What will happen to Atlanta Radio in years ahead ?

[nativeatlanta]

With all the changes in Atlanta Radio that have occured within the last 3-5 years, I started thinking along with reading the other boards for other metro areas & came up with this.

What do the readers of radio-info think Atlanta radio will sound like 1 year from now, 5 years, 10 years? What about radio in general?
Can it survive?

Also, factor in that radio faces competiton from I-Pods, MP3 players.Sirius,XM, Internet only stations. Seems like more & more people are turning to those forms to hear music.

The record industry has gone thru serious problems the last 3-5 years. So that has be related in some way to problems radio is going thru.

 

[cohcam]

More and more people switching to ipods and satellite all the time and when we get streaming internet audio in our cars even less folks will listen to old-fashioned radio. I'm 27 and none of my friends listen to the radio anymore. I listen a little bit mostly just for weather and traffic and if the regular guys come back i'll record it and listen on my ipod. It's hard to say what radio in the ATL will be like in 5 or 10 years but most young people don't care because they're not listening anyway.

 

[sman02]

I feel that with the technological changes and the ease of carrying around your own music (especially iPods, etc.), the choices are endless. It's like the industry has so much competition. I do not think radio will change to the extent in which it ceases to exist. But it's great that the stations allow you to listen online. They continue to have a presence. Now as long as pay radio (XM and Sirius) exists, people will always continue listening to FM. FM is regulated but XM and Sirius can get away with so much. But it's the cost factor of getting new equipment installed and paying monthly.

My 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee came with an AUX input at the front of the stereo. This was an indication to me that car manufacturers are adapting to the digital age. But I still continue to listen to FM. I don't have a burnout factor since I listen to a wide variety of songs on my iPod and mix it up with FM radio. If I'm burnt out of one type of music, I'll flip through FM to hear what's on. THEN I'll go to my iPod (unless I have one song I need to hear). But hey, the choices now are limitless with everything nowadays, which is great. People will continue to listen to FM (as it continues to evolve and try to keep listeners) but there are people who become loyal to stations. It's essential now for DJ's to have that "extra something" that people listen for.

Q100 during high school football season has "Friday Night Lights" and broadcasts live from the high school football games. The stations know how important it is to have a presence amongst they young crowd. People remember events like this. It's about connecting with the audience and that's what a broadcast like this does. I wouldn't say young people aren't listening to FM; they just have more options than we did growing up, but the last example is a great one of how FM stations try to connect with listeners. That's just my two cents.

 

[deadman]

Wi-Max - internet radio in cars will take over

 

[jmoore3rd]

It may "take over" but not within the next 20 years. As long as 'Baby Boomers' crawl the face of the mudball there will be radio listeners. All the crap with unintelligible lyrics will probably gravitate to XM/Sirius and possibly Wi-Max streaming but there are still hoards of Us who prefer coaxing Our preferred format from the ether. In addition to an iPod making the listener a 'walking target' for robbery; it also cannot deliver timely News & Weather. I remember when the death of Shortwave was predicted and yet it remains a very strong presence still today. Call Me an ignorant Old Fart if You wish but keep in mind I probably hold Your Mortgage in My investment portfolio and am comfortably retired & living on Your interest payments.

 

[Tibbs4]

It may "take over" but not within the next 20 years. As long as 'Baby Boomers' crawl the face of the mudball there will be radio listeners. All the crap with unintelligible lyrics will probably gravitate to XM/Sirius and possibly Wi-Max streaming but there are still hoards of Us who prefer coaxing Our preferred format from the ether. In addition to an iPod making the listener a 'walking target' for robbery; it also cannot deliver timely News & Weather. I remember when the death of Shortwave was predicted and yet it remains a very strong presence still today. Call Me an ignorant Old ------ if You wish but keep in mind I probably hold Your Mortgage in My investment portfolio and am comfortably retired & living on Your interest payments.

You don't have MY mortgage, nobody does (Thanks to listening to Dave Ramsey whenever he started in Nashville, too long ago to reflect.) Funny
thing is radio doesn't care about Baby Boomers...remember you are NOT WELCOME ANYMORE. How old are you??? I have a sneaking suspension you are WAY to close to my age....seriously, the disconnect with radio for those over 35-40 is a result of radio checking out from the bond with the listeners. I think radio will whittle away from both sides of the demographics into a long period of fading oblivion. Sadly, it doesn't have to be that
way. AM's, eight-tracks, Blockbuster, Media Play, Circuit City (eventual) on and on ... I ain't close to retired yet, but I wonder what radio will
sound like in 20 years....

