The Eureka Reporter

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THE FUTURE OF RADIO
12/9/2005
By Robert Reed

 
It’s a question that comes up often. What is so powerful about radio? Like the little bunny rabbit, it just keeps going and going.

The medium of radio taps something deep in all of us. It must go back thousands of generations. It’s probably ingrained in our genetics. Think about it. In fact, that’s what radio does. It makes us think and use our imagination.

Storytelling has been the purveyor of information over all other mediums. Long before people wrote things on slates or on the walls of caves, they told stories. The storyteller word crafted the thoughts and mental imagery into words. The listeners turned the words they heard back into mental images. Then the stories were passed on to other listeners.

So we can imagine that stories and storytelling were relied on for many thousands of years, and as humans we are built to want to listen to stories and the spoken word. Radio is just another form of the story teller and the listener.

The technology of radio is in a state of change. I see it in the trucking industry where I work. Just two years ago it was rare to see a satellite radio in a truck. Now, I would say that more than 50 percent of the long-haul trucks traveling cross-country have satellite radio.

Reuters ran an article by Derek Caney on Dec. 6 prompted by the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit. Various speakers and media advertising executives expressed concern over new technologies threatening traditional “terrestrial” radio. In addition to satellite radio, the new phenomenon of podcasts enters the fray. I’ve known about podcasts since they came on the scene, but it wasn’t until recently that I actually started listening to them on a little mp3 player that someone gave me awhile back. Okay, podcasts and satellite radio are really cool. It’s a matter of what I am doing, though. Normally I’m not looking around on the Internet for a podcast to download and then upload back onto my mp3 player. That takes time. The technology now will automatically push the podcast right onto an iPod and after you play the podcast it can, if you want it to, delete the podcast. For me, other things take front stage most of the time, so back to traditional radio I go.

It’s not my listening habits that have the media advertising and radio industry executives nervous. What they are wanting to know is how the listening public will want or will not want to spend their money. According to the Reuters article, Clear Channel executives wonder why people would spend $12 per month to subscribe to a satellite radio service when traditional radio is free. David Sanderson of consulting firm Bain & Co.’s media practice said “There is over $100 billion of local advertising dollars that are spent on newspapers, radio, television stations and yellow pages. Where will those dollars migrate to in the future?”

The changing landscape for the radio medium means I will have more choices in the future. I look forward to that, but I still want the old traditional radio to be there. It’s just plain easier to access with a very small pocket device. Satellite radios have a clunky antenna and podcasts need high speed Internet for large file downloads whether they are automatic or manually downloaded. Traditional radio is always the default listening experience for most of the people I know, so maybe Clear Channel is right. The business model for radio advertising in the future remains to be seen, but it is certain that the models will be changing.

(Robert Reed is a columnist for The Eureka Reporter. Views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of The Eureka Reporter, its management or staff.)