Slashdot Mirror
Traditional Radio Endangered By New Tech
Rob wrote to mention a Reuters article discussing the danger to traditional radio posed by new new technologies. From the article: "The radio industry could find itself at the kids' table in the media banquet hall, as new technology threatens the business, advertising executives said this week at the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit. Satellite radio, digital music players and the Internet are slowly encroaching on traditional radio's stronghold on local entertainment and advertising. Plus, radio ads themselves are less memorable and creative, these executives said."
It's only a matter of time before the bandwidth gets reclaimed for something more lucrative. The only question is whether or not the Feds will reclaim first it so they can raise money from an auction.
If they do, it'll mean that the spectrum only goes to established companies who can afford it in auction. If they don't either the current media conglomorates that own most radio stations will sell the spectrum for more than the radio stations are worth, or they'll liquidate it at rock bottom prices as unprofitable until someone innovates in the space.
Knowing the current administration, I'd bet that the conglomorates will strike it even richer than they already are.
-JMP
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Ahhh yes. Radio as we know it will soon be the 8 Track of media. Unless, like broadcast TV they are allowed to piggyback onto Satellite Radio.
Let us all come together and hope that the FCC doesn't try to regulate that which we pay for.
This
If its just going to be another corporate run ad fest (which it will eventually), then what's the difference exactly, and why should I care?
Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
It is seemingly too expensive to get one's own radio station, though I'd like to do this in my area -- in the same way that people are blogging or podcasting. There used to be Radio Carson here in Pittsburgh, which had some great (and not so great) electronic music. Now what do we have? Right-wing propoganda, 3 classic rock stations, and the usual dirth of lite-rock and wannabe-rock. Best thing going for broadcast radio is WRCT from CMU. What about a geek-propoganda radio station?
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
I have switched to listening to NPR on the radio as have alot of people. The ads and DJ's on other stations always seem to be yelling as if somting important were happening. On NPR that does not happen. I believe this is one of the major reasons why NPR has seen so much growth in ratings
Radio stations will just add internet broadcasting and/or simulcast on satellite. It's not a restriction, it's an increase in avenues of broadcast. If and when radio waves no longer become viable, they will already be broadcasting through these other media. If not, then they've no one to blame but themselves.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Clear Channel is the threat to radio. Computers are just the new medium.
It would help if the radiostations wouldn't play the same 20 songs over and over again.
Thank you, recordcompanies of the world, for providing us with such diverse commercial music!
And I'd say good riddance.
If it means a break in the Clear Channel et al stranglehold on the traditional radio marketplace, I can't cry all that much. However, if it leads to another auctioning off of the public radio spectrum and endagerment of things like college radio stations, it's not so great. On the third hand, it's exactly some of those smaller concerns who are finding not competition, but new opportunities in these alternative distribution methods. Check out what KCRW (www.kcrw.org) has got going on: they stream music and news and simulcast, and have used this to break into a national market so that they can promote events across North America. (Though, I should note, KCRW is one of the behemoths of public radio.)
"Why would you pay for something you get for free?" asked John Hogan Exactly.
Starmen.net
I think that flooding the EM spectrum by a high-powered broadcast in all direction was stupid to start with.
I would say that lack of compelling content will kill all but actual, "local radio." Where I live, radio stations like New Jersey 101.5 FM and WWFM, The Classical Network, provide me with up-to-date access to information I need to function in my community (snow closings, traffic info, local news and discussions). The big commercial stations don't give me anything I can't already get on my iPod. Satellite radio will have its heyday for a while because it's new and offers variety, but I can't see it surviving a revolution in nationwide, wireless internetworking (ie WiMax). When that happens, I think local radio will have already made the jump to internet broadcasting. In fact, the two stations I mentioned are already available via streaming through the net.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
You can't get local news, traffic, and weather on a satellite channel. There will still be a demand for this.
Now, the amount of broadcast stations may decrease, but will anyone really notice if ClearChannel runs 2 stations in their town instead of 5?
Yea, for this awesome display of man must be saved, so as to bore the crapnuts out of future generations.
StupidChildren...the reason jesus is crying
Wow. ClearChannel and Infinity are bitching that they're becoming irrelevant.
Who cares? Public Radio (NPR in the US and the CBC in Canada, at least) are vibrant and entertaining.
I used to work for ABC Radio. I remember installing a device that removed "umm..." and "dead air" from the announcer's speech just so they could slide in an extra commercial or two over a one hour period. Everyone who bitches and moans about the 25 minutes of commercials per hour deserves the media conglomerates.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
I've tried XM for a little more than a year, only to cancel it for what I have found to be the better option. NPR for local news, and my ipod for music. I can no longer stand the advertisments on either radio. XM or free broadcast.
drop the ads. offer the service to subscribers only. settle for less revenue. remember, acees to "wave" radio is not limited by bandwidth and less by location (think satellite), than net-based radio. there is life for traditional radio after the net, if only they can see the big picture. i hope they do.
Traditional radio is a wasteland thanks to outfits like Clear Channel and when they move into digital radio, it'll become a wasteland too.
I listen to ballgames when I'm driving. Sometimes I listen to Clark Howard or the news. Radio went into a downward spiral in the early 80s and with the advent of Clear Channel, it hit bottom and started to dig.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
It doesn't take long to get sick of hear over 20 min. every hour of ads on the air in any market where almost all the stations are owned by the same bunch of morons (Hi there Clear Channel, you bastards!). If you're not hearing the same add when you skip stations on the dial, you're hearing the same "crossed over" music on the today's mix station that you hear on the so-called hard rock station (one more round of Photograph by Nickleback and I'm going to say 'Goodbye' and move right to Satellite. Big stupid companies have been killing "Free FM" for years. It's sad, but it's just gone to hell and that's the way the people who are about to lose all thier money choose to run it.
*** Sigs are a stupid waste of bandwidth.
And the telegraph industry is still thriving.
Plus, radio ads themselves are less memorable and creative, these executives said."
Ever notice that 90% of the stuff pitched on traditional radio is the same crap that we're constantly spammed with? I'm talking "herbal" sexual aids, non-FDA approved hair loss and weight products, "start your home business" and other get rich quick scams, "learn to be an MSCE for $10K" ads, etc. The targeted demographic doesn't care how creative the ads are.
Radio isn't obsolete. It simply has been perverted over the last ten years by the two companies who bought every station in the US.
Traditional radio is becoming more homogenized, and clearchannel rules the roost. :)
Personalised radio programmes based on induvidual taste are the way forward!
Compulsory Last.fm reference
Last.fm - join the social music revolution
How well do their portable recievers work indoors ?
Can I be in the basement of a building and still get a signal ?
it's free
you get what you pay for
there will always be a niche for radio, just like after the advent of television, movies, etc., there is still a niche for broadway theatre, just like the interent won't kill newspaper, but it will make newspaper more diminuitive and change it's venue
old media never dies, it just changes
at one time people used to listen to radio serials before tv "only the shadow knows" etc. now radio is driven by drive time: banter and music
radio changes, but it will never die, there will always be a niche for it, no matter how small or different than what was originally intended
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Yeah, that's it. The pirates. All out there downloading illgal music through P2P and not listening to the radio. You know, there should be a law. That's it, a LAW. A law to require the inclusion of AM and FM receiving in every portable audio player. And a special algorithm which prevents the playing of any song from memory that will be broadcast in say, the next 12 hours, or has been broadcast in the previous 12 hours. All tracks will require DRM that catalogs them. No catalog number, no play. If you want to listen to junior's recital, record it on an 8 track. Grandma want's to hear it? Mail her a copy of the tape.
