• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

RADIO: GOING, GOING.....GONE.

  • Thread starter ex-DJ-now-in-OKC
  • Start date

E

ex-DJ-now-in-OKC

Guest
Thought I'd toss out a few hand grenades:

Facts: Internet and satellite listening are up. All commercial over-the-air radio stations are dying. Syndication is still on the rise. Revenues across the board are down. Firings are up. Listeners are down. My teenager has no idea that AM radio even exists. He’s aware that FM radio exists, but rarely listens to it. Instead of listening to the radio, he spends his time online, on his cell phone, playing video games or on his ipod. Owners program their stations with content intended to make them the most money. The talk content which makes owners the most money, in this, and unfortunately in most areas, is right-wing [EDIT]talk content.

Opinions: All commercial over-the-air radio will cease to exist once the price of electricity reaches a certain price level. Most listeners who listen to news on the radio are not even aware that it is not considered by some (mostly radio/journalism people) proper journalism practice for the newsperson to also give his/her opinions while doing so. There is very little local news on the radio. There are way too many “dollar a holler” commercials. The only news worth listening to on the radio is NPR news. The FCC has been “bought and paid for,” as almost all radio stations do not “serve the public interest,” which used to be a condition for obtaining and maintaining a license.

Goodbye commercial-over-the-air radio. It was fun while it lasted.


[EDIT-inflammatory]
 
I think you're right ex-dj. Radio died when TV came along. It died again when cable came along. It's third death was really gross, satellite TV. Then the death of all deaths, Internet! Wow that one was bad. Ya ya, now the I-pod and satellite radio is killing us. We are all cats and our nine lives have run out. Electricity aside, business is bad right now-is for most.

This vehicle works. I have kids too and they are locked into a few of Tulsa's stations. KWEN, The Edge, K-Hits. It is on these stations that they decide what they buy online for their i-pods. I know, I hear it and pay the bills.

Go be negative somewhere else, we have real issues to face.
 
To be fair, I think ex-DJ points out some valid concerns, & I agree with his basic premise, although for a different reason:

Yes, I think over the air radio is likely to cease at some point, but NOT because there aren't any listeners, but because they will have all moved online, just as he suggested is happening now.

Listeners not knowing journalists may have a viewpoint, first seems difficult to prove, and second is as relevant as listeners not knowing that DJs don't pick their own music and that stations don't really play requests, or that many DJs are caned on the hard drive and from another state. If they don't know, they typically don't care... and if they realize it, they may be annoyed but usually get over it pretty quickly because it's just radio, not a marriage.

Radio will move online because it will be more cost-effective, just as newspapers are doing now,& TV may if we ever get enough bandwidth. Sure, there will be casualties, but in the long run the listener will win because the stations providing the best mix of their target's music and / or the most relevant local content will survive while cookie-cutter stations will have no reason to stay around.

Regarding NPR: in all seriousness, we are extremely lucky to have them as an alternative voice.

We have every reason to be even more thankful to the few with deep pockets who are willing to give each year to keep NPR stations on the air & allow programmers & journalists to not be tied to trying to shareholders, advertisers, and lowest-common-denominator listeners.

Can you find bias & opinion on NPR? Sure, but it's not nearly as likely to be a slant dictated by focus groups or consultants.

Radio IS going through a tough time right now just as so many industries are in this economy, but it will survive, and thrive again. Whether that success will be over the air or over wireless internet will depend on whether you're talking 5 years or 25 years from now.

I expect the Big Boys will get out of the radio business, and that's likely to send a cheer up from the staff. Radio properties will lose value, but that's only because they have been very, very overpriced. Local owners won't have the debt load of the Big Boys, allowing them to thrive on the air or on the web.

...Haven't we had this conversation before?
 
Stating the obvious, the only real broadcast audience is in vehicles.
In the not too distant future, when we have wireless broadband everywhere they will start putting web radios in cars as standard equipment. Then over-the-air broadcasting is certainly doomed as we will be lumped in with anyone and everyone with a computer and sound card that wants to "broadcast" to the world.
 
Thanks to all who replied. Ah yes, the effects of the internet.

Warren Buffett recently said he wouldn't buy a newpaper business today at any price. Over-the- air radio stations may or may soon be, in the same situation? With the exception of the few "mom & pops" stations which still exist, I think fire-sale-priced stations will have to be bought thru the bankruptcy courts as the mega-corporations usually don't see the handwriting on the wall until the bankruptcy judge points it out to them. I hope I'm wrong, because I grew up with radio and love it. But, I don't think so.

Regards,
 
The business model and reality for newspapers and radio has changed, and both are in deep trouble because of it.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom