sack said:
Face it gang, radio has "cheaped" itself out of listeners, all to save a few bucks on staffing. I've given my life to this business and its sad to see it die because of greed.
Very true but there are quite a few other reasons why radio is pretty much dead now.
1. Questionable PDs/GMs: Until just a few years my girlfriend's hometown ( small town ) in Pennsylvania had a station that was live 24/7. Even though they were "live" their jocks didn't give the weather or local information after 7pm. Why? Their program director didn't allow it. His opinion of giving the weather and school/business closings at night? Let them watch the tube !!! So instead their jocks talked about "more important" things like Shirley & Fred Phelps and the latest Paris Hilton gossip or if Britney would make it through another day. The lack of "local content" is not always a budget thing, sometimes it could be the result of some PD's idea that such stuff like "lost pets" or an update on that fire down the street is a "small market thing" and they want their station to sound "major market" even if that station is IN a small market.
2. Radio is living in the past: The other day our morning guy was saying how his ratings aren't as high as they were 10 years ago. Could it be that so many people no longer work that 9am to 5pm shift and have weekends free? Many cities now have 24 hour rush hours plus more and more people work so-called odd hours. To them "weekends" mean Tuesday & Wednesday, not Saturday and Sunday. For every 5 people who do work that Monday thur Friday 9-5 shift ( the hours radio for the most part believes most people do work ) you have just as many who do not now. A lot of factories do that 10-12 hour shift thing now plus look at all the retail chains that are now open 24/7. For the most part that didn't exist 10 years ago. Many places banks are open now way past those old so-called "banker hours ". Plus the sight of office workers doing thier jobs at 9pm is commonplace now. IMO I don't believe radio accepts this.
3. Ipods and other "on demand" : There was a time when wearing a walkman while shopping would make people stare at you. Considered rude. Same with cell phones. Today who cares !! People want to hear their favorite music, watch their favorite TV shows..when they want too. Pretty much all the big networks now offers their shows online for people to watch anytime they want. Not to mention TVIO, DVDs, and the rest. Music..its quite hard for radio compete with the computer there. Why should they expect people to listen to the radio when all they really have to do is download their favorite songs and they can listen to their favorite songs anytime they want. Radio just can't compete with that, well music radio that is anyway.
4. The internet: Schools and colleges post their closings on their websites now. Many of them no longer call up radio stations to pass the news to them. Same thing with many cities, counties, towns and so forth. They have news..they will post it there. No need to listen to radio to get such information and with the the cost of PCs and net access getting lower and lower every years, even the "poor" folks have access to the web now. Hard to believe now but 10-15 years ago pretty much computer geeks and the "rich" had internet. Today most everyone has at least someplace they can go to get access to it. Plus with the net you have those "internet radio stations" and the brings up the issue of variety.
5. Radio just doesn't get played as much: I am sure most of us remember when many of those mall stores played local radio over their sound systems in their stores. Some doctors offices would play the local light rock station over the phone to those who were placed on hold. Today very few do that. If they do play music its usually some Muzak style source or XM or Sirus. Plus a lot of offices and factories for various reasons no longer allow radios at all for their employees.
6. Satellite Radio: True many local stations are in the HD-Radio thing. But many, many local stations aren't. In some markets not a single station offers anything in HD. However most people know about satellite radio and with many new cars offering the service to customers, more and more are getting it. Then again there is the variety issue too. Satellite radio offers more choices. From those who enjoy 50's rock and roll music to those who like to hear uncensored talk (Stern ) well satellite radio offers that. Standard radio does not.
The idea of radio going back to 24/7 staffing at first sounds like a good idea. But it really is a case of "too little..too late".
Today's listener has so much in terms of choices and I really doubt they will be giving up their ipods or dump satellite radio because their local stations now has a warm body there around the clock.
