I hate to be the bearer of bad news

[sodypopdrinker]

...but I grew up listening to, and idolizing the people I heard on the radio.

I now teach a high school class. I asked the students what radio stations they listened to. They looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language.

NONE of the 21 students in the class could even name a DFW radio station. They listen to their iPods and iTunes, and whatever their friends tell them about that can found elsewhere on the internet.

The bad news is: Radio, and perhaps TV, as we have grown to know and love will soon be a thing of the past.

No wonder there are so many people losing their jobs.

But when there's a storm, a tornado, or other local (or regional) catastrophe -- who are we going to turn to if RADIO isn't there? Just sayin' -- I love radio. I wish I were still working for a radio station, but it didn't work out for me. But I would hate to be without it when we need it the most.

 

[dfwrunner]

...but I grew up listening to, and idolizing the people I heard on the radio.

I now teach a high school class. I asked the students what radio stations they listened to. They looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language.

NONE of the 21 students in the class could even name a DFW radio station. They listen to their iPods and iTunes, and whatever their friends tell them about that can found elsewhere on the internet.

The bad news is: Radio, and perhaps TV, as we have grown to know and love will soon be a thing of the past.

No wonder there are so many people losing their jobs.

But when there's a storm, a tornado, or other local (or regional) catastrophe -- who are we going to turn to if RADIO isn't there? Just sayin' -- I love radio. I wish I were still working for a radio station, but it didn't work out for me. But I would hate to be without it when we need it the most.

I'm only 50 dude, I gotta nother 40 years of good radio listening in me...sheesh, all they gotta do is keep neil sperry on and i'm good to go...

 

[Catechuman]

I love radio but it seems to me the music stations either talk too much or they may not play exactly what you like from your favorite artists.

I know it may seem contradictory but as a Christian I could listen to either a Christian station all day long (music, talk, or someone preaching) or I could listen to the Ticket.

I like talk radio and other music stations like power fm or 97.1 but i quickly grow bored with them because they try to play music to a broader audience. Power fm doesn't play enough of the harder groups for my tastes.

 

[MartinGG]

Life goes on.....there was a day when the newspaper was king....Life magazine was the most read publication.....
unfortunately radio had a hand in its own demise.....just as the audience was discovering the new technology...getting their music from iPods...downloading....internet radio stations......just at that time the radio industry was deregulated...prices skyrocketed beyond believability....to the extent that creativity and localism of radio died.....

in a way, the radio industry, under the flag of greed and avarice, escorted the future generations out the door.


Marty Greenberg
Broadcaster (retired)

 

[dfwrunner]

...

I disagree with the view that "greed and avarice escorted future generations out the door." The fact is that radio shares were declining long before deregulation, and the greed and avarice of competitors is attracting listeners to other devices. So there's a lot of greed and avarice around. The first thing today's content creators want to do is monetize their stuff. You see it on YouTube and MySpace. Everybody wants to get rich. Had deregulation not happened, and radio was still run the way it was run in the 80s, we'd be in exactly the same spot we're in right now. Probably a lot worse. Because nothing was going to stop the development of new competitors.

There was a time when radio was actually interesting...it just isnt' any more...and stations keep removing the most interesting programs and putting crap in their place (e.g. Neil Sperry).

 

[TheBigA]

There was a time when radio was actually interesting...it just isnt' any more...and stations keep removing the most interesting programs and putting crap in their place (e.g. Neil Sperry).

I see that more as a function of people moving out of the main demographic. I hear that said about a lot of things, including TV, music, and the rest of popular culture. It's just not that interesting any more to the baby boomers. The problem is that younger audiences are interested in other technologies. So therein lies the rub: Do you program to the people who mainly use radio but are too old for advertisers? Or do you program to those who the advertisers want, but are less interested in older technologies? How ya gonna keep em down on the farm after they've seen Paree?

 

[copydesk2]

The unquestioning reliance of radio on demographics puzzles me. For instance, is it wise to cater to a certain age group to secure instant rewards at the price of alienating the rest of the age groups and losing money over the long haul?

 

[TheBigA]

The unquestioning reliance of radio on demographics puzzles me. For instance, is it wise to cater to a certain age group to secure instant rewards at the price of alienating the rest of the age groups and losing money over the long haul?

