Mark Simone doesn't "rant." He uses humor to make his points. Same with Rich Valdes, Armstrong and Getty, and others I can also list.
So I could tell you that there's NO anger on talk radio. Of course, that would not be true!
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Goodbye AM & FM & HD
- Thread starter kfbkfb
- Start date
So I could tell you that there's NO anger on talk radio. Of course, that would not be true!
I prefer the content aggregators because I don't like to visit a new website every time I want to listen to a new station, especially while I'm working. Having a preset on an aggregator is much easier. TuneIn, iHeart, and Audacy are much easier to use as I rarely listen to the same station all day long. I also don't want your station's app. Very few of those single station apps add anything to my listening experience as most are just volume controls and a start/stop button, and I already have several screens worth of apps. I don't need a few more screens just to listen to your cluster, and I really don't need the clutter when I'm driving.
I can't remember the last time I encountered geofenced syndicated programming that wasn't sports related. I'm sure it happens occasionally, but it's not as common as some tend to think it is. I will say that with the caveat that I rarely listen to syndicated talk radio at any point in time, but I do occasionally listen to out of market talk stations if severe weather might be encroaching on me in a few hours or if my family or close friends are somewhere dealing with bad weather.
If you own a grocery, clothing, or electronics store, the bulk of your business will come from people within about a five mile radius of your store unless you offer something no one else in your area does. You need to know how to attract the customers that live close enough to visit. Going after people on the other side of town isn't going to be worth your expense in most cases. If you want customers from farther away, you open a store closer to them. The first rule of Marketing 101 is that you ALWAYS segment the market.
Streaming, in general, is already micro-targeted. The problem is margins are tiny. Streamed spots are usually sold in blocks of 1,000, and you're lucky if you can get $50.00 per block. Plus, the cost of doing business is high. Until at least one of those problems gets solved, streaming is going to be a small margin business at absolute best.
I did not mention any shows. My point was that stations don't establish streaming policy... syndicators do.
And each syndicator and even each show can have a separate policy.
And, I suspect, many of the folks who participate on this very site.
I couldn't agree more!! I use an Android app that lets me enter the URLs of the stations I listen to. It takes a little time to set up but the result is just like the presets on a car radio. When I'm driving with my phone in front of me on a vent bracket, I can just hit a button and the station I want instantly starts playing, with the exception of the damn pre-roll ads! 😵💫
I was referring mostly to chain stores such as ShopRite, Kohls, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, etc. So regional targeting might do the trick.
Then perhaps I'm ahead of myself, but technology moves fast so maybe we'll get there sooner than later.
I agree that the pre-roll ads on the aggregators are annoying. I generally accept them, however, as the price I pay to get access to all of my favorite stations for free. Plus, it's not just the aggregators doing that. My local Cumulus stations air pre-roll ads on all of their streams regardless of how they're accessed. I get that working with the aggregators can be a pain. I've heard dealing with TuneIn can make you want to pull your hair out, and, at my age, I'm already losing enough of that without any help! The problem is, when I'm driving, I almost always tune my radio with Siri. If you're not on at least one of the aggregators, you're not going to be available on Apple Music. Until recently, that was also the case for the Amazon Echo devices. I realize single station apps may be fine for casual radio listeners who only listen to one or two local stations, but you really need a way to get on across multiple devices as people unplug their radios and move to different forms of technology. Even Townsquare, which has been hostile toward outside systems, has relented a little and is now on TuneIn for Roku and Echo devices, though you still won't find any of its stations on TuneIn phone and tablet apps or on the desktop website.
I haven't heard any of those on local radio in a long time. When I first went to college almost 30 years ago, I remember hearing ads for Lowe's and seeing them on TV, but I haven't seen a commercial for them in forever. Now, Lowe's would seem to just go to prime locations and set up shop. I occasionally hear ads for the big box retailers, but I hear them on streaming audio, not over-the-air. Guessing they'd rather just pay the $30-50 per 1,000 pairs of ears and rely on their national reputation and all the sets of eyes they get just driving by.