Now, I hear you claim that you "own" your music and you can play it wherever and whenever you want. And I say bullshit. You've licensed that music. What? You own a CD? Don't think that your pooch-pounding, cd-ripping, format-shifting, "oh, it's fair use" means squat to the people who run this country. We're talking about the very survival of people who pay good money to get the right folks elected. Want it different? Fine - just get your own FCC license and run your own station. You can play whatever you want whenever you want, without running afoul of the law. It's a free country - your want it your way, go and pay for it. What's that? You don't have that kind of cash laying around. Well, let me remind you that the laws weren't bought and paid for by the poor.
So there it is - to prop up a business model that is no longer viable, we simply need a couple of laws. That'll fix those damned pirates.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Commercial Radio has been a wasteland for years. The corruption supposedly cleaned up years ago has never gone away... it's only worse. Payola, collusion, constant ads, and hearing the same song 3 times on the drive home... who is going to miss that?
As far as I'm concerned, "traditional" radio is killing itself. I finally switched to satellite when I realized I was hearing maybe one song on FM radio while driving to work. It seems like every station has a morning show that insists on talking inanely half the time, then splitting the rest of the time on commercials, inane joke clips that they replay everyday, then maybe a couple of songs. Of course, then I found that the satellite radio still had some talking, but at least I can avoid most of it and just hear music 95% of the time now, instead of 15% of the time I was getting music on FM radio.
Since my early youth back in the stoneages, I've been an eager radio listener. The radio had personalities, and a great mix of the music they loved. But gradually, the DJs stopped playing the music they loved, and was forced into rotating a small set of really annoying "hits" intertwined with an enourmous amount of amazingly annoying advertising. With the recent payola scandals in radio, the spirit is definitely gone.
And this is in Norway. I hear gruesome tales of the situation in the United States of ClearChannel stations.
Podcasting is taking the air back. For the longest time I couldn't be bothered to listen, because it's such a benign concept on the surface (and the term "podcast" is so braindead). But eventually I got myself a $75 mp3 player and started sampling some of the shows, and now I listen every day, to a wide variety of fun and/or interesting shows. With the "Podsafe Music Network", a collection of independent music approved for play on podcasts, growing every day, there's a decent amount of great music in the shows too.
If you want to get started with podcast listening, I recommend setting up Juice and subscribing to Adam Curry's Daily Source Code. It's a show about podcasts, playing (amongst other things) promos for other shows that you may want to listen to. Before you know it, your subscription list has grown plenty. Some of the shows are just plain crap, poorly done, almost perfectly uninteresting, but then some are really worth listening to. Check out Podcast Alley for some of the most popular shows.
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
I'm not going to worry about the horse and cart and Filofaxes either.
I thought video killed the radio star...
Offshore yourself
It is silly to have each market restricted to so few stations. There should be thousands in each area, and the cost to obtain a license should be low enough that anyone can run one.
Can someone please tell me why in the hell radio ads always use the same crappy sound effects. You know, the electronic increase of frequency/fadeout of a guy's voice, shitty techno in the background (even for classic rock stations), fast switching of voices between right and left channel, and so on and so forth.
Why are those even used? When I hear that sort of ad I don't want to buy a product. "Holy crap! Some guy has a mixer. I guess I'll buy that shitty mix tape they're pushing on me!"
If radio is so concerned about about losing listeners why continualy annoy us with ads? It's bad enough that the general radio format is song, ad, ad, ad, ad, song, song, ad so why make those ads sound like some kid got his hands on audacity?
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
Could happen. And soon. Consider portable audio players. Some have radio receivers, most don't. It's not a major selling point. Far more cell phones have digital audio players than AM/FM radios. The car is the last bastion of analog broadcast.
The day the first car ships from the factory with a built-in iPod but no AM/FM receiver is the day the broadcast radio industry begins to die.
THE REAL FACTS : Percentage of commecial time!
It used to be FCC mandate that 22.5 minutes of content per 30 minutes on TV and radio.
But that was well over 20 years ago... since then... the commercials just increasing to the the point where USA Networks on Cable TV are 18 minutes of content per 30 minutes and timeslots on Clear Channel when Howard Stern is on, in some city markets... also reaches a sickening 18 minutes per 30 minutes, though usually clocks in at 20 per 30.
20 per 30 is still TWENTY MINUTES OF ADS in an hour!
And the radio execs know that unless ads are cut in HALF people will flee.
It has nothing to do with limiting speech by FCC, or internet or other stuff (programming choices). It has to do with obcene amounts of commercials per half hour of content.
XM and Sirius also choke thier slop with commercials too on most of the 'talk" stations.
And FCC can legally limit (fine) types of speech on Sat radio in theory, if the broadcaster is entangled to USA from geostationary sats, but not likely. The reasoning is that radio waves are a limited liscensed resource to prevent anarcy and radio spectrum is for the public good (whatever the hell that is)
not one poster here gets it.
its PERCENTAGE OF ADS PER HALF HOUR!
Sirius: Howard Stern, NPR, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Hawk
XM: Opie & Anthony, Fox News, Nascar, PGA Tour
Just an observation.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I'm willing to sit through commercials if the songs are... decent. I have low standards. Also, my wife doesn't really like John Coltrane. :-)
Radio is especially good for transmitting information. Chicago has WBBM-AM 780, which is a 24 hour news network, and Sunday Bears games. I listen for traffic on the 8's.
Replacing an oldies station with a Top 40 station won't help your ratings. Figure out why people stopped listening to 60's and 70's music and fix it. I'm pretty sure as many people like The Beatles now as they did 10 years ago.
Classical and jazz stations need to accept the fact that commercials are a way of paying the bills. You know your audience; selling to them isn't taking advantage of them, it's a way to stay on the air.
Speaking of these "minor" players... getting your signal on the Internet is a Very Good Idea. These genres aren't quite under the same pressure as pop music is, so take advantage of it and be... innovative.
In short, I don't really want to pay a subscriber fee -- at all -- for something that's free now. It's not something I value that much.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
I don't like popular media either. I've switched television with Netflix and Blockbuster and had Sirius over FM. Six months ago I switched to XM.
Both XM and Sirius are much better than FM, hands down. But Sirius, to me, has the same annoying DJ problem, and XM will play just about any track on anybody's album. If I hear "That was 'rocking your naval' by 'CmdrTaco and the Trolls'..." someday, I won't be the least surprise.
XM, in my opinion, really needs to shorten their playlist a bit and Sirius needs less talk and to lengthen theirs.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
Minnesota Public Radio launched The Current about a year ago and it's fantastic. It's like having a good-quality college station, but with better production values.
I switch between The Current and MPR's "news and information" station. It's rare I don't find something worth listening to on either.
I can't listen to commercial radio any more.
Heavy rotation and marketing makes all the stations pretty much unlistenable. I won't miss them.
Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!
http://financialpetition.org/
I don't think so. I reckon the BBC will be in the game for a while yet - let me know when the local geek podcast can give me professional production value world music broadcasts, interviews with internationally renowned scientists and artists, history programmes scripted by teams of world experts..... (etc).... without adverts. All effectively for free, and online if you prefer. You can always donate and get the TV shows as well by getting a TV licence - sometimes 126.50 (UKP) a year is an *ouch* but hey divided between 5 of us in the house it doesn't feel so bad.
As long as we have the Budlight Real American Heroes and Real Men of Genius ad campaigns on the radio I refuse to accept the argument that radio ads are creatively dead / not memorable. I find them far more entertaining than most TV ads.
...
Here in the UK raido is doing just fine:
*No one wants to set up a music player with new content just for the drive to work.
*The commentary is generally interesting or informative.
*No adverts! Even the commercial stations have far far fewer adverts than the US.
It's no wonder the medium is dying in the US where you have to listen to the same ad over and over again followed by a Rent A Moron yelling *more* adverts at you - just disguised as 'content'. Then, to cap it off, you get to hear essentially a paid musical advert.
Compare this to the UK:
*Radio 1 - not my thing, but they play popular music and talk about popular events.