Depends on what you mean by the "long haul." Older listeners aren't going to live forever. Lots of stations still program to listeners 50-65. At some point, radio needs to move to the next generation. Quite a few people feel radio hung on to the boomers too long, ignoring the musical interests of Gen X in the grunge movement of the early 90s. There were a lot of bad programming moves made in the ten years before de-regulation.

 

[OHTBGH]

Neil Sperry is crap??? Not at all.

You want to talk about crap, then riddle me this Bat Man:

How many mortgage shows and "financial planning" shows can you have on? In one market? One just ONE STATION? Or how can you enjoy music on an AM HD radio station (A gadget catcher btw) when all they play is infomercials about colon clensers?

And the same shows are buying time on different stations not just one! Or they are the same show but change their name for different stations! (ie, "women, Money And POWW WER.com. That's how she's pronounces it!)

My "favorite" is this one called "The Lifestyles Unlimited Show". Exotic travel? Lifestyles of the rich and famous? NO! Its about making money owning and renting apartments and other properties!

The guy's always bashing the stock market and how you'll fail in it. Then goes on about how Jim Cramer, Suzy Orman and other lost money but have their businesses to shore them up? Of course, they make you subscribe to things and sell you books!


But wait, isn't this guy a "business"? I know he must be since he has to be making money to afford the time on the station he is on! I know a regular Joe doesn't have that capability either!

What hiprocrasy!

Weekend programming has gotten sooo bad I've been turning the radio off EXCEPT for Neil Sperry.

But then after today's announcement, well...

http://neilsperry.com/articles/2010/02/3/note-from-neil-sperry.html

Now what? Another mortgage show, make money to "build a better me"? Saving your Financial Ass part two? Or more potty mouth sports talk? (The Fan moves to AM?)

He may have to pay for the time but one thing is certain: He is a class act!

And thanks to him, I got a wife out of the deal! ;D

-BGH

 

[metroneck]

I love that comment below 'everyone wants their own station, that's why they use their ipod'. Exactly.

CBS management was going to move Real Deal from KRLD FM to KRLD AM, and extend the hours 7A-12P. They felt that Wolfe could cume and bill at a rate that would surpass the Sperry show, and also wanted to be the leader of the Saturday morning car talkers (Ed Wallace KLIF, Jerry Reynolds WBAP, vs John Clay KRLD-AM).

John Clay is a close friend of mine, and told me this info verbatium. So they cancelled Neil, promised John heavy promotional marketing on all cluster stations (KVIL, KLUV, etc) and the 5 hour saturday slot.

When it came time for this move, CBS changed the deal on Wolfe in the 11th hour, and surprised the hell out of management when he arrived at final CBS negociations with a contract from Clear Channel (97.1 KEGL) in hand.

He said the timing on the events that were taking place was unexplainable. Now that Wolfe left Neils slot for CC, maybe Neil will get reengaged?

 

[Lancer]

The unquestioning reliance of radio on demographics puzzles me. For instance, is it wise to cater to a certain age group to secure instant rewards at the price of alienating the rest of the age groups and losing money over the long haul?

This could be cut & pasted verbatim for today's country music also.

 

[arnoldevns]

More than 20 years ago I did a survey in a college statistics class about the impact of CD players in cars on radio listenership. Even then it was rather stunning the see the results. While they listened to radio less, they made it clear radio was important to them for things like weather, news, traffic and (oddly enough) the time.

The people with CD players also liked listening to the radio for new music. They liked the variety the stations could offer them that a CD could not.

Here's the rub: that's just not an advantage for radio today. With things like an iphone, you can listen to whatever music you want, buy new music, get the news, the weather, traffic and yes.. the time.
For that matter, you can listen to radio stations over the internet on your iphone. A station from someone's bedroom on live365 can sound as good as a commercial station - and have fewer commercials.

It begs the question whether radio can survive. Yes, it can. But big changes are needed. Corporate cookie cutter programming must end. Local programming is key. No more voice tracking. Have live djs who can take listener calls and requests. Even on music stations, add some local news at the top and bottom of the hour.

Entertain the listener and engage them in an interactive experience that makes them want to tune in.

 

[TheBigA]

But big changes are needed. Corporate cookie cutter programming must end. Local programming is key. No more voice tracking. Have live djs who can take listener calls and requests. Even on music stations, add some local news at the top and bottom of the hour.

