Discuss: Terrestrial Radio vs iPod/internet stations

[MikeShannon914]

Something I never seem to see addressed on this subject is...Is it just me, or do other people LIKE the concept of the random-ness of songs being played on the radio? And having a jock interacting with you? Me, leaning towards old-school thinking, like the concept of the radio feeding me their playlist of songs one by one. I don't know what's going to be played next, but if it fits the format of the station--and if I like the format--it'll likely be something I'll listen to, and the next song, and possibly the next.

When I was younger, I always thought it was cool to look over into another car and see the driver singing to the same song I'm listening to on MY radio. There was some weird feeling of commonality about that. And, in those days, it was common for me to bring up something Mike Selden said on the air that day, and have two or three people say, "Yeah! I heard that, too!"

You don't get that with an .mp3 player. You don't know what's popular (and granted, some people don't give a rat's a$$ about that) or what others like or don't like. You can't have real discussions about current music because everyone that's tethered to an iPod is listening to their own chosen playlist. There's no jock. There's nothing local. The commonality is GONE. Maybe that means nothing to the GenXers and GenYers, but I miss that. And how does an artist truly ever establish a following? It's not about their music, it's only about PROMOTION. Showing up on TMZ gets an artist more popularity and attention than the playing of their music.

Sure, I know, I'm quickly approaching extinction in demographic terms, and my 40+ counterparts probably still appreciate my "old" thinking, but what does the current generation get from listening to music? RADIO was an EXPERIENCE. Back when, it was "currents" mixed with current issues (be it news, or just a jock pattering about pop culture of the day, or just giving the listener something to chuckle about) and you listened because you liked the music mix, you liked the jock, and you felt somewhat "connected" to your world (and, GOD FORBID, it could even sometimes be on a LOCAL level...what's going on this weekend IN DALLAS, etc.)

And the iPod can do all of that? Listening to music that only YOU listen to? Nothing to share of the "experience" of listening, what you got out of it, what's the background of the artist, etc? What did the jock think about the song? Are others listening to the same thing and what did they think?

Yesterday AND today for me, I keep some CDs (and cassettes and 8-tracks before that) handy just in case. But I've never abandoned my radio. This current generation seems to have no problem letting radio die without even a fight, and the corporate a$$es seem to have no problem letting it go, either. The quality of what we call radio today is nothing to brag about, but at least it's still there...for the moment.

And another sad fact of mine to add...there are times that I feel more connected to the jocks at XM/Sirius than I do on a LOCAL level. At least satellite jocks aren't trying to hide the fact that they're on SATELLITE. Your average radio station would just as soon you believe that Limbaugh is sitting in a studio on Lamar St in Arlington, that Ryan Seacrest is hanging out on the Tollway, some surly and sarcastic a$$ named "Jack" really cares about your phone message, and Kym West is really tracking your ride home in real time--and not via a 20-minute old recording.

Discuss?

 

[donicus]

I pretty much stopped listening to music radio when the playlist was almost always the same 90 or 100 songs. It's get old hearing Stairway to Heaven and Back in Black several times per week.
It also seems to me that the jocks have pretty much stopped talking about anything. I know it used to be different, after all I have been on this Earth almost 51 years. I have increasingly been listening to XM over the last 5 or so years, and if that bores me, I DO have an Ipod that I have downloaded podcasts to listen to. I very rarely listen to music radio anymore, except for the occasion that Dangerous Darrin is on Hair Nation. If you remember, he used to be on the Eagle a few years ago.

 

[Rich Klein]

I did a long post and blew it

1) Some points: Done even reasonably well, Radio can provide company for listeners. I was doing a shift at a crisis center and for whatever reason the grant writer was the only person in the office that day. She had the radio on and specifically stated that she appreciated the human voice and the company that voice provided.

2) I like the radio myself as I grew up with it. However; the lack of "quality" has caused a real problem in recent years. And some of that qualilty means that radio has gotten less people and less local. Shoot (and I'm picking on them because these CBS stations are in my presets); Tom Kent and Delilah do syndicated shows on KLUV and KVIL respectively. The tradition of a night time DJ keeping a school kid company is gone. There was a time when people such as Cousin Brucie and George Michael for WABC were as important as their morning man, Harry Harrison. Now; the morning person(s) is important and so are the other people on until 7 PM. Other than 5 Am to 7 PM; which can be covered by 3 full-time people; not much is needed any more according to

3) Business people who have failed to understand that Radio is better and probably more profitable when it is live and local. Instead we had reductions in head count in sorts of Radio and the major owners are swimming so much in debt that good luck to adding more people to staff. We've seen this in so many levels that I always wonder if a company kept full employment, would they actually make more money as people would get better service and results. Sometimes, the contrarian view actually works.

