True, but having a "real" radio signal gives you a leg up on the competition. There are, dare I say, millions of streams, but only a few thousand radio stations. Are people (for the next 10-20 years) going to listen to WXXX's stream that you have heard since you were a kid, or Frank's Who tha F, who is streaming from his parents basement?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
What happened and why is it still happening?
- Thread starter alok
- Start date
- Status
I see that a lot, yet it seems like people find what they want. Search engines, aggregators like TuneIn, word of mouth, marketing, and a lot more that are all focused on getting people to find your stream. The fact is that the device of choice is the phone. The second device is the laptop or tablet. Radio isn't on the list. So if you create content, your job is getting on the device of choice,
When a few of the basement broadcasters understand a bit of research and stop thinking that loads of people like exactly what is on their personal playlist, we will see some amazing music-based independent streams that can attract advertisers.
And we need advertisers who will pay based on a different model that allows for 3 to 5 minutes of ads an hour, not 12 to 15 minutes. It can be done... nearly 70 years ago I had an FM that ran 2 minutes of spots an hour and billed more than any of my big AM stations; I got prestige accounts to understand that being alone in a stopset and in a desirable environment was worth a premium.
The current obsession is podcasts, which have issues of cost and rights with the use of music. And the world does not need 10,000 podcasts time 500 languages.
Agreed, the phone/laptop/tablet is where it's at for in home listening. For car's, for the next 7-10 years, the radio/dashboard still dominates. I'm just saying I'd rather own a stream originating from a radio station than from my basement. Much easier to get an audience and monetize.
For Boomers, maybe. To the rest of the newer generations, that is actually "old".
... or the club mixer who is the next David Guetta or Daft Punk?
(Others posted the same idea before I finished writing my reply but here it is anyway)...
We already have digital radio. It's called streaming. iHeartRadio app. Audacy app. TuneIn. Radio Garden, etc.
The market (general public) has chosen this form of digital radio because it comes free on the essential device virtually everyone already has now, namely a smartphone. Pick your station and link it to you car audio system, your portable Bluetooth speaker, cast it to your home theater system. Or use a smart speaker. Or a Roku device. So many options. And so many stations. Way more than on the AM/FM dial.
I know radio people want to see innovation on the AM/FM bands but that's never going to reach critical mass at this point. People aren't buying new radios every 2-3 years. They're buying new and better phones at that rate.
We already have digital radio. It's called streaming. iHeartRadio app. Audacy app. TuneIn. Radio Garden, etc.
The market (general public) has chosen this form of digital radio because it comes free on the essential device virtually everyone already has now, namely a smartphone. Pick your station and link it to you car audio system, your portable Bluetooth speaker, cast it to your home theater system. Or use a smart speaker. Or a Roku device. So many options. And so many stations. Way more than on the AM/FM dial.
I know radio people want to see innovation on the AM/FM bands but that's never going to reach critical mass at this point. People aren't buying new radios every 2-3 years. They're buying new and better phones at that rate.
I agree, and it has to do with the investment in the content and the marketing.
As mentioned before, the nations doing such extreme moves are ones where both most content and all regulation come from the government. The US is at the opposite end of this spectrum.
Similarly, none of the other nations in the Americas are planning for any significant move away from FM, and only one has a plan to move remaining AMs to an expanded FM dial. Otherwise, there is no DAB planned, and the only move in some nations is to allow AMs to move to FM (Canada and Mexico) when possible. Elsewhere, AM is simply declining in station count.
Can you imagine how conservative talk radio would react if the government in this country announced it was shutting down all radio broadcasting?
A lot of podcasts are a waste of time, some cater to niche audiences that would never attract a general audience (business, mysteries, true crime, relationships, religious, anti-religious). I wish some podcast producers would get past the idea the idea that podcast episodes should be 2 1/2 hours
And if there are really 150 minutes worth of content, then that's really a subject for a series, divided into chapters or aspects of the story with an open and close. A continuing series still has to have step by step rewards for each segment as well as a total focus.
If anything, today's audiences have a shorter attention span than ever. We can go back to the famous TV sitcoms like All in the Family and MASH and see that each had just 20 to 22 minutes of content, yet there was character development and dept formed over successive episode.
Today, in on-demand music, we see that many people don't even stream whole songs; they get 60" or so of "taste" and move on. So podcasts can't wander around and need structure and timing.
Great stuff, DavidE mentioned a number of things I stated in a post in group 2 of these post . . .
not in order next- but to clear some up . . .
The Zenith / LG thing was not to put down LG TV's, but to point out that the company that helped develop 8-VSB was Zenith (a U.S. company) and now LG (a foreign company) owns the Zenith name.
8-VSB many felt was picked because Zenith was American owned . . . afew years later Zenith (name yes) is now Korean owned.
Yes better resolution is important, but it was done with digital TV. Not analog.
Plus digtal TV gives us sub-channels, great for people that can't afford cable, satellite or streaming. More TV viewing OTA for all.
with iBiquity , DavidE I did not know that, but again the whole thing (AM STEREO, iBiquity) was a game. A poorly run game. TV going digital wasn't a game, it happened. Maybe because of the selling of spectrum by feds, but it did happen. Radio played games and they still are.
