Japan to turn off AM's, except for Public Broadcaster NHK

[Kelly A]

That's interesting, atlthough surprising that they would abandon the whole medium of radio. People have always had stations which they never listen to because they don't care for the format, but to abandon all FM stations because one station is hate-talk?
I think Spotify carries some hate-talk podcasts, but no one is forced to listen to them there either.

The difference is one wouldn't have to dial past several 'hate talk' channels on Spotify to find a music stream one likes.
I think what they're saying is part of what has/will doom AM radio to the dustbin of media; band congestion of content that young people don't embrace. And if you aren't adding new listeners, when the old ones die (literally) what remains?

Mark is right, this is an example of the radio brand potentially being hurt by this sort of programming moving to FM. In the past it's been relegated to a portion of spectrum that younger folks never visit. Encroach on the band where they still hang out, and the risk is they'll just go elsewhere that isn't considered radio.

To me, it's like visiting a chain restaurant and contracting a nasty case of food poisoning. You'll never want to eat at that chain again because it made you sick, even if the same brand but in a different town.

 

[CentralFL]

It's image. AM radio has that image now; if it transfers to FM, it's just going to multiply the problem.Fo

Fortunately, we are nowhere near that point on FM. It is still mostly the domain of music formats.

I also have to wonder how many people scan the dial vs. just have presets. For example, if it weren't for this board, I would have no idea that 103.1 has changed formats twice this year in my market, yet listen to the radio all the time. Most people have their favorites and switch between them without hearing the rest of the dial.