One of my personal anecdotes for this that my grandparents lived just north of Claremore, OK, which was home to Walmart #16. The local five and dime was a store called Haddad's. It sat on Will Rogers Blvd a block or two east of Lynn Riggs Blvd, which is the old Route 66, and had been around since the 1940's. To call Haddad's an unpleasant shopping experience would be an understatement. I remember visiting exactly once in the early to mid 80's, and the store was dark, dusty, smelled like wet cardboard, had outdated merchandise that seemed older than I was, and the help behind the cash register was completely unhelpful. Haddad's didn't last much longer after that, and the only real wonder was that Walmart didn't run it out of town sooner. While one could reasonably argue the local mom and pop shops Walmart ran out of business deserved it, radio suffered, too. That the local K-William Penn Rogers 1270 shut down in either '89 or '90 and was sold to become a Tulsa rimshot. Simply put, Walmart never bought local radio and wouldn't buy KWPR no matter how low the price was. Byjo's Beef-N-Burger, Taco Ole, and a handful of other local restaurants got run out by chains by the end of the 80's, too. Those chains didn't buy KWPR either, and no new owner wanted to try sustaining it as a Claremore station with the local businesses that were left.
Who in their right mind is going to use a TV to listen to radio? And who's going to buy new, higher tech TVs for anything, when everything is on your phone? Most people I know personally use their TV as an internet monitor -- be it for Netflix or some other internet based content service. Some seem to tune into network TV, but network TV not a big deal like it was in 2000 or 1995.
As for TV and radio, it's not the late 1990s anymore, when people tuned to the music channel on their local cable system.
The trend is for everything to be internet-based content streaming, mostly using your phone. There's no denying that fact. Those of us who listen to OTA radio (whether it's FM or AM) are only doing it because we're still used to that idea, and still are acquainted with the specific equipment (radios of some kind). We might have radios in the house. We might still use the radio in the car (when we're not bluetoothing Spotify on it). The trend is away from network and cable TV, towards internet based networks, content channels, etc.
As for TV and radio, it's not the late 1990s anymore, when people tuned to the music channel on their local cable system.
The trend is for everything to be internet-based content streaming, mostly using your phone. There's no denying that fact. Those of us who listen to OTA radio (whether it's FM or AM) are only doing it because we're still used to that idea, and still are acquainted with the specific equipment (radios of some kind). We might have radios in the house. We might still use the radio in the car (when we're not bluetoothing Spotify on it). The trend is away from network and cable TV, towards internet based networks, content channels, etc.
I did. I got a better signal than on the radio and used to listen Joe Lacina's show on Saturday nights in the first decade of the new century, before the show was dropped in 2006 shortly after they made a mess of the music played at other times. I still have the TV but don't remember how I got radio on it.
My car was made before there was bluetooth.
Do you have to get out and turn the crank just under the radiator to start it?
There are very inexpensive bluetooth adapters
And why would I want one? What would I do with it?
What I do is run either SiriusXM or other audio through it, plus there's a hands-free phone option.
You're assuming I have either one of those things.
In three words:
1. Sound (phones will NEVER deliver the BIG SOUND of a TV with a sound bar).
2. Screen (there will NEVER be a smart phone with a screen size large enough to prevent severe eye strain from trying to watch videos or movies on one).
3. Audience (phones are meant for an audience of ONE, not a group of people).
Most people do these days. Even my about to turn 76 year old mother has an iPhone, and, with her attitude toward technology, I figured that would never happen.
I have a feeling regular cell phones will go away before long. Maybe the budget carriers will have enough customers who need them that they'll still have a profitable niche, but they’re getting harder and harder to find with the major providers.
I'll bet there are a lot of folks on this very site using Cricket, and Consumer Cellular senior plans. I hear they especially appreciate the larger buttons and convenient flip phone. Many probably wish for their smartphones to have a rotary dial.
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