Who killed the radio star?
Howard Kurtz on the Sirius-XM merger and old radio:
n all the very fine stories about the proposed XM-Sirius merger, there was one glaring omission.The reason these two companies have 13 million subscribers willing to cough up $12.95 a month for something we all grew up thinking should be free is that commercial radio has self-destructed.
All these folks (including me) are paying for satellite because they’re tired of cookie-cutter radio formats stuffed to the gills with commercials. They’re also fed up with focus-grouped music stations that play the same 60 songs until you keep hearing the chords in your sleep.
And local radio stations covering news? There are a few across the country. For the rest, forget about it.
Really, can you think of an industry (okay, maybe American automakers) that has frittered away such huge advantages and sent its customers scrambling for alternatives?
February 21st, 2007 at 12:31 pm
It sounds as if America needs a BBC. The state owned British Broadcasting Corporation has five national FM networks serving niche audiences. This has kept the commercial stations on their toes in the fields of pop music, grown up pop and sport while catering for the audiences that are not attractive to advertsers, classical music and arts / literature / current affairs.
I think the web offers a lot of scope for audio but so far the quality has not been there.
February 21st, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I think the broadcast model for entertainment is breaking down everywhere. It seems only natural that broadcast can’t compete with narrow cast, once narrow cast is available in a particular genre.
Who ever wakes up in the morning and says, “Today, I think I’d like fewer options than yesterday.”?
February 21st, 2007 at 1:00 pm
I haven’t yet subscribed to pay radio, but I might.
Read my latest column on this very subject.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070219/NEWS/702190361/-1/HELP0530
February 21st, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Don’t rush to satellite. The programming is better but the delivery technology and the sound quality is simply not as good as terrestrial radio yet. I’ll keel over the day I can go ten minutes without an interruption while the receiver is “acquiring signal”.
Satellite companies, if you are reading, it’s time for repeaters!
February 21st, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Repeaters abound in populous areas. For everywhere else, there’s the satellite. XM delivers a more reliable signal than Sirius (fixed vs. “moving” sat’s). While my Sirius radio can’t go a day w/o “acquiring” the XM is rock solid. And yes the digital compression sounds worse in most ways than the analog terrestrial signals. But it’s consistent while terrestrial varies while you travel.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
The corporations have nobody to blame for this but themselves.
Here in Atlanta, Clear Channel did a complete scavenge job on some of their most popular stations. They fired The Regular Guys (AGAIN) on a trumped-up charge, then they gutted the very “classic rock” format that the station used for decades. Then they cleaned out most of the local talent in their all-talk station, firing longtime respected mainstays and replacing them with syndicated pablum. Then they interrupted the easy-listening station’s longtime tradition of playing Holiday music in the middle of December and transformed that station into a hardcore country format. They didn’t even wait for Christmas Eve before carrying out that Scrooge act.
The public’s reaction to all of it? They stopped listening and found out what iPods and CD players are good for.
My own commute has been shortened dramatically since I moved closer to work, so I really don’t have time to listen to the radio. But when I do, I make sure that I stay away from the CC-owned stations. They can’t be trusted.
February 21st, 2007 at 6:39 pm
But Jeff, here in the heartland I have three or four local radio stations thatplay jazz, amazing new rock, and other stuff. They are healthy I think. the cookie cutter radio thing has nothing to do with satellite, etc. It is about bad management. Come to Ann Arbor and listen to 107.1. Or better yet, stream it. New music, amazing Djs with taste and no play list. And some very interesting live in-studio performances. Gomez for Eg.
February 21st, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Two words: Public Radio
We’re lucky - we have a choice of the Rhythm & Blues service, or the Classical Public Radio station, something many areas are LACKING these days. If I want to listen to anything more modern, I’ll queue-up some MP3’s or toss a CD in the player or the drive-bay. Otherwise, minimal commercials, the most accurate news reporting in the NATION (witness - the plethora of public figures lining up for INTERVIEWS on Public Radio/Public television, including such luminaries as the PRESIDENT, the SECRETARY of STATE, the SPEAKER of the HOUSE…oh yes, and even HOWARD STERN, once in a while…
NPR, All Things Considered, etc., etc. Hard to imagine needing much else…
As for regular commercial radio…the last guy I ever listened to with any degree of regularity was Larry Lujack, at WLS in Chicago, circa 1973 or so…and a little of Bob Collins at WGN, somewhat later, in the eighties. I had spent some time listening to the progressive FM stations in Chicago (WXRT was a great one,) but there was almost nothing like them out here on the Left Coast once we arrived, so we pretty much gave up on anything except Public Radio. Sorry to hear things have gotten so bad while we’ve been gone… sort-of…
February 21st, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Department stores
Big airlines
Newspapers
The music industry
The evening news
February 21st, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Like David, I’m also in the Atlanta market. On the typical adult rock station, we are stuck with over twenty minutes of commercials in one hour. I know this for a fact, I work in the business. On most stations in this market, up to one-third of the air time is commercials.
No wonder people are moving to XM/Sirius or I-pods in droves. A great example: walk into any health club in this city and easily 80% of the people on treadmills are listening to I-pods. Everyone is sick of those solid eight or ten minute commercial blocks. The tragedy is that these people are the high-income demographic that advertisers want so much.
The management group at Clear Channel are idiots. They have driven away listeners forever.
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
> It sounds as if America needs a BBC
The solution to an industry deciding that it doesn’t want to serve some of its customers is to tax them to give them what they should want?
No thanks.
Clear Channel’s decision to drive away its customers does not justify taxing me to create anything.
CC either delivers what enough people want or they’ll lose customers to someone who will, as they seem to be. That’s a good thing. We don’t need yet another group of tax-farmers.
If you think that there’s an unsatisfied market for “better radio”, why aren’t you trying to satisfy it?
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:23 pm
i think your boy howard isnt giving enough credit to your other boy howard.
no one was falling over themselves to get sat radio until the king of all media jumped ship.
now everyone is talking about the lack of commercials, the great music selection, and the great selection overall with sat radio.
but millions made the move with Howard, who is the only truly great radio personality around these days.
as for Sirius not having a strong signal … i traveled around the US and Canada for close to 40 days last fall and i had a strong signal pretty much everywhere i went.
if anyone is having signal issues they should check to see if their antenna is hooked up properly and/or if their equipment isnt faulty. i have a JVC sirius unit in my car and now the stilletto and both work well when theyre hooked up properly.
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 pm
(sung to the tune of “howard Stern for Governor) Howard Kurtz for governor; Howard Kurtz for governor; Howard Kurtz for go-ver-nor- of \the world
November 19th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Rob, I don’t really have anything as complete as a “thought” when I wake up in the morning, but having more choices is not something I consider to be good or desirable in and of itself. I’d rather have fewer decent things to choose from than lots of rubbish. And sometimes I like to not choose and just see what happens along. Infinite choice is exhausting. You can waste a lot of time trying to filter an excess of options.