IS TERRESTRIAL RADIO DYING IN NASHVILLE?????

[spew]

Radio has been replaced by the IPOD. Soon to be completed ax'd by wifi in the automobile.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Radio has been replaced by the IPOD. Soon to be completed ax'd by wifi in the automobile.

iPOD has been an impact. The mobile telephone frequencies are undergoing some interesting experimentation and development.

But completely axed? You may be over looking the number of people in this nation who use public transportation rather than drive a car. You may be overlooking the number of people who in a very old, traditional way stay at home and parent their children. (And it is not always the mom who stays at home.)

You may be overlooking the number of people who look at their personal budget and decide that the extra fee they have to pay for broadband service to enable wi-fi is beyond their budget at this point.

We have far too many people here in the discussion boards that assume every one else lives just like they do, has the same interests they do, and thus all want radio to be the same way they want radio to be. And we tend to assume everybody else should vote the same way I vote.

If you had said "wi-fi in the automobile will likely make the terrestrial radio audience significantly smaller in the future" that would have validity. To say 'completely ax'd' may be a bit off the mark.

 

[jetfli]

Radio has been replaced by the IPOD. Soon to be completed ax'd by wifi in the automobile.

iPOD has been an impact. The mobile telephone frequencies are undergoing some interesting experimentation and development.

If you had said "wi-fi in the automobile will likely make the terrestrial radio audience significantly smaller in the future" that would have validity. To say 'completely ax'd' may be a bit off the mark.

I took spew's "ax'd" to be short for "axxessed" (accessed), I guess because I am aware of both the technological dreams and the realities in this area. One plan for car wi-fi is for the driver (or a passenger) to be able to access their iPod wirelessly over the car's entertainment system rather than by the poorer FM transmitter or somewhat-limited-for-music Bluetooth. Of course, every song you've placed on your iPod is a song you like, and with the thing on shuffle it's what tends to make music radio as we know it somewhat obsolete. (And that's why radio needs to concentrate on content development!)

Of course, the main thinking for car wi-fi as a music option is to have a built-in streaming device, aka the on-board computer. But then there's the matter of picking up an outside wi-fi connection. While some cities are implementing city-wide wi-fi, it definitely won't be everywhere for many years to come, and it (as of today) is still limited by having to maintain a connection to a fixed point with limited range in far shorter distances than a radio broadcast signal can provide.

However, what is proving to be a far better choice for the nearer future in terms of signal delivery is to receive push content from you mobile provider. While there are already limited services offered in this manner, so many areas are close to being maxed out for voice capacity alone that this seems impractical for mass adoption.

A lot of what is offered in the further future will depend on how fast the automobile industry will adopt some of this. I mean, where's my built-in HD radio? Everyone should be listening to HD radio channels now, with that technology having been available for as long as it has. As fast as the options are changing, the auto industry would be better off giving you a built-in digital hub with plug-in options available for tuners, iPods, streaming devices, GPS mapping units, etc. But no, we probably won't see that kind of innovation and the automakers can tally up one more reason for why they're out of favor with the American people.

Radio as we know it now will survive as long as companies and practitioners see themselves as programming providers rather than "the people who send modulated waves via the giant metal stick in the ground". When new forms of carrying content appear, they need to be the first to add their programming to it. There's always going to be a place for unique content, and there's always going to be a place where travelers and locals alike can get road conditions, weather conditions, news, sports, local event information, entertainment, etc., delivered in the manner enjoyed by the human receiving the content. And there's always going to be interest in a place (channel, station, etc.) where said humans can turn to find community. And those are the kinds of things today's radio needs to be developing in order to have a place in the future.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I took spew's "ax'd" to be short for "axxessed" (accessed), I guess because I am aware of both the technological dreams and the realities in this area.

Going back and reading spew the way you read it does indeed make a difference, doesn't it. Spew can jump back in here and straighten us out if this is not indeed what was meant. Thanks for the update of 21st Century language usage. :-[

Radio as we know it now will survive as long as companies and practitioners see themselves as programming providers rather than "the people who send modulated waves via the giant metal stick in the ground". When new forms of carrying content appear, they need to be the first to add their programming to it.

