Re: a sad decline....
> You guys all crack me up. Do you really believe that the
> vast majority of the public is going to pay for radio?
> Something they already get for free and think is perfectly
> fine? I listen to you all talk about how crappy radio is
> and how the satellite progamming is far superior and that
> the FM programmers must be morons or something.....
> The first biggest lesson that I learned coming into the
> radio biz is that my opinion and the opinion of those in my
> circle of friends is far from representative of even most of
> the rest of the world. When I came to Austin, there were 2
> stations that I and everybody I knew listened to: KLBJ-FM
> and Z103 (with a few listening to KHFI but they were kind of
> "fringe"). Boy was I shocked to find out that the number 1
> station was and had been for years, KASE 101. KFHI was in
> the top 5, usually #2. So I learned the public is not me.
> You folks are all radio people (I mean you post on a radio
> board, how much of the public does that). Your opinions,
> while valid for your tastes, do not represent any of the
> public. Remember the internet boom in Austin? Why did it
> fail? 1) because nobody wanted to pay for all this content
> good, bad or otherwise, and 2) most people were not jumping
> to high speed connections and didn't want to wait 10 minutes
> for some random site to download so they could buy seeds for
> their garden. Satellite may become dominant someday, but I
> don't think it will be in the next 15 years.
>
You make some claims in your post that are more opinion disguised as fact. You state at the beginning that the public thinks that radio is "perfectly fine". How do you know? No communications medium is perfectly fine; there's always room for improvement. With radio specifically, it seems the main gripes are spot loads (why do you think Clear Channel started their "less is more" initiative?) and playlists have become too homogenized and short.
Not everyone who reads and posts on these boards are "radio people". Some are, some aren't, some are just curious observers. You'd probably be surprised at how many non "radio people" visit and even post on these boards. Probably just as surprised as you were when you learned that KASE 101 was consistently the #1 station in Austin for years. Not sure why you were so surprised by that. I'm guessing it's because Austin is a progressive city and "progressive people" don't listen to country music. Don't forget that KASE 101's signal does go beyond the Austin city limits where less "progressive" folks live. They get diaries too.
The internet boom in Austin. The internet "boomed" all over the world, not just in Austin. I think it's a very big stretch to blame the bust on folks not wanting to pay for content. At the time the bubble burst (late '90s), it was not as common for content to be available only for purchase as it is today. Remember Napster? Also, high-speed internet connections for residential use were not as common as they are today. More and more people are hopping on the broadband wagon today than they were back in the day. Okay?
I believe that satellite radio will compliment terrestrial radio, not replace it. Cable and satellite have not caused terrestrial TV stations to shut down. There are more TV stations on the air now than ever before. I look forward to HD radio taking off - I think that will put it more on par with satellite. In any event, it will give the "radio people" more fodder to crack you up with
