1
1290wgli
Guest
Radio has a huge white elephant in the room and can't do anything about it.
The industry, in its ultimate persuit of young demos, is a disaster. What's funny is that the demos its after are among the most tech savvy and the one's most likely to tell radio to take a flying leap. These are people who have grown up with other methods of entertainment delivery... they don't care about jocks and would flip the dial as soon as the first ad hit. Do you think young people are sitting thru 5 minutes of ads? Who the hell are you fooling? So who's hanging around to be influcenced?
The demos that are ideal for radio, the generation that grew up with radio as one of the main mediums for entertainment, the generation that is STILL most likely to turn to radio FIRST... they are being ignored.
No we have I-Pod on the radio that is Jack. If they are appealing to the I-POD set, why would someone who owns an I-Pod, who has spent the money and taken the time to set the device up, GIVE it up to listen to the radio again?????
Radio is hopeless because of the business structure. It will have to re-invent itself and all these formats are the answer friends. While talk, sports, news and info will survive, music cannot. How can it? When you have the ability to store 10,000 songs in the palm of your hand and set your own playlists, how can radio compete? You tell me localism... OK... how is JACK local? How does JACK communicate anything other than a few rude liners? Tell me how JACK creates a family atmosphere between the listener and the station. It doesn't. You hear buzzwords thrown around about formats... it's amazing how each new format is "fresh" and "different" and "edgy" and "interactive" and how we're all "excited" and all these other words. How we've "tested" and "researched".
When I was in college, a school that was more TV oriented than radio, one of the professors once asked me why I was interested in radio which, even 15 years ago, he thought was a dying medium. I asked him what his favorite TV station was and he stared at me. OK. I asked him what his favorite RADIO station was. Still a stare. I explained to him that a radio station has a very intimate one-on-one connection with each listener and reaches them for a different reason. That the audience always knows and enjoys the programming (for the most part) 24/7/365. That is a special bond that is missing in other forms of media. Yes, you can write a newspaper a letter or enjoy a particular TV program, but the idea of having the announcer speak, and making it sound like he/she is talking to you (even thought the voice reaches thousands), that is the real appeal of radio. The bond that a small station can have in its community. Doing a remote and watching listeners come up to you and tell you about their experiences. That is REAL feedback. That is REAL radio.
At least it was.
The industry, in its ultimate persuit of young demos, is a disaster. What's funny is that the demos its after are among the most tech savvy and the one's most likely to tell radio to take a flying leap. These are people who have grown up with other methods of entertainment delivery... they don't care about jocks and would flip the dial as soon as the first ad hit. Do you think young people are sitting thru 5 minutes of ads? Who the hell are you fooling? So who's hanging around to be influcenced?
The demos that are ideal for radio, the generation that grew up with radio as one of the main mediums for entertainment, the generation that is STILL most likely to turn to radio FIRST... they are being ignored.
No we have I-Pod on the radio that is Jack. If they are appealing to the I-POD set, why would someone who owns an I-Pod, who has spent the money and taken the time to set the device up, GIVE it up to listen to the radio again?????
Radio is hopeless because of the business structure. It will have to re-invent itself and all these formats are the answer friends. While talk, sports, news and info will survive, music cannot. How can it? When you have the ability to store 10,000 songs in the palm of your hand and set your own playlists, how can radio compete? You tell me localism... OK... how is JACK local? How does JACK communicate anything other than a few rude liners? Tell me how JACK creates a family atmosphere between the listener and the station. It doesn't. You hear buzzwords thrown around about formats... it's amazing how each new format is "fresh" and "different" and "edgy" and "interactive" and how we're all "excited" and all these other words. How we've "tested" and "researched".
When I was in college, a school that was more TV oriented than radio, one of the professors once asked me why I was interested in radio which, even 15 years ago, he thought was a dying medium. I asked him what his favorite TV station was and he stared at me. OK. I asked him what his favorite RADIO station was. Still a stare. I explained to him that a radio station has a very intimate one-on-one connection with each listener and reaches them for a different reason. That the audience always knows and enjoys the programming (for the most part) 24/7/365. That is a special bond that is missing in other forms of media. Yes, you can write a newspaper a letter or enjoy a particular TV program, but the idea of having the announcer speak, and making it sound like he/she is talking to you (even thought the voice reaches thousands), that is the real appeal of radio. The bond that a small station can have in its community. Doing a remote and watching listeners come up to you and tell you about their experiences. That is REAL feedback. That is REAL radio.
At least it was.