*Radio 2 - some alternative and older music with some other great programmes.
*Radio 3 - great classical music and discussion about the history and styles and composers.
*Radio 4 - the one true radio station - all the best comedy, programmes to make you think, news that does more than scratch the surface but takes a deeper look. Humphries (morning news presenter) is an abrasive moron, but you can forgive him for winding up politicians.
*Radio 5 - sport, waste of bandwidth, but at least it has no adverts.
*Classic FM - more populsr classical music - adverts no more than once every 5 minutes or so, and no interrupting pieces.
*All the local stations, BBC - no adverts, good local coverage.
*All the local stations - commercial - a bit like US stations, but even they have not managed to sink so low.
If you had that lot available on a device costing $9.50 wouldn't you listen more?
Beep beep.
Podcasting is the solution: Get the data when you're connected to a nice, high speed land line, store it on the digital media player of your choice in nice high quality formats where you don't have to make compromises due to transmission speed limits, and then listen to your heart's content. Don't like a particular show? Skip it, no waiting for the show you want to come on. It's all the content [i]you[/i] want constantly at your fingertips.
And best of all it doesn't gib when you go into a tunnel...
Podcasting is getting big with sites like ClickCaster, Podnova, and Odeo. I really do think that Podcasting will bring about the death of traditional radio, and hopefully we'll see Vidcasting as a replacement for TV.
Once every city has wireless, people will "broadcast" their own stations to the entire city. A better music selection and no commercials will fuel this revolution. Large companies will hop onboard and compete aswell. Eventually auto manufacturers will offer Wi-Fi players in cars and the rest is history.
Imagine listening to Launchcast or your friends station in your car. Sounds awesome to me. Radio had been declining for years do to poor music and tons of annoying commercials. It will either evolve or die.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/I'm not sure about anyone else, but when I got my iPod I pretty much stopped listening to the radio at all. The main reason why? No ads, and I can pick the music I want. Satellite radio fixes half the problem, but there is still the issue of choice. With a la carte music subscription services priced at about the same as satellite radio, is satellite radio a viable product in the long run, or just the last gasp of an old distribution paradigm?
Because what you get on XM (I've never had/heard Sirius, but this should apply equally) is NOT the same thing as you hear on broadcast.
Sample choices on FM: Alternative, rock, country, or Top 40. Commercials for five minutes every half hour.
Sample choices on XM: All traffic, 80's hits, bluegrass, comedy, each baseball game being played, hard rock, progressive rock, folk rock, classic rock. Twelve different talk stations, from far-right to far-left, sports and news. Commercials on the comedy and talk stations, but that's it.
When you have 200 stations, you have to keep them different, which means... and this is the kicker... you have to DIG DEEPER INTO THE FEATURED GENRE. Example: I like Rush. (I'm a nerd, I'm on Slashdot, whatever. My taste in music is an example, not the argument.) On FM, I hear three or four different songs by Rush, maybe one a day. I'm done with Spirit of Radio for a while, thanks. On XM, on their ProgRock station, I hear obscure stuff from unpopular albums that I like. You won't hear Analog Kid on ClearChannel stations. I also hear other groups who don't get the press who play a similar style of music. This depth of genre (obscure songs from well-known bands and obscure bands) simply isn't available on FM. Hell, I heard Side One of Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull on XM the other day. The whole thing. It's on the order of 30 minutes long. Nobody on FM will play that - it's not "radio friendly". So I don't get to hear it if I only listen to FM.
That's why I shell out $13/mo for XM. IT'S NOT THE SAME AS FM, and it's a service I'm willing to pay for. When I have the choice and depth that I get from this service available to me for free, that's when Hogan's argument becomes relevant.
Dare to Hope. Prepare to be Disappointed.
Dude, get an iPod. They're only a little more expensive than an XM receiver, but there's never any cut-outs, the unit fits in your pocket, you get a pause and rewind button, and podcasts inherently have a broader range of content than satellite radio does (for example).
As long as XM cuts out in tunnels/overpasses, traditional radio will be around. It's not like the auto industry is just gonna go "Oh, it's ENDANGERED! Better throw MP3 players in all our new cars now!" Yeah right. Radio is still here, and still will be for a long time, because it's cheap, reliable, easy to use, and society-saturated.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
As long as I can still get MPR, I couldn't care less what happens to the rest of the spectrum. Perhaps the future of radio lies in the subscriber model anyhow, even broadcast radio. Broadcast to everyone, and at least a portion of those who listen will be willing to pay to support it, just to make sure it stays on the air.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Mod parent down. Plagiarist.
8 &cid=11488437
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=13741
Any type of music I want when I want it. When I want to hear some bluegrass music or blues it's right there. An itch for 50's music? Hah, try to find that on the radio. Heck try to find any music on the radio these days. Try driving across the country and not hear the same Clear Channel station playlist all across the country. Sports talk that isn't paid advertising for sports betting which is what I get on the regular radio stations. NPR and public radio without the static and weakness of stations. News when I want it. John Hogan, CEO of Clear Channel said "Why would you pay for something you get for free?" Well, it's cause you get what you pay for. I'd rather not hear endless commercials broken up by five minutes of content when I can get real music/news/sports/talk when I want it.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
I have the iPod in the car, public radio for news (NPR/BBC), and excellent streaming audio from KEXP , WFMU, WNCU, and KCRW. (And there's always WCPE when I need my classical fix.)
And I never subscribed to satellite radio.
This "commercial radio" of which you speak.. what was it again? And why should I have cared?
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
Thankfully, we have the BBC here, which give me a impressively wide selection of stations to listen to, all free of the sickening irritation of radio ads, which are much harder to manage than those on TV - mute, change channel, go out the room, read something etc.
I'd never really experienced how bad radio really was until after I'd played GTA, I was shocked. Radio takes the piss of itself. GTA radio had a longer playlist.
I just had this chat with a friend of mine who is manager of a radio station here in Oklahoma.
He was asking me about the quality of sat. broadcasts and I have to say, I agree with him. The quality of satellite radio is below that of OTA FM. You can and do hear artifacts from time to time.
However, I pointed out that the increase in variety MORE (way more) than makes up for the lack of quality. Simply put: there is no comparison. I've been exposed to music that I would have NEVER EVER been exposed to. And you know what? It made me buy some CD's that I wouldn't have otherwise bought.
I haven't actually tuned in a real FM radio station in about 2 years. Why put myself through the frustration?
It also means that corporate radio isn't playing what you want to hear, and they certainly aren't going to play anything that is truly alternative. So the fact that companies and people are doing everything they can to get their music in some other way, including paying more for it, is not really surprising.
Hopefully if corporate focus shifts away from radio then there will be more room for what (IMHO) radio should be for and that is local programming, independent music, giving listeners some choice in hearing new and interesting music, instead of the same angsty teen rock song sliced 10 different ways by 5 different bands or the exact same backbeat and harmony repackaged as a different song by 12 poptart starlettes.
Yeah, but will all these new media forms have Payola?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Radio died long before the advancement of XM and Sirius.
_ channel/ i c/interviews/toure.html v =11 - 07-21-radio_x.htm
Taken from The Myth of Media Piracy: [jmcardle.com]
It died when in 1996, the US Federal Communication Commission changed the laws on radio station ownership, removing the limits on how many stations a single company could own. As a consequence, Clear Channel was able to take over station after station. Within a matter of years, it owned 1,200 stations across the United-States; including 247 of the 250 largest radio markets.[1] This severely limited the amount and variety of new music being played on the airwaves. As Touré, a contributing editor to the Rolling Stones put it, "So now if you can't get through Clear Channel, or you can't get through MTV, how does anybody know your record is out?"[2] The fact is, no one can. Furthermore, polls indicated that youths were being turned off by the lack of fresh music on the air.[3]
Radio seemingly play the same 10 songs over and over. It doesn't help that labels like Sony BMG illegally bribed stations to play the tunes they wanted.[4]
These new technologies represent what radio should be: music. Not the worst crap of the 80s/90s repeated every hour. Unfortunately, these technologies either cost money (Sirius), or have to pay such insane royalty fees that they have no choice but to fall in the realm of illegality (Internet Radio). Did you know that an Internet Radio station has to pay $25,000 in royalties every day if it has 10,000 listeners? [5] Traditional radio on the other hand don't have to pay any royalties.
