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Who Needs Radio?

Posted by michael on from the all-we-hear-is-radio-ga-ga dept.

DragonMagic writes "MSNBC asks what many /.ers have been asking: Who needs the radio anymore? Rather, it goes on to really ask, who needs the RIAA anymore? With online music distribution sources, television, and the internet itself, how much longer will it be before the radio, and the RIAA, will be an obsolete means to promote artists?"

17 of 649 comments (clear)

  1. What? by marshac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do you assume that only music is played over the radio? I listen to NPR for hours every day on my daily drive to/from work.

    1. Re:What? by contrabassoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. As a radio producer, I feel the real "art" in radio is well beyond just spinning tunes. KPFA, NPR BBC PRI and many other entities are actively using radio as a communications medium, rather than just a corporate jukebox. There are great shows like "this american life" which are compelling and creative. I am hopeful that more and more of this type of radio production will help keep the medium current in the years to come.

      Radio has been around for 100 years. It's pretty amazing that TV, the internet, etc. haven't killed it. It's still enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people here in the US every day.

    2. Re:What? by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I do also.
      The key is how many people listen to music at home VS in there car. I bet most people listen to music in there car more hours of the day than in there homes.

      What I really think people are missing is the community aspect of radio. In many small towns the local radio station plays an imporant role. They cover the local high school sports, weather, and community affairs.
      They also serve an important role during emergencys.

      That is one of the reasons I hate the "Clear Channel" stations. They are nothing but repeaters for the mother station. I think it is time to put more restrictions on local stations. They should have a required amount of local program content.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    3. Re:What? by jason0000042 · · Score: 4, Funny

      As another "What?" point, where do you think most people *hear* the music they download off of the internet?

      MTV2.

      And personally, I find out about stuff in print (both ink and electric) then look it up on the information superhighway.

      The radio sucks so bad that when I listen to it I want to bash stuff with hammers. The 'stuff' I want to bash is usually radios, and sometimes radio dj's.

      --
      i don't like my old sig.
    4. Re:What? by Davak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The elderly really depend on radio.

      I have cared for many elderly people who would sit and listen to the world--their world--on the radio each day.

      Church services, local sports, weather, politics, school functions--these all are often played on small local radio stations... and the older generation feels that they can keep in touch this way.

      With their decreasing vision and difficulty manipulating the TV, the radio is an excellent friend to these people.

      I wonder if they'll be prying the keyboard out of my hands one day... as all the younger generations have their neural inplants. They'll all be slashdotting with direct neural connections and laughing how the mouse and keyboard will soon die.

      Davak

    5. Re:What? by slasher999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How soon we forget. Anyone remember how useless the Internet was on 11 September 2001? Internet communication still uses shared bandwidth and is typically a one to one communication. Each user opens a connection to a web server over a relatively small pipe and requests data. With radio the data is always there - just turn on the receiver. No bandwidth constraints, no waiting for requests to be processed, no /. effect, and most of the time it's backhoe-proof. Can't say that for most websites or the Internet infrastructure in general.

    6. Re:What? by McDutchie · · Score: 4, Insightful
      How soon we forget. Anyone remember how useless the Internet was on 11 September 2001?
      No, I remember how useless mainstream news websites were on 11 September 2001. The Internet was working as well as always, and mirror sites were springing up all over the place. IRC and e-mail were also working just fine. The Internet was extremely useful indeed, if you just bothered to look beyond the mainstream web. Remember, Internet != WWW.
  2. Erm... a lot of people by gardyloo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone who doesn't have fast internet access or a television (or who doesn't want to pay for cable television).
    Anyone who likes to camp and take a $5 transistor radio along, rather than lug a satellite uplink system for online-access.
    Anyone who drives, and likes to have music or blather going while doing it (driving, that is).

    In short, a LOT of people.

  3. Streaming audio in my car by Damiano · · Score: 5, Funny

    The problem is that the 25 mile long ethernet cable running to my car gets tangled too easy.

  4. Is it just me ... by dabooda · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... or did everyone in the world become a computer user/music downloader over night?

    Not everyone has a PC and not everyone get's their taste of new music from the interent.

    In fact I would say that most people hear music on the radio then either buy the CD or download the mp3.

    I doubt that services iTunes will make radio stations disappear ...

