by Dave Zornow
Published in the Cynopsis:Weekender, 4/13/06
Terrestrial radio is losing one of its most loyal demos. Any reader of consumer or business magazines knows the media pundits and “widgets and gadgets” journalists have abandoned local radio. Now old timers, baby-boomers whose first jobs were in the radio business, no longer feel the same about their first love.
These were the people who used to hang around college radio stations and then go to bars and bet each other who could do a better job “talking up” Top 40 songs. Today, when you talk to them about radio, they don’t talk it up at all. .
“I doubt I’ll buy another terrestrial radio -- it kills me to have to come to this” says Roy Heffley, a former ABC Radio writer/producer and 20-year radio veteran. As a communications coach and executive trainer for CEOs, Heffley spends a lot of time in his car. Frustrated with driving without persistent traffic info, XM’s 24/7 traffic reports in 21 markets have converted the former broadcaster into a satellite radio fan.
Radio production wiz and chief engineer Skip McClosky is blunter. “I think terrestrial radio is committing suicide,” says the 26-year veteran of NBC and small market radio. “Maybe it's because programmers today don't know how to program. Remember when radio was fun?“ McClosky sees an irony when terrestrial broadcasters complain about XM and Sirius signals, yet program their stations with syndicated satellite programming.
Frank Bell offers an honest defense for the business in which he has worked since high school. The VP/Programming for Keymarket Communications says terrestrial radio isn’t perfect and competition is nothing new. “People bought 8-tracks and cassettes in the 1970's and Walkmans in the 1980's which have now been replaced by today’s iPods and satellite services.”
Bell says “radio is the cockroach of electronic media” having survived multiple firestorms of technological change over its 85-year life. “Stations that live by the adage ‘to be local is to be loved,’ engage their listeners on an emotional level and reflect the values of their local communities will thrive.” The world’s first mass media might be taking some lumps, but there’s no reason to believe it will disappear from the landscape anytime soon. ##
Dave Zornow is President/TNG Research, a media research consultancy and applications development company that works with media sellers and research providers.
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