Sources:
1. http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/04/30/clear
2. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mus
3. http://www.radiodiversity.com/faceofradio.html
4. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050725/music_probe.html?.
5. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002
An insightful troll? You're kidding!
Sad but true.. WCBS in New York, the premiere oldies station, recently changed its format to be more "competitive" (read: homogenized).
But you do know there's hope even without Sirius: Check out "Eight Track Flashback" on WNCU in Durham, North Carolina (yes, they have Internet streaming available) on Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm Eastern US time.
It's not as convenient as Sirius, granted, and probably not as clear; I think WNCU only has a 64 kbps feed. But it is still The Shit nonetheless.
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
It's all about user control. Broadcast and print media don't allow it -- they are doomed.
Could? Try "already have". Every time I get in the car, I listen to the radio for exactly as long as it takes for the radio to load the cassette adapter for the iPod. Funny that usually the 2-3 seconds of radio I hear each time are...either a DJ, or a commercial. I got an mp3 player for christmas back in '99 primarily because I was tired of spending most of my commute listening to commercials, if I wasn't listening to NPR news.; the iPod finally made it practical. So cry me a river for the radio industry which is NOW realizing a market correction that started at least 2-3 years ago.
XM/Sirius is complete garbage; a relative has Sirius in his car, and it drops out all the time; tree cover, bridges, tall buildings. The audio quality is atrocious; the casette adapter for my iPod may eat low and high frequencies...but even a 128kbit mp3 through the casette adapter sounds better than Sirius. Plus it doesn't address any issues except the commercials- it's still crap other people want you to listen to, and not crap you want to listen to :-)
About the only thing worthwhile on radio right now is NPR; the news is superb, and the stuff during the weekends is usually pretty good too (I'm a fan of the old-school radio quiz shows.)
Please help metamoderate.
When are we going to have something like shoutcast radio over ip everywhere (Roaming IP)? I tried it with one of those CDMA cards and it didn't work. Not sure if GPRS works while roaming. I doubt they hand-off the same IP addresses when you move between cells since you have to be in the same subnet.
Satellite radio is totally pointless. Why do you need realtime delivery of prescheduled content?
Because when I'm travelling back from my parents' house in PA to Ohio, I can only hear 1/2 of the Steelers game that is playing. Once I hit mid ohio, if the Bengals or the Browns aren't playing them, then neither are the radio stations.
Don't be so quick to dismiss the fact that there are SOME events that are better enjoyed realtime. It may not fit your lifestyle, but definitely does mine.
Karnal
yes we know we don't have any newspaper anymore, either.
all media can adapt by reducing costs and staying unique. take newspapers, new printing technology has made newspapers cheaper to produce and recently (not 2 months ago recent, i mean 20 years ago recent) color printing has increased the appeal of the newspaper.
Seriously, I have NOT listed to ANY commercial radio station for at least 6 years. I can't believe people still listen to this crap! When I was able to get an MP3 player in my car... my radio days were over! And now with Sirius, XM, etc. why would anyone subject themselves to hours of mind-numbingly stupid DJ's, hours of commercials and TERRIBLE music!? I just find it unbelievable that people still cling to commercial radio! Anyone?? For the record, I DO listen to the local NPR and public classical radio stations, no commercials, no idiot DJ's, it's hard to beat. Commercial Radio deserves the death that it is getting and then some!
It's based on proprietary technology which comes from a single vendor.
The startup costs run around $100,000 per station, thus shutting out the few independent station owners that remain.
You can hardly find the HD Radio receivers anywhere, and even if you can, they start at about $500 per.
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
Rush Limbaugh (conservative commentator) had such a system in place, I don't recall if it was removed or not, but does allow for an extra commercial spot. It also removes the use of a dramatic pause. Orson Welles would not approve.
for radio. Has anyone else heard these commercials lately? I hardly ever listen to the radio anymore except for when I'm driving to/from work. Lately I've been hearing a commercial that starts out as some sort of big important news break, and then it plays that error message you get on the telephone if the number you dial doesn't exist, followed by an operator voice saying "please insert $0.25 for the next 3 minutes". The final statement of the commercial is "Radio. Some things you just shouldn't have to pay for". These commercials piss me off because we're already paying for radio by listening to all their stupid commercials and by hearing the same songs over and over again. XM or Sirius should have a commercial that mimics the sound of someone changing through the stations and all the same songs are playing, followed by a voice saying "Radio. You get what you pay for".
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
The ability to time shift both on the receiving end (when our ears hear it) and the transmission end (when a show, however long it needs to be, that's how long it's going to be, gets uploaded,) is the greatest thing.
In wresting control of the media from the supply-side, we, the demand-side, free ourselves from the tyranny of having to 'be there' at the appointed time with our attention focused on whatever 'never to be repeated' special event they feel is going to make them the most money.
Our wants don't enter into the equation. Its down to basic economics of fighting over a very limited resource, the time of day.
The internet, Googling for or otherwise discovering content we'd want to spend our time on, podcatching that content, being able to pay as much attention as we need to is half the equation.
The internet, podcasting the content we feel could find an audience is the other half of the equation.
What these two things have in common is the internet (and the common protocols.) Its not the platforms, not the actual production and/or playback hard/soft-ware. Its the internet.
The malaise that is currently afflicting media is the same that affected the rest of the world during the twentyeth century. The supply side model of any economic activity is being supplanted by the demand side.
The survivors will be those people who are agile enough and smart enough to discover and maintain revenue streams between the demand side and the supply side of any economic activity by realizing and exploiting the discontinuity between them and using the internet as the glue that binds them.
Apple is in that position with the iTMS. Its up to them to realize it, capitalize on it and not get knocked off the top of the heap.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Fuck ClearChannel.
Die bitches.
I concur. I was out on satellite radio because of the receiver cost and subscription fees. Our new Jeep came with it and it's all I listen to (not counting MP3 cds). Stations like 22 First Wave play stuff you'll never hear on a corporate alternative station.
There's a lot more cost in buying an iPod than in using a satellite radio server. If you buy 1 cd a month, then that covers the cost of the subscription. If you have an ipod, you have to buy music, either on CD or iTunes, or download it for free on the internet. With satellite radio, you pay $15? I think a great think would be an Ipod that you could put your own music on, or switch over to satellite radio when you got bored of your own music. Kind of like the old tape player walkmans with build in radios.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
The denial on both sites is amazing, it is exactly the same arguements radio made when TV appeared, and TV made when cable appeared. The primary talk is "localism, localism, localism" but the real reasons that young listeners like myself are fleeing are small repetitive playlists and too many commericals. Like the RIAA, they fail to understand we have new options.
Satellite has the advantages of few if no commericals, and no content restrictions, much in the way cable battles terrestrial TV.
I've been suggesting for months Sirius head Mel Karmazan will offer some channels for free* in an effort to lure listeners. Of course, by free, I mean ad-filled. (Mel K is a sales guy, after all)
I'm suprized how many stations "go Christmas" these days, one would think breaking listener habits are harmful.
Over and over and over again. The same thing. I went away for six months to Asia and when I came back it was 8 days before I heard a 'new' song on the radio, and even that was crap. It's like an ipod with only 30 songs.
