 km) above Earth, and is the type of orbit most commonly used for communications satellites. The first XM satellite, "Rock," was launched on March 18, 2001, with "Roll" following on May 8. XM Radio has a third HS-702 satellite on the ground ready to be launched in case one of the two orbiting satellites fails.
XM Radio's ground station transmits a signal to its two GEO satellites, which bounce the signals back down to radio receivers on the ground. The radio receivers are programmed to receive and unscramble the digital data signal, which contains up to 100 channels of digital audio. In addition to the encoded sound, the signal contains additional information about the broadcast. The song title, artist and genre of music are all displayed on the radio. In urban areas, where buildings can block out the satellite signal, XM's broadcasting system is supplemented by ground transmitters.
Each receiver contains a proprietary chipset. XM began delivering chipsets to its XM radio manufacturing partners in October 2000. The chipset consists of two custom integrated circuits designed by STMicroelectronics. XM has partnered with Pioneer, Alpine, Clarion, Delphi Delco, Sony and Motorola to manufacture XM car radios. Each satellite radio receiver uses a small, car-phone-sized antenna to receive the XM signal. General Motors has invested about $100 million in XM, and Honda has also signed an agreement to use XM radios in its cars. GM began installing XM satellite radio receivers in selected models in early 2001.
X11 aka X Windows, what started this whole trend and what all the hippest /.ers are using. Rather than just sounding cool, it is cool.
If you think "extreme games" are lame, check out my parody. It features Tux, Ellen Feiss, Beasty(Chuck), Bill Gates, and more.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
What ever happenned to the days of good, honest record labels sending good, honest dj's good, honest album covers filled with cocaine.
We don't need no corporation...
AFAIK, there are many, many different people in charge of the various formats available on XM radio. I'm a subscriber, and the true joy of it is the variety you can find in the channels, you can find some of the most obscure pre-grunge alternative on stations like Fred, to bluegrass, and of course they've gotta have a Top 20 station to keep the kiddies happy. Basically, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot by trying to homogenize their programming, because there's no incentive for any one station to have the largest listener share.
Actually, Sid Meier is American...
correct me if im wrong
Don't worry, they will. This is Slashdot after all.
I've read that Sirius has three satellites, where XM has two. Additionally Sirius' satellites are in higher orbits. The result is that Sirius has a more reliable signal and fewer loses of signal.
I'd like to add another point that is probably splitting hairs. Most of the subscribers of these satellite radio services aren't even going to hear it from a direct satellite source. XM and the like had to erect antennas in the major cities to get around that whole skyscraper problem of blocking the signal.
Technology aside, how long do you think it is going to take to introduce 24 minutes of commercials every hour into this format once stockholders realize how much more money they can make? Not long. In fact, they've probably already started boiling the frog.
The only people I can see getting excited about this product are those that live beyond the broadcast range of FM stations. If lived at such a location and had an interest in radio as a medium I'd be all over it. However, I don't and I would imagine that the majority of the millions of subscribers they need to be profitable do live in FM range.
Let's see, crappy reception for commercial filled pop channels with no local news/content for $10/month plus >$200 entry fee versus crappy reception for commercial filled pop channels with local news/content for free. If I had to turn on a radio, I think I'd use FM way before XM. Then again, I don't listen to radio or watch TV so I don't have this dilemma.
Speak truth to power.
No frigging kidding, the downfall of public radio has been the deregulation that has led to the dominance of the pay for play conglomerates like Clear Channel... and they want to suggest that a new pay for radio satellite network partially owned by this same conglomerate will be radio's saviour?
:P
Get a grip!
XM is backed by a group of industry-leading strategic investors, including General Motors and Clear Channel Communications and DIRECTV, the leading radio and satellite companies in the United States
Yay, Clear Channel to the rescue
Didn't video kill the radio star a long time ago?
Seriously, what's the big disappointment in radio disappearing. I should listen to what IIII want to hear. Content on demand is the future. I don't need all these RADIO WAVES sending UNSOLICITED INFORMATION. If you think about it, the Radio Stations have been spamming our radios for years. And yet despite all this general dissatisfaction with spam, we don't see the disadvantage in that.
But NPR is still important. That station can stay. Sending the NEWS over the radio is still important.
And I use it all the time. No commercials is really, really nice, anyone who's ever had to commute can attest to this. (All the stations I listen to don't have commercials) The other nice feature is a display of what's currently playing, which is much better than listening to a station for another hour trying to figure out what the song was. The reception is fine (NYC Metro Area, sat. not repeater) and it's definitely worth the 10 bucks a month for service. Just NEVER having to channel surf makes it worth it.
