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Is AM Already Doomed? Or Can It Be Saved?

There are thousands of Dunkers, Amish, and Mennonites in my state. It would be easier to find a horse and buggy versus an AM radio listener.
 
CTListener said:
A TV station with better writing than a newspaper? The apocalypse now must surely be upon us!
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I hate to say it, but yeah---it's gotten to that level.

Newspapers relied on proofreaders and editors for a long, long time. Those were among the first to be fired. So print journalists coming out of J-school into their first gigs probably out to at least minor in English Comp. But I'm guessing only a few did.

Don't get me wrong---there are some great writers in print---but usually not in the smaller market newspapers like Palm Springs.

TV producers and reporters tend to be creatures of broadcasting---very few worked in print. So from day one (college?) they've been trained to write for the ear. Print and broadcast writing are (or should be) different animals. And if you look at broadcast writing, most of it will probably not jump out at you as impressive. But if it tells the story clearly and understandably in 20, 30, 40 seconds---it's well-written and is doing its job.
 
michael hagerty said:
I hate to say it, but yeah---it's gotten to that level.

Newspapers relied on proofreaders and editors for a long, long time. Those were among the first to be fired. So print journalists coming out of J-school into their first gigs probably out to at least minor in English Comp. But I'm guessing only a few did.
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I was a psych minor but had been a good writer and excellent speller/grammarian since grade school, so I still wound up being an unpaid copy editor for my two college roommates, both TV/radio majors, every time they had term papers due. Just as radio was a refuge for people who weren't good looking enough for TV, both TV and radio attracted people who couldn't write well enough to succeed in print. But as you say, that doesn't matter now, as no one is coming out of college looking for a newspaper or magazine career.
 
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CTListener said:
I was a psych minor but had been a good writer and excellent speller/grammarian since grade school, so I still would up being an unpaid copy editor for my two college roommates, both TV/radio majors, every time they had term papers due. Just as radio was a refuge for people who weren't good looking enough for TV, both TV and radio attracted people who couldn't write well enough to succeed in print. But as you say, that doesn't matter now, as no one is coming out of college looking for a newspaper or magazine career.
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I'm gonna say that's unfair. The vast majority of broadcast journalists never even flirted with print. Nobody knew whether they could do it or not. It takes a completely different skill set. And even the best writers owe a ton to their editors (true in the broadcast shops, as well).

I spent 48 years writing for broadcast before people started paying me to write for print. I can do both. But if you'll notice, what I write here is broadcast style. That's my natural default---clear (hopefully), concise (can't prove it by my posts, though) and conversational (I think I can defend that one).
 
michael hagerty said:
We Boomers are irrelevant to FM radio. The youngest is five years out of the demo. They make next to no money from us. It's when Gen X ages out (they don't need to die, just turn 55) that FM's in trouble.
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And, that forces even older people to discover streaming. So, I doubt FM will survive the 25 years you predict. Perhaps, 10 or 15 years instead.
 
Kelly A said:
It's a chicken and egg scenario: The band only survives if there are viable stations on it. Like shortwave, if stations eventually vacate, it becomes just useless spectrum.
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Does the spectrum have a use after it all dies. Can it be repurposed into another level of the
Time Warp said:
And, that forces even older people to discover streaming. So, I doubt FM will survive the 25 years you predict. Perhaps, 10 or 15 years instead.
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Grandkids will force older people to discover streaming.
 
Time Warp said:
And, that forces even older people to discover streaming. So, I doubt FM will survive the 25 years you predict. Perhaps, 10 or 15 years instead.
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The oldest GenXers will hit 55 in six years. The youngest ones in 13 years. So---yeah, if they're the ball game, but they're also the smallest generation born after 1945.

But after that come Millennials (now 27 to 42 years old). It's a huge demographic, so there's that, and a decent percentage of them are clearly listening to radio now, or 18-34 and 18-49 numbers would have cratered.

But past them, Gen Z, as I mentioned in another thread, is five years away from being the majority of the 18-34 demo. And that's where radio listening gets really dicey---far worse than Millennials.
 
michael hagerty said:
So from day one (college?) they've been trained to write for the ear. Print and broadcast writing are (or should be) different animals. And if you look at broadcast writing, most of it will probably not jump out at you as impressive. But if it tells the story clearly and understandably in 20, 30, 40 seconds---it's well-written and is doing its job.
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This is very true. I’ve had to write content for both print and video, sometimes simultaneously, in my career and those are two entirely different frames of mind that are darned challenging to switch between. Now throw in the web content and it’s another lens to view content through.

Ultimately it’s not a fair comparison between print and “broadcast,” much as TV or movie adaptations of books need to alter the content to fit time and other constraints. Different purposes and expectations.
 
michael hagerty said:
But after that come Millennials (now 27 to 42 years old). It's a huge demographic, so there's that, and a decent percentage of them are clearly listening to radio now, or 18-34 and 18-49 numbers would have cratered.
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All the ones I know stream their music to a bluetooth speaker. I never see a radio in the wild anymore.
 
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