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2019 Radio Predictions

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

My 2019 predictions will be that Iheart, Entercom and Cumulus will put more emphasis for their podcast operations.

OTA Radio will get less emphasized as seen in various threads regarding radio.
 
Podcasts?? Uh, okay.. NPR, PRX, maybe, but Cumulus and iHeart?

Station groups will be pushing access to their stations/formats via home speakers, which are estimated to be in 49% of all households by the end of January 2019.
 
Hundreds more AM stations get FM translators thanks to AM Revitalization. And it will lead to a lot of complaints from rimshot stations and rimshot listeners alike, in some markets. In the Seattle area, KXXO Olympia (rimshot 50 miles away with Adult Contemporary and a decent signal) was able to stop a Seattle AM from firing up a translator.
'The Breeze' or another Soft AC name will be in every top 50 market, if they haven't already. With what's been happening with KSWD in Seattle, and KISQ in San Francisco, the format is alive and well!
Delilah and/or John Tesh gain many new affiliates from said 'Breeze' rollouts.
Bob Kingsley retires from the Country Top 40.
 
Translators are given primary status and allowed to upgrade their power to whatever will fit. Third and fourth channel adjacencies are considered non-issues. I don't know how serious IF protections are with modern receivers. Many AMs with good primary service translators will turn in their AM licenses.
 
The FCC will visit ownership rules this year, and recommend further consolidation.
The podcast business will indeed increase as we've already seen.
iHeart will come out of bankruptcy and either use, or completely blow, the opportunity.
 
ai4i said:
Translators are given primary status and allowed to upgrade their power to whatever will fit. Third and fourth channel adjacencies are considered non-issues. I don't know how serious IF protections are with modern receivers. Many AMs with good primary service translators will turn in their AM licenses.
Click to expand...

Fourth adjacencies are already non-issues. In major markets, stations are fourth adjacencies (92.3, 93.1, 93.9, etc.)
 
ftballfan said:
Fourth adjacencies are already non-issues.
Click to expand...
My bad!
I meant second and third channel adjacencies.
The term "fourth" adjacent channel has never existed.
Only co's, first adjacencies, and possibly fifty-third and fifty-fourth channel adjacencies should be relevant.
 
My 4 predictions.

My 4 predictions:
1. IHeart will go out of business.
2. The AM band will cease to exist.
3. HD Radio will be revitalized.
4. The FM Band will be extended.
 
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And I predict the same, but you never know about the AM band. One of these years (probably in the 2020s), it will go away in an analog to digital TV-like transition. And then all we'll hear at night is Canada, Mexico and Cuba. ;)
 
iHeart isn't going out of business, stop with the wishful thinking.

My vision for the future AM band is higher powered TIS and information services, run by local and state governments.
 
crainbebo said:
Hundreds more AM stations get FM translators thanks to AM Revitalization.
Click to expand...

The window for AM stations to apply for FM translators closed in 2018. That, and there aren't enough allocations for FM translators to equal "hundreds more".

crainbebo said:
And it will lead to a lot of complaints from rimshot stations and rimshot listeners alike, in some markets. In the Seattle area, KXXO Olympia (rimshot 50 miles away with Adult Contemporary and a decent signal) was able to stop a Seattle AM from firing up a translator.
Click to expand...

That was only because the translator application was within the KXXO protected contour.

crainbebo said:
'The Breeze' or another Soft AC name will be in every top 50 market, if they haven't already. With what's been happening with KSWD in Seattle, and KISQ in San Francisco, the format is alive and well!
Delilah and/or John Tesh gain many new affiliates from said 'Breeze' rollouts.
Bob Kingsley retires from the Country Top 40.
Click to expand...

Just as with Smooth Jazz and Lite Rock, Delilah's popularity demise came about the time PPM came around. That's why stations changed in the first place.
 
Talk radio as a whole will begin to feel some pressure as smaller AM stations drop the format in favor of various music formats which are really intended to drive listeners to their FM translators.
 
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Now that's 'revitalizing' the AM band!
 
I don't know why some people and the FCC are so against shutting off the AM's. If there is no business case for keeping it on, what's the point? It's not really a public service issue since there aren't too many 1980's cars or home radios with AM only these days. Why not clean up the band and improve things for the stations that are left?
 
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