Airplanes came along and captured the human desire to travel. And yet we have this dream that when the airlines are overcrowded, I should be able to run down to Amtrack, jump on the train and they will be there to serve me with a nice clean, comfortable railroad car, tasty food in the diner, etc. Problem is, this move to modern technology (airlines) gutted the financial base of the railroad passenger business. It has been a legitimate endeavor for railroads to continue to fight for a share of the market, but in public policy we have to give the railroads a fair shake if we want them to survive and be there when we want them.

We used to these quaint little things called service stations. Great place to get free air for your tires. We used their rest rooms as needed. They provided us a place for the phone company to hang pay phones. And when we were out of town (on the airplane or the train ;D ) our wives could stop there and ask if the strange noise in their car was something to worry about. And if it was your favorite neighborhood station, you could trust the man to ride with your wife to the house and then take the car back to the station for repairs. And in a blizzard he would pump the gas for you or your wife, and clean your windshield while at it. Things are different today down at the QuickTrip. But down deep inside we are sure that somewhere in the Bible it says someone should still be there to check my oil and the air pressure in my tires, fix my flat tire while I wait, etc.

As the former operator of one of those old fashioned fillin statuns I have to ask you: If you abandon your car radio 95% of the time for your affair with the iPOD and whatever comes along to eventually shove it aside as progress marches on, where is the radio station guy going to get the revenue to keep the weather and other timely info available. He has to spend 95% of his time and energy modulating that stick in the ground waiting for the 5% of the time you want to come running back and "use his restroom and drink from his water fountain". And how is it that he is supposed to be able through creativity and enthusiasm stick something into your iPOD?

Life will change. Technology will change. When I sit deadlocked in Atlanta traffic, I often wish that someone with creativity and enthusiasm had figured out how to make the trains run well enough that they would run out to where I live.

I can't stop progress, and wouldn't if I could. But some day you are going to be sitting in your car with your latest electronic device playing the most delightful music you could ask for, but wondering where in the hell is that guy who used to tell you how to sneak around the wreck up ahead, the guy who used to remind you that this would be the last day to buy tickets for your favorite concert artist, and on and on and on. It may not be your job to save the radio station guy, but if the whole world adapts your current logic, the radio station guy needs to make sure his burial insurance payments are kept current.

 

[jetfli]

Airplanes came along and captured the human desire to travel. And yet we have this dream that when the airlines are overcrowded, I should be able to run down to Amtrack, jump on the train and they will be there to serve me with a nice clean, comfortable railroad car, tasty food in the diner, etc. Problem is, this move to modern technology (airlines) gutted the financial base of the railroad passenger business. It has been a legitimate endeavor for railroads to continue to fight for a share of the market, but in public policy we have to give the railroads a fair shake if we want them to survive and be there when we want them.

One of the classic, textbook examples in Marketing 101 demonstrates that railroads failed when airlines came into being because railroads thought of themselves as railroad companies rather than as transportation companies. Had they considered themselves transportation companies, they would today be transporting passengers and goods in the air as well as own land.

Of course railroads still exist, as radio will still exist, but if radio companies think of themselves as only the one trick pony and don't see themselves as the business they are really in, then in the future the last thing on your mind when it comes to entertainment and information content is going to be radio (although that could already be the case!).

 

[TheBigA]

One of the classic, textbook examples in Marketing 101 demonstrates that railroads failed when airlines came into being because railroads thought of themselves as railroad companies rather than as transportation companies. Had they considered themselves transportation companies, they would today be transporting passengers and goods in the air as well as own land.

Only if it was that simple.

Railroad companies had been burdened by excessive government regulation. It got to the point where the government was forcing certain staffing levels, and requiring railroads to cover lots of unprofitable routes. Little by little, any profit those companies could have had to shift to other forms of transportation were being eaten by huge personnel and pension costs. Meanwhile, the same government was funding the construction and staffing of airports. as well as construction and maintenance of interstate highways. So the government was taxing and killing one industry while funding their competition. The railroads went bankrupt, the government ended up running railroads, and they still lose money today.

If you look at railroads in other countries, they remain profitable today without diversifying into other transporations because their governments left them alone.

 

[jetfli]

Only if it was that simple.

What you're describing did not happen until AFTER the railroads were in decline. The government did not step in until the railroads started to whine about losing $$$$$$, much like the government is stepping in today with auto-industry bailouts. Railroads couldn't keep up with the services Americans wanted, so they flocked to airlines, and American auto companies haven't been building the cars Americans have wanted, so customers went to Toyota, Honda, and BMW.

