How Long Does Radio Have Left?

[vchimpanzee]

You trust Wikipedia to be accurate? 😱

Here's the source that was used for what I quoted.

Primosphere Weighs In On Merger Again | SiriusBuzz

In their second filing to the FCC regarding the proposed merger of Sirius and XM, Primoshere, one of the original bidders for a satellite radio lecense, is asking for quite a bit. First, they feel that all four bidders understood at the time of the spectrum auction that the two winners would not...

web.archive.org

 

[TheBigA]

So emergency officials are going to override a local radio station to give 24/7 information to people?

That's how it's supposed to work. They are required to test the system every week.

Emergency Alert System

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that requires radio and TV broadcasters, cable TV, wireless cable systems, satellite and wireline operators to provide the President with capability to address the American people within 10 minutes during a national emergency.

www.fema.gov

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

That's how it's supposed to work. They are required to test the system every week.

Emergency Alert System

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that requires radio and TV broadcasters, cable TV, wireless cable systems, satellite and wireline operators to provide the President with capability to address the American people within 10 minutes during a national emergency.

www.fema.gov

EAS is useless here. We monitor by satellite with my source being ARCS TV and unless its grab your ankles kiss your keister goodbye situation, darn good chance nothing they broadcast is useful and id have it on air first

 

[kevtronics]

EAS was never activated on 9/11 or during the Maui wildfires. So for a system designed to alert us to incoming nuclear missiles, you have to wonder whether it would actually activate in that scenario, either.

 

[b-turner]

For Maui, the local officials did not activate the EAS which was their job. As for 9/11, was EAS to be activated to interrupt wall-to-wall coverage to tell us about it? If anything 9/11 showed just how unneeded EAS is during major events.

Don CT - typically what happens is a TV station's staff covers radio. I know in Houston during hurricanes and massive floods, stations simulcast TV stations who did wall to wall coverage.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Here's the source that was used for what I quoted.

Primosphere Weighs In On Merger Again | SiriusBuzz

In their second filing to the FCC regarding the proposed merger of Sirius and XM, Primoshere, one of the original bidders for a satellite radio lecense, is asking for quite a bit. First, they feel that all four bidders understood at the time of the spectrum auction that the two winners would not...

web.archive.org

Yes, and I referenced that back in the post you originally replied to. The FCC dismissed their later filing as having no standing, since they were a losing bidder in the original auction.

The trouble with citing sources such as you just did is that they rarely, if ever, update the original posting to reflect the outcome. I certainly hope you use more reliable cites in your Wikipedia editing.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Yes, and I referenced that back in the post you originally replied to. The FCC dismissed their later filing as having no standing, since they were a losing bidder in the original auction.

The trouble with citing sources such as you just did is that they rarely, if ever, update the original posting to reflect the outcome. I certainly hope you use more reliable cites in your Wikipedia editing.

I'm guilty of not updating.

 

[davideduardo]

The trouble with citing sources such as you just did is that they rarely, if ever, update the original posting to reflect the outcome. I certainly hope you use more reliable cites in your Wikipedia editing.

And situations like lawsuits, filings with the FCC, and other legal and regulatory issues often have considerable updates, some that change the nature of the story.

 

[davideduardo]

For Maui, the local officials did not activate the EAS which was their job. As for 9/11, was EAS to be activated to interrupt wall-to-wall coverage to tell us about it? If anything 9/11 showed just how unneeded EAS is during major events.

The "problem" on 9/11 was who should say what. There was no information on what had happened other than visual reports and the radar tracking of the planes. The government reacted by causing all planes to land and prohibiting further take-offs and vacating airports. But it was, momentarily, an unknown incident

I am sure that bureaucrats did a lot of CYA activity, passing the buck or saying "it's not my job". Much of that is understandable, in that we were still figuring out who instigated the hijackings. So if we look at the people... human beings... who might have initiated an EAS activation, we wonder whether any of them felt they understood enough to issue a warning or alert to the city or the nation.

The thing to remember is that EAS activation comes from the government, at many levels. I think that someone missed the opportunity to do a full doctoral thesis about EAS in the years following 9/11; why did nobody activate it, and what was the available information at each level.

Don CT - typically what happens is a TV station's staff covers radio. I know in Houston during hurricanes and massive floods, stations simulcast TV stations who did wall to wall coverage.

In particular, TV stations know that nearly nobody today has a battery operated TV so this is a way of "staying on the air" if there are widespread power outages.

 

[ted chittenden]

Don CT - typically what happens is a TV station's staff covers radio. I know in Houston during hurricanes and massive floods, stations simulcast TV stations who did wall to wall coverage.

I first learned of the radio/TV deal with regard to disaster coverage when I went to a friend's wedding in Mobile, Alabama, in 2006 right about the time that Hurricane Dennis hit. (I made it out of there before the hurricane struck land.) What struck me then was that because of the ownership of all stations by a few large corporations, you would literally tune up and down the dial and hear the same exact television sources depending on if you tuned to a station owned by Cumulus, Clear Channel, or a third commercial outlet (whose name I can't remember) in the Pensacola-Mobile market area. (Of course, the Educational Media and other noncommercial religious stations didn't carry anything about the incoming hurricane; and only one of the two local public stations, Pensacola's WUWF, was running hurricane information at all.)