4) Very soon, xmas music is coming. And then until about 1/1/2010 the time for me to have plenty of CD's in the car is upon me.

Regards
Rich

 

[landtuna]

I have an MP3 player full of my very favorite music and nothing I don't like.

I have CD's in my car(s) full of my very favorite music and nothing I don't like.

But I still prefer listening to a real radio station and to a jock I have some affinity with even if he/she plays music I don't like (but not too often).

 

[little1]

Something I never seem to see addressed on this subject is...Is it just me, or do other people LIKE the concept of the random-ness of songs being played on the radio? And having a jock interacting with you? Me, leaning towards old-school thinking, like the concept of the radio feeding me their playlist of songs one by one. I don't know what's going to be played next, but if it fits the format of the station--and if I like the format--it'll likely be something I'll listen to, and the next song, and possibly the next.

You don't get that with an .mp3 player. You don't know what's popular (and granted, some people don't give a rat's a$$ about that) or what others like or don't like. You can't have real discussions about current music because everyone that's tethered to an iPod is listening to their own chosen playlist. There's no jock. There's nothing local. The commonality is GONE. Maybe that means nothing to the GenXers and GenYers, but I miss that. And how does an artist truly ever establish a following? It's not about their music, it's only about PROMOTION. Showing up on TMZ gets an artist more popularity and attention than the playing of their music.

What makes you think today's teenagers don't have the same feelings? Have you been to a KISS, K104 or even now a i93 appearence?
Due to some family turmoil, a coupel weekends back I was with a couple of teens for 2 straight days. Dragging them around, hanging out, the whole 9 yards. And when they ended up with friends over at the house, they were fighting over what RADIo station was going to be on. Not whose ipod, what radio station. Maybe this generation doesn't have the same passion, but times have changed. Maybe you've noticed what's happened to the newspaper industry? Things are changing all over. Doesn't mean the concept of communicating with/entertaining an audience is dead, maybe just the methods have changed a little.

Sure, I know, I'm quickly approaching extinction in demographic terms, and my 40+ counterparts probably still appreciate my "old" thinking, but what does the current generation get from listening to music? RADIO was an EXPERIENCE. Back when, it was "currents" mixed with current issues (be it news, or just a jock pattering about pop culture of the day, or just giving the listener something to chuckle about) and you listened because you liked the music mix, you liked the jock, and you felt somewhat "connected" to your world (and, GOD FORBID, it could even sometimes be on a LOCAL level...what's going on this weekend IN DALLAS, etc.)

Again, have you spent any time listening to any of the younger skewing stations? Maybe these days the 'issues' are stuff like what was on TMZ, or what's the deal with Adam Lambert kissing that guy? Have you listened at all to try to figure out what the younger generation is hearing (and therefore might be taking out of it) or is this just generic complaining?

And the iPod can do all of that? Listening to music that only YOU listen to? Nothing to share of the "experience" of listening, what you got out of it, what's the background of the artist, etc? What did the jock think about the song? Are others listening to the same thing and what did they think?

Seems like everybody I know has an ipod. And seems like everybody I know listens to the radio. It's not an either/or. Is it a competition for entertainment 'ears'? Sure.
The "pod people" I know who are completely tethered to their ipod are, for the most part, not 'typical' radio listeners to start with. If you're into avant garde jazz, death metal, etc, yeah, you're probably not going to be happy with the current fare on BROADCAST radio. Stations trying to reach a BROAD audience.
Tangent>>> And that's where XM/Sirius fills a niche. They can have a station that plays nothing but '1st wave' new wave songs, for example. But they also don't have to measure how BROAD of an audience they draw. Between XM and sirius there's a couple of hundred choices. They've got much more luxury to experiment than a company with a few to a half dozen stations in a market. They HAVE to play somewhat to a lowest common denominator, they're trying to reach a big audience.

But I've never abandoned my radio. This current generation seems to have no problem letting radio die without even a fight, and the corporate a$$es seem to have no problem letting it go, either. The quality of what we call radio today is nothing to brag about, but at least it's still there...for the moment.