The irony is that KGB is now owned by Clear Channel. When I was there one summer day in 2001, the station was on autopilot, with an empty studio and the Prophet (aka: "Profit") system playing the generic classic rock tha station now plays (over and over and over). ~sigh~ Ron Jacobs is now retired and lives in Honolulu where he quite vocally trashes 2000 era radio every chance he gets!
That is preposterous. The FCC has determined that your tastes are better served by the media cartel of ClearChannel, CBS/Infinity and Viacom. If you're an urban radio fan, you have Radio One.
You're simply un-American and a terrorist sympathizer if all you want is information about your local community, or music that isn't getting airplay because of elaborate plug-n-play schemes or being pulled from the dusty archives because the station ownership is promoting the concert in the next town.
The FCC has your interests at heart. They realize that more common ownership is a good thing and is willing to take this a step further by again reducing ownership rules and even permitting television stations to own radio and newspapers.
Think of the bargains that advertisers will see when they have a one-stop-shop for all of their advertising. Imagine the benefits of unbiased uniformed reporting that you'll get from radio, TV and newsprint. Why, there won't be nary any discrepancies to the news since it'll come from the same copy writer no matter the source of your news.
The FCC knows best, trust them and you will see.
Of course, the above is sarcasm. I spent over 13 years in the broadcasting industry. I'm still taking three showers a day in an attempt to get rid of the stench.
NPR is the best thing in radio today, as far as I'm concerned. I know that most of the public radio stations in existence are classical programming, but out of Peoria and Bloomington, IL I can get a superb jazz station. Five days a week I get news during rush hour and jazz in the morning and most of the evenings, plus blues and a little more variety on the weekends. The classical NPR station nearby plays jazz programming on the weekends as well. And except during their biannual fundraising drives, they're commercial-free. It's not like XM where I have dozens of choices of formats, but at least it's the one format I enjoy the most. I'd much rather pay them my $10/month than XM, if only because they're that much more likely to be around three years from now.
This reminds me of something funny I heard on a local FM "modern rock" station about a week ago.
They just started playing a song, when it suddenly stopped playing. After 15 seconds or so of dead air, the DJs came on, complaning about the computer crashing and screwing things up. They tried to get it to play again, without success. Then, one of the DJ's started complaining about a "PCI bus device failure error" on a blue and white screen, and asking what the heck that meant.
After another reboot, they seemed to get things going again - but wow, I didn't know they ran the whole music collection off a Windows NT/2000 box! Scary.
Radio's nice for finding out new about bands, and music. Plus XM transmits the title and artist information, so I know what the heck I'm listening to, and some recivers will even let you save the information for later. Must get boring listening to the same albums over and over agian.
"Radio is dead because I can rip all my CDs and store them on my MP3 player of choice. All my songs. I can put it on random and how is that different from commerical free, babble free, excellent reception radio?"
So.. how do you find new music?
"Who wants to be TOLD what to watch or listen to, and when?"
I'm not a big fan of radio, but I find that comment misleading. Radio's something you monitor. You don't get blasted with info about what time a song will play like TV does. And since everything on the radio's purchasable at some point (unlike TV), then this particular argument fades away.
It works great for TV, but I'm not sure you're doing much more than oversimplifying and twisting details around.
Radio tries to break things down into Genres. Which is fine and dandy I guess...but...but...lets face it..it just doesn't work for me. Whatever genre you like, you have favorites and not-so favorites. In fact, you more than likely have things you downright HATE. In even more detail, you may like some songs by an artist, but not others, even within the same album. The fact is the only programming that is truely satisfactory is that you do yourself. Furthermore, I want more than the singles. I want the album tracks, I want b-sides, I want LIVE music god damnit. That is what I want. The only way to get this is through doing it yourself. I use a MP3 CD player hooked up through one of those CD-Tape converters. With CDs filled with MP3s of my favorite acts divided into Eras with both b-sides and live songs, that is the way to ensure the programming I want.
I'm thinking market forces won't ever provide that anywhere near as well as "stations" run by people who simply love music.
Build stuff. Stuff that walks, stuff that rolls, whatever.
The semantics of what consists of popular music aside*, my problem with satellite radio is the subscription model and the requirement of specific reception/decoding hardware that resides in a single vehicle (unless you purchase another receiver).
Satellite radio would be something I'd be interested in if it was more feature-rich and Internet enabled. Imagine a service with a Tivo-like reciever that is capable of storing songs, seeking new songs you might be interested in based on your past preferences and allowing you to build your own playlist.
Imagine you can also access this service through the Internet and stream your music on your computer so inside your home or at work you can enjoy your music as well.
Imagine the hardware isn't an in-dash reciever but a portable iPod-sized device. You can bring it with you if you happen to own more than one vehicle (which I do), or carry it with you like a Walkman(TM).
