Actually was told that (people with internet on tractors) a couple of years ago by a major Ag advertiser who was telli9ng me there was no reason to adverti9se on farm reports on the radio anymore, because the farmers were getti9ng thei9r market updates on the internet. That was before blackberries and smartphones.
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Internet Streaming is NOT Radio!
- Thread starter H82BL8
- Start date
SirRoxalot said:
Also see below
gr8oldies said:
Highly dependent on where the farm is located, and the economic layer the farmer is nested into.
If you are a Midwestern farmer tilling black dirt that has EIGHT FEET of topsoil and you are within 30 or 40 miles of a town like Kankakee or Bloomington or Danville, IL or maybe Kokomo or Ft. Wayne for West Lay-Flat, IN and you have the kind of farming operation that justifies a $275,000 tractor, absolutely. Paying the bill to get Internet in your tractor cab makes sense and is doable.
There is a lot of farmland in America being tilled by the "working poor" who are in areas so remote they can't get decent high-speed Internet in their house, much less put it on the tractor. I cannot venture a guess what percentage of them feel they can justify carrying a cell phone with broadband in those circumstance, and how many of them would have such coverage available if they had the money to spend.
I'm the guy who got invited to leave my high school before I was finished because I got into an argument with the AG-teacher about a cover story in Successful Farming magazine where I was in favor of bringing some California style farming to the Arkansas Ozarks. I'm the guy who grew up with early-adopter mentality. My sister and brother-in-law till Arkansas farmland to this day so we have some dinner-table discussions of farming when I go home for a visit. I'm afraid there is still much farmland where the occupants do not drive a Lexus and Blackberrys are still something of a novelty.
What you are more likely to find on a farm tractor is Satellite/GPS which indicates how much seed and/or fertilizer to apply as the tractor moves through various soil conditions, mixtures and slopes. That is NOT Internet in the tractor cab. (In parts of the Ozarks you would think a miracle had happened if you had EIGHT INCHES of topsoil!)
What you guys describe is one of the challenges faced by small town radio today. 40, 50 years ago we knew what it took to get an audience: the weather, the cattle prices from the local auction markets along with major markets in Kansas City, Chicago, etc. Give them current prices for broiler chickens, wheat, rice, cotton, etc. Long distance phone calls were quite expensive back then so they were not going to call and get those numbers on their own.
Today even relatively modest farm operations can get all that info on even dial-up Internet AT THE HOUR OF THEIR CHOICE. Mom gets the school lunch menu on the Internet. Hospitals can't give information on who was admitted and discharged today. What made farm town radio GOLDEN back then has been totally gutted, and small town radio in many cases hasn't figured out what they should be doing today to make themselves GOLDEN again.
Goat that,s the truth, I should know.
O
ok walters
Guest
SirRoxalot said:
Pay by the minute for radio thru the internet using an Aircard? Those are some high tech farmers - with plenty of cash.
Alan McCall said:
In all fairness, to correctly cite the past, I shouldn't be quite so dogmatic about what it was like 40 and 50 years ago. I had some discussion back then with the station owners I worked for and I remember one of them saying to me in response to my suggestion that we zero in on local news: "Yes, the successful stations have a news department. I can't make up my mind whether the news department contributes to their success, or if, already successful, they go set up a news department so the the listeners will know they are doing well enough to afford such a useless accessory."
I considered any day off lost if I did not go visit a station somewhere. I wanted to know what they were doing. Why were they doing it? What were they thinking about doing that they had not implemented yet for lack of available budget. The people I was working for were often too busy running the station to enjoy such a luxury of just devoting time to being nosy. But I think we had some valid understanding back then of what made us valuable and habitual to the listener.
Too much of my list from back then has become obsolete due to new technology and new attitudes. Back then I could from a distance recognize the "heavy duty thinkers" who were decoding the secrets of success that would also work in other markets. Today as I travel and tune in stations, it is much harder to tell the winners from the losers. How do you know who to plagiarize! <G> Oh, wait a minute. I guess we can do this again. ;D
The Dude said:
Interesting comment. This discussion probably belongs on the HD Radio board, but I've been corresponding with the CE of the local classical station, which has not sounded right (to me) ever since they turned on IBOC. The biggest thing I've noticed is that sibilant sounds are distorted. Admittedly this could be due to my receiver, but it did not happen until they went digital. The thing is, they also replaced the transmitter and audio processing at the same time, so it's difficult to determine where the problem is (if there is one).
I would expect that the audio quality of analog FM is going to suffer even more if Ibiquity gets their way and the FCC grants a 10 dB IBOC power increase...
I don't for a moment think an Internet stream sounds as good as a high quality analog FM (or even AM) signal, but those are becoming hard to find. And for me, content is more important than audio quality, even though audio is my business, so the ability to listen to the kind of programming I want to hear is a significant benefit of listening on the Internet.
landtuna said:
What would be neat is some intelligent conversation about what works best and what works poorly on each media.
We know that music for the younger generation works better on FM than on AM.
I think I can see where young single people can figure out some way to find the time and space to listen to streaming. It will take compelling program content to get a seasoned, salty old crust like me to sign up for Internet on my phone so I can listen to streaming where ever I go.
AM has worked well for "Teach and Preach" religious programming which appeals to a generation that is not quite as hip about technical things.... things like FM, podcasting, streaming.
I am interested in knowing what people think works well on the various technologies, and what doesn't begin to fit.