I've read that listening is down. Any studies that it's gone? That they're letting it die without a fight? again if this is just generic complaining or do you have ANYTHING to back it up? Is KISS trending horribly down? Is i93 about to flip again? You say it;'s dying. Prove it. Bring something to the table. And define death while you're at it. I read recently that newspapers are dying. And about a week later read (in a magazine) that newspapers are still, for the most part, cash cows. The problem is (much like radio) too much debt service from high flying deals made a few years back that can't be sustained. So yes, in some cases papers are closing. But when was the last time you heard about a major market station just going dark?

And another sad fact of mine to add...there are times that I feel more connected to the jocks at XM/Sirius than I do on a LOCAL level. At least satellite jocks aren't trying to hide the fact that they're on SATELLITE. Your average radio station would just as soon you believe that Limbaugh is sitting in a studio on Lamar St in Arlington, that Ryan Seacrest is hanging out on the Tollway, some surly and sarcastic a$$ named "Jack" really cares about your phone message, and Kym West is really tracking your ride home in real time--and not via a 20-minute old recording.

With voice trackers you may be right, but with syndicated jocks? Please. WBAP never tries to convince me that Rush is live from Arlington.

If you're spending on XM.Sirius, then yes, you're going to feel more connected to them. But what about that vast majority that DOES NOT have XM? Who do you think they're connected to? Hint: It's probably your local jock/station. Whenever I wear station imprinted shirts (t's, polos, etc) I almost always get at least some positive response. A quick google search says XM/Sirius subscriber base is about 4 million. Don't we have like 300 million people in the country. So Mike, you're one of the (roughly) 1 out of a hundred who has satellite radio. now how mant of those other 99 do you think own a radio. Perhaps even multiple radios. One in every car, one in their home stereo, a clock radio, a shower radio, a couple of boomboxes. So you feel more connected to XM. Odds are the other 99/100 people feel more connected to Kidd, D&M, Bo and Jim, The Dorsey Gang, etc.

Perhaps you're burnt out on local radio because of bad experiences in it? If so, you shouldn't necessarily project your issues to 'everybody' else.

TO end, like I said above, is radio in a fight for attention, sure. But every info source is. TV billing is down, (why do you think Leno is on 5 nights a week?) newspapers are closing, magazines are changing circ patterns (going bi weekly instead of weekly, etc). But problems don't equal death.

If it did, well, AM is dead. I've heard that for 20 years. And last I checked, 2 of the top 4 billing radio stations in this market are AM. Don't believe everything people tell you . They're often wrong....

 

[1/2wavedipole]

I don’t work in radio, but worked on radios in the military for years, and have always been fascinated with the radio business, and I just cannot understand why the old Album Rock & Zoo type format would not work again on local radio?

I have over a terabyte of music in my personal music collection, and I am here to say that having that large amount of music is great, but it does not take the place of good local radio with personalities, creative programming, and D.J.’s that can tell you the story behind the music without ruining the music. They say history tends to repeat itself, and I can only hope and pray that someday the album rock, and the “deep cut” days of music will return. I credit my musical appreciation to the old days of album rock, and their endless pursuit in finding “nuggets” of music buried deep into album releases, and discovery of new music.

I still pine for what we locally here with KZEW the Zoo in the 70’s and 80’s! To me, that was radio gold, and there has been nothing like it since. The hair still stands up on my neck when I play the old radio cuts on the thezoofile.com, and I hear Labella, Rody & Rhyner on the morning zoo. There is something magic about having good local, smooth talking D.J.’s that give radio that FM feel. That is what is lost here….the presention, frontierism and creativity of album rock is gone. What happened to all the hippies…didn’t they just get older and acquire more money? If so, maybe someone someday will have the vision to try what KZEW did again. Maybe I will go out and rent the movie FM today

Happy Thanksgiving All!

 

[DFW_Radio_2000]

You don't know what's popular (and granted, some people don't give a rat's a$$ about that) or what others like or don't like. You can't have real discussions about current music because everyone that's tethered to an iPod is listening to their own chosen playlist. There's no jock.

I have an HD radio and my Ipod is always plugged into it. I'll trek around the HD music channels, but always fall back to my preselected music at some point during the drive for a few reasons:

I fall into the category you mentioned "Not giving a rats a$$ about what's popular." Over the last 9 years, in my opinion, music has died. To me, there is nothing exciting or new about music today.

