worth a read

The point is.....
While you may have fair points and are free to vent, the point of the OP has little to nothing to do with socio-economic class warfare or affordability. It's about OTA radio losing their prowess and becoming irrelevant as a music promotion and discovery outlet.

They fell asleep years ago and now face colossal competition on the streaming front both free and paid. The bar is so high now, frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if they even give a shit. May be prudent for them to just admit defeat and focus more on talk, sports, news. The towers will remain and continue to beam signals but their media stream and cash cow will be grossly shifted to other pastures. That's the point here. :)
 
While you may have fair points and are free to vent, the point of the OP has little to nothing to do with socio-economic class warfare or affordability. It's about OTA radio losing their prowess and becoming irrelevant as a music promotion and discovery outlet.

They fell asleep years ago and now face colossal competition on the streaming front both free and paid. The bar is so high now, frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if they even give a shit. May be prudent for them to just admit defeat and focus more on talk, sports, news. The towers will remain and continue to beam signals but their media stream and cash cow will be grossly shifted to other pastures. That's the point here. :)

Possibly....

I was just commenting on the possible premise of radio never leaving the USA based upon the cost of streaming. The opening statement said no one would notice when radio was gone and quiet a few people driving home in silence definitely would notice. I wasn't trying to lead a class struggle, someone remarked everyone could afford it...
 
Spent 12 years in the trenches with radio.

It's headed the way of the dodo, nothing will stop that.
 
Since I posted the original note I've done some thinking about the report and keep coming back to the same question - I live in a small town, and even though I agree with the report's conclusions I wonder what a local radio station could do different, or different enough, to make a difference. Start a streaming music channel? Why would anyone want a local start-up when there's already AccuRadio, Pandora, iHeart, the rest? How could a traditional radio station offer enough to be attractive?

Our local public, the mighty NCPR, offers one way forward; they're not just an NPR repeater, they program music in blocks - deep oldies some afternoons, string band music others, blues, classical late at night, jazz on weekends. Select NPR and other public radio syndicated fare and a very strong local newsroom.The community loves what they do, but how does this translate to a commercial station?

As for the dust up about radio as the last resort for people who can't afford streaming, the worst part is - however much it's true, the industry will see the people most reached by music radio as the least desirable consumers. If they can't afford to stream, why bother to reach them at all?

I still think the "one to many" nature of radio is important, valuable, but radio keeps disappointing me. When Harvey hit Houston, a lot of the region's cell service went down (and people in general had trouble charging their phones) and I listened closely to as much radio as I could by streaming. I wanted to know how good a job local broadcast was doing. In fairness, the iHeart talker in the market, one of the publics and the CBS cluster all threw themselves into all-hurricane coverage, dispensing emergency information and taking listener calls. For what it was, it was heroic.

But here's the thing: Houston is one of the largest metro areas in the U.S. and there is no full time all-news radio station. It was a little astounding to listen to hours of radio and not hear a single station reporter out on the street, in the floods. Ultimately, I think local radio survives by being local; Houston was not reassuring on that score.

s.
 
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