Starting this summer, XM Satellite Radio plans to offer “real-time weather data through a targeted service that will deliver information to map-display devices in boats, aircraft and emergency-response vehicles.” That’s according to a story in the April 18 issue of R&R (Radio & Records). In a letter to the FCC, NAB Sr.VP/General Counsel Jack Goodman wrote, “It appears that XM does intend to convert its service from an exclusively national program service to one that delivers locallay differentiated content.” Hmm. I couldn’t find the story online but will keep searching.
Category Archives: Radio
Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel
I’ve spent the last few minutes of the last few nights on my back laughing so hard tears trickled down to my ears. I’m highlighting my way through Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel by Scott Adams.
“You can ignore almost everything that is asked of you and in the long run it won’t matter. Either the tasks will become moot or your boss will forget what he asked you to do, or someone else will do it.” Or, “If you stall long enough, every corporate initiative ends, even layoffs.”
I particularly enjoyed the description an encounter with a salesman for a local radio station that was trying to convince Adams to buys advertising for the resturant he co-owns. Adams asked the sales person how many listeners the radio station had.
“The sales weasel explained, ‘You have to spend money to make money.’ I pointed out that he probably knew the number of listeners and that I could decide on my own if it was worth knowing. The weasel responded by explaining how many human beings lived within listening range of his station, i.e. weaselmath. I asked how that mattered if they weren’t actually listening, just potentially listening.”
“Then he explained that it’s much more expensive to advertise on other radio stations on a cost-per-relevlant-listener basis. I asked how he knew that if he didn’t know how many listeners he had.”
“He explained to me that some of my competitors were advertising on his station and they must be getting some benefit or they wouldn’t be doing it. I pointed out that most of my competitors weren’t advertising on his station and if not advertising wasn’t working, they wouldn’t be doing it. It wasn’t a good meeting.”
God help us if radio listening ever becomes as brutally measurable as the Web.
This American Life
For months my wife has been talking about a radio program called This American Life (produced by WBEZ in Chicago). I finally heard the show last week and must say it was pretty damned good. It was about a group of inmates at a high-security prison outside St. Louis that has been performing Shakespeare’s Hamlet for fellow inmates and outside visitors. Due to prison logistics they can’t stage the whole four-hour play at once, so they’ve been performing it serially, one act every six months. In the show I heard, they follow the cast for half a year, as they rehearse and stage the last and bloodiest act: Act V. This is good radio and worth a contribution.
Doc Searls: Customers and Consumers
A-List blogger Doc Searls was once a radio guy and is not happy about the state of commercial radio. He makes a strong, clear point I’ve struggled with for 30 years.
“Commercial radio’s customers are its advertisers. It’s consumers are its listeners. Its business is selling air time to advertisers. It raises the value of that air time by attracting the largest possible number of listeners, in the most desirable demographics. How it does that is irrelevant to the business itself.”
He references a story by Jennifer Davies in the San Diego Union-Tribune (Corporate radio has pulled the plug on many a radio personality) that’s depressing –but hardly surprising– to this one-time DJ.
“The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be an almost 8 percent decline in need for broadcasting announcers in both radio and TV because of industry consolidation. In addition, pay for radio announcers is stagnating with the average hourly salary of around $9.”
And as for tomorrow’s listeners?
“Teen-agers no longer take their cues from radio, searching out new music online instead. Since 1998, teen-age males listen to the radio almost 7 percent less a week. Teen-age females’ weekly radio listening is down close to 9 percent. Teen-agers listen to the radio less than any other age group, according to Arbitron.”
XM Radio adding a book channel
They’re calling it Sonic Theater and promising “Audio books and radio dramas for all tastes.” Can’t quite picture how this will work but it’s a free channel, so we’ll see. My newest favorite channel is The Loft. Acoustic rock, I think. Heard a James Taylor song today that (again) I’ve never heard before. Missed the title. One lyric caught my ear: “Wild with expectation, on the edge of being old.” That’s me in nine words. Tried to find the song but gave up.