In the same way, if radio as we know it continues to turn off American audiences, all the big Cs are gonna be standing in line for their bailouts too.

 

[Ladytalk]

Absloutely right, BigA. Had the railroads used their enormous cash reserves (at that time) to invest in airlines and trucking, we could well be flying Sante Fe Air or moving goods with B&O trucks. But radio doesn't have to learn from history, it's making history -- you know like the Titanic or the Black Plague.

Terrestrial and satellite radio have both become a joke. Bad programming, poor marketing and a lack of vision plagues both the satelllite and terrestrial radio industry. I had the answer, until I realized the the string on the tin can in the car wasn't long enough.

Hey, maybe they could get Howard Stern to come to satellite radio and kiss the ass of all his rich co-workers...oh wait, they already tried that. Maybe Opie and Anthony...perhaps Bubba the Love Sponge...or even somebody new and really exciting and innovative. Uh, strike that last suggestion, I realize it's too radical for most radio executives.

 

[TheBigA]

What you're describing did not happen until AFTER the railroads were in decline. The government did not step in until the railroads started to whine about losing $$$$$$,

That is historically not true. The populist movement was anti-big business. It came about BEFORE railroads were in decline, and caused the decline directly. This was before the government got involved with bailouts or any form of spending programs.

 

[TheBigA]

Absloutely right, BigA. Had the railroads used their enormous cash reserves (at that time) to invest in airlines and trucking, we could well be flying Sante Fe Air or moving goods with B&O trucks.

Actually, the government would have used its anti-trust powers to prevent railroad companies from vertical integration as you describe. The government forced movie companies to sell their theaters, and forced broadcasters to sell their production companies. By the time airlines came about, railroads had no cash reserves, and were on their way to bankruptcy.

 

[Ladytalk]

Sorry, meant to agree with jetfli. Slip of the fingers.

Totally disagree with your history, BigA. You are starting to sound a bit too "know-it-allish" for me, so I'm out of this thread. It's a radio message board. You might want to save the effort with the "twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining how each one was to be used as evidence against us."

At the end of the day, who really cares?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

That is historically not true. The populist movement was anti-big business. It came about BEFORE railroads were in decline, and caused the decline directly. This was before the government got involved with bailouts or any form of spending programs.

What you are conveniently leaving out of your fairy tale is a previous era in the 1800's when the term "robber barren' became part of the American speech pattern when the railroads had the farmers and others across the barrel.. Big oil, big steel and big rail-roads became the hated 900 pound gorillas of the anti-trust era.

The railroads were put into bureaucratic straight-jackets because they had been naughty boys who showed no remorse.

I remember trying to make use of the railroads, both freight and passenger service, in the 1950s and 1960s. They still were not showing any remorse, any pennance.

If we want to keep on trying to illustrate and prove debate positions by comparing broadcasting today with that era, it could get very interesting and instructive.

 

[TheBigA]

Big oil, big steel and big rail-roads became the hated 900 pound gorillas of the anti-trust era.

Only by certain politicians. And all those men who were called robber barons are now lionized as benevolent patrons of education and the arts. Where would we be without Carnegie's incredible donations of free public libraries? The Duke family's founding of a great North Carolina university? The Frock family's donations to art galleries? I could go on and on. These were the fortunes that built this country in the era BEFORE federal grants. A lot of that thinking led to the original Radio Act of 1928. It's why our broadcasting system is owned by private business, and not the federal government.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

These were the fortunes that built this country in the era BEFORE federal grants.

You are suffering from a common misconception for east coast people, people with 'nu yawkah' view of the world.

Those of us who grew up on farms in the midwest and the southwest have dealt with estates of our farm families where our family was the first or second owner of the land that was granted by the U. S. Government to the rail road as a subsidy for building rail roads into the expansion area.

If you work for a company that has distribution centers and warehouses and factories out in these states, chances are that your company regularly remits lease payments either to the rail road company or to some entity that is granting your company a sub-lease of THEIR lease from the railroad. This boo-hoo story from the rail roads that they have to maintain their own tracks while the trucks get government built highways and the airlines get government built airports and Air Traffic Control is a half-truth.... a pig that won't fly. The rail system was generously subsidized.

And those charitable families...... in so many cases it was the second, third and fourth generations of those families who made those grants, probably in many cases to ease the pain of embarrassment over what scoundrel the old man was in building the fortune.