I gloomily compared that with what I used to hear in Phoenix, Arizona, during some major summer thunder and dust storms during the 1970s. Nearly all of the stations, especially those that carried AC and MOR programming, would discuss with different local announcers what was happening outside. Hell, I remember carrying a battery portable radio outside (a Radio Shack AM/FM/SW/Air/Police band radio my dad had purchased for me for my 9th birthday in 1972) when we lost the electricity in the house we were renting at the time and tornado warnings had been posted in the area. That gave us all up-to-date information for the hour or so we were sitting out in the car port until the lights came back on.

Yet now, we are living in a whole different world than we were back then. The physical world remains the same but expectations have greatly changed. Stockholders want you to earn money no matter what you're doing--even if it's reacting to an emergency situation. And there are many people who don't particularly care what the emergency is--they just want to keep hearing what they are used to hearing from their favorite stations no matter how bad the situation may be. And the rise of the Internet has only heightened the behaviors I've just described.

 

[davideduardo]

Yet now, we are living in a whole different world than we were back then. The physical world remains the same but expectations have greatly changed. Stockholders want you to earn money no matter what you're doing--even if it's reacting to an emergency situation.

You are forgetting the biggest changes... ones that have nothing to do with stockholders.

First, radio revenue is off by over 60% in the last two decades (adjusted for inflation, of course). There is a lot less a station can do with two-thirds of the income gone.

Second, radio listening is off by 75% roughly since 2000. Between the PPM (reduced PUR by over 30%), the 2008 recession and smartphones and the web in general, what is left is much smaller. Nearly 80% of all adults use radio, but they use it much less.

Third, and this is part of my second point, the web offers personalized choices ranging from podcasts on demand to custom playlists and infinite formats. And, if you pay a little, with no commercials.

And there are many people who don't particularly care what the emergency is--they just want to keep hearing what they are used to hearing from their favorite stations no matter how bad the situation may be. And the rise of the Internet has only heightened the behaviors I've just described.

This is very true. One time that we had a major hurricane in Puerto Rico, I decided to have my #1 rated all salsa station cover the storm. We had our worst book ever. The realization was that people already knew which station had the best news coverage... and it was not us. We should have continued to play music to entertain all the people who had bought a hurricane preparedness kit: a case or two of Medalla, plenty of nachos and cheese dip and maybe some lechón asado if they had gotten to the vendor on time!

 

[TheBigA]

Stockholders want you to earn money no matter what you're doing--even if it's reacting to an emergency situation.

Which is exactly why congress created public radio. No stockholders. The public pays the bills. There are no target demos. Everyone is welcome.

 

[Miss Tuned]

I hope radio has until the end of this year left. I'm going back to the Midwest on vacation for the first time since COVID later in the year for my 40th (it's so cheap right now, cheap dollar and lack of demand due to whatever political stuff, and I need to get off this island). The first thing I want to do after I land is turn the rental car radio on and tune into an FM frequency playing country, hear an actual radio station coming in. Not scrolling through DAB, not that same Spotify playlist again, a real FM radio station like I remember. I don't get to do that at home. (The second thing I'll do is get a Culver's.)

 

[DOGDOG]

I hope radio has until the end of this year left. I'm going back to the Midwest on vacation for the first time since COVID later in the year for my 40th (it's so cheap right now, cheap dollar and lack of demand due to whatever political stuff, and I need to get off this island). The first thing I want to do after I land is turn the rental car radio on and tune into an FM frequency playing country, hear an actual radio station coming in. Not scrolling through DAB, not that same Spotify playlist again, a real FM radio station like I remember. I don't get to do that at home. (The second thing I'll do is get a Culver's.)

Better yet is to tune into a country station which plays country music.

 

[radiofan2023]

I hope radio has until the end of this year left. I'm going back to the Midwest on vacation for the first time since COVID later in the year for my 40th (it's so cheap right now, cheap dollar and lack of demand due to whatever political stuff, and I need to get off this island). The first thing I want to do after I land is turn the rental car radio on and tune into an FM frequency playing country, hear an actual radio station coming in. Not scrolling through DAB, not that same Spotify playlist again, a real FM radio station like I remember. I don't get to do that at home. (The second thing I'll do is get a Culver's.)

Have a fun time & happy early 40th! Are you going to Wisconsin?

 

[davideduardo]

There are no target demos Everyone is welcome.

An electronic "Alice's Restaurant" where you can hear anything you want.

 

[Miss Tuned]

Have a fun time & happy early 40th! Are you going to Wisconsin?

Next door, Minnesota! I've never been and it looks pleasant and chill, and blue enough that I won't stick out as a foreigner.

 

[CTListener]

Better yet is to tune into a country station which plays country music.

They all play country music, some as it's currently defined, some as it was defined at some time in the past, and even a few play subgenres (bluegrass, Red Dirt, Americana, alt-country).

 

[radiofan2023]

Next door, Minnesota! I've never been and it looks pleasant and chill, and blue enough that I won't stick out as a foreigner.

Cool, Minnesota is nice! Minneapolis is fun, if you're going to be anywhere near there I heard Prince's museum/recording studio in Chanhassen is fun.