About analog portable TV's, there was a small portable digital TV out after DTV made its mark, I own one and it works pretty good, has a rechargeable battery.
Easily picks up all local DTV signals with its whip antenna.
David, you point out that FM sounds better, I agree but young people are streaming, not listening much to radio anymore, including FM. When I mention radio to young people they look at me " saying WHAT ??? RADIO ???
you said consumers did not ask for digital radio . . . nobody asked for digital TV either, but we all got it now and it looks and sounds pretty good. ATSC 3.0 will be even better.
On my skywave AM digital thing . . . this was to "experiment" if a broadcaster has big bucks, they could try coding each signal and maybe the radio can look for that particular decode number and only get that signal . . . it was just an idea . . . it would be an experiment. I have no idea if it would work or not, An experiment.
A good use for a band nobody wants!
the hams would take the AM band, I'd love that.
I still think if consumers knew OTA radio was going digital and digital radios were being made (plus they'd put it in Smartphones) it would have boosted radio . . . but I think it's too late.
Digital is the word . . . think about it? Your PC is digital, your TV, your car uses it, everybody is into it except AM & FM radio broadcasters!
It will go down in history that AM & FM broadcasters failed themselves . . . with help from the FCC & NAB and selfish companies.
I think I got most of them David . . . good stuff from you.
Al
not in order next- but to clear some up . . .
The Zenith / LG thing was not to put down LG TV's, but to point out that the company that helped develop 8-VSB was Zenith (a U.S. company) and now LG (a foreign company) owns the Zenith name.
8-VSB many felt was picked because Zenith was American owned . . . afew years later Zenith (name yes) is now Korean owned.
Yes better resolution is important, but it was done with digital TV. Not analog.
Plus digtal TV gives us sub-channels, great for people that can't afford cable, satellite or streaming. More TV viewing OTA for all.
with iBiquity , DavidE I did not know that, but again the whole thing (AM STEREO, iBiquity) was a game. A poorly run game. TV going digital wasn't a game, it happened. Maybe because of the selling of spectrum by feds, but it did happen. Radio played games and they still are.
About analog portable TV's, there was a small portable digital TV out after DTV made its mark, I own one and it works pretty good, has a rechargeable battery.
Easily picks up all local DTV signals with its whip antenna.
David, you point out that FM sounds better, I agree but young people are streaming, not listening much to radio anymore, including FM. When I mention radio to young people they look at me " saying WHAT ??? RADIO ???
you said consumers did not ask for digital radio . . . nobody asked for digital TV either, but we all got it now and it looks and sounds pretty good. ATSC 3.0 will be even better.
On my skywave AM digital thing . . . this was to "experiment" if a broadcaster has big bucks, they could try coding each signal and maybe the radio can look for that particular decode number and only get that signal . . . it was just an idea . . . it would be an experiment. I have no idea if it would work or not, An experiment.
A good use for a band nobody wants!
the hams would take the AM band, I'd love that.
I still think if consumers knew OTA radio was going digital and digital radios were being made (plus they'd put it in Smartphones) it would have boosted radio . . . but I think it's too late.
Digital is the word . . . think about it? Your PC is digital, your TV, your car uses it, everybody is into it except AM & FM radio broadcasters!
It will go down in history that AM & FM broadcasters failed themselves . . . with help from the FCC & NAB and selfish companies.
I think I got most of them David . . . good stuff from you.
Al
Mobile LTE Coverage Map
This map shows the 4G LTE mobile coverage areas of the nation’s four largest mobile wireless carriers: AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, UScellular, and Verizon. Specifically, it shows where customers can expect to receive 4G LTE broadband service at a minimum user download speed of five megabits per...
Looks like the infrastructure for a national all streaming (data rate suitable for audio only) "radio bypass" system is getting into place, I don't know the time frame for completing signal coverage in the western states.
Seems like the (almost certain) transition from radio to all streaming for national audio content distribution will be driven by attrition, no government action to shut down radio, they'll just accept the radio station licenses when they are turned in.
Kirk Bayne
In an emergency I’m not listening to any damned AM radio.
Streaming is radio. Radio is streaming. FM is available as a stream. That's why digital radio is irrelevant. Streaming is digital, so that solves the problem. Stream your AM or FM stations, and you have digital radio.
Mark Levin screeches: THE COMMUNISTS ARE COMING TO SHUT YOUR STATIONS DOWN BECAUSE THEY INDICTED DONALD TRUMP!!!!!
Which is why I think it's a mistake for the conglomerates to keep running away from the word 'radio' and start trying to make people think of them as "audio" instead. They should have put more effort into redefining what radio is, and shaping how people perceive the term in a more positive way.
'Radio' could have easily become the umbrella term for streaming, podcasting and all forms of audio broadcasting if only the industry had focused on turning it into that. Instead, Audacy got rid of the fantastic Radio.com domain, and the whole broadcast industry seems to want to shun the word. By doing so, they're allowing it to become synonymous with antiquated technology at a time when radio stations are still their core business.
It doesn't make any difference. People will do what they want. You're using a lot of marketing people speak.
The Sirius and Pandora people use the radio word a lot. Hasn't seemed to help them much.
- Status