That is a product and service I'd be happy to pay money for.
* I enjoy a large percentage of current popular music. If you do not enjoy so-called mainstream radio, YMMV.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Why? In one word: monopoly. Not that they control everything, just enough to reduce the competition that federal laws about airwave allocation were supposed to provide. Their competitors are now desperate, not inventive. Used to be, not only could you not own 8 radio stations in a city, or 1000 across the country, you couldn't own any if the FCC determined your station was not fulfilling its public service obligation. You actually had to get your license renewed.
Now Clear Channel themselves have claimed that owning more radio stations can allow them to diversify the genres more -- but this hasn't produced any interesting results in FM radio. In fact, almost everyone agrees FM radio has gotten worse over the last 5 years or so. So how is XM going to help things? It's great as another option, for those times there isn't anything good on FM. But forgive me if I don't see this duopoly being so hugely advantageous over a monopoly. They'll give you the music you "want" -- and not a note more. A triumph of marketing, a long-term serious loss for the listener.
XM will never be able to make up for another potential casualty of Clear Channel (and fundi religious broadcasters, who are eligible for bottom-of-the-band licenses and silently eat away at the reception of struggling college stations) - regionalism in radio is good. Part of why travelling is fun in this country is local culture, even in this age of mcdonald's everywhere. XM can't give me the beach-blues station I heard in coastal South Carolina, the bluegrass segment on a (commercial!) country station in rural Virginia, or the variety of ethnic folk music and avant-garde rock on hundreds of college stations across the country. It's worth noting that of XM's 100 channels, the Post writer picked one with good, but very familiar music -- and that may be what XM is good for. The beauty of independent, college, and regional radio is discovery of new music. Not that this means XM is bad -- just that it won't save us from Clear Channel.
Radio has never done a thing for me, XM is gonna flop.
Aren't you insightful? The world must revolve around you because you think it does. Please, you don't like XM because you don't pay attention to what you're hearing, well plenty of other people do. I listen to what I like on the radio and turn it off when there's nothing I want to hear.
Not true. Sirius' music channels do not have commercials, all the other channels (talk, news, sports, etc) do have commercials.
As sholden also said, radio waves is not only correct, but it more precise than electromagnetic (no hyphen) waves. I might have a directional point-to-point link between two locations and someone could tell you it was done with electromagnetic waves, but you still wouldn't know if it was done with light waves or radio waves (or some other part of the spectrum). On the other hand, if you're told that it's radio waves you also know that it's part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Every type of energy that travels in waves is a part of the electro-magnetic spectrum, including visible light
Technically speaking, every type of energy that travels by waves is not a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Some are, but not all. Sound waves (to give just one example) are not part of the electromagnetic spectrum, but do transfer energy and do travel by waves.
And yes, I did misuse your and you're and am ashamed of myself.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
During college, I spent two of my years as a minor DJ at the campus radio station, which was probably the most bizzare part of its history. College radio, as we all know, is the music snobs paradise. The students play off the wall bizzare shit, and the format is whatever the current DJ feels like playing. However, at KSU, right before I started, a graduate student took over control of the station and the first thing she did was organize it into a "modern rock" format station. For the most part, it was good. In the time I was there, the station became very highly regarded by the students, to the point that the old guard rock station in town changed formats to match us. They were stuck in the 80's rock (constant Poison!) and then suddenly started playing new bands to try and get some of their market back.
Ok, fine great. The problem was, in an effort to make the station more like a real station, the graduate student controlling this mess enforced a series of strict rules and a rigid playlist. The station is now no better than the Clear channel crap that dominates the airwaves.
Reading this article made me laugh because I witnessed this entire history of FM radio they describe over the course of my five years at school. It went from the playground of the stoners, to the perfect mix of a format guideline, but free dj's to the utter crap you hear on every station now.
Strictly formatted radio, mostly brought on by Clear channel type monoliths, is the evil that is ruining, not just radio, but all of music in america. Have a guideline for the DJ's, but let them expand out of it. Expose the listeners to something different. Play something that they haven't heard in a very long time. Throw on the Smiths just to play with someone's head.
The first thing I always did at the start of my shift was go down my playlist for the day and cross out everything by the Kottonmouth Kings. IMHO the worst thing to hit the radio in the last 5 years. I tried to fill in the crap I hated with listener requests, but on slow days, I had to fill in my own stuff.
On the off days, when students weren't around, the station would go to an automated playlist (a computer with a giant database of mp3s). Immediately, our listenership dropped like a rock. There was no life to the station, and this is why I don't see XM taking off.
