Lately, there’s been an interesting campaign being put forth by the traditional AM and FM radio stations, who are beginning to really feel the heat from the braodcast industry’s newest up and comer, satellite radio.
It started with these little ditties from the National Association of Broadcasters. It’s part of their campaign titled “Radio: You Shouldn’t Have to Pay For It.”
Radio: You shouldn’t Have to pay For it
Baseball Ad (mp3 file)
Heavy Metal (mp3 file)
Leading Man [whatever that means] (mp3 file)
Lewd Act (mp3 file)
You get the idea… if you’re really interested, the entire collection of these oh-so-creative spots can be found on their ad promo page.
Then the campaign expanded to individual radio stations. Have you noticed the stuff coming from local radio stations lately? A lot of them are advertising their “free” status including the former KRock (now “Free FM”) in the New York market… the former home of Howard Stern.
Well, the NAB and terrestrial broadcasters are right about one thing: I shouldn’t have to pay for radio. Unfortunately, I feel that nowadays, I simply have no choice.
I realized this about four years ago, over the course of a week. I realized that for five straight days of commuting back and forth to work, I hadn’t heard a single song on the radio. Not one. instead, I heard commercials. Lots of them. Some of them were repetetive, others completely inane and useless.
Over the past several years, “Free” radio has devolved into a sorry state. Music is getting less air time as up to 30-minute stretches of non-stop commercials rule the air. When music does play, it’s often a repetetive and limited playlist, for the which the on-air talent (if there is any, some stations are DJ-less now) has little leeway to deviate from.
Tired of one station? Well, you can of course fiddle with the controls and find something else. But chances are the format of any other station you find will be similar, possibly even playing the same limited set of songs. Even in the most crowded radio market in the US, 37 radio stations hail, yet they can be lumped into a mere 5 or 6 major formats. WHY?!
Unfortunately, the NAB and its sheep just don’t get it. Yes, about 9 million people in the US currently pay either XM or Sirius for radio. But do they honestly think that people would choose to pay if they didn’t have to? Of course not! These people are fleeing a medium that has become littered with hyperprofit-driven corporate conformity, in exchange for paying for the quality that “free” radio used to have. And I dare say that “free” radio has probably lost those paying customers for good.
