To a new office that isn’t vacant yet. I’ve spent a comfy and cozy 16 (17?) years in this office but the wrecking ball is swinging my way. On June 4th I will have been standing in the Learfield for 21 years. When I started we were all packed into this nice old house and most of us shared office space. Where did the time go?
Billboard reports that Rush will soon offer his daily show as a podcast.[via Scripting News]
Yesterday’s post about the percentage of people who say they “love” over-the-air radio (19%) has been stuck in my head. I’m sure there are lots of people who dearly love their local station but do they (can they) love it like we used to?
“I listened to KBOA on the farm in Arkansas. My grandfather bought me a transistor radio when they were first available as pocket size. They were very expensive and would use up a battery in no time. KBOA was the main choice in the cotton fields when we would chop cotton. Everyone chopped with me so they could listen. My dad demanded that I chop cotton very fast, so everyone would work hard to keep up!” — Larry Jones, Kennett, MO
In all fairness, radio in the late 40’s and 50’s was pretty much the only game in town so perhaps loyalty was easier to come by. Do I love my satellite radio? I do. Do I love my little mp3 player (not an iPod)? I love the idea of being able to easily record and listen on the go. Do I love any of our local radio stations? … I’m thinking, I’m thinking!
From a new survey by the Arbitron ratings company and Edison Media Research (as reportd by The Washington Post):
Four formats — news-talk, adult contemporary, pop hits and black-oriented — account for more than half of all radio listening in the nation. For more than a generation, the radio industry has attributed this to listeners, saying they demand that narrow focus. But the on-demand media revolution has revealed that argument to be little more than corporate spin.
About half of Americans age 55 or older have bought “Me Media” devices, such as TiVo and iPods, that put the consumer in the control booth, but according to a new survey by the Arbitron ratings company and Edison Media Research, about 90 percent of everyone younger than 55 is already on board.
The iPod, Apple’s digital music player, is more like the transistor radio than any other gadget in media history, in that it is making a powerful entrance into the American home mainly through the teen market.
The percentage of people who say they “love” their iPod (35 percent) or their satellite radio (40 percent) versus those who “love” over-the-air radio (19 percent).
But the study says there’s still time for radio to respond: Only 20 percent of Americans own an iPod, subscribe to satellite radio or listen to Internet radio, whereas 95 percent of the country regularly listens to radio.
Like Norm said, “It’s an on-demand world and I’m wearing Milk Bone underpants.” Or something like that.
It has generated a lot buzz. It feels heavily “produced” to me. Not blog-like in the (can we say “traditional” already?) traditional senses. But, man, they have some pretty witty folks banging out the posts.
My houseboy just informed me that he has located a blog named Huffington is Full of Crap. I would like to inform the smelly blue-collar drone who named this site that while I am sure it was really funny when you mentioned it to your friends down at the labor pool, Arianna is not amused at all, and when she finds out who owns the land on which you park your trailer, she will marry him and make him evict you.
But so does The Onion. And that’s what Huffington’s Toast feels like to me. A well done humor magazine.