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
A few thoughts from personal experience: It will be awhile before older people become comfortable with streaming and podcasting. Maybe never... But I think it depends on how user-friendly these technologies eventually become. We've seen what can be done with apps that run on an iPhone. OTOH, I did an informal survey of the available Wi-Fi radios, and they look like they're still at a relatively early stage of development... not that easy to set up and use, unless you're a geek. I'm still waiting for the first really good, modestly priced one to show up. By contrast, young people live on the Internet and are very comfortable listening online using Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, or QuickTime.
Formats that I think can be successful on the Internet: any kind of news/talk radio is a pretty good match. A lot of people work in places where radio reception is poor, but they have a computer connected to the Internet. In most cases, businesses have broadband connections, so an audio stream is not much of a challenge (unless they block it). Specialty music formats like classical could be a good bet. Enthusiasts will seek out the programming they are interested in, wherever it is available. You might not think of classical when you think of the web, because it is sometimes thought of as an audiophile "tweak" format, but that's not necessarily true. A lot of people enjoy having classical music in the background when reading, writing papers, etc. Streaming audio quality is good enough for that.
I share your thoughts that preaching and teaching programs might not do as well on the web as on OTA broadcast, especially if they are targeted toward an older audience. But some ministries are doing this, and it would be interesting to know how successful they think it is.
The car is the next frontier for online listening. It will not really become successful until cars are equipped with wireless Internet connections. Early adopters will use work-arounds like plugging an iPhone into the car audio system, but I don't think most people will bother with that.
Here is something to think about: if you had to choose between your cable or satellite subscription or your Internet service, which would you retain?
Four of the top ten podcasts this week in iTunes are produced by public radio stations (NPR and allies). A fifth is the PBS Frontline program.
NPR's demo is 35+.
The only question in my mind is what age group you really mean by "older." If you mean 60+, I might agree. Maybe even 50+.
PTBoardOp94 said:
I was trying to be socially sensitive... I suppose I would say 60+. My neighbor is around 70 and uses a computer for e-mail and other things, but never listens online. But then, she doesn't listen to the radio either, so I don't know if that proves anything one way or another...
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
No question that FM works much better than AM for music but that isn't necessarily limited to the "younger set". Even old folks with declining hearing ability can appreciate the difference in fidelity.
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
None of my 5 kids listen to streaming on their phones nor have I seen any of their friends doing it. (They don't talk much on those same phones either but they seem to text the hell out of each other on them.) I'm guessing the young music lovers use their MP3 players and "crusty old salts" are driven primarily by content.
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
Huh? FM a technical thing? FM is simply a button on the radio (shared with AM on some and sometimes no button at all on FM-only devices). I do agree though that the older a person the less likely they are to use computers and understand streaming and podcasting. Of course, this could also be related to the "older content driven" scenario I posted earlier.
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
Content aside, FM is foolproof (as long as you are listening fairly close to the towers). No technical knowledge needed.
Streaming is either good or bad depending on connection speed, stream bandwidth and computer resources. I have found a limited number of very good (meaning near-FM-quality) streams, a majority of acceptable-but-not-anything-to-rave-about streamcasts and the remainder being not worth the effort. I do not subscribe to any play-for-pay streams so can't comment on them. I'd opine unless streaming quality improves (overall) greatly it will not supplant OTA broadcasting. Of course, the way OTA content has declined over the past few years they may leave listeners no choice but to go to the streams and if reliable mobile streaming ever becomes a reality it is likely lights out for OTA.
I stream irregularly. Most of the time, I use streaming or podcasts to get content that I can't get on the radio, time-shift content that I missed on the radio, or to listen to radio content that I can't get at my location (out of market, poor reception, no radio available, etc.).
Increasingly, people who used to be on the air but have been "downsized" are putting up some pretty interesting podcasts. Radio established them as entertainers, and podcasting is allowing them to reach their audiences now that they've been dumped for syndication or VT. TSL to podcasts certainly reduces TSL to radio.
I now have an inexpensive (i.e. under $100) device that connects to both my stereo and my HD TV that I can access wirelessly from my laptop, and plug an external hard drive full of music into. It allows me to feed web content through my home entertainment system. I have to say that a lot of web content really fails the "sniff test" when it comes to quality.
Increasingly, people who used to be on the air but have been "downsized" are putting up some pretty interesting podcasts. Radio established them as entertainers, and podcasting is allowing them to reach their audiences now that they've been dumped for syndication or VT. TSL to podcasts certainly reduces TSL to radio.
I now have an inexpensive (i.e. under $100) device that connects to both my stereo and my HD TV that I can access wirelessly from my laptop, and plug an external hard drive full of music into. It allows me to feed web content through my home entertainment system. I have to say that a lot of web content really fails the "sniff test" when it comes to quality.
T
TheBackroomShow
Guest
Considering some of the internet stations out there I can see the argument against internet stations/streaming etc. But ya know what? Large radio has screwed itself by monopolizing the market for years. The airwaves are public domain but the public has not been served well. The FCC? puuhhllleeeaazzee...regular radio has done in itself so bad that people..who already owned receiver units for radio (called radios) are upgrading computers/soundcards/dsl connections etc just to get their daily fix of music/talk etc.
To be overly simplistic perhaps, it comes out of the speakers and I like it. Whether it is called a radio or an Internet stream is of no consequence to me. BTW I am one of those "older" people who think that it's great that somebody in radio can go to work anywhere in the country from one location, and it's pretty neat.
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