I now despise hip-hop/rap because of the lack of originality. For the most part it all sounds the same now, they all talk about the same stuff. There are TOO many "artists" to keep up with! I receive 100 disks a week of aspiring rappers wanting me to play their stuff - and it's a sports talk station!! - (At least research who you're sending to) - The market is flooded with repetition in that genre. This is coming from a guy who listened to nothing but Tupac in the mid 90's.

Most of the same holds true for the "Fall Out Boy's" of the world. They're demo seems to be the younger teen female, so I have a hard time getting into that music.

I'm a Rock/Hard rock fan. Not too much new stuff coming out of that category for me to want to stay glued to the speaker. Listen to 97.1 and you'll hear 25 songs pre-2000 before you hear something considered remotely new.

The popular music is for the kids and people trying to act young. Look at the charts:

http://community.mtvmusic.com/top100/

http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100#/charts/hot-100

That said, since I'm not 14 years old, nor female, I'm stuck with what I know. I'm sure opinions will differ, but that why I travel with my Ipod.

 

[Scotpfv]

I find myself in agreement with Mike here. I am a Gen X'er who grew up on radio. When I was a young boy in San Antonio I loved 99.5 KISS (and on summer vacations when me and the family would come to Dallas I enjoyed Q102. Both Rock stations, but very different its own little way). Every metro area had a unique feel to every format.

Now Every market has a Mix, or Kiss, or Jack, or classic rock station. Does not matter if you are in Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, or Seattle. FM radio is the same everywhere you go.

I might be getting old myself, but I would like to see the old FCC rules brought back where 1 AM and 1 FM was the max for ownership in one market.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Its about the music to me

When I was young, and stuck in Redneck, TX, country bumpkin music all that was on the dial, other than sanitized to-40, I DX'd to get something better.

Now that corporate radio has pretty much ruined radio, I went to satellite, and am now on streaming. I can now get the creative - non-corporate stations from any market I choose, and hear music I want to hear instead of what some focus group somewhere says I ought to listen to.

 

[salemjedi54]

As little 1 has stated, if you have varied musical tastes, then SiriusXM/iPods/iPhones/streaming is for you. We have SiriusXM because I can't get Chill/Hip Hop Classics/Smooth Jazz on tertestrial radio in this market. If I could get my favorite type of music on regular radio, I would not have XM. For the most part I listen to KTCK and KKDA when I am in my vehicle.

Today's music just does nothing for me, that's why I can't listen to KBFB and KKDA-FM.

I don't own a iPod or an iPhone so I really can't stream in the vehicle. I have found some very good music online, but I only listen to them at work or when I am working on the PC at home. I listen to KTCK on my work PC than I do music.

Basically what I am trying to say is for my music entertainment, if there was a FM station that had a format of Chill/Hip Hop Classics/Smooth Jazz/Electronica/Old School R&B/Gospel/80's pop and traditional jazz, 9 times out of 10 I would listen to it.

 

[The_X_Man_Cometh]

Mike,

Recall my KVIL post, which was admittedly a nostalgic flashback to the times when better radio prevailed. Those were days when people cared about, and created, a greater sense of community. For a lot of us, radio seemed to be a comon experience that sometimes pulled us a little closer together. If you went to the Gemini Drive in, or the Apollo, you heard KLIF...if you were listening to the radio, they were promoting all those drive in moves. Excellent synergy, Mr. McLendon!

When I was a kid at Richardson Junior High School, in 1973, we were quite fortunate, like several Dallas-area schools, to be visited by the DJs from KLIF. It was like getting a visit from royalty. With a 50% share of the radio audience, KLIF knew we were plugged into them, they were cool, and they kept us current on what was cool. It would seem bizarre today to relate what a great time we had, interacting with Selden and Michael O' Shea. Of course, no one was teaching to the TAKS test back then, either.

Your post makes me think back to when PC workstations were invented. Hand-held video games, cell phones, iPods, etc have followed, and I'm not entirely certain that the electronic transformation hasn't helped wipe out a good deal of that sense of community. The point here is that the advancement of electronic gizmos have been helpful, and certainly have their place. The unintended effect is that they have created no small amount of isolation for users. Want to be left alone on the DART train or at the mall? Put on those iPod ear buds! Lots of people like such a thing. I'm not one of them, and I suspect you aren't either.

I think the creators and marketers of these devices understand that isolation lament, and create commericals and imagery that help us to feel a little more connected to the world at large. A current example which comes to mind is the cell phone commercial wherein the little girl lost her dog, and the guy captures a picture of the lost dog flyer with his cell phone; He broadcasts it, somebody in his little group sees the dog, and the little girl and her dog are reunited fairly quickly.

