"Radio Has Lost Its Portability": Focus Groups

[954]

Radio / MP3 ... for Portability

> Twenty-one years ago (1984), I got my first "Walkman"-type
> AM/FM Stereo radio (it wasn't made by Sony, so it wasn't an
> "official" Walkman) as a Christmas present, and I was so
> excited!!
>
> I felt like I was like every teenager in town (although I
> was in my twenties at the time), ready to boogie up and down
> the street while walking thanks to my "Walkman"-type radio.
>
> I have many pleasant memories of using it while walking
> around my town.
>
> Aren't there combination I-Pod/radio units??

Yes. Nice ones. They'll be featured in December Radio News,
to be up this week. (You'll see it in my sig.)

I'm writing it right now (plus watching this board, and
watching Fox News while I think about lunch).

[added} Here's one of 'em:

Creative MuVo TX FM 1 GB MP3 Player

As I've mentioned here before, it would be appreciated if
you consider buying via my site.<P ID="signature">______________
<A href='http://happyholidays.atspace.com/holidaymusic.html'><font color='#990000'>
Happy Festivus, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Saturnalia, and Happy Kwanzaa </font></A> from 954</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by 954 on 12/13/05 07:27 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[CWRUFan]

Re: It Isn't Portability

>Sat radio is for
> those micro-niches that terrestrial radio caqn't possibly
> serve.
>

Like that "I hate 20 minute of commercials per hour" niche?

 

[gr8oldies]

Re: It Isn't Portability

Internet radio..microniches of microniches, I guess.<P ID="signature">______________
..from the Ball Park Franks sponsored gr8oldies keyboard...</P>

 

[954]

Re: net loss of choices in the marketplace

> > But the bottom line is, we lost a bunch of different
> > programming choices, and got just one new one.
> > That's still a net loss of choices in the marketplace, no
> > matter how many folks are jumping for joy over the one new
> > thing.
>
> So what you're saying is that it's a loss if it's a format
> that doesn't appeal to you?

No.

A *NUMERICAL* loss.

Loss means that if you subtract the number of different formats
that existed before from the number that exist now, the result
would be a negative number.

For example, we now have three sports stations. Four if
you include the Palm Becah market.<P ID="signature">______________
<A href='http://happyholidays.atspace.com/holidaymusic.html'><font color='#990000'>
Happy Festivus, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Saturnalia, and Happy Kwanzaa </font></A> from 954</P>

 

[radionut987]

Re: net loss of choices in the marketplace

> You can't seriously think disco would still be around today
> without consolodation. Most of those stations bailed out
> after the craze died. Classical..very rough to do
> commercially, especially as a standalone. Big band's
> audience would have aged out of existence whether or not
> there would have been consolodation..how could you expect a
> standalone to survive on an audience that's in their 70s and
> 80s? The simple truth was that ost of the operators had no
> choice but to go after the most profitable piece of the pie,
> which led to lots of duplicated formats. No one would be
> able to take their only signal and do a sub-niche format.
>

You're missing the point here. The issue isn't whether or not certain formats should air on terrestrial radio now. The issue is how to keep teens and young adults from turning away from AM/FM radio. As long as the Clear Channel's of the world continue to be more concerned about fattening up their pocketbooks, and not being held accountable to the listeners and the communities, radio will continue to be mediocre. Sorry, but that's just the way it is.