I don't care about terrestrial radio. I care about the Internet. To me, the Internet is everything, including radio.
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Do You Really Care About Radio?
- Thread starter DavidKaye
- Start date
ronald54321 said:
Radio is a medium. The Internet is a medium. Both can carry identical content. The Internet can carry video, the printed word, illustrations and all manner of things that are impossible on radio.
Radio is auditory. The Internet is visual.
Radio is intended primarily to serve local consumers. Internet primarily remote consumers.
Radio is mobile. The Internet not so much.
The Internet can carry radio content but it is not radio.
landtuna said:
That's changing rapidly. The only worry is the cost of your data plan for your smartphone.
michael hagerty said:
Although there are reportedly some who do, I do not know one person who listens to "radio" via Smartphone. And the odds against unlimited data growing are precluding this more and more each day.
And although cell phones are mobile to some extent I think radio will always have a physical advantage.
landtuna said:
I do all the time, especially during baseball season. Because I use my Verizon 4G service mostly in the car (I have WiFi at home, at work, and at most of the sports bars I hang out at), I use less than 1 Gb of data per month - most of the time less than half of that. Even if Verizon revokes my "grandfathered" unlimited data plan, I still won't go over the (I think) 2 Gb current limit for a minimum data plan.
The main advantage radio has is that it's easier to select between 20 to 100 radio stations and tens of thousands of internet streams. TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and the like ease the pain a bit, but there is a long way to go before it's truly user-friendly. Poor connections (dropouts, excessive buffering, etc.) are still a problem in many areas, as is data roaming that can get expensive.
landtuna said:
Maybe my hearing is bad (likely), but when I plug my smartphone into the FM transmitter in my car, I don't hear much of a difference between it and FM radio. Depends on what I'm listening to. Ball games are the worst (noticeable, but not objectionable, digital artifacts), but my own MP3 collection and many internet music stations don't sound bad at all.
KeithE4 said:
I KNOW my hearing isn't as good as it once was but I was referring to Internet streams, not smartphone (as I have no experience with them).
There are a few Internet streams that are particularly good but none exceed 100 kBPS and most are just above half of that. Compare that to the full uncompressed DVD and there is quite a difference - even with my motorcycle-tortured hearing.
landtuna said:
I do. Not daily, but having started off with Pandora, I find that apps like IHeartRadio, TuneIn and StreamS make it easy to listen to stations in other cities. I did a lot of it when Sandy hit the eastern part of the country, since my son was in his first few weeks living back east.
I spent the last few days at my parents house way down* in Apple Valley. We had home made waffles on Sunday morning. Partly because of this thread. The OP made me hungry for em. They were great! My father says you have to make sure every hole has some syrup in it. I just want to make sure it has lots or of real butter. No margarine. I don't need genuine maple syrup. Imitation is good enough for me.
*actually it's up from San Jose because of the elevation in the high desert.
*actually it's up from San Jose because of the elevation in the high desert.
landtuna said:
While I can't mention the market, I was involved with a research project just about a month ago in which in-depth interviews were done, one by one, with listeners to a particular station which targets persons 25-49 and is among the top 10 in a significantly competitive radio market.
After two days of non-stop interviews one thing stood out: 100% of the people used their phone to listen to music, radio stations and "radio like" streamers like Pandora.
Among the reasons given for preferring the phone as an entertainment device I heard portability, privacy (with earbuds), no need to carry a separate radio, variety of choices, ability to switch between one's own music collection and other sources.
As has been shown in other studies published in the trades, mobile users tend to be big consumers of radio as well as of alternative sources.
In this case, "everybody" is doing it.
landtuna said:
Most DVDs today have waveforms that are so clipped they come close to looking like square waves.
And except for classical and a few other artsy music forms, recordings generally compressed, right from the microphone on down the chain.
DavidEduardo said:
You will note that I specified "radio" listening and not music in general. And to me "radio" listening means listening to terrestrial radio live, like we did in the old days. Not podcasts. Not mp3's. And not Pandora. Although all of those are music, none are terrestrial radio.
Just for fun I conducted my own interviews yesterday. There are currently four smartphones in my home (everyone but me). 1 50-something (F), 2 30-somethings (1 of each), and 1 20-something. (M). There are 3 other non-family members who frequent my doorstep (the girlfriends of my boys),
None admit listening to "radio". The 50-something does not listen to anything except the phone on her phone. The others do occasionally listen to music on their phones but not to "radio". Music TSL was described as "seldom". Seems their phones are used primarily for texting and browsing the Internet.
The last two vehicles I have owned both have iPod and Aux/USB ports. When traveling with my family no one has ever asked to plug their device into the car and those that are listening to music while traveling listen to their own libraries.
I realize my experience may not be typical but it does illustrate that there is not one size fits all in today's user community.
TheBigA said:
From my perspective the content (or lack thereof) is the main problem.
But the claim was made that "everyone" listens to "radio" over their mobile device and that clearly isn't the case. I suspect the primary reasons are (a) lack of desirable content, (b) too many interruptions (commercials or blabby DJ's) - the same basic reasons people aren't turning on their real radios.
Towers and transmitters aren't the primary issue with radio today. Content and format are. Unless those issues are fixed it won't matter what the delivery system is. The advertiser-supported business model is in trouble and the problem isn't restricted to radio as commercial TV is experiencing the same exact issue.
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