I helped build the device at PenguinRadio for just this reason--I wanted to hear something new. In just a month of listening to stations from overseas, I've bought seven albums from groups I've never heard of over here. Go figure.
It's not just the technology that "endangers" broadcast radio: it's the industry itself. There are so many things wrong with commercial terrestrial radio, that it's become a joke, and the broadcasters themselves don't seem to realize they've worked themselves out of the market and over-valued the stations so much that no one else could possibly come in an FIX broadcast radio.
Could it be fixed? Certainly. FM Broadcast technology is not inherently sucky. It's quite possible to set up transmitters to provide a killer sound with a nice broad range. Does it happen? Rarely. Station managers want it LOUD so they get heard, and to do it the compress the crap out of the signal and lose all the quality. But it sure is loud when you tune past it! It -sucks- too, but they only care about the advertising dollars their LOUD station brings in.
It's no surprise people have migrated to MP3 players, Sat radio, etc., etc., etc. It's a better alternative. Better sound, and no 40% commercial load.
Personally, I'm waiting for the bubble to burst in that media and the bottom to fall out. Once it does, the stations may get into the hands of people who can actually -do- something good with it.
"You had the time. You had the power. You're yet to have your finest hour. Radio."
Freddie Mercury: Radio Gaga
Never attribute to malice what can as easily be the result of incompetence...
The number of stations broadcasting anything interesting is so vanishingly low that it's hardly a shock that radio is dying. When the program directors go out of their way to make sure that all the music sounds about the same, and floods me with low quality, low budget ads, I have trouble bothering to turn the radio on. The difference between most radio stations and the weekly advertising that bills itself as my small town newspaper is that one is in print.
Some solutions to rejuvenate radio:
1. Charge more for the advertising and have fewer ads. This will mean that fewer ads are needed and advertisers will be inclined to put a little more effort into making them.
2. Broadcast original content. There's no compelling reason to listen to station X when in the course of an hour they're gonna play the same thing as station Y. Remember radio dramas (okay, most of you reading this have never heard one)? Try covering local bands, or actual live events rather than the promotional radio remote.
3. Make a varied format. If a television station broadcast all talk shows all day, or all sitcoms, or all documentaries, viewers would stay away in droves, or the station would at least fall into a niche market.
4. Replace the "radio talent" with somebody who has actual talent. The bulk of call-in hosts seem to be pretty competent at their job, on a par with or better than their TV equivalents. Radio comics don't seem to be nearly as funny as their TV counterparts.
5. Increase the DJ pay so that it's possible to get and keep some professional announcers. I've known DJs who loved the work, but left for a retail job because the pay was better. Professional announcers don't just happen magically, it takes a lot of work to develop, just like any other field. If there's no way to support yourself without living in your mother's basement you'll be stuck with "new" announcers all the time, and that doesn't do anything to help quality.
Easy Online Role Playing Campaign Management
In Minneapolis we now have the Current. They play a wide range of music that is picked out by the DJs. There are no commercials (except one week/year) since it is run by MPR (Minnesota Public Radio). Before it existed my siblings and I would battle over which station to listen to. Now we all agree.
Thanks MPR.
However, if you primarily listen to news or talk, iPods are much better. Especially if you like gaming or tech, as there are many excellent gaming / gadgets / tech news podcasts out there, whereas similar news is virtually nonexistant on normal radio (and probably some on XM, but still less than is on podcasts).
Good stations from the 70's and 80's are generally gone--- those that played what you WANTED to hear. Example: Chicago. (Yeah, XRT is still around, but that's it...they're a single-station entity. They're the complete exception!) When WMET 95.5FM changed formats from a good hard-rock station to "Smooth rock and smooth Jazz" in early '85, it was the end of a an era. No longer was rock heard on a Chicago station. Yes, there was "classic" rock, far too much of it, but that's it. Otherwise your ears were subject to Top40, multiple Adult Contemporary "options". They don't want to play anything offensive, so it's all un-offensive..."condom rock"...it's safe to listen to. AggrrrhhH!!!
Radio is like Milk, homogenized and bland. You have your chocolate flavor, egg nog flavor and maybe strawberry, that's it.
Finding XM finally, after 20 years, allowed me to listen to what I WANT to hear and have whatever flavor I WANTED: from Dream Theater, Rush, Led Zep (not the usual stuff, either. Carouselembra was great to hear just a couple days ago!) to country to hard-core dance. Non-redundant 80's is a welcome station to the dial, the digital XM dial, that is.
No longer are we stuck without a choice in radio. The friggin stations and conglomerates did it to themselves: offer nothing that the customer wants. They deserve to die as they have been asking for someone to challenge their superiority for 2+ decades. Hopefully XM never falls into this trap. If so, they will eventually have the same fate.
Bottom line: radio stations did it to themselves. Long live XM.
As music choices become more and more diverse and the demand for quality sound goes up, I see the FM band dying. But the AM band in San Diego seems to be doing well for two reasons:
1) XM does not carry issues local to San Diego (let me know if I am misinformed)
2) XM does not carry information that helps commuters with traffic info to and from San Diego.
This daily local content is what keeps AM radio alive and out of reach for XM radio.
Not everyone listens to music on radio.
I agree, they should rename it NI(raq)PR. I have found though that if you skip the first half hour of the NPR news and let them get their mandatory Middle East news/stories out of the way then you get to the more diverse stories. I've also found that the BBC World Service newscasts don't obsess over the Middle East as much as NPR's news.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
NEW YORK (1926) - The radio industry could find itself at the kids' table in the media garden party, as new technology threatens the business.
Television, Printing presses, and even the gramophone are slowly encroaching on traditional radio's stronghold on local entertainment and advertising. Plus, radio ads themselves are less memorable and creative, compared to the in-home experience a qualified door to door salesman can provide.
"Radio is at the center of a perfect storm of technological threats," said David Verklin, "It has to reinvent itself."
He noted that Gramophones and other music players like it have given listeners the ability to listen to what they want when they want.
Newspapers offer all the day's news an an easy-to-read format. You can skip forward or backwards, and even re-read portions. Archiving the paper is as simple as putting it away (try to listen to last weeks news on a radio - it can't be done!). And for disposal, who can't use more kindling? Color printed is soon expected to come down in price, and a "smell-o-print" service is being tested provide perfume samples in magazines. Again, try that with radio!
Recent televisions use an "electronic eye" to see and transmits 30 lines of high quality imagery at 5 times a second! Radio has no picture, so people have to delude themselves or pretend to see an image in their minds.
To address these concerns, the top U.S. radio company said last month that 95 percent of its 1,200 stations would be upgraded to stereo by 1930. If successful, the company could offer free picture frames to stick on the front of the radio - the listener could put in a picture of Roy Rogers when his show comes on, and it would be like the cowboy was in your living room!
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
-No ads -Still free -Ain't gonna hear the same song every hour -I only listen to what I like -I can have a much richer programation than a radio that plays always the same few songs
How could traditional radio survive with that? The only good thing about radio is talk show, like, funny shit and all that, maybe they should get more into it...
You just got troll'd!
Parent comment is taken directly from this comment.
Every post he makes is a sham lifted from other comments. Please mod appropriately.
Actually, the US government is pretty much mandated not to compete with private industry. I only found this out recently when a piece of software I wrote for the Air Force looked like it could be useful enough to be used outside of the Air Force itself. I was told that if that were the case, it couldn't be released for free, because by doing so, we could be competing against people in the industry.
Satellite raido is going to go the same way as satellite TV - in a few years time you will have exactly the same crap there when the execs realise that terrestrial raido is dead and they can squeeze out a few more pennies by running adverts.
Huh... I was actually under the impression that they were already doing this. There's a commercial that frequently runs on an FM station I listen to in town, sponsered by ClearChannel, I think, which details the history of radio, leading up to satellite radio where they end with a line somewhere along the lines of "satellite radio where you pay for installation, pay for subscriptions and now? *dramatic sound effect* There's commercials." I guess that was just FUD?