At the end of the day, we find that we can be alone, with little to no face time or personal interaction, creating our own playlists, and experiencing music in the genre, order, and repetition that we find most entertaining. If you search for the reasons why, as this forum can attest, a lot of people blame the deteriorating state of radio for driving them to CDs, MP3 players, and iPods.

In the much larger picture, we can email instead of writing letters, send a text message [the laziest form of communication since the discovery of flaulence] instead of calling on the phone, and surf the Internet in relative anonymity, read a blog, type in responses to the posts of people we do not know, and move along. Does this relative anonymity allow us to conduct flame wars, slander people and hide behind an unaccountable alias? Of course. And this technology, while wonderful in many aspects of our lives, unintentionally (?) causes society as we know it to slip, sometimes nearly imperceptibly, a tiny bit closer to anarchy.

my .02, your results may vary. Oh, and I'll have an iPod Shuffle, please, with a side of Buckwheat Zydeco, sprinkled with Cymarron, and hold the Lemon Pipers.

 

[txchipk]

I wonder if people in their 40s and 50s in the 1960s and 1970s complained about "today's music" and radio back then not speaking to them what with all those wacky and loud AM top 40 DJs and psychedelic rock played by pot-smoking hippies on that new fangled FM side of the radio. If only radio sounded like it did in the 1930s and 1940s before that evil rock and roll came along and got rid of "good music." It must be the fault of all those handful of evil corporations that were allowed to dominate local media by owning an AM station, an FM station, a TV station, and the local newspaper that allowed those changes.

 

[landtuna]

I wonder if people in their 40s and 50s in the 1960s and 1970s complained about "today's music" and radio back then not speaking to them what with all those wacky and loud AM top 40 DJs and psychedelic rock played by pot-smoking hippies on that new fangled FM side of the radio. If only radio sounded like it did in the 1930s and 1940s before that evil rock and roll came along and got rid of "good music." It must be the fault of all those handful of evil corporations that were allowed to dominate local media by owning an AM station, an FM station, a TV station, and the local newspaper that allowed those changes.

If my family was representative of the 60's and 70's....I remember my parents allowing us kids (two teens and one tween) to choose the radio station when we were in the car (which wasn't all that often).

I never remember my folks complaining about "radio" but they did, on rare occasion, comment on the music of the day (mostly neutral in an amusing sort of way) although my dad used to get off on the haircuts of the day (ducktails and Beatle-type bowl cuts).

I never heard them wax nostalgic about radio of "their day". Perhaps it was because there was little to compare. Radio of the 30's and 40's was largely about staged shows and big band ballroom dancing - very little of which was available in the 60's and 70's. TV was in its heyday and the radio was never playing in the living room of our house - only in the kids' bedrooms.

I'm guessing my parents generation (30's and 40's) had several much more important things to worry about than what was playing on their radios and it didn't play as important a part of their youth as did the radio of the 50's thru the 70's.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I'm guessing my parents generation (30's and 40's) had several much more important things to worry about than what was playing on their radios and it didn't play as important a part of their youth as did the radio of the 50's thru the 70's.

My parents tried to force me into their classical music mold. I used to hate lining up in front of the local high school, dressed in a dark suit, in the heat, with them. I actually kind of liked the music. The one time I forced the issue and dressed in "street clothes", I liked it even more, but they forced me to the last row of the balcony - I embarrassed them because I wasn't in a suit.

To their credit, once I went to a concert in Houston by a new group known as "The Beatles", they actually gave me the album for Christmas and a transistor radio - and my top-40 listening began. Not too long after that - I discovered "the Mighty 1190" from Dallas, Music radio WLS, and other classic top-40 era stations, and a DX'er was born. Those stations blew away the little wannabe top-40 in Midland, TX.

Was I imagining it - or does the new 93.3 use the old KLIF call signs? To have a real top-40, playing music, with the call signs "KLIF", is a tribute to a great station, long gone to the dark side of the piddle, drivel, and swill of talk radio.

While I was in Dallas, I checked out i93.3 - great station - lousy signal. Bad reception even in Frisco, and that car radio is no slouch. KXT, mixed bag - the songs were either familiar, great songs that never get airplay, or suckish songs that should be forgotten. A lot like 88.7 used to be, before they started polluting their rock format with country bumpkin music. Platinum and KLUV - I wish Houston had either one. KVRK - even better than WPOZ-HD3 and that is saying a LOT.