Radio Failing?

As long as DJing is an occupation (in the broad sense as in at clubs, weddings etc…) there will always be radio.

I read it. It seemed really odd. People are still listening to the radio. Infact it’s in very good health right now.

Radio will not fail. They said that the film industry would be the end of live theatre, the same was said when television took off. Seriously, radio has a future, but it’s future is yet to be totally determined, and as much as that question has yet to be answered, I think Scott Cohen hasn’t understood the issue.

Smartphones are ubiquitous??? NO! Smartphones are not ubiquitous yet, and they never will be, because some people don’t want their phones to do everything except make the tea, they just want their phones to do the simple stuff, like calls, and texts.

But a radio is an everyday essential, and especially so during power outages, severe weather and other emergency situations. The smartphone is yet to be able to replace it in that regard.

The other thing he failed on is trusted voice. Listeners trust the person at the other end, there’s no two ways about it.

As for the other 4 things, not even relevant. Radio was never about any of those from 3 to 6, and if he believed that it was, he was living in cloud cuckoo land.

But local commercial radio is not in great health. 20% down in the last 10 years, it seems to have forgotten that it needs to be about the local content, as much as the music, and it seems to have forgotten that those of us in the target age group have grown up as much with the music of the past, even going back to the 50s and 60s, as we have with the music of our years.

Play the music people truly love, not just the stuff from the past 30 years. The right music, and the right content, will get the listeners back.

I do agree it is going to be difficult for radio to gain audience numbers. The title should be more like “why radio will fail at keeping it’s current audience numbers.”

It’s just shortened to get you to read it.

It’s slightly misleading.

It still pretty bad if you think about it though, them saying this! i like you opinions there ian. What really annoys me though is the fact that radio been around for many years and has been quite dominate all the time with 89% of the UK listening, and there saying it going to fail?

With radio you can listened to it and still do other things, with TV you have to sit and watch it, most people dont have time to do that apart from evenings.

Plus it only seems to be talking about music based stations. No mention of talk based stations.

But a radio is an everyday essential, and especially so during power outages, severe weather and other emergency situations. The smartphone is yet to be able to replace it in that regard.

A smartphone is far more handy in an emergency. I can find a wealth of weather statistics, check the electricity situation on my power company’s website. It’s even got a torch! (And a radio…)

So what the future for music radio stations? as i still think radio plays a big thing for the music and the artists to connect with there listeners still though radio as they hear there songs.

I think his point about the music industry is that they didn’t see that there was a problem until too late. People in the music industry were telling people about the tactile feel of holding a CD or a record which will never be replaced – complete bunkum, of course, but they believed it. Much the same as radio stations promoting themselves purely as Today’s best music mix which contains no reason why I ought to be listening other than a (replaceable) promise of ‘best’ music, which I’ll guarantee is not what I’d consider to be ‘best’.

I’ve been saying for a while that music radio (of the ‘ten great songs in a row’) type doesn’t have much of a future. Privately, many in the radio industry agree with me. The article appears to be saying that too.

Russell: I can connect with Lady Gaga through Twitter. I don’t need to listen to any radio station to get really close to the musicians I like. (Or Lady Gaga).

Michael: If I worked in the funeral business then well may I say “by all means rely on your smartphone during an emergency”

During Victoria’s 2009 bushfires when 173 souls were lost, 40-odd mobile cell stations were obliterated, others nearby were overwhelmed with calls from the doomed, the curious & the wilful.

Mountain-tops were incinerated (guess where FM/TV/DAB+ tx live). The main-stays of emergency broadcasts were the 50 kW public broadcaster (774 kHz) and the leading commercial broadcaster in Melbourne on 693 kHz with 5 kW (leads easily in all slots against all DAB+, AM & FM commercials).

Both stations operated from large, cleared sites with secured power & comms links. Both stations had tremendous regional coverage even to mobile receivers.

Our emegency agencies’ websites crashed under the demand (again: the doomed, the curious & the wilful). Delays in updating the sites with accurate information didn’t help.

One of the first effects of bushfire is loss of mains power, either intentional or consequential. Either way it’s hard cheese if you have a landline phone or web access that needs mains. Or a smartphone with a flat battery.

In Victoria emergency agencies (CFA & SES), the state government and the survivors of previous fires & floods advise the use of a battery-powered portable mf radio kept in good working order. At good volume my 25-yo GE Super Radio draws ~50mA from D-cells. I let it run continuously for nearly a week before I got bored with the exercise. It lasted several more months in intermittant service. Try that with a smartphone.

Across Victoria (240,000 sq km pop. 5.5 million) there are four 10-50 kW OD mf senders with proven coverage and proven availability. We have large signs along main roads giving emergency advice “tune to 774 kHz”, “tune to 828 kHz”, “tune to 594 kHz” and “tune to 756 kHz”
(but not with a smartphone.)