Clear Channel cuts hundreds in markets big and small over the last year - including some great air talent who had strong ratings.
The latest edict from CC corporate promises more cuts - even among the sales ranks who generate the revenue in the first place.
Personnel cuts industry-wide reduce radio stations to repetitive, uninspired, commercial-laden programming that may have already lost a generation of listeners.
"HD Radio" is a non-entity for another year because receivers are neither affordable nor easily available.
I could go on, but it would just continue a litany of failure by corporate management from most of the major players in the radio industry.
Are they really that stupid, or are there ulterior motives at work?
The digital age has turned use of the electromagnetic spectrum upside down. Digital signals no longer require the bandwidth allocations of analog signals. Higher frequencies can carry many high bit-rate digital data streams in the space required by a single analog signal. Cellular and other telecommunications companies bid billions for bandwidth allocations (see more here). Those who own bandwidth will be able to lease access to content providers of all sorts.
Television has been forced into the digital age. A year from now, analog broadcasting will cease, and a chunk of the electromagnetic spectrum - including a large chunk just below FM broadcast frequencies - will revert to the FCC. New technology, like LMDS (see more here), will revolutionize how information flows in America.
It is just possible that the death of commercial radio would be welcomed by some corporate and/or governmental entities? After all, the coming of Internet radio receivers will probably make broadcasting as we know it obsolete anyway, right? Not only that, but digital streams can carry content information that would get the FCC - and the government - off the hook for monitoring obscenity, indecency, etc. As they do with satellite, they could put the onus on the content providers and consumers to control access to data streams. It's virtually impossible to control content on the millions of existing AM and FM receivers. It would be no problem to control access to data streams on a new generation of receivers.
In short, are the suits at corporate that stupid, or are they "dumb like a fox"? Is there a deal brewing that would let them control use of the electromagnetic spectrum allocated to them if the current analog model become unprofitable? How incredibly profitable can that electromagnetic spectrum be if they can use it for data instead of analog broadcasting?
Is that a rat I smell, or is my imagination running away with itself?
The latest edict from CC corporate promises more cuts - even among the sales ranks who generate the revenue in the first place.
Personnel cuts industry-wide reduce radio stations to repetitive, uninspired, commercial-laden programming that may have already lost a generation of listeners.
"HD Radio" is a non-entity for another year because receivers are neither affordable nor easily available.
I could go on, but it would just continue a litany of failure by corporate management from most of the major players in the radio industry.
Are they really that stupid, or are there ulterior motives at work?
The digital age has turned use of the electromagnetic spectrum upside down. Digital signals no longer require the bandwidth allocations of analog signals. Higher frequencies can carry many high bit-rate digital data streams in the space required by a single analog signal. Cellular and other telecommunications companies bid billions for bandwidth allocations (see more here). Those who own bandwidth will be able to lease access to content providers of all sorts.
Television has been forced into the digital age. A year from now, analog broadcasting will cease, and a chunk of the electromagnetic spectrum - including a large chunk just below FM broadcast frequencies - will revert to the FCC. New technology, like LMDS (see more here), will revolutionize how information flows in America.
It is just possible that the death of commercial radio would be welcomed by some corporate and/or governmental entities? After all, the coming of Internet radio receivers will probably make broadcasting as we know it obsolete anyway, right? Not only that, but digital streams can carry content information that would get the FCC - and the government - off the hook for monitoring obscenity, indecency, etc. As they do with satellite, they could put the onus on the content providers and consumers to control access to data streams. It's virtually impossible to control content on the millions of existing AM and FM receivers. It would be no problem to control access to data streams on a new generation of receivers.
In short, are the suits at corporate that stupid, or are they "dumb like a fox"? Is there a deal brewing that would let them control use of the electromagnetic spectrum allocated to them if the current analog model become unprofitable? How incredibly profitable can that electromagnetic spectrum be if they can use it for data instead of analog broadcasting?
Is that a rat I smell, or is my imagination running away with itself?
