The Future Of The AM/FM Dial Looks Bleak

[mmnassour]

OK, that makes me feel better. ;D I'm afraid the previous message made me wonder a bit!

 

[bturner]

Hey, I admit it is very, very strange to know its coming from across the ocean and they're talking speeds on various freeways and accidents on major surface streets plus current temperature, but when you think of it, you can pull up Weather Underground anywhere in the world, for example.

It's also strange to hear the afternoon jock talking about his hometown in New Mexico while sitting in a Beijing studio. And it is equally strange to hear songs like Back in Black from AC/DC or Nights In White Satin (LP Version) by the Moody Blues on an AM daytimer.

I'm old school. I got in the biz when you ripped and read AP teletype news summaries, played records and your shotgun jingles were on cart. I demand we be manned so we can react immediately. Most days it is babysitting but if a situation requires live and local, we have the people to make it happen although we will sound a bit rusty.

 

[daypart]

Have to admit, one of the programmers on my station does local news, traffic and weather for our town from their studio in Beijing China, delivered by an American voice. The internet makes it all possible. Best of all, you get a more extensive forcast and better detailed traffic than the local newstalk but I'd say the news is a bit behind the local newstalker but not by much.

If all of that can be done from a place where the prevailing wage is $2-something, a local station certainly would not need to pay some local schlub minimum wage to read liners and introduce the next song. I would argue that the future is bleaker for schlubs than for stations if this is the wave of the future.