Radioheadbone said:
News paper article was shallow.
Nothing against newspapers, but most every newspaper article is shallow; if you want deep thoughts you should be reading something other than newspapers. Maybe someone will write a book for you to read. Frank should write one and I would read it.
Here are a few key points that I picked up on:
This article focused a lot on Forever, perhaps because of the number of stations??
"Carol Logan, president of Forever Broadcasting, said her stations do not really compete against each other."
That is true, but I think that some competition would improve the quality of Altoona radio. I enjoy driving through cities with multiple stations programming the same or similar formats and going after the same demos. Those are the most exciting markets to drive through. I live for great radio and therefore I live for competition. I always enjoy seeing an underdog compete with the big guys because it brings improvements to both parties. I am really excited about some of the recent developments in Altoona radio and think that the increased competition will have a positive impact on all of the stations.
The best part of this article or at least what really spoke to me was the last portion:
‘‘The teen audience is going away from radio. My kids grew up with a transistor radio. My grandchildren don’t have any loyalty to radio,’’ Simpson said.
Barger agreed, adding that it’s local personality and local content that will draw in listeners.
‘‘If you just want music, you can get all you want by plugging it into your iPod. You can get what you want when you want it and not depend on a DJ and there are no commercials,’’ he said. ‘‘If all we are delivering is music, we have competitors that are much more efficient.’’
I have a lot more songs on my iPod than any radio station programs and I hate none of them. I still listen to radio because of the DJ's and personalities. I tune into a lot of stations over the internet and listen all day at work in my office. Many stations that I stream online are actually broadcast stations, but they are stations that are still working hard to create interesting programming and going to great lengths to compete in a global marketplace (the web). The more entertaining and exciting voices I can hear yapping on my radio, the less iPod and the more radio. I think that too many radio people are in denial of this fact, so it was nice to see this article touch on it.
Local stations need to invest in local personalities (this might involved some live overnights to allow people to become better and find their thing). With enough entertaining personalities, local radio will have a great future. If the shows are really unique those local personalities will become global personalities by way of the web.
I will also note that people at Forever do get along. Sure Radioheadbone, in any workplace there are people who just deal, but from what I have observed, many personalities at Forever share a love for radio and get along well. Look at the banter on some of the jocks MySpace comments for evidence of this.
