When a radio professional attempts to convince a local business owner to buy airtime on a local station, ratings alone aren't usually enough to persuade the business owner. The local business owner is comparing the cost of radio against the cost of print media, direct mail, internet, banners towed behind airplanes, people in funny costumes dancing with a sign in front of their store, and anything else they can think of. But often, the biggest problem is simply convincing the business owner that he needs some advertising, period. Yet those same radio professionals who try to convince local merchants that they need to advertise don't seem to understand that radio stations also need to advertise, to give people a reason for turning the radio on instead of popping in a CD, or for hitting the AM band button for a change. In the radio market where I live, I can't recall seeing anything in any advertising medium that gave me a reason for even turning my radio on, let alone hitting the AM band button. I've seen some billboards with the names of some guys I've never heard of being on some AM station, though I'm not sure when. That's it.
Break up these moronic monopolies; that'd be a marvelous way to improve radio across the board.
Hear, hear.
Cue "BigA" to tell us why that would be the worst thing ever.
OK...first of all, who would do the breaking up? The FCC? Really? Aren't they the same folks who screwed things up in the first place? Not exactly the people I'd trust with the future of radio. Secondly, who would buy the stations? Right now, both CC and Cumulus have a few hundred stations in trusts at rock bottom prices waiting for people to rush in and buy them. No one with any money is thinking about spending it on transmitters and towers. And regardless of what you may think, it costs a lot of money to run a radio station. In all of the examples I've seen where small owners have bought stations formerly owned by large radio companies, the results have been devastating, where the staff and services have been cut.
LOL
The obvious "competition" gains that result from a lack of monopolizing the marketplace aside; I guess you've never worked for a small operator who doesn't need to kick up 40% of their revenue to corporate, no matter what. Makes a BIG difference.
Break up these moronic monopolies; that'd be a marvelous way to improve radio across the board.
That's one I have to disagree with. In theory, that makes sense. In practice, it means every individual station is attempting to compete with every other station for the biggest market share. The result is even more homogenization. It would put an end to companies with multiple stations assigning each one of their stations to handle a different market segment. That means that the larger market segments would be over-served, and the smaller segments ignored.
OK...first of all, who would do the breaking up? The FCC? Really? Aren't they the same folks who screwed things up in the first place? Not exactly the people I'd trust with the future of radio. Secondly, who would buy the stations? Right now, both CC and Cumulus have a few hundred stations in trusts at rock bottom prices waiting for people to rush in and buy them. No one with any money is thinking about spending it on transmitters and towers. And regardless of what you may think, it costs a lot of money to run a radio station. In all of the examples I've seen where small owners have bought stations formerly owned by large radio companies, the results have been devastating, where the staff and services have been cut.
The FCC was wrong when it deregulated the industry, and allowed these companies to purchase hundreds of stations.
Imagine that? Stations actually competing for market share instead of having their piece of the pie pre-cut and unchallenged. Geeez, stations might actually TRY to be better.
I heard a rumor that it used to be like that for real, a long, long time ago. (shivers)
I'd be willing to bet that if the FCC changed the rules about oligopoly ownership, it wouldn't be long until old-fashioned simulcast radio networks returned, with four or five national network feeds being carried almost 24/7.
Consider the condition of broadcast television. Even when ownership of multiple stations was forbidden, the vast majority of content on television was the shows provided by the big three network, the programs of "National Educational Television", and reruns of those shows. I'd be willing to bet that if the FCC changed the rules about oligopoly ownership, it wouldn't be long until old-fashioned simulcast radio networks returned, with four or five national network feeds being carried almost 24/7.
stream it... But just try to do that on the MegaBus, or the Greyhound, the Via, or Capital Metro's Wireless B connection. Buffering.... Buffering.... Buffering.... FORGETABOUTIT!
Consider the condition of broadcast television. Even when ownership of multiple stations was forbidden, the vast majority of content on television was the shows provided by the big three network, the programs of "National Educational Television", and reruns of those shows. I'd be willing to bet that if the FCC changed the rules about oligopoly ownership, it wouldn't be long until old-fashioned simulcast radio networks returned, with four or five national network feeds being carried almost 24/7.
In my market, not only was there news, but local kiddie shows, movie hosts, interview shows, game shows, musical shows, live sports remotes, you name it.