So you're saying that only old people listen to AM radio?
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"Disney's Devastating Signal"
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
So you're saying that only old people listen to AM radio?
That's one reality that I really do not wish to face. I grew up listening to a lot of AM radio, and love hearing my favourite songs on the AM airwaves. I suppose nothing can last forever, and the music that I like really has no place on the FM dial. Its a catch 22. My favourite musical genre is AAA and its difficult to find that on the radio too.
Older people, yes. My generation listens only in very low numbers, and the generation after us? They barely even know what AM radio is, let alone that anyone still listens to it. Yes, only older people listen to AM radio. It has no hope.
I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. I listen to AM radio all of the time, and i'd happily work in AM oldies radio/classic c/w if the opportunity arose.
AM is what you make out of it. When the AM dial is is littered with stations that really don't have much of an interest, its toast. All it takes are a few stations that are unique and can be enjoyed by anyone of any age.
Basically, yes.
While AM shares may be as high as 20% to even 30% in some markets in 55+, by the time you get down to 18-34, you are dealing with mid-single digit shares in the best of markets and low single digit shares in others.
And the markets where there is some under-45 listening to AM are the ones with several good AM signals. There are not many of those; in the top 100 markets the average is 1.5 good (80% coverage day and night) stations per market. Meaning lots of markets have only one such station or not even that.
AM is a dying medium. But then, we're all dying. Some of us have a few years, others decades. Some AMs already aren't worth the land they sit on. But there are big signal AMs and AMs that have a solid niche that will be making money for quite a while. But as younger generations get older, and as older generations get more proficient with their smartphones, AM radio will be left behind completely, and I'm not sure how strong the prospects are for FM.
It used to be that one of the killer apps, long before we used that term, for radio was weather information. Thirty years ago, I could count on WMT 600 in Cedar Rapids to have a strong weather forecast and current conditions at :06 past the hour. You could set your watch by it. Today, our pocket watch makes phone calls, has more computing power than than my $1800 PC tower of fifteen years ago. It is a radio station in your pocket. Walkmans that slipped in your pocket and merely received some far away station, they seem pretty quaint today.
There may be a role for FM going forward as a medium to serve people at work or in their cars, offering content passively. But the damage is done. The delivery of audio entertainment is no longer monopolized by radio broadcast. Radio's challenge will be to stay relevant in a world where the content is pulled, not pushed.
It used to be that one of the killer apps, long before we used that term, for radio was weather information. Thirty years ago, I could count on WMT 600 in Cedar Rapids to have a strong weather forecast and current conditions at :06 past the hour. You could set your watch by it. Today, our pocket watch makes phone calls, has more computing power than than my $1800 PC tower of fifteen years ago. It is a radio station in your pocket. Walkmans that slipped in your pocket and merely received some far away station, they seem pretty quaint today.
There may be a role for FM going forward as a medium to serve people at work or in their cars, offering content passively. But the damage is done. The delivery of audio entertainment is no longer monopolized by radio broadcast. Radio's challenge will be to stay relevant in a world where the content is pulled, not pushed.
Here is the thing, I represent one of the young people out there who are trying to make it in the radio business. Sure, i've been told to avoid a career in radio like the black plauge, and yes i've been told that radio DJ's represent the minimum wage bracket, but I really do not care. I really cant tell you what the outlook for radio will be, but if it does go, I guess its off to the McDonalds employment line for me. AM may be completely worthless to people my age, but for me it has been a platform to get my start in this harsh realm of commerce.
I suppose time will tell what the future of radio will truly be. For folks like me, we could be just fine in life, or we could be living out of a Motel 6 in 30 years from now. Who knows?
I suppose time will tell what the future of radio will truly be. For folks like me, we could be just fine in life, or we could be living out of a Motel 6 in 30 years from now. Who knows?
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FredLeonard
Guest
Once again, somebody says I am the exception therefore I disprove the rule. I listen to AM radio, therefore lots of people listen to AM radio and therefore AM radio is not dead. I am young and I listen to standards, therefore young people listen to standards, therefore standards attracts young demos.
Well, you're free to disagree, but you would be wrong. The numbers prove it, both ratings and sales. Your personal tastes do not account for the reality of the situation, that's all there is to it.
That's simply not the case. Technologically speaking, you're never going to get people to turn off all their lights (CFLs and LEDs), all their computer equipment, all their cell phones, all their TV's and get away from all LED traffic lights in the car or tune away from the clarity of sound provided by FM, satellite and the Internet in order to listen to a low-quality, static-filled, interference-prone AM radio broadcast. Never again. It just isn't going to happen. AM radio is flat-out dead. You're going to have to face it sooner rather than later.
Take a look at Canada. Have you noticed them doing anything with AM lately other than turning licenses back in to the CRTC and shutting down transmitters? Have you noticed Mexico going in the same direction? Great Britain? Countries all over the world? We're the holdouts here, and its only because our broadcasting executives have their heads planted so far and firmly up their rectums that the only thing they can see is their own fecal matter, which they have no problem in attempting to pass off on us, the lowly peons and listening public, as God's-honest truth. Nobody's fallen for it since at least Telecom '96, and many of us long before that.
Time to wake up and smell the ozone. The switches are flipping off, and they're not going to get flipped back.
I used to argue that any audio entertainment is radio, but it's become pointless in a broadcast forum where it is so commonly thought that radio means transmitters.
The question being asked is: How do we save AM? But I'm wondering why I should care if we save AM. Or FM. They are just so much plumbing to me. I want the product and there are multiple delivery mechanisms possible.
