Traditional Radio Endangered By New Tech 287
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."
Stay tuned for another bandwidth auction... (Score:4, Insightful)
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
Re:The Howard Stern Effect (Score:3, Insightful)
Yea, just like newspapers huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Clearchannel (Score:4, Insightful)
"Clear Channel Killed The Radio Star..." (Score:3, Insightful)
Yea, for this awesome display of man must be saved, so as to bore the crapnuts out of future generations.
Public Radio (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
It's all wasted (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Crap to Content ratio too high for too long (Score:5, Insightful)
No wonder the ads suck (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Stay tuned for another bandwidth auction... (Score:3, Insightful)
With things like SSMA, you might be able to spread your use of the spectrum widely enough to allow for shared applications.
Quite honestly, I'd much rather have that bandwidth being used for something that I might actually find useful. Of course, the problem then would be of internationalization - there are a lot of countries out there where radio still means a lot, and the radio is one of those few things that has been fairly universal. But that might change.
Combine it with HAM operators and the percentage of folks that do listen to the radio in the US (for instance, morning drive-to-work listening), it's unlikely that it will COMPLETELY go away. More likely that it will amalgamate with other apps and evolve into something more.
Besides, auctioning a spectrum to a corporation might actually be beneficial. Resources + reach is something that Joe Schmoe does not have. Besides, built a strong enough transmitter (if you needed it that badly), you might be able to over-ride just about any transmission (of course, the legality of the issue would be another thing altogether).
you're all forgetting one thing (Score:4, Insightful)
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
Radio sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
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 [sourceforge.net] and subscribing to Adam Curry's Daily Source Code [dailysourcecode.com]. 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 [podcastalley.com] for some of the most popular shows.
BBC: traditional but fantastic quality (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Last.fm (Score:2, Insightful)
Personalized internet streams such as Last.fm [www.last.fm] and Pandora [pandora.com] give people a much better alternative to radio while they're working at a computer. You can get the music you know you like, while at the same time get exposure to new music - and not new music that the labels are promoting like crazy, but new music that will fit into your existing tastes.
Then you take this information to buy music that fits you more, toss it on portable music players such as an iPod, and you've got a ton of music wherever you go.
But this wouldn't be quite as necessary if radio wasn't getting worse and worse. The variety has gone downhill as ClearChannel and other corporations take over mass control and standardize everything to a small playlist and shove more and more ads in.
Only the case in the US (Score:3, Insightful)
*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?
Re:Satellite Radio Sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Podcasting Satellite Radio (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Slowest product rollout ever (Score:2, Insightful)
It's based on proprietary technology which comes from a single vendor [ibiquity.com].
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.
Re:Satellite Radio Sucks (Score:3, Insightful)
It's more than tech (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Government and competition (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Satellite Radio Sucks (Score:3, Insightful)
However, FM provides ample bandwidth for the broadcast audio's frequency range. With digital radio, you get artifacts because they're trying to cram a 200 kHz-wide analog FM channel into what I've read is, on average, a 96kbps encoded digital stream (and that's consistent with the quality I heard---about like a 96kbps MP3). Even in the rental car I was in, IMHO, it absolutely sounded like crap.
Don't get me wrong, FM isn't perfect, but I'd rather have the occasional bit of static going through the mountains than continuous HF flanging any day, particularly if I would have to pay good money for the HF flanging. No thanks. As for the commercial-free thing, so is my iPod....
Anlogue Radio Needed for Disasters... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Satellite Radio Sucks (Score:3, Insightful)