Buffalo Do young people even know what radio is?

[michael hagerty]

But how many dealerships even have base models of the ones you listed consistently in stock? From what I've seen with the type of car I've been looking for (base model AWD Camry hybrid) a lot of them are either being built and are sold already and the dealership's just waiting for them to land on the lot, or they're in transit and a pending sale. From what I understand, dealerships don't make as much money on base models as on loaded ones.

You're right---there's more profit margin in the more expensive trim levels. And base trims don't sell well. Never have. It's why Impalas outsold Biscaynes and Galaxies did multiples of what the Custom 500 did back in the day.

Why? The natural urge to splurge a little on something you're going to live with (most likely) for the better part of a decade, the helpful (*cough cough*) salesperson letting you know the step up is only a few bucks a month over the life of the car loan, and---for those who don't drive the wheels off and might want to trade in four or five years---resale value.

I don't know where you are, but there are currently 269 base Camry LE AWD on dealer lots around the country, priced from $31,039, with the vast majority in the $33s:

https://www.cars.com/shopping/results/?stock_type=new&makes%5B%5D=toyota&models%5B%5D=toyota-camry&trims%5B%5D=toyota-camry-le&drivetrain_slugs%5B%5D=all_wheel_drive&zip=95826&maximum_distance=9999&sort=list_price

As for the other examples, most people buy neither the Honda CR-V base trim, nor the top of the line---the bulk of the business is in the mid-level EX-L at $35,400.

Camrys start at $29,600 without AWD. The hot trim level is the XLE at $34,800.

RAV4s range from $31,900 to $43,300---but the plurality are XLE Premiums at $36,100.

And so on. All good, popular cars---among the best-sellers in the country---and none of 'em at $50k. Again, it's the trucks, SUVs, luxury cars and, yes, electrics, that are runnning up the average from the other end.

 

[radiofan2023]

Related to the "entry level job" issue. And it is amazing that where there is "family starting" and where we still have larger families is among Blacks and Hispanics. There is more to this issue than "afford to start a family".

What we have is a nation with too many 16th Century English Lit majors with enormous debts and no skill that businesses need.

I can think of very few entertainers... who live in a surreal world... whose opinions on anything I care about. Taylor Swift, who built a career on songs about ex-boyfriends and the like is not one of them.

I know of several people with graduate and undergrad degrees not in English Lit, 16th Century or otherwise who can't afford to buy a house or do many of the other things I mentioned. My degree isn't in English Lit and neither was my brother's. He only afforded his house by working his butt off in retail and as a delivery driver, renting out rooms and going to estate sales and flipping vintage stereos and other stuff he'd get for $5 or $1 or free on the last days of the estate sales for extra money, and buying food from those estate sales.

He told me the last time I saw him that he was going to sell his house after he got through his medical ordeal. After he died, our parents said he told them he wanted me to have his house and all his things. I like having his house, but I dislike how I got it.

There's more to Taylor Swift's songwriting inspirations than just ex-boyfriends, and that's also a double standard. No one says John Mayer, Mick Jagger, Jose Iglesias or (pick a male songwriter) only writes songs about their ex-girlfriends.

Here are some songs not written about Taylor's exes. The inspiration for one of them is Marjorie Finlay and the other is a boy who died of cancer, she explains the backstory in the last video:

Consolidation was predominantly and overwhelmingly due to the fact that, following Docket 80-90, over half of all stations were not profitable. The move of listening to FM in the 70's had increased the stations that were viable in each market to be about triple the prior figure with no increase in radio revenue.

Docket 80-90 did to most smaller markets what FM did to the big ones.

In the early 90's, radio ad revenue had not declined. It was at its highest ever, but there were too many seats at the table.


Local merchants seldom bought radio to reach teens. The teen money came from national accounts, and they moved to consolidated national buys, whether for Toys 'r Us to Wrigley's gum.

In your final sentence you got to the real issue. Local small merchants died as the big box stores expanded When you got a Best Buy or Circuit City, those little TV and stereo stores and those independent appliance stores closed. And the big box stores did not, generally, buy local radio. Rinse and repeat for every business from department stores to office supplies to pet shops.

There are still some independent appliance stores, TV stores and stereo stores in areas around Kansas City and Iowa City. In fact there's one scratch and dent independent appliance store I've seen TV ads for.

 

[vw86]

Most of them can't read a map, operate a vehicle with a manual transmission or calculate basic arithmetic. Just keep paying for the latest smart phone and multi-subscriptions... get some more tattoos. They wonder why they're broke.

Perhaps if the older generations had taught them how to read a map, drive stick and do math the entire world would be saved

 

[TheBigA]

Perhaps if the older generations had taught them how to read a map, drive stick and do math the entire world would be saved

Ha. This is the generation raised by day care. Their parents were way to busy.

 

[radiofan2023]

Ha. This is the generation raised by day care. Their parents were way to busy.

To get it back to the purpose of the board, I was

 

[kwthom]

Obviously we did NOT pass that along to our children.