I know, because I've been there, myself. It's been 22 years since I first set out in this business. You know how it ended for me ten years ago? Producing a weekly 15-minute segment on a 6,000-watt FM in a county of 40,000 people, getting paid nothing. You know what I do now? Public address announcing for high school and college sports, mobile DJ'ing, web design, graphic design, motion graphics and video production with the occasional radio production on the side. I'm making more money now than I ever made in radio, and I have more potential to increase that income than anyone just starting out in radio today will ever have. That was the case even ten years ago.
By all means, if you can get by living the dream, go for it. But don't expect it to last very long, because I can guarantee you 100% that it will not. At some point, you're going to look at your situation and say "there has to be a better way to survive than this." And I promise you, it's going to be far less than 30 years' time before you get to that point.
There is room today in our society for a few blacksmiths. Plan on a life selling your stuff on the weekends at flea markets and art fairs.
There is room today in our society for a few auto mechanics who can fix the carburetors and ignition points on peoples vintage cars.
I suspect there is a tiny, tiny bit of room in society today for a computer person who knows how to work with those old punch-cards and some family needs data pulled off of grand-pa's old office files of cards to settle who gets what as they resolve the estate of the deceased.
I've chased some dreams in my earlier years. But dreams alone do not help you pay for the tuition of your grandchildren. Dreams from years ago if they do not "hatch and mature" do not pay for nursing home expenses of the one you have have shared you life with.
It is very painful to return home every five years for class reunions of your high school class. (Oh, for the moment you get lost is the hand-shakes and hugs.) But you look around the room at the people who didn't do as well as you... and wonder how they survive. You look around the room at the people who "grabbed the brass ring" and wonder: Where was I the day the good prizes were attached to the brass rings on the merry-go-round!
Some people do very well by stringing together a life-time of immediate opportunities that look like fun and enjoyment. Pardon the explicit language, but more people who try that don't harvest crap!!!!
This advice is worth exactly what you paid for it!
That's why I quit going to such functions after my 10 year reunion, twenty-five years ago. We were a small, fairly close bunch, like extended family. But I knew HS graduation was the no-going-back point just as soon as it was over. Felt like a funeral. It was.
After college, as people's lives made their normal progression into careers and marriage, I felt like I was falling behind. That's when I learned the pain of comparing one's self to others. Today, I have my youth largely locked up in a box of warm memories. No need for the present to intrude.
About pursuing dreams: always, always have a plan B.When I was 19, I wanted to get into radio, but I was scared of putting all of my eggs into that basket. I went to college for a business degree and pursued the radio thing afterwards. Fun while it lasted, but at 30, I figured that was enough.
Looking back, I should have chosen a more focused degree or trade than business. Outside of accounting and finance, it's just another liberal arts degree.
Radio AAHS was a fun concept in the 90s. Listened to the flagship in Minneapolis, WWTC. Worked at the wreckage of WWTC that was leftover after Disney ate AAHS, when it became Catholic Family Radio. They had way too many dollars and not enough sense, but I was fairly well compensated as a cub sales rep for the few months I was there before I bailed and moved back to Iowa.
Hopefully some of the arrogant Radio Disney people that trashed Radio AAHS are still with RD, awaiting their pink slips, but that's just wishful thinking.
From what I can tell you have no real insight to any real issue presented on this board, other than to be condescending.
I see your point, and I mean that in a very sincere way. Personally speaking, I am currently a student in the subject of psychology, which will probably end up being the bulk of my career. I have mentioned this before, but I will say it again: I really don't care if I make any money in the realm of radio. I love radio and its something that I would do for free; I just want to have my chance to step behind the board in a big market studio and connect with the audience. Whether or not what will actually happen is kind of up in the air, but thats what its about for me. I equate working in that type of environment to buying a Lamborghini, we know that there are a few people who are able to do it, but how the heck did they get to that point??
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I agree with the view presented here:
http://www.insideradio.com//Article.asp?id=2827713#.U-_Opz90ymQ
AM Radio, in and of itself, isn't the problem. It's the limitations to its signal, caused in part by bad regulation. As more AM stations go dark, and the spacing issues are no longer a problem, hopefully someone will suggest to the FCC to return AM to its earlier bandwidth. That won't solve the interference issue, but it may help with fidelity.
http://www.insideradio.com//Article.asp?id=2827713#.U-_Opz90ymQ
AM Radio, in and of itself, isn't the problem. It's the limitations to its signal, caused in part by bad regulation. As more AM stations go dark, and the spacing issues are no longer a problem, hopefully someone will suggest to the FCC to return AM to its earlier bandwidth. That won't solve the interference issue, but it may help with fidelity.
T
Thomps2525
Guest
A large majority of kids listen to Radio Disney online, on satellite radio, or via mobile apps. Only 18% of Radio Disney listeners age six and above are listening via AM radio. But is the problem the stations' signals...or is it the content? Today's generation of kids has grown up with computers and iPads and have little interest in their parents' AM radio. A standards format or a 1960s oldies format would likely be much more successful on those 23 stations than Radio Disney has been. Those formats would attract the older listeners who didn't spend their childhood and their teen years sitting in front of a computer and/or fooling around with iPhones and iPads. Unfortunately, standards and '60s music are disappearing from terrestrial radio. Maybe after September 26, when those stations go dark, they should just stay dark.
I would think so. Isn't there a better and higher use for that spectrum?
Why? To somehow develop a 5G cellular system that will make sending SnapChat selfies easier than it already is?
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Groove1670
Guest
ESPN does well on AM, and so does several other spoken word formats. The sale of 23 inferior signal stations (for a brand like Disney). Doesn't mean hell has frozen over. Certain publications have become the National Enquirer for radio.
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