Where am I going? DJ's are what's important. The listeners like having someone familiar on the air. Each DJ used to have their own flavor. Mine was a little broader, but my selection leaned to harder rocking songs. People liked the interaction with the DJ, and it got listeners. Calling in made them feel like part of it. Dj's are your friend who introduce you to this crazy new band who has a different sound. You should see them live!
I love music. I go see small live shows whenever I can (unemployment has killed this pastime unfortunately). Radio today has me very pissed off because nobody is introducing me to new stuff. I'm completely on my own.
And right now I'm listening to RL Burnside - Ass Pocket of Whiskey
Sonar, Sound, and Seismic waves, are a bit below the elecrtomagnetic spectrum.
With an AM/FM radio, you get spoon-fed your daily dose of Clear Channel for free. With XM, you pay for it.
I'm sorry, but with all things being equal, I'm not going to pay money to the provider that carries Clear Channel. They're why I'm trying to get away from terrestrial radio to begin with.
"Bringing you the hits you've heard too many times during the 80's, 90's and today!"
Not necessarily *all* FM radio sucks. Let's not forget college radio! If you think it sucks, then at least it's something *different* that sucks, and you had the chance to hear something new.
And now, a shameless plug for the station I am involved with, where you don't often hear something that ClearChannel would play: KWUR 90.3FM. Since you probably aren't within our rather small broadcast radius (10 watt transmitter) you can listen to our MP3 streams.
Okay, so I have an Alpine XM unit on a CDA-7878. First off, it is incredibly entertaining. You WON'T always find what you are looking for, but you will find something and it doesn't suck like FM programming. On the other hand, XM has a lot of problems. First off, the compression screws with the music a little; enough to be noticed, but probably not enough to matter to most. Second, there is a focus on music and not on content, necessariyl, which manifests itself in three ways: 1, the commercials for the stations are long and goofy/magoo/stupid; 2, the deejays are loud, obnoxious, and just as stupid as fm deejays most of the time; 3, the talk radio that is there is nice, but where is NPR/PRI that Sirius has? In reality, if you get this, you will probably listen to, maybe, five channels, regularly. I am starting to get fed up with the track that XM has taken. I see no more intelligence than the market research dictates there must be. Something for everyone it is not...quite. However, I like the idea of sat radio enough to, maybe, give Sirius a try if I ditch the XM. XM has certainly made the idea of no commercials worth the extra $3. I REALLY don't think they should have enlisted such an aged fellow to lead XM.
countrycountrycountrycountry-pop/country-countryco untrycountrycountrycountrycountry-pop/countrycount rycountrycountrycountrycountrycountry-pop/country- countrycountry
We have three stations that play a different style of music:
102.9 the Buzz-Basically, pop-rock, emo, and eminem; like the article says, what all the teeny-boppers are listening to
105.9 the Rock: A pretty cool station. They play classic rock, and by that I mean ACDC, Guns n Roses, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, that kinda stuff. The kinda stuff that you and your parents can listen to together without embarrassment.
101.1 the Beat: They say they're a rap station, but mostly R & B or piss poor Djs trying to spin R & B.
All three of these are owned by ClearChannel btw
All in all, not a lot of selection. So most of my time is spent on webradio, like digitally imported, or the local Vandy station, which occasionally plays electronica. I play CDs in the car, but sometimes you really do wanna be surprised by whats played, so I like radio, but, sadly, there is no such thing a electronica radio.
Thats why the first thing I'm doing when I get a new job is getting an XM receiver. I wanna be doing 100 Mph down the interstate and hear techno I've never heard before. I wanna hear ICP and other psychopathic records artists, and I wanna hear badass, shoot ya just to watch you die old country and classic rock. Hell yeah people will pay. I will.
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
i am a student dj at the university of michigan - ann arbor's radio station, WCBN. we are one of the few freeform stations left in the country, and i would like to think that we are an important part of radio. we play music of all styles, genres, and themes - at any time, any dj can play anything s/he wants (as long as it doesn't swear during the daytime). we strive to expose our audience to new music. i am also one of the music directors of our station, and i make our playlists to report to cmj. but they are playlists in a loose sense - no one is required to play anything on our list.
more importantly, we provide locally produced news, public affairs, and sports programming, something that is completely lost with XM radio and national/worldwide broadcasts. i think XM is almost as bad as starbucks - it could show up everywhere, putting the few good stations left (WFMU in new york/jersey, for example) in a tight spot.
on the bright side, if XM is "the wave of the future," perhaps more schools and local organizations can take over the FM airwaves and return them to the people.
Damn.. do American FM stations really play 18-24 minutes of ads per hour, like that article says??
Why would anyone bother listening to the radio if it's like that? Wouldn't you rather have silence than 4 ads for every song??