    --
    "Yeah Tommy, before Zee Germans get here ..."
  5. Translated for the America-Impaired by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Informative

    For those Slashdotters from foreign lands just tuning in:

    NPR is a good way to stay abreast of the latest news during my daily commute and provides some sanity, compared to TV news stations like FoxNews.

    NPR is left wing (although it seems middle-of-the-road to liberals). Fox News is right wing (although it seems middle-of-the-road to conservatives.) NPR is commercial-free, being underwritten by corporations, donations, and tax dollars (to the great dismay of conservatives). Fox is a commercial enterprise owned by Murdoch and the top-rated newschannel on cable/satellite (to the great dismay of liberals).

    Now, draw up sides, and... engage!

    1. Re:Translated for the America-Impaired by cyril3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      NPR is left-wing only if you believe that "if you are not with us, you are against us"

    2. Re:Translated for the America-Impaired by Guppy06 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "NPR is left wing (although it seems middle-of-the-road to liberals)."

      Um... I'm "conservative" by most peoples' reckonings. I'm pro gun rights, pro states rights, I like the idea of free trade, support the continuing mission in Iraq, and I even voted for Bush in '00 (although I'll probably be voting against Ashcroft next year). About the only thing I'm not is a member of the GOP (political parites... blech...). But I can't stand Fox News and routinely rely on NPR for all my news above all other options.

      If NPR is so "left-leaning," there'd be a lot more opinion-based commentary, kind of like Fox News. NPR is about the only place where you can find a news group that routinely reads letters over the air from dissenting listeners, and they don't even comment on/reply to/belittle those.

      About the only "left" part of public radio is the funding scheme. But even then, I've never heard programming on a public radio station underwritten by a labor group.

  6. NPR, blackouts, conservative shills by spoonyfork · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Hey, I'm one of the millions that listen to NPR during the day, mostly to and from work.

    In case you weren't affected by the GREAT FEARSOME BLACKOUT OF 2003 , those of us who were crowded around radios to get news.

    Don't forget the 20 million so-called "dittoheads" that hang on Rush's every word every day. Republican shill talk radio has never been so popular (depending on where you read your stats).

    There's big money in radio and the guy who owns it is raking it in.

    --
    Speak truth to power.
  7. I listen to my local independent radio station by ikewillis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Clear Channel stations are certainly not worth listening to. I used to think local call-in contests were bad enough, but Clear Channel has made them nationwide. Combine this with their highly censored playlists, their blind dedication to the war in Iraq coupled with sensationalist misreporting (a Clear Channel station here reported four buried vans in the desert as "Vindication for Bush: underground chemical weapons Labs were found today in Iraq") and their propensity for hiring the most moronic, annoying DJs possible, and you have the recipe for a radio station I never want to listen to. Contrast this with our local independent station, 99.5. They don't have call-in contests, you simply sign up as a "community member" of their station and they randomly give away concert tickets. They play an enormous variety of music, and it's rare to hear the same song played more than once in a single month. They have knowledgable DJs who discuss things you never knew about the music they play in a calm, conversational manner so it's pleasant to listen to. I conclude by saying, in the words of Frank Zappa, "KILL UGLY RADIO"

  8. talk on the radio by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 5, Insightful
    (I hope this post goes through. I've gotten that damn 500 internal server error something like 30 times on this one post.)

    For sure. News stations that feature only news all the time are a godsend when commuting, and important in emergencies as well.

    Remember The Blackout? I was at work patching the office for the Blaster worm when the lights went out. If it wasn't for radio and other wireless communication, we would have had no idea wtf was going on. Thankfully radio stations with reserve power managed to transmit so everyone could get into the car or use battery powered tranceivers to get the news updates.

    I used to drive to and from Toronto all the time across a strech of the 401 and if it wasn't for 680 news I would have gotten into a lot of traffic jams.

    Thus radio is still needed because it is an important way of disseminating information quickly, especially when only battery or small generator power is available.

  9. During the most recent great blackout. . . by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    (yes, I'm old enough to remember more than one) everything failed. My internet connection went down, my TV went black, my electric lights went out ( my oil lamps chugged along like always).

    My portable radio worked like a charm and the emergency generators the radio stations employ kept them on the air.

    Promoting RIAA "stars" is hardly the only use for radio. In fact, small radio stations are still the most used medium for promoting obscure music unaligned with the RIAA, why do you think they oppose the proliferation of small neighborhood radio stations?

    Radio is one of the true modern marvels, its usefulness is far from past.

    KFG