Myself, I still enjoy broadcast radio. I think they key is that I listen to classic rock and classic country. The Classical X stations usually employ about three decades of material to work with and they've weeded out a lot of the crap. (Was it Stranger in a Strange Land where one of the characters claims he likes classical music because they've had 300 years to weed out the crap?) Because they're both local stations, you feel somewhat connected to the personalities because you'll see them at the local mall or at city events. Too, you get breaking local news including which roads have been closed down by accidents. I actually don't like the "50 minutes without commercials" stations because they then have a big clog of commercials later on. I can deal with a commercial every few songs. Again, local talent is often being utilized for the commercials, so you have less of the feeling of being spoonfed generic copy.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Thank you for saying it before me, re sports in realtime. But also talk radio. And other news shows (like BBC world service, CNN, Fox, whatever your preference...). Who wants to hear yesterday's news? And yes, as a NE Ohioan, I am a Browns Fan, but I''ll just let your Steeler's loyalty go. Especially considering the way the Steelers have been making the Browns into their little girl lately....
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
Everything that is written. I used to listen to AM radio a lot back home. I used to listen in my car and in my house both in traditional radios and in my shortwave unit (RIP). I don't think 'traditional' radio perse will go away. I think it will transform itself into a very selective medium; Selective in both who listens and what gets listened to. For instance, there was this rock station back home that for a time really sucked. As of roughly a year or so they changed the format and they mix old school rock (Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Etc.) with the best of new rock and it's an absolute delight to listen. And this is an FM station! After I relocated, I stream the station whenever I can, and whenever I'm allowed by bandwidth restrictions and firewall policies. The other stream I get is a local news station. Half an hour of news, coupled with reading the online newspapers, is enough to know what's going on back home.
the future is but past forgotten
Digital music? Real elitists know that the only true sound involves a needle and vinyl.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Louie the lizard for Budweiser. Now THOSE were funny!
"My life is a nightmare" - my favorite line from Louie.
Who can forget the ferret singing? Who wouldn't want to?
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Once every city has wireless, people will "broadcast" their own stations to the entire city. A better music selection and no commercials will fuel this revolution. Large companies will hop onboard and compete aswell. Eventually auto manufacturers will offer Wi-Fi players in cars and the rest is history.
Great... now instead of searching a band of a few hundred possibilities, of which only a dozen are actually viable, for content I want to listen to, I'll be sorting through millions of podcasts to try to find one that's not about the podcaster's cat and how it vomitted on the sofa today...
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Canada has decided to pre-empt all the fuss by converting all radio broadcasting to Digital Audio Broadcasting by 2010. Many stations across the country now simulcast in DAB as well as their regular broadcast method. I for one look forward to setting CBC Radio 1 to link into the local reflector, and cruising across the country enjoying uninterrupted reception by land or sattelite transmitters.
Here's the link to the association involved in the changeover:
www.cab-acr.ca/drri/
We have Sirius and XM and are quite happy. I hate ads and will pay $25 per month to get rid of them, plus have a lot of options to bounce around to.
Don't forget the marvellous BBC7. Loads and loads of great comedy and drama. ReplayRadio has been a godsend for me since moving to the USA, allowing me to "self-podcast" loads of Radio4 and BBC7 content. I actually listen to British radio more than I EVER did when I lived in the UK. Time-shifting is where its at. I applaud the BBC's early trials with real podcasting, and hope they open it up to more shows, allowing me to drop ReplayRadio eventually, which is clunky, but gets the job done nicely! My Philadelphia commute is full of shows like I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, Just A Minute, The Likely Lads, Yes Minister, Steptoe and Son, stuff like that. And its great they are playing the Big Finish Doctor Who plays now, even if I have them on CD already.
the content producers.
Depending on the 'powers that be' is what got us into this [inaubible] ClearChannel and Infinity mess in the first place.
I seriously doubt that any politician will be ever able to resist the allure of money being shoveled his way for the conglomrates control of the airwaves, (for as long as those air waves have any value.) That's because the ClearChannels and Infinity's of the world are in control of the supply side of the equation.
But by being able to directly support the producers of content we find over the internet, through aggregators and/or 'discovered' by reviewers, we find ourselves in a much better position on the demand side of media.
IF we can find a way to support content providers directly, we can listen to/watch what WE want. No more moaning that they canceled a show we used to watch with some innane but more profitable piece of drek.
I predict the rise of an internet based 'social network' for pitching ideas, concepts and promos directly to parties interested in the production and/or consumption of media content.
Podcasting let us get it when WE want it. The supply side paradigm is under a death watch.
Now we just have to 'get enough people' to 'throw enough money' at any media production effort to get it realized.
Economics 101: If a big blockbuster movie costs $75,000,000 to actually produce, at $4.99 a pop, it takes 15.2 million views to recoup the costs.
On the big screen, on a time limited run, (because they have many turkeys to run per screen per year,) the economics dictate that they'd never make a dime (hence movies cost multiple of $4.95 per view.)
On the internet, there is NO such imperative. A movie can take however long it takes to make the 15.2 million views. In addition, they're time shifted and media shifted. No more more problems with the viewer or the venue. In addition, the audience is immediately 'world wide' (assuming some linguisting/cultural commonality.)
A movie CAN'T lose money, just as long as people feel its worth $4.95 worth bothering about.
What started with the internet as a broadcast(x)/narrowcast(x)/podcast(!) medium just needs to expand to demanding and commissioning specific content from content providers.
Now apply that to other media content. Now apply that to ALL media content.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Dinosaurs will surely die And I do believe noone will cry I'm just fucking glad I'm gonna be there to watch them fall Prehistoric music industry Three feet in la brea tar Extinction never felt so good
...were endangered by the Model T.
Sheesh.
We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
Opie and Anthony. Talk radio will never be the same. That right there was reason enough to shell out $13 per month for XM!
I was hesitant to buy slingbox. I didnt really believe in video streaming. When I did buy it, and hooked it up, I was amazed. I have a 60 minute commute each way, on the train. So, I fire up my laptop, plug in my EVDO card from Sprint, and I can stream TV perfectly at 200-400kbps - with only one hickup around Mount Prospect, IL. This applies to radios. I am really amazed how well I can receive XM anywhere in the country. We went to the Burning Man a few years back, and it was just amazing to be able to listen to tunes while camping in the middle of no where (and yes, I also own an IPOD).
Intelligent Design
Myself, I don't care about the real-time aspect, I care about having more than 3 radio stations playing crappy music. Instead I can have hundreds playing crappy music.. hey wait a minute
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
I have 2 surround-sound systems, 1 on each floor of the house.
How hard/much would it be to hook up my ipod/computer/whatever to a small FM transmitter, and transmit to an empty station to get it all over the house? That would be great for parties. All music from one source.
Just askin...
Are these better than new technologies somehow?
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
All issues aside, conventional radio still has a chance. They should be switching to digital as well. You'll still be able to listen to the same frequency with your analog radio, but digital radios will get added quality. I see this as the only thing that will protect them from XM.
As soon as WiMAX becomes readily available, or some other wireless service, I won't have any incentive to get XM. The main station I'm interested in listening to is available in 192kbps at
etn.fm. Just mouse over to the Trance or Progressive 192 streams for free quality music.
I don't know about RFA rallies, but the article about CC i read in Harper's painted a scary picture not because they own X (1,207) stations. It was scary because they advertise those stations on their collection of Y billboards and promote shows at Z venues they control.
Clear channel isn't alone in this either. In the recent (Labor day) NYT profile about Les Moonves, he was talking about Vicaom synergy and he said something like -We produce a show, air it on a network we own, and promote it on our billboards.
