The demise of "top-down" radio

[jerry367]

I keep hearing and reading about what a threat internet broadcasts/podcast etc. are to traditional radio---how "top-down" radio is so....passé.

Fact is, I've sampled more of these online "broadcasts" than I care to admit and have found an incredibly overwhelming majority to be amateurish and very unpolished. Tons and tons of people with ZERO to say, not to mention NO PRESENCE in the way they say it.

When I go to a concert, I want to hear polished pros. When I go to a restaurant, I want a wait staff and kitchen staff that knows what the %#$% they're doing and gets the food out pronto. When I go to a movie, I don't want to see a high school film project.

When I want spoken word entertainment, I want to hear pros who know how to entertain with audio. I want concise and articulate people who are a lot slicker than the average Joe.

By and large, you DO NOT get that from amateurs, online or anywhere else.

 

[johnbasalla]

A very good observation, and referenced very well. Bravo. I've never thought about it this way, but there is powerful truth in what you say. Moving on, it coincides with a post on the topic of trying to get and keep quality air talent while not compensating them well. The person who posted said... "You can't cheap yourself to success".

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

When I go to a concert, I want to hear polished pros. When I go to a restaurant, I want a wait staff and kitchen staff that knows what the %#$% they're doing and gets the food out pronto. When I go to a movie, I don't want to see a high school film project.

When I want spoken word entertainment, I want to hear pros who know how to entertain with audio. I want concise and articulate people who are a lot slicker than the average Joe.

Interesting thoughts. We all have an affinity for competence.

However, I see the possibility of following your sequence and ending up consuming product that is... is... sterile? I have long said that if I could own and operate a small market radio station the promotion would be: "If we were a restaurant, the sign out front would say Home Cooking."

I sometimes eat at restaurants where the wait staff and kitchen staff know what they are doing and they get the food out pronto, but it tastes like it came from a factory run by a committee. I end up wishing we had stayed home and my wife or my mother had cooked.

Somewhere in that analogy is a message for radio.

 

[jerry367]

When I go to a concert, I want to hear polished pros. When I go to a restaurant, I want a wait staff and kitchen staff that knows what the %#$% they're doing and gets the food out pronto. When I go to a movie, I don't want to see a high school film project.

When I want spoken word entertainment, I want to hear pros who know how to entertain with audio. I want concise and articulate people who are a lot slicker than the average Joe.

Interesting thoughts. We all have an affinity for competence.

However, I see the possibility of following your sequence and ending up consuming product that is... is... sterile? I have long said that if I could own and operate a small market radio station the promotion would be: "If we were a restaurant, the sign out front would say Home Cooking."

I sometimes eat at restaurants where the wait staff and kitchen staff know what they are doing and they get the food out pronto, but it tastes like it came from a factory run by a committee. I end up wishing we had stayed home and my wife or my mother had cooked.

Somewhere in that analogy is a message for radio.

Yes, the point IS quality. Let's not make the mistake of thinking that amateurs are actually more apt to produce quality programming vs. experienced pros. Geeez, talk about selling experienced pros short! Nothing like being taken for granted.

 

[Oldbones]

However, I see the possibility of following your sequence and ending up consuming product that is... is... sterile? I have long said that if I could own and operate a small market radio station the promotion would be: "If we were a restaurant, the sign out front would say Home Cooking."

But if you want home cooking, why not just eat at home. No need to put on a clean shirt or leave a tip.

One person's "sterile" is another one's "polished".

BTW, I'll second the OP's observations. The same can be said for a large percentage of webstreams too.

 

[joshzz]

I find most podcasts to be too long and boring. Does anyone really want to hear someone rant about something for an hour? I can't tolerate Limbaugh for more than a minute or two in a week and certainly don't want to hear a Limbuagh type on the internet

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Josh: Not all Podcasts are an hour long. I am finding it difficult to establish the habit and discipline but I have iTunes set up to gather a bunch of Podcasts... some 2 minutes long, some five minutes long, some 30 minutes long. I try to get in an hour of walking three times a week. Where I live there is NOTHING that will come in on a Walkman style receiver that I want to hear. So I go to the "electronic pantry" and sort through the stuff sitting on the iTunes shelves and gather up an hour's worth of assorted Podcasts and dump them into my mp3 player.

I really would like to be in Arizona next week when Jerry Del Colliano has his clinic on how to monetize the production of such material. Alas, I will have to leave that task to some of you who are younger and have the drive to make such an enterprise blossom... maybe on the second or third revised try.

If a local station thinks they are going to put an hour long recording of Limbaugh or anyone else on line and me "put all my eggs in ONE basket" they are delusional. Of the half-dozen or so segments I put on my player for any given day, I know I am going to punch up "next track" on at least one of them. If my local station tries to give me one hour increments, they have missed the boat.

If I were to become a "pure play" Internet distributor of audio material, I have a clean slate to work with. If I own a station and I want to succeed on the Internet and yet do no damage to my existing station, I may end up with a really messy slate before I get the right relationship between the station and the on-line.