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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."
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.
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?)
Don't be so pessimistic. There are still a lot of stations that play quality music. The problem is a dearth of good (and diverse) bands/groups.
Here in St. Louis, there's a great alternative station, KPNT 105.7. They regularly play good music I haven't heard before. On my drive home from work, a program called "The Pit" is on, that reminds me of Headbanger's Ball on MTV. True catharsis is blasting Static-X after dealing with ignorant jerks all day.
Like the state of popular music, radio is just starting to wake up after being knocked out by a blow to the head in the late 90s.
~D:
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
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.
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.
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.
Well in general XM would never be poised to kill radio. The basic fact of the matter is that radio is the way radio is, because most of the general public are lemmings. As the article states, the genres have gone to the crucible and spewing forth came 6-7 distinct flavors. These are there because the market for the programimg is.
For those that actually, fall in to those 6-7 categories of listeners, FM is just fine. They would have no need or desire to pay $10 a month for 100 stations of which 90%-95% fall out of their listening tastes.
XM really will find a niche in listeners who are disenfranchised by FM. I am sorry I cannot take another Creed song, less I go postal and slay all that I work with. My tastes sway a great deal and hardly ever fall in to a marketable segment. For me listening to FM is an utter waste of time. Just more time for the corporate masters to try and feed me marketing and lemming food.
The point of XM is to do something that could never be done on a local level, putting together niche entertainment for a small segment of consumers. The idea is that you reap in all the small segment audiences an in theory they will add up to a profitable number total listeners. This will in no way affect the general public's radio consumption, since they can get their fill on FM. It is a direct analogy to cable television. Cable was in no way a threat to free television. If all you wanted was CBS, NBC or ABC and you could already receive it; there would be no reason to get cable. Though if you wanted say an all science fiction channel, tough luck, because it would be impossible for a local television station, to produce a niche channel for such a small audience. With the advent of cable, you could have your cake and eat it too. You could get your CBS, NBC, and your all science fiction channel. Cable's succes is due to not its ablity to reach people that you could via the free method on a local level, it is about creating a large enough audience pool that you can support creating programming to reach the other people that are removed from the 6-7 most marketable genres. All in all, Cable has augmented television, even more so in the age of digital cable. XM has an equal capacity to augment and improve radio in general.
Local FM radio will always have its place. It most likely will change and adjust, but will never go away. What XM does have to compete with though is DMX and internet radio. Essentially FM is completely unphased by niche genre content provided for the reasons above, but XM is already competing with these other mediums.
The only, yet marketable component of XM when compared with the other two, is that it is portable (only in cars and hefty "boom boxes"). If they really want to have any chance at winning the niche genre market they need to produce a "walkman" sized receiver.
DMX is now provided by most digital cable providers as part of their basic service, so they may have a tough time dislodging them. Their best bet in the home market is to strike deals with cable providers to replace DMX with XM. With a deal such as that they could easily become a true household name and have a chance at getting the subscribership that they need to stay in business. All in all, FM is in no danger from XM, simply because they are pointing at completely different market segments.
Shameless self promotion : The Misadvetures of the in
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.
As for the bias, it's there, but they do a relatively good job of presenting differing opinions, and finding people who can offer differing insights into various issues. Their "left-wing bias" managed to feel relatively neutral about president shrub's proposed tax cut, whereas before I listened to them, I was completely against it.
Perhaps you only think it's left-wing bias because you normally get your news from extreme right-wing organizations, such as Fox News?
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.
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