Life is not black and white. We can both quote stories that seem to prove our point of view. The truth is, life is messy; always has been, always will be. All you and I can do is join together with 299 million of our close personal friends and figure out what is the productive yet charitable thing for civilization to do TODAY. We sift through history in hopes of some wisdom that we might apply today.

A lot of that thinking led to the original Radio Act of 1928. It's why our broadcasting system is owned by private business, and not the federal government.

Yes, there was some excellent thinking and policy put into the early communications law and the one that followed it just a few years later... what was it? 1934? We enjoyed a golden era of broadcasting with rules that favored private business ownership. Rules that limited owners to no more than a handful of stations. Rules the required the applicant to spell out in writing how he/she would serve the public interest and necessity. Rules that had a mechanism for other applicants to file in competition and offer their plan to serve the public interest and necessity. Let the best applicant be granted the construction permit and then the license. Rules back in the day said: You build it or you take it over, plan on keeping it a minimum of three years. If you lose money, that is YOUR problem, we expect you to live out your commitment. NO TRAFFICing in licenses. If we catch you building or buying stations just for the purpose of fattening them up to market them to new owners, We WILL strip you of ALL your licenses. (I worked for an owner one time who got stripped!) The policy was: If you want in this business it is because you want to OPERATE and you want to do it LONG TERM.

And now our industry has become Reaganized. "What a pitiful result" , the Cowboy said as he sifts the ashes of a once thriving industry through his fingers.

 

[TheBigA]

And now our industry has become Reaganized. "What a pitiful result" , the Cowboy said as he sifts the ashes of a once thriving industry through his fingers.

Reagan is only the most recent half of the story. The LBJ half of it deals with the view that broadcasting in the mid-60s sucked. It was over-commercialized and the Democrats wanted to make it better. So they did something that had not been done before: Subsidize broadcasting. LBJ signed the public broadcasting act, assigned a chunk of the spectrum that would deal with quality and education, dedicated a pile of money to run it, and wrote the rest of the industry off. Then in 1983, Reagan wrote off the public broadcasters. By 1996, the government wanted to wash its hands of the entire affair. Not much has changed since. That's where we are now. Bi-partisan stupidity. Three terrible steps by the government ruined 30 years of quality ownership.

 

[TheBigA]

Sorry, meant to agree with jetfli. Slip of the fingers.

Totally disagree with your history, BigA. You are starting to sound a bit too "know-it-allish" for me,

Oh well. Pick up a few advanced degrees, and it could happen to you too.

 

[scottwmro]

I'm not try to be rude, but what does the rail road industry (mostly controled by CSX) and terrestrial radio dying got in common? ???

 

[Tibbs4]

Sorry, meant to agree with jetfli. Slip of the fingers.

Totally disagree with your history, BigA. You are starting to sound a bit too "know-it-allish" for me,

Oh well. Pick up a few advanced degrees, and it could happen to you too.

That'll solve all the problems of the world....

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I'm not try to be rude, but what does the rail road industry (mostly controled by CSX) and terrestrial radio dying got in common? ???

Go back and read it slowly. Someone suggested that the railroads failed to see the big picture, that they were in the TRANSPORTATION business, and when trucks and airplanes came along, the railroad managers/owners stuck their head in the sand and tried to deny that they needed to rethink how a transportation company should move toward the future.

They then make the comparison that terrestrial broadcasting is doing a similar thing. Broadcasters are sticking their head in the sand and trying to deny that they are in the CUMMUNICATIONS business and they need to rethink how a communicator should move toward the future..... does broadcasting have to come to terms with the Internet, the cell phone, the iPod, text messaging, Twitter and Google?

Then someone said there is no comparison.

And someone responded, no IT IS YOU that have your facts wrong. There IS a comparison.

That's the Cliff Notes version.

So. Now that we have your attention... now that you are awake.... any comments on how Scott and WMRO react to the changing or not-so-changing landscape of communicating with a community?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Scott: Then it got more confusing.

Our inclusuion of TRAINS got us SIDETRACKED with a discussion of whether the railroads got in trouble because of short sighted management, or because of government intervention....

But we attempted to get back on the MAINLINE by pointing out that today with the same SIDETRACK (also known as an arugument) we have various opinions as to whether terrestrial radio got in trouble because of short sighted management, or because of government intervention....

to which I say: "The answer is YES."

NOw, does it make any sense where we have been with this conversation? ;D