Says who? You say you did a survey 20 years ago, but how about last week?

 

[transetic]

maybe it's time to move all the old people out of these stations and put some young blood in there?

 

[little1]

For that matter, you can listen to radio stations over the internet on your iphone. A station from someone's bedroom on live365 can sound as good as a commercial station - and have fewer commercials.

But has the dude broadcasting from his bedroom figured out how to monetize his station? Because the bigger you get, the more money you need to pay streaming bills, pay for music, make a little something for yourself (and the guy making those fewer commercials, and the guy selling those few commercials, etc) etc etc...

Read an article last year about pandora and their music algorithims. And one of the things it said is that Pandora STILL isn't making money.

At some point, Pandora, internet stations, etc are going to have to figure outhow to make money to survive. Or we'll look back on these years like the dot com boom of the late 90's. Everybody and everything had a dot com, and most of those companies lost millions...

 

[TheBigA]

At some point, Pandora, internet stations, etc are going to have to figure outhow to make money to survive.

Pandora claims that they are going to make money this year. But the cost was adding commercials and subscription fees to their service. Free isn't free any more.

The problem that they will have to deal with as they move forward is staying true to their original ideals, satisfying their original fans, while doing what's best for their business. No one in corporate radio set out to have tight playlists and 14 minutes of commercials per hour. That wasn't how things were done 25 years ago. As things get bigger, costs increase, spot loads increase, and the music changes. You can see that with the most successful artists.

 

[surfdude]

"The unquestioning reliance of radio on demographics puzzles me."

It's because advertising agencies purchase advertising based on the demographic desires
of their clients. 95% of advertisers target somewhere in the 25-54 age range.
Therefore, radio does not solely target teens or 55+. Pretty simple really.

That's why you'll see old Lawrence Welk Shows on PBS and not FOX.

That classroom survey in the original post was poor research. Of course kids in a classroom situation,
with the immediate peer pressure, are going to give the "cool" answer. But, like another poster said,
all of them are probably tuning in to a CHR or Urban station every week.

 

[Richard Pryor]

I'm only 50 dude, I gotta nother 40 years of good radio listening in me...sheesh, all they gotta do is keep neil sperry on and i'm good to go...

There you go, here's your explanation. Young people generally don't want to listen to Neil Sperry.


I was one of the few people growing up in middle school and high school who LOVED talk radio. I was amazed with the personalities like Howard Stern, Tom Leykis, Russ Martin, you name it. They made me laugh and they made my drive back and forth from school enjoyable and relaxing. Kids today use their iPod's more than they listen to the radio just for the reason that it's EASY! Back in the early 90's and even in the 2000's you didn't have vehicles with audio input slots and we didn't have every child using an iPod. CD's were a pain since if you wanted to listen to a certain song or whatever you had to flip through, change out the CD, and it just became a pain. Now I can select songs by a push of a button and I can listen to yesterday's talk shows TODAY! Radio stations play what they want and they generally don't appeal to the younger generation like myself.

Blame technology but you can't deny that radio is a slowly dying medium. It's the railroad of today's forms of transportation: it still exists but it's only used when necessary.

EDIT: Also, the only time I ever listen to the radio in my truck is if I'm listening to a sports game or one of my friends wants to crank some rap music while we head off to some place that's only 10 minutes away.

 

[turkeydance]

instead of railroads...how about cable TV?
isn't radio like that? in other words, it's there,
but it's shrinking/consolidating/and limited.
for example: i watch new movies thru ovguide.com.
i watch TV on Innertube (CBS) or whatever.
the only thing that doesn't work well is
live sports, so i use satellite for that.
i quit using TiVO/DVR
since Hulu will do.

 

[little1]

It's the railroad of today's forms of transportation: it still exists but it's only used when necessary.

Warren Buffet, 2nd richest man in the US of A, just spent billions on a railroad. Because he thinks it's a good investment and it's pretty necessary for transporting certain things.

Much like radio will probably be. There are certain mass market products where mass mediums like radio & TV will be more cost effective than buying blog ads or ads on thousands of internet radio stations.

And AM radio has been "dying" since the 70's. And yet two of the top billing stations in this market are 820 and 1310. I'll believe experts that predict the death of radio when I see major market stations turning off their transmitters and handing licenses back to the FCC...