Is Corporate Radio Good For The Business? February 22, 2012
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Everyone I know in and out of broadcasting debates the above question. As you might expect the corporate position is, “of course it’s better for radio”. While the locals in radio keep being slowly replaced by syndication or downsized by automation. Have you noticed radio getting any better where you live? Really it depends on how you look at things. The big boys certainly have the deep pockets to bring in some well known talent and put them on their 800 plus station for all of us but what do we lose in the process? Do these hired guns have any personal identification with you or your city’s culture or sports teams or any of the stuff that spontaneously goes on in your area? Don’t we lose some of our identity in this process too? To me, radio has become way too homogenized, predictable, and scared of losing listeners and I blame corporate radio and their one size fits all attitude for that. With due respect to Clear Channels CEO about his statement that the numbers still favor radio over Internet – fair enough statement…for now. If we are being weened off of local radio all together and expected to get everyone comfortable with a less of a local feel then let’s just wait and see how much loyalty to so called local radio there is when everyone has the same access to the Internet that they currently have with their car radios. Read More…
What Can Radio Learn Through Social Media? February 20, 2012
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How valuable do you think it is for any radio station to discover what their listeners are saying about them? Of course stations pay lot’s of money for research to discover a listeners music likes/dislikes (hence why you hear what you hear on the air) but now there’s a new way to find out more information, than music taste, from listeners and it’s already out there waiting to be harvested. Radioscope, a radio consultancy has published a study on the influence of radio stations’ social media reachthat is a powerful tool and uses information from Facebook and Twitter to discover just what impressions listeners have on stations they listen to. Can you imagine the benefits of knowing exactly
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what you are doing right or wrong straight from the customers candid chats? Read More…
College Radio…Are You Missing Out By Not Tuning In? February 20, 2012
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With so much music available in so many forms it’s a well known fact that radio is in a transitional phase. What will come out of the transition is anybody’s guess. But one form of radio broadcasting that may deserve a second look…uh…listen…is “college radio”. Of all the choices to listen to college radio still offers a unique perspective on everything from music to specialty programming, even sports! College radio treats it’s listeners to what FM radio used to do all the time… programming unpredictability presented by people who are more interested in creativity and expression than ratings.
AIDS on the Air: Campus Radio Station Enlivens HIV Testing (Photo credit: Internews Network)
Is FM Radio’s Problem A Matter Of Time? February 14, 2012
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Less than 3 minutes used to be considered a reasonable length for a hit song (way back when). Why? From a business standpoint it’s simple math…more time playing songs means less time for advertising. While songs and music sweeps are longer on main stream radio than the good old days…so are their commercial breaks. (How long do you endure 10 minute commercial breaks?) Which brings us to Internet radio. While it’s still in it’s early stages one of the reason Internet radio is growing so rapidly is, in part, because it’s in a similar position now, that FM radio used to be in…available “Time”. Looking back FM had several big things going for it that AM radio simply couldn’t compete against A. Stereo (not static) B. Less commercials. C. And, due, in part to fewer advertisers, they had “time”. Time to play the “unedited” versions of songs we used to hear on AM. Time to play longer cuts from bands we never heard before but still intrigued us. Time to talk “TO” us not “AT” us. Because FM was new it had few advertisers, and while that’s not the business model you want to spend lot’s of time in, if you want to be in business, they took advantage of the opportunity that “time” gave them. There was no road map for FM’s success at the time so they made up their own rules. FM was in a “no lose” situation so they could experiment with music and, instead of the constant repetition and “playing it safe” attitude that AM radio had, FM took chances on up and coming bands we never heard before like Crosby Stills, Nash, & Young, ZZ Top, Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, Santana, Journey, and on an on the list goes. They also let the DJ’s choose the music so a play list didn’t exist. So how did we get to where we are with FM (main stream) radio? Does the Internet really have the advantage in taking over radio’s current position?
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The Consumer Electronic Buzz Word This Year Internet Connectivity February 6, 2012
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The 2012 Consumer Electronics show proved that not only could we bring Internet to the car but showed us how to utilize the Internet for much more than simply enjoying our favorite tunes
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College Station Turns Down Chance To Join I Heart Radio February 6, 2012
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Let’s say you’re a college station and the mega media giant, Clear Channel, offers you an opportunity to become a part of their “I Heart Radio” Internet line up? Pretty cool huh? The folks who run KRLX,
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the Carleton College radio station were given that opportunity to do just that! While many college stations would jump at the chance Carleton College’s campus station said no thanks. Read More…
Is Music Piracy A Moral Gauge Of Us? February 3, 2012
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Some call it file sharing, in the past it was called Napster, among other things. After the smoke all clears it’s called music piracy. What makes us OK with this? We wouldn’t walk into a store and take something without paying for it so why is it so easy for us to justify taking copyrighted material as if it was our right to do it? I’m not trying to preach about morals here because we all know people, who we would call moral abiding friends, who do this. What I’m asking is where do we draw the lines? Neil Young, a musician who has surely had his share of music ”lifted” from the Internet, makes an interesting observation in this article that just got me thinking about our right to “so called” free music. Read More…
Mobile Data Cap Non Issue For Mobile Internet Radio February 2, 2012
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A couple of years ago mobile providers put a monthly data limit on their service suggesting that web radio listening were high data hogs! This thinking lead many, behind the scenes, to be concerned that this would limit growth for Internet radio. But something happened along the way that caused some rethinking…mobile growth! In fact, today, Pandora gets half of it’s listeners from mobile devices and the outlook for mobile Internet listening looks very promising. This not only helps the big boys in this game but for all college stations looking to expand their audience…you now have a fighting chance to do just that!
Internet Radio Mashup (Photo credit: hackmanj1)
Let the Music Play…For Free! January 31, 2012
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For me, music has always been much more than something to tap my feet to. I can be moved by a great jazz, blues, rock, or classical piece of music, equally because it’s all about capturing emotion. Music is “medicine for the soul” It’s particularly gratifying to know that someone like Alan Lomax, who had such a great respect for this amazing from of communication, that he wanted to archive as much of it as he could, in as many forms as possible. While you may not be familiar with his name chances are very good that you have heard the influences of his archived recordings as he was the first to record blues guitarist Fred McDowell, whose songs were later covered by the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Bonnie Raitt and Jack White of the White Stripes. Alan Lomax had a passion to capture the arts and cultures and envisioned a day, long before the Internet, where it could be shared with everyone. His gift to us is that his hard work will soon become available to us for free. Thank you Mr. Lomax! Read More…
Move Over WiFi Here Comes “Super” WiFi January 27, 2012
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Oh we love our Wifi don’t we? But wait till you get a load of what Super WiFi can do. Super WiFi AKA ”White Space” is able to leap through trees and thick foliage in a single bound (sorry I had to do that!) which, in most cases WiFi, as we know it, just can’t do. So what’s all this mean to you? Well if you live in New Hanover County you already know if not… Read More…
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