Anyone ever listen to your local college radio station? I work/DJ for a central minnesota college station that plays everything nobody else will play. Underground techno, punk, prog/indie rock, classic rock (not hendrix), world music for the world fans out there, et al. College radio sometimes sucks (i personally hate indie rock) but there's some bands out there who wouldn't get dick for airplay if college radio didn't exist.
Food for thought, i talked to a local top40 station, and asked them how they pick their new hot artists, they said "we just look at the top ten college charts, and pick 3 off of there". Go figure...
Interesting post, and I agree with almost all of it, but just one point: if you think that NPR is "extreme liberal", then you haven't been paying very close attention.
This is a big, big world with a huge spectrum of political thought, but it doesn't take much effort to be "left" of whatever the most popular view in the US is. Americans talked about how "liberal" Al Gore was, while the rest of the world shook their heads in disbelief. Heads up people: there are no nationally known politicians in the US who are on the "extreme left".
If you think NPR is "extreme left" then I advise that you never leave your home state or visit your local communist bookstore because, honestly, NPR ain't shit.
Anyway, I hope that the death of FM will mean that reserving a band will become cheaper, and so more weird and interesting shit will start happening on FM. I want like 3 channels of NPR, because though most of their original content is awesome, some of the filler is too dumb to listen to. And really, how expensive is it to record and rebroadcast interviews with interesting people? That's the sort of stuff NPR does well, and they are the only reason why I would ever turn on the radio at home. I hope that some non-publically-funded radio would try to compete with NPR for this sort of turf (like the Discovery and History Channels on cable compete with PBS) but before that happens, the barriers to entry have to be lower. That's why I'm praying for the day that music gets removed from FM and space opens up for real interesting stuff.
Until then, at least there's college radio!
I'm usually quite rude to telemarketers, but this time I thought I'd grab my opportunity to skew the "scientific survey" results.
This lady phoning from Texas or something was really interested in my radio listening habits. She kept asking me about these annoying, obnoxious stations (the ones with the r&b music the 16 year old girls seem to love so much).
I kept talking about stations that weren't one of her options on her on-screen list and I think she was getting irritated. But the whole experience made me realize how shitty commercial FM radio is, and how grateful I am for Campus radio stations, Volunteer and Community run stations and especially for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
All of which, luckily, I have access to here.
Ok, may be their DJ's are not professionals. But they have huge variety of music. Which lets you broaden your horizons so to speak. You can have jam rock followed by rap followed by dance followed by punk etc.
I used to listen commercial radio but I really got sick of it. And I love radio per se. I own couple of scanners couple of shortwave receivers plus the usual FM enabled appliances.
The nice thing about college station that people that play music for you are as excited about it as you are. You might hate their guts sometimes for badmouthing the band you like but that's OK.
Here in Bay Area we are fortunate. There are at least three college stations FM 90.1, 90.5, 103.3 plus some highschool station playing the Big Band stuff. Plus two or three community supported stations. This is what I listen now this and NPR (news).
In one year I discovered more new music I like then in 7 years living in LA and listenning commercial stations.
It all comes down to this. Commercial stations should have money (or they'll stop to exist) be it FM or XM or whatever. That is why they will always stay middle of the road (in any music style you choose). And they will probably make some money and may be XM will be successfull And that is why they are not going to get my money.
Personally I despise people that treat me as "consumer". That is they are going to try to fit me in some kind "dumbass" models based on my race age etc. And I don't want this. I want to deal with people who help me to discover new things.
On the contrary in case of college stations and community supported stations "it's all about sharing" new information new music forgotten old music (but still good). That is why I support them when they have regular fund raising drives.
- Back off man. I am a scientist
Formatted. Prepackaged. Spam on a toothpick. Ingenuity is gone for these people. Infact, if I may expound a little, it's exactly what's happening to the record companies. It's the total, complete and utter lack of ingenuity that keep people from caring if they live or die.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I drive around with the radio off a lot of the time for just this reason... or I start playing a CD when the ads come on and forget to turn it off for a day or two. Somehow even a single looping CD offers more variety than most local radio stations...
That said, there actually is a very good local public station in Denver (KUVO) that has all kinds of good jazz. I listen to them pretty often (though I am not always in the mood for what they are playing) and try to support them with a donation every year, so at least there is an island of eclectic music in the sea of drek that is FM.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...why they don't have promotions? Say, subscribe for a year or two and get the receiver and adapters for free or at a reduced rate, like they do with satellite TV. Joe Potential-Customer might be wary at the steep price, but offer instant rebates or the like and he'll join faster than you can say MSN. I suppose they don't have as much money to throw at their investment as MS, but it would probably do them better in nabbing customers, I would think. I read through the /. comments and I see that the primary reason nobody wants this system is the expensive receiver price.
