The whole radio business is marketing people speak. And no, I didn't use a lot of it in my post, my point is quite clear and straightforward. Maybe you just like to use a lot of contrarian speak.
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What happened and why is it still happening?
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The whole radio business is marketing people speak. And no, I didn't use a lot of it in my post, my point is quite clear and straightforward. Maybe you just like to use a lot of contrarian speak.
You say the industry is running away from radio, but didn't mention the biggest company: iHeartRadio. How effective has that been?
Radio - Wikipedia
The word "radio" is derived from the Latin word "radius", meaning "spoke of a wheel, beam of light, ray". It was first applied to communications in 1881...
There was some discussion on Usenet about what qualifies as digital TV, I thought that synchronized audio and video at the consumer end would be the most basic description (doesn't depend on the transmission/storage/playback system).
Maybe try to transition to using the word audio as a replacement for the word radio.
Kirk Bayne
I suppose better than Clear Channel
Try the big online store. You'll see plenty of them at decent prices.
Yes, and you can name it here: Amazon.
This brings up 20 pages of radios. Similar results with Best Buy, Target, Walmart and other retailers' online services.
Not just conservative talk radio. A lot of companies -- and, as David Eduardo points out periodically (and I think you have also) there are hundreds of radio companies, not just IHeart and Audacy and Cumulus -- would react negatively.
Norway can only get away with it because there never were that many radio stations independent of the NRK (their national broadcast system) to begin with. A city in Norway the size of Albuquerque (Tromsø) has maybe two independent, commercial stations and maybe a couple college stations. The rest is NRK channels. The NRK channels get priority on the DAB networks. And maybe one of those commercial stations in that city gets on the DAB network in that region.
In a country of 5 million people and a highly centralized broadcasting system centered in the capital and maybe two other major cities, it's easier for the government to say "DAB is going to be the way you get your radio off the airwaves". In the US, obviously, we have a different system, and the industry is different from countries in Europe.
while that's all fine to stream, but there's one problem, what if tornadoes and hurricanes and straight line winds or microburst take down cell phones or internet servers or connection lines, Radio seems to be the back up to when the internet goes out during these events.
I meant in a physical store. Virtually imposible to find any in a brick and mortar store. I know there's boat loads online.
What if a tornado, hurricane, straight line wind, or microburst takes down a radio tower? Granted, the odds of that aren’t particularly high, but most FM broadcast towers have multiple stations on it, and FM tower farms tend to be close together, especially in large markets. A large number of auxiliary FM transmitters are clustered together in the same farm as well, and you'd be surprised at how many are on the same tower. A natural disaster that hit Cedar Hill in Dallas or Senior Road in Houston wouldn't take every station out, but it would be devastating.
The cell network and internet backbone have some redundancy built in. Radio has less than you probably think. The real weak link in cellphones is that the battery life tends to be 24 hours or less. Of course, try firing up a battery powered radio you haven’t used in a couple of years and see what result you get. I'd think it would more likely than not work, but the failure rate is going to be higher than you expect.
Cell phones have low battery life, comparatively. Maybe if you have a quick, lithium battery based recharger, you get one or two more charges. Fair enough. But the cell sites aren't all powered with backup generators. So there's that.
The internet may have power, technically, but that doesn't mean your router will. Not everyone has emergency generators at their house, and apartment dwellers don't have them, either.
As for battery powered radios, the failure rate won't be that high. I have several radios that have had batteries in them for 3-4 years or more and they still work off those batteries. The issue is whether the batteries leak, and not all batteries leak over time, but some do, and that can be a problem.
if a bad enough disaster hits any infrastructure -- cell based, internet based, or OTA broadcast based -- is going to have potential issues and outages. Which is why redundancy is a good thing for people to consider.
Understood. But brick and mortar retail is slowly going the way of the Dodo. A lot of traditional retailers are shutting down stores nationwide. Not all of their stores, mind you, but some chains are shutting down hundreds of them. Online retail is the future, and the future is now.
Mainly for certain products, and for electronics stores, I'd agree. But even when they were plentiful, the availability of traditional radios in those stores had become smaller. Primarily because of the lack of innovation on the manufacturing side. Once it was determined that a phone could serve many of the same purposes, the battle was over. And for all the criticisms and complaints of "big corporate radio," there's no question that Apple, Google, and Amazon are each many times bigger than iHeart.
Heard an interesting stat on the news - 1/3 of residents and businesses in West Virginia do not have access to high speed internet. Until that changes (which last year’s infrastructure bill is supposed to address) there are vast areas of this country dependent upon terrestrial radio (and is also not part of television streaming revolution).
I don't think it's that high. According to this site, it's about 17%:
Best Internet Providers in West Virginia - Stats & Figures | BroadbandSearch
Find and compare the best internet plans in West Virginia. Use our zip code search tool to explore Internet, TV, and bundle deals in your area.
www.broadbandsearch.net
Two years ago, the congress passed an infrastructure bill that appropriated money to fix that situation. It's up to the local politicians to apply for that money and do the work.
So the money is there. There has to be a willingness to do the work.
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Which is why there are hand cranked radios.
For emergency information in case of a hurricane in Myrtle Beach SC, three FM stations are listed in addition to four TV stations.
But I am this week and I will use the phone.
I did it when I last visited my cousin too but forgot the phone might need charging.
I can say with confidence that in the rural area of California where I now live (DaveBayArea is a hold-over name from when I used to live there) the limited cellular and Internet infrastructure is greatly compromised in an emergency. Under normal circumstances about 1/2 of our station's coverage area has cell reception. During snowstorms and wildfires it drops drastically. We've standardized on "top of the hour" updates during times when the county OES declares an emergency and that works. People get in their cars and turn on their radios at the top of the hour to hear an update. I realize this is an anomaly compared to big cities, but the combination of hilly, rocky terrain and sparse population makes it very difficult to cover everywhere with infrastructure. Radio remains relevant.
Dave B.
Dave B.
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