“Radio: The Cockroach of Mass Media”
That’s the title of this article from Bloomberg. It goes on to explore why radio has survived so many media challenges over the past century.
But it looks like the cockroach will run into a new insecticide in the form of streaming music and smartphones. From Digital Music News:
I’m driving around listening to DJ Jeremiah Red on KROQ and it’s 30% static. A great playlist, but I can’t fully take it in. Then I remember I could stream it from my phone. I open iHeartRadio, but unfortunately they don’t carry KROQ. They carry KCRW and KPCC (the NPR stations – my other go-tos on the FM dial), but no KROQ. I find the stream on their website.Once my iPhone has seamless syncing with my dash and there’s fast LTE internet everywhere, I won’t need to turn on the AM/FM radio again. It will make no difference to us if we turn on the radio or open the streaming radio apps built into the dash.
Yep. This is something we discussed last week at Canadian Music Week. Times are a-changin’ in ways we didn’t foresee even five years ago.
Read the whole DMN article here.
I still believe traditional radio has a lot of life in it. We’ve had Sirius and iPod connectivity for years in our cars, and yet radio still has a prominent place. It has nothing to do with the music but feeling connected to our community. When I listen to stations like the Edge and Q107 I want to hear the personalities, I usually switch away during the music and try and tune back when they’re talking again. This is where local radio still has a competitive advantage and something they can exploit in the streaming world.