Down goes radio

[Undertoad]

My Facebook status now

Love him or hate him, Howard Stern is going to move his show to the Internet in three months. Love him or hate him, this is huge for the future of satellite radio, terrestrial radio, and the entire media. Love me or hate me, you heard it from me first.

I have always been fascinated by broadcasting. I ran my college's radio station. But since there is an Internet, broadcasting over the air is no longer interesting. It's all over; radio is dead, and the sooner we stick a fork in it, the happier we'll all be.

[lumberjim]

as soon as internet connectivity comes to cars on a large scale, it will be over, but not until.

[Pico and ME]

Yeah, I really rely on my car radio and I dont have satellite.

[Rhianne]

I ♥ my radio.

[Cloud]

I almost never listen to the radio. Pandora, something like that; fine. Regular over the air radio--sucky music, endless car commercials, and worst of all--talk radio. And why would I want another monthly bill added to my list for non-free radio>?

meh

[casimendocina]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

It's all over; radio is dead, and the sooner we stick a fork in it, the happier we'll all be.

I disagree. Loads of people listen to radio and love it, not to mention being able to access the podcast of interviews that they missed when they were actually aired. For as long as I can remember, people I know have discussed some of the personalities on radio as if they were either friends, family or part of their circle of contacts. Radio can work in really nicely with Internet-the station can promote their internet site and the site can promote the station.

[Flint]

What about Talk Radio? And what about my 2002 Accord? I can play AM, FM, cassette tapes, or audio discs. No internet, no satellite, not even MP3s.

[Undertoad]

This is looking several moves ahead. But the trends have been starting for the last few years: broadcast radio's revenues started going into free fall.

For as long as I can remember, people I know have discussed some of the personalities on radio as if they were either friends, family or part of their circle of contacts.

I agree. But under the old way, you had to be listening when they were broadcasting, and you had to be in range of the broadcast, or you just plain missed it. Doesn't that suck? You have a friend or family member that you care about, and you have to make sure you're in your car in the morning, listening to that one thing, or you don't get your time with them.

This is what Mr Stern said on Thursday:

The future of media is going to change drastically in the next five years. You're gonna see, the Internet's gonna be available in your cars, everything is gonna be available. It's gonna be who has the best content is gonna win. And then you're gonna see there'll be guys like me, or, guys who have huge followings say basically "fuck it" to everyone, they start their own like what Kenny Chesney is doing, that Kenny Chesney app. Imagine if you had an app, where you just go on, you've got your portable device, you can listen to the show any time. And then you get all of our archives and everything right on the Howard -- It's not called Sirius XM, it's not called terrestrial radio, it's called "Howard Stern". And then I program it and I run the whole shebang. I don't have to answer to anybody, and I can just provide you with programming for a few dollars a week. Or a few dollars a month, rather.

We have this situation where, in order for there to be a Howard Stern brand there had to be other brands: radio station brands, satellite radio brands, etc. because massive infrastructure had to be in place in order to broadcast to a large audience.

Think about it: for radio, you have tall towers, beaming out massive amounts of RF energy. Or you have to launch several satellites into space and hook up a complicated satellite receiver to cars. That's a lot of heavy lifting.

So, in order to get Mr Stern's show, you had to buy $150 of radio with a special antenna and special installation, or deals had to be cut with auto manufacturers to build it all in, and then you had to pay $14.95 a month. And if you were out of satellite range, say in EU or AUS, you couldn't get it at all. (except via piracy)

The infrastructure to get audio on the internet is tiny in comparison, even if you have a massive audience.

Anyone with a smartphone or audio player and an aux input jack already has everything they need. Notice that the first people to leave radio are the tech-heads and spendy people with smartphones, leaving premium advertisers with less audience. The second people to leave will be people with late-model cars. Pretty soon only poor people and old people will listen to terrestrial radio. Like AM before it, in ten years US FM will mostly be Spanish stations and Rush Limbaugh clones.

[squirell nutkin]

"The horseless carriage? It's a fad. It'll never catch on."

I think UT's right, unless there is some kind of crazy event that drives people away from computers and the internets, Everything will be web based.

[Lamplighter]

... and owned by Comcast and Google

[Juniper]

If radio goes away, and we ever have any sort of real large-scale emergency, we're all screwed.

[Undertoad]

The radio folks have already tried to introduce a plan to require radio receivers in all mobile music devices, with that as the "excuse".

[tw]

Originally Posted by Juniper

If radio goes away, and we ever have any sort of real large-scale emergency, we're all screwed.

Free public libraries threatened to kill the publishing industry.

"Video Killed the Radio Star". I know this must be true. I heard it on the radio in 1979. Howard Stern is dead. Just look at his face. He just does not know it.

[Gravdigr]

I don't have a problem with radio as much as with the available music. Now, if you cut me I will bleed classic rock all over the place. But here's my problem: "Fly Like an Eagle" is a totally awesome song. It's somewhat less awesome after hearing it for the 30,000th time. And they ain't making classic rock no more, the artists are dying off, and the little new music from the great old acts still making music just ain't making it, for me anyway. And I just can't stand the vast majority of music less than ten years old. The last cd I bought was Kid Rock's "Rock n Roll Jesus". And only because it was on sale. I don't even bother to reset my presets on my stereo when the power goes out (the memory battery died about five years ago).

I love music and cannot imagine life without my radio/cdplayer.

[Griff]

Get ye to http://www.pandora.com if you are not already aboard. You'll find new or different music you like.