Photo by: Beth Breitenstein
With the rise of Satellite radio, ipods, and Internet radio programs, things are slowly becoming less and less local in the radio world. But what good old am/fm radio has that iPods, and Satellite radio doesn't have is the FREE factor. We don't pay a penny to sit in our car and listen to our favorite news radio station or top 40 music stations.
With big corporations growing, like Entercom, Infinity Broadcasting, and Cumulus, there is pressure to adhere to market research and play only top 40 "approved" and preprogrammed music. This takes away the hyper locality(dare I use this buzz word) of am/fm radio stations. The station I work for can tell you the temperature down to the street name, right around the corner from where you live. Can satellite do that? Do large corporation run stations do that? No and no.
Just recently, Patrick Lafferty blogged about the fact that online radio is now making 14 cents a song per listener. In reaction to this horrible decision Lafferty states: "I thought this country was supposed to be about the free flow of information and the industrious pursuit of success and happiness?" Amen to THAT. This is my point exactly. For all of those naysayers who claim radio will be gone in the next 10 or 20 years, how can this be?
In a recent study done by Arbitron last September, it was found that radio reaches more than 230 million people each week in the United States. It has all the perks and advantages that Internet radio, and other information media like satellite radio do not.
So, I say, long live the mom and pop small non-corporate radio stations. We aren't going away!
I admit my secret love for old fashioned radio. In this digital world, I probably still listen to radio more than I watch TV.
Actually, I said that online radio stations are now paying 14 cents per song per listener, not making that much.
I agree with the support for the "mom and pop" local radio, but I think your support for terrestrial radio might be missing the point. The way Clear Channel, Entercom, Viacom (owner of Infinity) and their brethren are gobbling up local radio, the Internet radio station might be the last bastion of "local" information.
You face the real possibility that your local DJ might only be available to you on the Internet. This licensing 'net-jacking perpetrated by the Copyright Royalty Board is a direct affront to the notion of local radio and, more importantly, diverse ownership of radio.
Viva la Internet radio and la low-power FM radio!
I can see your point how local radio's last chance may be internet. But, to me it just is not the same. I think of radio and I picture that older man in his beat up car listening to KPR in the morning to hear his favorite personality. That just isn't going to happen with internet radio....yet...
Hey. My car is NOT beat up!