Damn you, 1996 Telecommunications Act! If it wasn't for that, there might not even have been a NEED for XM. Benefits the citizens my ass. I'd almost rather listen to the heavy 60 freeway traffic on my way to UCR than listen to one of the three or four songs they play on the radio, but the FM stations are a step up(?) from the white noise of a random unused station, and I don't like listening to screaming and engines and all of that, so I'm stuck. I swear I get more unique music from OC Remix than from those stations, and the former is based solely on derivitive works (of video games, no less)!
And another thing, what's with all the DJ talk? Are they so cheap they don't want to pay royalties to crank out another hour of songs they play twenty times a day anyway? What would it cost them, another ten bucks? They HAVE to get a huge bulk rate on these things.
There is more to rock than Aerosmith, Queen and the Beatles, or at least my dad tells me, but you'd never know from the playlists they have. Granted, I'm young and all, but I DO like that style music, and it grows very old after a couple weeks(!), but they keep playing it. With the "six major genres," that gives me twelve weeks of variety, which include songs I've probably listened to anyway.
There, I'm done. Please don't kill me for my ignorance, but the point is I like v-a-r-i-e-t-y; the kind that's found in P2P networks, webcasts and college radio. Sure, a lot of it is crap or novelties or foreign or porn, but at least it's different.
Australian radio station, only commercials are for station related stuff and for the ABC, our public broadcasting company, and these are fairly rare adds. You can get it over the net just goto
http://triplej.abc.net.au
JJJ is the best station in Australia because it is payed for out of taxes and they don't make money so they don't have to conform to everyones demands for addvertising $$
--
nich
37 - what does it stand for really...
I can't say that the Radio stations described in the article are similar to British radio. It sounds like just day-time radio; money making capatalist greed fuelled sheep tripe. Is all US FM radio bad even at night?
There's a feedback circle with Day-time commercial radio at the moment - everyone expects it to be bad so it is, only the BBC is worth considering imho.
BBC Radio 4 (talk, very, very popular) , Radio2 (anything proven to be popular, and stuff everyone's parent seems 2 listen 2) and BBC1 (new) also very popular, all without any from of ads at all. In my area there's also one called Wave that uses local based ads and sponsers, Classic FM, Jazz FM, a Sports and commetry Only Radio and Dance/Trance too, 2CR=new, too many commercials and losing 2 Wave. There's even a seasonal radio that operates to our small town.
Although `The Radio Still Sucks` it seems to be better here than elsewhere I've stayed.
Radio is impossible, you can't please everyone. for example, I don't even know what I want when I turn on radio in terms of artists, i'm often hoping for inspiration - or localised info.
A blog I run for the wealth
The incredibly sophisticated mp3-technology fits 15h of music onto a single cd-r. Pretty neat, isn't it? :) - And these players are truly affordable right now (at least here in Europe) and still going down in price, I cannot imagine why anyone with a pc/mac at home would want anything else to have in his car. Sound quality is not an issue here, since a) the car engine is way too loud for real hi-fi sound or b) you could pump up the bitrate if you got an hybrid/electro car :)
.ogg-files. But they are certainly more sturdy than a brittle harddisk and with a price starting from as low as 110euros / ~110 usd at our favority discounter (no-name, but incl. id3-tag support, antiskip and "hibernate"-mode to start the exact second where you left) nothing can beat it as yet.
15h of music with album or disc-wide random play and instant song change. Any old 6 or 10 cd disc changer looks medieval compared to this. Heck, and they even got new MP3-CD Changers!, so you can have 10x 15h of music. On CD-RW if you like, so crappy always-skip songs can be replaced by something better.
I'm aware of the possibility to build tiny notebook HDs into car stereos. But I strongly dislike the notion of having an oh so delicate component in my car that is very sensible to sudden shocks, in fact instantly and totally ruined if something goes wrong - we got potholes the size of texas here on our streets in Germany and it's going worse every winter. Besides, they got a hefty price tag and I don't have any ideas about how to transfer x GB of mp3's to my car other than carrying home the whole unit and hook it on the network. So it has no acceptable price / damageability or usability-ratio (if my friends are driving with me and got their favorite cd, it couldn't be played) - so I recommend MP3-CD players. Ok, they are not quite techy, don't run on linux and don't (yet?) play
Megalomaniac as I am, I can't wait to see MP3-DVD players emerging. They are already building car stereos with cd-rom components, hence the problem with some copy protection schemes with them, so a DVD-version could be feasible. ~50h of mp3-music on one disc, not even counting the possible savings thanks to more advanced audio codecs. Holy shit, just dare to think of 10x MP3-DVD changers... (again, mostly traditional technology put together with already available extras) - Ok, now you can go on complaining about crappy FM radio. With even my simple 15h 1-cd setup I got more variety than most of the "contemporary pop"-stations - with an 10x mp3-DVD-changer I'd beat any radio station variety anytime.
