Alright, that part was before my time. You win!
It was of a vintage not unlike https://oldcrank.com/collection/victrola_xiv/vv-xiv.html. The interior surface adjacent to the turntable had an inset for a jar of new needles. They looked steel and were as thick as pushpin tacks. (I'm going from memories formed when I was probably 8.) Anyway, apparently, the used needles had to be disposed of very frequently, and new ones swapped in, to prevent the grooves on the old 78s it played from being trashed. I can only imagine the lives of the garbage collectors and landfill workers during the era these things were in vogue. They must have all looked like Hellraiser.
Okay, that's more in line with what my instincts would have told me.
Then radio should try giving them reasons to listen for long periods. Whatever happened to live remotes and broadcasting live concert venues? Local stations can't afford that sort of expense individually anymore, but large group owners can certainly take swings at it. Imagine companies like IHM making deals with artists relevant to the age groups radio wants -- deals to broadcast all the stops along their concert tours, live (including local concerts whenever the seating sold out in advance). "Taylor Swift live from London" airs today on one IHM station in each market IHM is in. Days later, "Taylor Swift live from Toronto" airs on a different IHM station in each market IHM is in. Etc. Do this as often as possible, with as many artists as financially possible who have followings large and devoted enough to net mass-installs of the large radio companies' streaming apps -- and large turnings-on of the radios in those followers' cars. (Even if video feeds of concerts like these already existed, radio could still do audio-only feeds the same way MLB games get shown on TV but aired audio-only on local radio.) And don't stop with established artists' concerts. Start head hunting local talent and frequently bringing musicians in for live, in-studio performances the way radio used to. During the major concert broadcast events, promote the existence of radio as a new venue for live music culture and discovery in general so younger listeners flocking in to hear "Taylor Swift Live in Paris" keep their app installations. Scour what passes for "the music scene" today, like Bandcamp, to find even more up and coming artists -- the ones in the liftoff phases of their popularity and about whom there's increasing buzz. How about the fashionable college stations in large urban cities that are always finding and bringing in artists to perform live? Even exploring foreign radio can lead to exceptional artists we'd otherwise never know existed in the U.S. (I found this unknown while listening to the CBC and could've mistaken his song for something Billboard would chart.) And pool resources. Imagine networking stations again (a la the early days of radio) so 100% live, all-day-long weekend shows can be done, aired on one company-owned station in each market but produced by switching from one station (city) to the next throughout the day for source audio -- giving different artists turns performing live from their respective towns to the entire country.
Mine was green and white.
I was on all of those. Napster was the best for variety. You could find everything there because it was ordinary people's first experience with mass file sharing and everyone wanted to share the wealth -- to help build up an amazing global library of musical Alexandria by contributing whatever they had in their own collections, right down to digitizing all their unrereleased vinyls, promo issues, etc. But the quality often spoiled the experience. 128 kbit/s somehow got settled on by the community as a compromise for dial-up and broadband users, and rare material could often be found only at that bitrate.
All this describes me as well -- growing up listening to my parents' and grandparents' music and generally losing interest in my own generation's music around 1991. For me, though, there was one modern exception: a surprising amount of the new CHR stuff hitting the radio around 2013-2016 sounded good to me, in some ways reminding me of '80s musical sensibilities. I wound up basking in it briefly and feeling a lot like I did as a kid again -- enthusiastic and energized by new music. In general, that one period not withstanding, most new music I end up liking today is stuff I discover outside mainstream radio. That doesn't mean I don't occasionally still hear interesting things on it. For some reason, I just added Chappell Roan's "Good Luck, Babe!" to my collection a few days ago after playing around with the Qodosen DX-286 I just bought. *shrug*
I wonder if you would like KTEA 103.5 | Cambria, California. Last I checked a couple years ago, it had a real PD programming it exclusively for the demographic of the wealthy coastal seaside hamlet it serves -- i.e. it wasn't a satellite-delivered or cookie-cut format appearing on 500 other stations nationwide. I got into a long e-mail exchange with that person at the time and suggested he call what he was doing "yacht pop." He seemed to like the name.
I think my father had one. I still have it.
By indicating the ambient nighttime "grass line" of AM has risen even when sampled outdoors in rural locations far from electronics and electricity, wouldn't this indicate that the cumulative interference from all the electronics on earth has finally become so ridiculous, it's actually reaching the ionosphere and getting reflected back to earth just like actual radio transmissions -- where it manifests as spectral components so infinitely diffused and randomized that receivers simply see them all as one unified higher white noise floor?
iHeart is one of the few large groups that hosts at least one huge music festival every year. This year I believe it's in Vegas.
Considering she just sold out five shows at Wembley Stadium and sells out multiple shows wherever she goes in the States, Taylor Swift doesn't need exclusivity with some radio group, nor could any radio group afford to pay for such exclusivity. The net revenue of just one TS concert is more than the gross revenue of all the radio groups combined in a single year.
Can't speak for all of them, but in major markets, iHeart already has performance spaces for exactly that purpose. I don't believe any of those performances are live, but do invite listeners to be in a live audience. I know here in the D.C. area, they host at least one up-and-coming artist or a classic touring one once a month or more depending on availability.
But radio is constantly being criticized because it isn't playing what an individual wants when they want it. Streaming services and their AI curation comes much closer to solving that problem. That's why it's more popular with a younger audience. Radio can't play on the same playground because it appeals to the masses by playing the hits.
That's why it's called broadcasting.
Sure, young people would be interested if the concerts featured pop music artists who were allowed to swear between songs, talk openly about sexual activities, and play music that wasn't censored. The problem is, that broadcasting isn't allowed that sort of freedom because of obscenity rules still in effect.
Who said "radiotelephone"? I didn't read this whole thread yet.
David spins 360° rapidly 10 times.
Electrical communication was done by wired telegraphy and telephone initially. When it was found it could be done without wires, it was called "wireless".
Don’t be so modest.
To be fair, haven't been reading the rest of the thread. Might start a separate topic on this.