Let’s go live.
I walked past a jewelry store in the mall this weekend and noticed a boom box sitting by the entrance. It seemed out of place. Then I noticed a young man talking on his cell phone but in a strangely animated way. He was doing what we used to call a “live remote” on a local radio station. “This is Bobby Steele and I’m live at Zales where they’re having a Sizzlin’ Summer Sooper Sale!” Many years ago I did my share of remote broadcasts but in those days it involved a lot equipment. Big speakers, antenna, transmitter, banners, cables, microphones, etc. Took a while to set up and take down. But there was –in our small town– a sense of something special happening. This guy before me is on…the…radio! How cool. The young man I walked past in the mall could have been any guy talking on the phone. To those listening on the radio he probably sounded just as dumb I I did with all the gear. But there was no magic happening there at the mall. Back to you.
XM Satellite Radio Update
I’m still mindlessly surfing the channels. They give you a little remote so you’re less likely to crash while doing this. I really like the…what do we call them? Jocks? DJ’s? Talent? They’re there, but not too there. I’ve noticed that I’m driving less aggressively. In less of a hurry. No doubt, because I am enjoying my time in the car more. Early favorites: Fred, Top Tracks, The Joint, Soul Street, The Groove, CNN Headline News.
Beyond AM. Beyond FM.
I subscribed to XM Satellite Radio today. The idea of “subscribing” to radio still feels a little funny. I got in the car, turned it on and punched up one of the 100 channels. It was Jimi Hendrix singing “Like A Rolling Stone” from the Monterey Pop Festival. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard that version on the radio before. It’s too early to offer any useful comments on the service because I was punching through the channels like Tom Hanks running through the toy story in Big. A snippet of an interview with Melissa Etheridge interview on the E! channel… a rousing gospel (soul, not country) number on one of the Urban channels… CNN Headline news. I had to stop and come inside. I have a few long road trips coming up so I can really evaluate the service. Oh, the audio quality was pretty amazing. Stay tuned.
XM Satellite Radio
Next Tuesday I’m scheduled to have an XM satellite radio installed in my 4-Runner. If you haven’t seen the TV commercials or billboards, it’s a new subscription radio service that offers 100 plus channels of digital music and information for about 10 bucks a month. The line-up of news channels is pretty amazing: USA Today, Fox News, CNN Headline News, Weather Channel, CNBC, BBC, C-Span. I don’t know anyone that has the service yet and that sort of surprises me.
The parallels to cable TV are obvious. I remember when cable was first introduced and people asked, “Why would you pay for TV when you can get it for free?!” The answer seems equally obvious these days. HBO alone gives me Band of Brothers, The Soproanos, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, Oz, The Wire, Dennis Miller and on and on. I have no idea if satellite radio will catch on. Or what impact –if any– it might have on traditional radio.
For me it’s about choices. The Web has spoiled me in this regard. I don’t want to listen to what “most of the people” want to listen to. I want to listen to what I want to (know many good reggae stations?). And I’ll pay to do so. On a recent 15 hour drive from Florida to Missouri, I found a few radio stations I liked but I quickly drove out of range and back into “radio wasteland.” I never really thought Internet radio was much of a challenge to traditional radio. I’m not so sure about this.
July 19, 1947
Radio station KBOA went on the air on July 19, 1947. Today, 55 years later, that station doesn’t really exist anymore. Frequencies have been sold and shifted, call letters transferred. But the station’s early days make a great story. Five years ago I created a website in an effort to preserve some of that history. My father worked at the station for 30+ years and I worked there for a dozen. I recently came across recordings of jingles, old commercials, and oral histories by the men who put the station on the air.
It was a time when radio shows had names (Noonday Serenade, Rise and Shine, Old Camp Meetin’ Time) and commercials were read live or recorded on huge discs. The recently unearthed interviews offer a unique insight into the time, the people and the communities they served.