I remember watching as FM radio evolved over the last 25-30 years. When FM started out, nobody used it except for a few odd college stations or classical music stations. Most AM stations were mainstream in those days, and were reluctant to switch over, due to AM's wider broadcast area, and most stations already had the hardware, no need to upgrade in the eyes of the suits.
Also, AM radios were considerably cheaper than an FM stereo Hi-Fi (not to mention there being no portable FM recievers that were truly compact until 1979-1980, when the first walkman came out).
At around the same time, some NYC stations were managing to broadcast in stereo on the AM band, but by then it was too late, FM was starting to infiltrate the market. More stations began buying into FM broadcasting.
The college stations, depending on the city, were often running the most original and unique music out there (such as WLIR in NY, running old school punk, synthesized and otherwise non mainstream music in a Debbie Gibson world- The only local station to play Dead Kennedys' "MTV Get Off The Air!"). In fact, between the times I listened to WLIR as a teenager, and "discovered" file sharing, over 10 years had passed where I had no idea what kind of new music was out there.
The openness of FM radio has become a thing of the past, however, thanks to payola and media corporations. In fact, it's the only reason I hope XM satellite radio catches on, because once they take their focus off of FM, maybe more college/amateur/independant broadcasters will have a chance once again to bring in music that appeals to the rest of us.
On a sidenote, however, another benefit to making music available that isn't on mainstream radio, is that punk and alternative music of the 80s made people THINK. Has anyone noticed that as more FM stations hav gotten to the point they are at today, that the public is more apathetic and uninspired? Look at previous peace rallies, and you'll note that it's been dwindling down considerably, starting 1988 and reaching an all time low of approximately a million total attending today.
Music used to be one of the great motivators of activism, so what happens when the corporations control your motivation?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
I know this is just one comment buried in a pile of hundreds, repeating the same thing as many on here, but its worth saying. If you find yourself wondering why someone would pay $13 a month to listen to the radio, I bet you're the same person who asks why someone would pay $13 a month for Tivo since all they're getting is a program guide.
I'll tell you, when the bills come due at the end of the month, the only two I have no issues at all paying are Tivo and XM.
Here in the UK the FM is a bit of a joke. Just like you in the US have clearchannel ruling the waves we have a number of big corporations (Capital , Chrysalis) doing the exact same thing. Every local FM station now sounds like 101 others except for maybe a local breakfast show but. AM is slightly better but only because thats where all the piss poor community/religious stations live but even here the Mouldy Oldie 60s stations are all the one station broadcasting through multiple transmitters with different jingles, stabs and ads. Pirate radio though (especially in london) has taken off. At the last count London had MORE THAN 80 FM pirates. Why? Because the commercial stations don't play what people want and despite risking a large fine and up to 2 years in jail people still run these stations because others listen. Ok , a lot of the DJs frankly sound retarded and the music can be utter crap but it still amazes me that the commercial stations and the BBC take no notice of what is going on.
For an extra $1 a month the choice is clear: Sirius and NO commercials.
With satelite radio there are 4 killer apps:
1- Display of artist and title
2- Variety and availability of niche channels
3- You can listen to your favorite station in Montana
4- No commercials!
I love my Sirius radio. I learn a lot from the display and I never have to hear a commercial during my commute.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
www.kexp.org
publicly funded radio playing underground and loval music for over 20 years. I have been listening every morning for a while now. Nothing else on earth comes even close. This is the last radio station worth listening to anywhere. Check it out and if you like it, support it. It is our only hope!!
I travel a lot - my preferred mode of vacationing is to drive somewhere - usually about 2Kmiles/trip.
As a result, I keep my car in top trip-ready shape at all times - tire tread a bit thin? Replace it. Keep the glass clean, keep the cooler chest ready, have a set of toothbrush/hair brush/deodorant/etc. ready to save on packing. Have trips planned out so that if an opportunity presents, I roll.
One of the TOP items on my list is maintaining my car's MP3 player - 30G of (legally owned and ripped from my own CD's/tapes) music, books on tape, stories, comedy routines, etc. There have been times when it's been down, and I've had to travel, or when I've had to travel without it (by train, plane, or rental truck).
I forget just how bad broadcast radio is until I have to travel without my music. Then I am shocked back into reality.
It's not just the fact that the DJ's seem to think the reason we listen to the radio is to hear them - if I wanted to hear self-important idiots blather, I'd listen to children's band (chicken band, or CB). If I wanted to hear a station claim "... KRAP, bringing you another 90% music hour...." (which they do by overlaping the songs enough to have 54 minutes of songs played in 30 minutes of wall-clock time), or if I wanted to hear commercials... well, a 9mm Hydroshock to the roof of the mouth would be a preferable "cure" to that brand of insanity.
