In the Blizzard of ‘78 radio here proved it was THE most important source of news, information, entertainment, even personal safety. Of all sources. Newspapers were a FAR greater source than now. And Broadcast TV an INFINITELY larger player than today (audiences 100%+ bigger in share)..so please with the “only game in town”. We in radio had FAR bigger local competitors than today!
Radio was the "only game in town" because it had just two main competitors for local news (Newspapers and TV), and no real competitors for broadcasting music.
Today Radio has thousands of competitors. All on the internet, all accessible by any smartphone with a working cell connection. I can access any newspaper in the US if I want to. And many different radio stations -- or music streams. All just on my phone. One device (smartphone) with access to potentially a million channels of news, music, and other content; where in 1970 I'd have had one device (my radio) with access to the 15-20 local AM and FM stations.
That's the difference. It's dilution, thanks to nearly infinite competition. If you worked in the industry -- as you seemed to have -- then you obviously understand the concept of competition. Well, Radio, the medium, has a lot more competition. And that competition is thousands of various streaming and other content channels on the internet. A lot of that content is high quality. Newspapers also have that sort of competition So does TV.
And all that content is competing for one or two screens -- the one on your smartphone, or the one on your laptop computer or flatscreen TV (most of which have internet connections these days).
As for your arguments about Radio dropping the ball content-wise over the years -- in my view, you may have a point. WCBS was one of the biggest billers in the country, and they just flipped to ESPN, in a city (Market #1) that already has an ESPN and a popular Sports station (WFAN) as well.
Is that a smart radio move? Personally, I don't think so. But then, I'm not looking at the books at the Audacy corporation, nor have I dealt with the business side of radio, so maybe I'm wrong, and maybe that decision to kill a top biller in Market #1 was a genius move. I guess we'll find out how it works out in a year or two. If WHSQ 880 fails miserably, guys like you and me may turn out to have had a point. If in a year it's a smashing success, or NOT losing the company money, then we were wrong.
But at the same time, every year, statistically, Radio loses about 1% of its listeners (a gradual 10% drop between 2012 & 2022 and I doubt that trend has changed much), and who knows the real reason? Lack of compelling content, as you have suggested? Younger people preferring to call up TikTok channels on their phones instead of tuning to a radio stream or station? Older demos going to streaming platforms to hear their preferred music? It's probably a bunch of reasons.
And then you have stations like the one in Seattle I mentioned upthread -- they tried something new, with a new format that seemed designed to appeal to the Seattle listener. They were
thinking outside the box. The format, however, bombed.
It's easy for guys like us to make all sorts of playcalls from the sidelines, but we're not the ones having to pay the bills to run the stations. So personally, I trust the opinions of a lot of the experts here -- they have that experience, and when they say Radio is up against a demographic and technological wall, and it has to change (i.e. head online, and otherwise adapt to changing media conditions), I think they're onto something.