Why should I spend time and effort searching out content that appeals to me, downloading it, and saving it for later use when I can sit down in my car, turn on the radio and tune it to a channel that I like?
My job has me doing a good bit of travelling via rental car. I got tired of constantly searching for stations that played the music I wanted to hear and of not being able to get the sports games I want. I bought a portable XM unit that I can transfer from rental car to rental car. A month after I bought it, I had a new stereo put in my car with an XM tuner built in. I've had that radio for two months now, and I don't even have the radio buttons programmed to the local stations because I've never used it to listen to FM.
When I'm on the road, I switch between several different types of music (several sub-genres of rock, jazz, various flavors of country, etc), political talk radio, sports talk radio and sports broadcast according to my mood. There's no way I could carry that much variety and content in a portable device. Additionally, I get the benefit of exposure to little known, non-mainstream artists that I'd never even heard of until I got satellite radio. My christmas list this year is all about CDs from artists that I didn't know existed four months ago.
Podcasting is a revolutionary development, and it certainly has it's place. But I don't think it's a complete replacement for radio, at least not until we get ubiquitous mobile broadband connectivity.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
Anywhere from $5-50, depending on the type of FM transmitter you buy. I bought a Belkin on e-bay a year or so ago and it's pretty good as long as the source is close to the reciever.
Nelson & Terry are on KRSK-FM, an Entercom radio station rather than ClearChannel. Not that this makes them or the station any more or less evil, mind you. (ObDisclaimer: I'm an Entercom employee. Like that's really relevant.) The point of that particular morning show, however, is to fill a sort of nostalgic void where the "Z Morning Zoo" used to be in Portland's collective consciousness. Hence the cackling and potty humor. I used to listen to KINK-FM's morning show a few years back, but some changes in airstaff and producers over there degraded the quality of an otherwise-pleasant listening experience. Now I don't listen to the radio at all... other than when I can't avoid it on account of where I work, that is. (And yes, KINK is an Infinity station. My conscience is clear, thank you.)
Entercom on the whole, however, continues to operate under an internal mandate of finding ways to maximize ad revenue without adding more minutes of commercial time. Going to shorter spot lengths such as 10, 15 and 30 seconds instead of the usual 60 is one solution being actively pursued.
Make of this what you will, of course. It's arguable that all of these measures such as political wrangling, Internet streaming (which we've all tried before, and look what little that got us!) and creative ways to fill spot breaks are only staving off the inevitable demise of the medium as we know it. If we're lucky, it'll simply... metamorphose. I'll enjoy the ride along the way, if nothing else.
I'm only wearing black until they come out with something darker.
Well it wouldn't be hard at all.. you answered your own question.
Just pick up a ipod fm transmitter, and a 'good' regular fm transmiter (ie one that broadcasts the whole fm band-- 88-108) at the store.
Plug your output into the transmitter, and walla!
You may need a small amplifier as well for the transmitter.
Good luck! :)
-- The InterNet is a terrible thing to waste. Arrest Bill Gates and shut down Microsoft immediately.
I will gladly loose all of life's battles.. in order to win the war..
...bloggers on-air.
Now even those without Internet connections will be able to follow angsty teens and 20-somethings whining about their lives and seeking attention.
Woohoo.
...As I soon realized on 9/11. At the time I was a PhD student in a London University. The short hop to the London Internet exchange and bandwidth afforded to my office and Lab meant I had given up on analogue radio and TV and was using news web sites, real player news clips and streaming internet radio of major radio stations. When the disaster unfolded ALL of these technologies failed on me (news sites no longer loaded, streaming radio would not buffer) and I had to dust off the old radio discarded at the back of the lab to get any information as to what was happening. Do not underestimate the usefulness of the old radios.
Let me get this straight. On commercial radio, I have to listen to:
* Recorded commercials that hawk stuff.
* "radio edit" previews of songs that hawk the cds they appear on full length.
* DJs that hawk promotional events where I can buy stuff.
* Weather and news, so long as it doesn't disagree with the station's business model.
Strange to think that people still think commercials pay for the music. It's the same with TV - can you buy the DVD for the show you're watching?
There is one local radio station I really like. It is from a small town and is not owned by clear channel. In the morning they have DialnDeal where people can put all sorts of thing up for sale or even give them away. Next is the Employment Connection for people looking for jobs. They play music that they like and they know about and broadcast the local high school football games on Friday night.
I will miss them when they go. I don't think that XMRadio can replace that.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Anytime I've listened to Satellite radio (rental cars, mostly) - I've noticed that it's way to specific - for instance, who really wants to listen to the "all rave music" station that was on a few years ago. The result is always that I'm switching stations constantly. If I'm in an area served by a number of major market stations, I invariably switch to FM - there is simply more variety, traffic reports, etc. Now, if I could get _those_ stations with the "perks" of satellite radio (like song name, better quality, etc) for free, I'd be listening more. Course, that _was_ available with DAB - but nobody could agree on it here. iPods and the like are also bound to have some effect - but only in the short term - people have to figure out what the cool songs to listen to are from somewhere (and most people aren't going to watch MTV all day). In the long run - people aren't going to pay from a product that is better delivered for free (and, if they get it for free, will still listen to local stations strictly because they're local). Satellite radio will have a huge impact on areas without many stations (read: the Great Plains), but in cities where most people live - it's just a gimmick that will either go away or become free.
I suppose it's necessary for shrinking industries to raise the alarms. I just wish more business men would realized that the best way to stay in business is to move WITH progress, not try to fight it. If Kodak had clung tenaciously to its traditional film business, it would be out of business now. But instead, they expanded into digital media. That's how you compete and stay relevant.
The correct way for this sentance should be:
Internet are slowly encroaching on traditional radio's stronghold on advertising.
Entertainment has long since moved on elsewhere, and it shows with radio selections.
We, the people, (nearly 7 billion strong) are currently knocking at the big boys doors with wireless, p2p and other new technologies that will revitalize the whole Specrum, not just radio.
Digital 'AM' radio alone, is poised to have features such as higher than CD quality, and interaction with the listener!
The truth is, since Tesla's wonderous wireless invention, there has never been a better time for individuals to take back what rightfully belongs to them, from of the hand full of criminals (ie.the ClearChannel's) who have ruined the industry since day one.
-- The InterNet is a terrible thing to waste. Arrest Bill Gates and shut down Microsoft immediately.
I will gladly loose all of life's battles.. in order to win the war..
Traditional radio is endangered, but not by new technology.
Radio, as a commercial success, was based around DJ's playing records. Good DJ's aquired listeners, and thus advertisers had an audience. Music was being heard, so people found out about bands, and bought music and attended concerts. I think this is roughly what made radio a success. Listeners hear new stuff, advertisers have an audience, and the record companies recieved increased awareness of their bands.
Radio has changed though, now the music itself is a paid advertisement, and between songs we are treated to paid advertisements, before a robot plays little pre-recorded snippet that replaced the DJ, and starts the next block of paid advertisements.
By removing the DJ, and replacing them with paid play lists, listeners are not being exposed to new music they like, but music the industry wants to sell. This is endangering radio more than any new technology.
Satellite radio is only really popular because of the changes in radio. Satellite provides the listeners with new music, whereas traditional radio is one big commercial advertisement for crap I don't need, paid for by companies with which I don't wish to do business.
$0.02
Talk radio is flourishing. Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, Micheal Medved, Bill Bennett and Micheal Savage are all doing great.
BTW, Air America is circling the toilet. Crap for the crapper. Rest in peace.
Just an interesting note to all those people who seem to think markets always end up screwing the little guy, hurt innovation, etc.
I'd say at least 70% of the posts on here are along the lines of " *traditional radio is bad* *here's the alternative I enjoy (mp3/podcast/satellite/singing to yourself)* "
It seems that when a company abuses some near manifestation of a monopoly, people innovate...sounds like...dun dun dun...basic ecnomomic theory.