I have a saying - "Anytime the consumer and the customer are not one and the same, you are going to get crappy quality." Dogs don't buy dog food, so the actual flavor does not matter - can you convice the owner to buy the food? The consumer of broadcast radio is the listener, but the customer is the advertiser. Advertisers don't care about the quality of the music, only that the station in question has a listenership, which you can get by being a monopoly as readily as by being a quality station.
My advice to anyone is:
1) Get some form of portable, hard drive based MP3 player - a Neo, an iPod, roll-your-own, whatever.
2) Load it up with your music, but even more importantly, with non-music stuff - buy the HHGTH series on CD, and rip that. Get your old Bill Cosby/George Carlin/* albums, and rip them (and for voice comedy, you can rip to a pretty low bitrate). Get books on tape/disk, and put them on. Hell, record the audio off old Star Trek (TOS, not TNG/DS9/Crapager) - ST-TOS was more like a radio show with pictures than TV.
3) Get a weather band receiver for weather reports, a chicken band or amateur receiver for road conditions (for the latter, be licensed if you are planning on transmitting).
4) Mentally present the "digitus impudus" to the radio stations you see advertised along the side of the road.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Ok no one would read this because it's too far down, but the killer app for XM would be for sports fans. I'm a Seattle Mariners fan. I'd pay $10 a month to know that wherever I was in the country, I could pick up the game... and if it's boring I could switch to see how other games were going. The sports market is huge and I bet this would sell more XM boxes than anything else.
Abrams is considering adding several XM stations geared to niche markets serving hackers. A confidential memo was passed to me by a recently laid-off employee detailing the psychographic research behind the effort:
"Real Hacker": 17 to 35, male, jobless. Owns 1.2 bicycles. Lives in rent-controlled apartment with five other Real Hackers. Political ideology: Blast everyone, since we don't have anything worth taking away. Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Weird Al Yankovic.
"Aging Hacker": 25 to 55, male, corporate salary worker. Owns 2.4 cars and 0.00000001 Segways. Has 1.6 kids. Lives in detached house on postage-stamp-sized plot in large development. Political ideology: Blast no one, since we have nothing we want taken away. Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Pink Floyd.
"Script Kiddie": 8 to 18, male, jobless. Owns room down the hall from single parent's bedroom. Subsists on Ring Dings and Twinkies. Political ideology: I 0wnz 3v3ry b0xen. Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Skinemax soundtracks.
"Dot Bomber": 18 to 25, male, jobless. Lives in cardboard box on subway grate. Owns 7.3 newspapers. Political ideology: Doesn't know what went wrong, but is sure it's The Street's fault. Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Pink Floyd's "Money".
"Hacker Chick": 18 to 34, female, corporate salary worker. Owns 0.7 cars. Political ideology: All Men are Animals -- just look at all the male hackers! Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Air Supply's "I'm All Out of Love". Note: Statistical results reliable only to the 6.4% level due to limited population.
"H1B Visa": 20 to 25, male, corporate sweatshop worker. Owns bus pass. Political ideology: Anything to increase the H1B quota. Unlikely to listen to much of anything (works 18-hour days). Cries when listening to Suchitra Krishnamurti's "Zindagi".
"System Administrator": 25 to 50, male, corporate or university salary worker. Owns 1.1 cars. Political ideology: Malthus was Right! Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Weird Al Yankovic's "It's All About the Pentiums".
The rest of the memo was illegible. The ink appears to have been soaked off the pages by a combination of hard liquor and human lachrymative fluids.
Towards the Singularity.
I won't pay for XM radio. As soon as a critical mass of people move to XM, the FM/AM stations will go out of business, due to lack of revenue from commercials. As XM grows, Wall Street will continue to push it to make more and more profit, which will push XM to either raise rates, or air more commercials. As that happens, some of us will want to move back to free radio, but there will be no free radio to move back to.
In the end, we'll lose our choices!
Think cable all over again. Today we pay for our shows by watching commercials, like we did on free TV, AND we pay the cable company about $40 a month as well!
Don't do it, don't buy XM! It's a waste of money and in the end, free radio will go the way of free TV.
No, that's not true.
m
FM radio in the United States is always on odd frequencies: 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, etc. - 107.9.
Why do some stations have three letters? Because they have been grandfathered.
They existed before the FCC imposed the requirement to have four call letters.
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/general/3myst.ht
That pretty much is the definitive page!
Dr. Demento On The 'Net!
just in case no one's mentioned it yet, here's a station that doesn't suck ...
KBOO
soupy twist