Lack of Understanding
I understand big business. I understand that gross overinflation of executive salaries while their companies cut the people doing the day-to-day work in the business. It's rarely the people in the trenches - be they on the production line, cracking a mic, taking a support call, or flipping a burger - who bring down a company. It's the people who are the best insulated from failure that make the decisions that ultimately bring down a company. Executive salaries have gone through the roof in the last 15 years, while American industry has taken it in the shorts.
If the people running major funds - who happen to be making HUGE salaries - weren't in cahoots with the boards of those corporations, there would be a shareholder revolt. Unfortunately, most shareholders now are interested in how their diversified fund is doing, not individual companies. Once in a while, a corporate raider grabs a chunk of stock in hopes of making a killing and makes a stink (i.e. Regent), but most boards go unchallenged.
When your business model fails - as it has for Clear Channel, CBS, and others - you need to go back to when the business model worked. The business model worked when real people were delivering content that was relevant to the target audience, usually on a local level. Some syndicated shows work, usually because they target a very specific audience and/or have content that is universal in nature. NOBODY turns on a syndicated show to find out what's going on locally - especially in case of an emergency.
The world around us is not as different as you think. Free music came on CDs, records, tapes, cassettes, 8-tracks, and even videotape. Songs got recorded and swapped. Computers shortened the time it takes to make a recording, and widened the number of people you could swap with, but they have not fundamentally changed the process.
What has changed is radio programming. Radio no longer makes that "one-to-one" connection. It's no longer relatable in many cases. There are still stations that do it well. Look at the market leaders. Almost invariably they have the most hours of live and local talent in the market, programmed well, and fairly compensated.
The future IS relevant content. Perhaps you need to explain what you mean by "relevant content". Delivery of music is easy. RELEVANT content is more than music, which is where "added value" from talent makes a difference, whether you're delivering it OTA, on the web, or via WiFi/WiMax.