 

[jmoore3rd]

You may be correct! What I find truly ironic is that when I turn 55 in a few months I will be 'out' of the demographics that Advertisers theoretically seek. What makes this so ridiculous to My thinking is that I am actually in the age bracket that can afford what they are selling. :-S Then again, maybe Advertisers figure that I am also wise enough now to not be fooled by their misleading claims. However, for what I paid for My Bose Acoustic Wave Machine + Accessories I'd hate to think that in 20+ years there won't be anything to listen to on My $1500 Boom Box. :-D

Congrats on having Your Home paid for! Still, it concerns Me that You needed Dave Ramsey instead of common sense to achieve a debt free lifestyle.

 

[cohcam]

It may "take over" but not within the next 20 years.

Try now
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6503916.html

Of course it'll take a couple of years before it's widespread, in 20 years maybe no more am/fm

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

This is a tough topic to discuss because we all wrap our brains around a vision of the future in a different way. Here is some warped logic as I see it:

The issues is not whether AM and FM as we know it will survive into the future. The question is will programming PUSHED by and aggregator (today that is what we call a broadcaster) will be available with content chosen by the aggregator/sender. It might arrive via wi-fi rather than a tower in the FM broadcast band.

The other things being discussed like ipods, etc. are programming being PULLED by the listener.

All this mp3 and iPod stuff really seems to fly with the very young, the singles, and the young married and mingles. What happens when children enter the scene and there are scout meetings and soccer games and car pools to school and job promotions that require Mom and Day to hit the ball very intensly at work. WHO HAS TIME IN THIS SCENARIO to custom feed and load the ipod.

Somebody that looks and sounds a lot like today's broadcasters will still find audience in the future, but the tastes will change, the competition will, as always, be fierce. The route the audio signal takes to get from the empresario to the consumer may not have been introduced yet.

 

[cohcam]

All this mp3 and iPod stuff really seems to fly with the very young, the singles, and the young married and mingles. What happens when children enter the scene and there are scout meetings and soccer games and car pools to school and job promotions that require Mom and Day to hit the ball very intensly at work. WHO HAS TIME IN THIS SCENARIO to custom feed and load the ipod.

You might be unfamiliar with mp3 players then because you can load a cd or file almost instantly and update
automatically for podcasts. So mom can load the kiddies favorite tunes in the player and keep them there because
storage size is huge and mom can keep audio books and whatever else she wants on the device. This is why so
many of the new car radios come w/aux inputs now because so many people are using them now

But I guess my main point is that radio for that most part is terrible, it doesn't matter if they are sending
the signal by wi-fi, wi-max ect. It is the content that they are sending. People have many better choices now
and they are using them, who wants to sift through all the stations for a song you like when you can just
bring them with you, w/out commercials. And i've found many podcasts that pertain to my interests and hobbies.
I would love to just listen to the radio but theres not much to listen to anymore.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

You might be unfamiliar with mp3 players then because you can load a cd or file almost instantly and update
automatically for podcasts. So mom can load the kiddies favorite tunes in the player and keep them there because
storage size is huge and mom can keep audio books and whatever else she wants on the device.

Then again, maybe I AM familiar with mp3 players. [I record live church services, edit them, convert to CDs, to mp3 for placement on the internet. I record and edit weddings. I have Multi-track Adobe Audition software. I write software to automate some of these tasks.]

You might be unfamiliar with commuting to work 75 minutes each way, tending to a sizeable yard, attending committee meetings, seeing that family members get where they need to be. I would prefer not to have to worry with charging the batteries for my mp3 player, tracking down who misplaced my patch cable to do that "instant" update of music and podcasts. etc. What about the people who are not gear-headed techies? For today I am quite happy to plop in the car, punch up NPR and forget all the flotsam. How nice it would be to have a couple of more stations to select from.... some with more local content.

There will be enough people who only want music, who only want big-picture sports, etc to make sattelite radio and mp3 players strong players in the market place. But, there will be enough old school die-hards who would like a little conversation, variety and surprises from a host, a station, an organization. To me the mp3 players is like having Raman noodles two meals a day every day.

Everyone to his own taste said the farmer as he kissed the cow.