The idea of FM radio is a good one, but the execution is horrible. It drives me absolutely insane to hear the same 10 songs over and over again for weeks on end. On my local station which plays "hip-hop and today's R&B" I swear they play that "Gold Digger" song 346 times a day. Their commercial-to-song ratio is actually not that bad - I have no complaints with that. But there is only so long I can listen to the same songs repeatedly, before I get a headache.
What I would like is an FM hip-hop station that plays a wide variety of great tracks, not just the song of the month from the mumbling, candy-ass mainstream artists. Until that station comes along, I'll keep listening to SmoothBeats.com.
I seriously think that radio in it's traditional sense is already dead, it just hasn't stopped moving yet. Podcasts have replaced it for me, I even get my old favorite radio shows as podcasts now (from the same makers no less).
Lots of people don't have access to podcasts yet but it won't be long until they are easier and more accessible then radio.
I drive a lot, going from Court to Court (BTW, IAAL). Listening to standard FM in the NY market is very, very painful. We get the worst, most homogenous radio, as the price of the FM allocation in NYC is so high that each conglomerate will "break" music in other markets and then only after it "takes" in the other market, will we get it in NY. Gone are any hints of interest, unusual ideas, or god forbid, local bands. Add 40 minutes of blab and commercials, and I want to sing myself...and that's not pleasant. After installing Sirius in my car, I've tuned into local FM, zero times. I listen to AM for Air America, which left Sirius, but guess what FM guys, you have lost another "desired demograpic". Still, while Sat Radio rocks now, I fear giving the pipeline to one or two companies...this can be worse. For now, tho, the only real use for FM in NYC is to give the satellite box an easy input to the car stereo. The funny/tragic side is that Sirius has all the DJ's I grew up with, before the playlist became ironclad-all the classic WLIR, WNEW, jocks. FM made it's own bed, and I for one don't choose to lie in it.
Let me attempt to explain this based on Limbaugh's explaination. He would begin his show a few minutes or less before the broadcast so the time difference is passed over when fed to the transmitter. This removes less than a second here or there in unnoticable (to most) segments, so he's still doing X length show but the network gets X - Y seconds removed. It may sound inane, but a commerical spot on Limbaugh's national show is huge. (Limbaugh's syndicator is Clear Channel owned Premiere.)
You're just gonna have to work extra hard and decide if you want a satellite radio reciever or food for the next few weeks.
There will always be a market for content. Only the delivery technologies and paradigms may change. Heck, we already have 'internet radio', which doesn't use radio at all.
There's gonna be a shake-up, shake-down, shake it all around-around. In the end the talking friends whom you depend on will ascend. It's time to go for radio but we all know the show... will be BACK.
my setup is a ramsey fm10c and a rescued pentium 166. for a tiny microwatt transmitter i get better than a 1/4 mile range. more than enough to cover my house and yard.
Serenity now, insanity later.
Although not that popular in the US, shortwave (SW) is popular in much of the world, and unregulated. You can be in Nowhere, Zimbabwe and still pick up shortwave stations around the globe using a hand-cranked radio, where a 30-second crank spin will give you an hour or so of radio pleasure.
SW can get you great programming like Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, both of which are good listening. There are thousands of other stations out there, but I don't bother listening for them. Just searching gives me a bunch of oriental-sounding stations, something I think is arabic, a bunch of spanish polka, and lots of other weird stuff. The time is broadcast on several stations (5000 kHz is the one I use) and the digital radios can pick it up and give you lots of other good info.
frob.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
Nobody mentioned the fastest growing segment of radio, which is talk radio. I listen to Rush, Hannity, and Glenn Beck. Even Gerry Doyle from Babylon 5 has his own talk radio show.
I got an XM radio and subscription about 4 months ago, and even though the FM antenna isn't hooked up to my radio in my current car (I got a different car about 2 months ago), I haven't really cared. I used to listen to FM talk radio constantly, switching between WJFK 106.7 and WTOP 107.7 here in the Washington D.C. suburbs. Now everything I could possible want to listen to in the car is covered by either my XM service or my probably too large CD collection. At this point, I honestly wouldn't notice if every FM station in America suddenly stopped broadcasting. Satellite radio is one of those services (like my cell phone) that I don't know how I ever lived without now that I have it.
And between the major satellite services, I think XM is definitely the way to go. I sampled both services before signing up, and XM really offers a better channel lineup than Sirius for my tastes. The dealbreakers were XM's inclusion of a dedicated punk channel and The Opie and Anthony Show (spread the virus!). Even though Sirius has Howard Stern (who I believe is way past his prime) and the NFL, XM has 3 divisions of college sports (ACC, PAC-10, and Big Ten) for football and basketball, the NHL, Major League Baseball, and Nascar (if you're into that, I've never been interested). By far the best investment I've made in the entertainment genre.
"I just want to thank my coach Eric a.k.a. Disco for shattering my reality..."
So instead of just getting a $10 radio and picking up live coverage of news, sports, talk etc., you can spend hundreds on an ipod, hundreds more on broadband, then you have to download EVERYTHING you're going to listen to and transfer it over hours in advance. Oh and you have to pay for the music. Forget to download something you want to listen to? Tough, you can't just tune into it with a normal radio, you have to go without. A live sporting event on? Tough. Don't want to pay for everything you listen to? Tough. Phone-ins? Nope.
That doesn't sound easier to me, it sounds like it costs a lot more money, more hassle, and means having to plan and prepare everything you're going to listen to in advance. I'd rather just turn on the radio when I want to use it, no preparation, no huge expenses. You don't get adverts on the BBC anyway, so that's another supposed 'advantage' of podcasting down the tubes...
I turned off the FM radio about 6 years ago. I have a 6-disc CD changer in the car that I also never use. When I get in the car, I tune to the traffic info station and listen to that on the way to work.
I used to listen to the radio all the time - had about 4 stations programmed in, and when one had a commercial - I hit another preset... Then when all the stations became owned by Clearfucks they all had commercials on at the same time - that's when I tuned out.
I DO NOT listen to the radio for commercials - I listen to it for some news or music. When it stopped providing what I wanted, I stopped listening - simple as that. Even the local news channel WBBM is a piece of shit - they have two stories and lead right into some damned commercial about gold bond powder without any break at all - fuck it I said... good bye.
I tried futzing with the Neuros and an FM transmitter, but it's too many wires, not powerful enough, so I said the hell with it... I'd rather concentrate on driving and THINK for myself for a change...
It took about a month to get used to it, but really - give it a try, it's quite refreshing...
It's truly a rare time now that I actually even have a CD on in the car... I'm done with the radio conglomerates, the RIAA, and the MPAA - greedy jerks, I hope you all die and rot in hell so we can reclaim the airwaves and screens to produce something other than mindless drivel...
Of course, what could be better than up to the minute, latest news than a podcast downloaded three days ago?
*shrug* Podcasts are more about quality, not quantity, and so I really don't mind that it's delayed a little bit, because I don't mind hearing analysis of the Illinois gaming law decision, or reviews of the latest game release, or what-have-you a couple days later (or alternative analysis to what I read a couple days later, especially because my commute time is basically useless otherwise). eg. Engadget's blog has a ton of stories every week, but for their podcast, they do like 30-60 minutes of good stuff, which is usually a "best of this week". Same with Diggnation, Science Friday, etc etc.
I should add this is US$209.50 per year per TV! A multiple TV set household in the UK will pay a pretty stiff level of licence fee, to say the least.
Live performances just can't compare. Go vinyl, go!
^_^ Wish I could remember the exact line, but there was a wonderful bit in one of the Discworld books about how the Patrician prefers to read sheet music rather than listen to it "because the idea of it being performed by people, with all the sweat and saliva involved, strikes him as distasteful."
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.