There had been holdups with competing technologies, which have sort of been solved now, but it’ll be years before anything happens. Conspiracy theories abound as to why we don’t have it yet in the U.S. In any case, all it will do at first is improve the signals of the existing radio stations.
Subscriber-based satellite radio, if it ever really happens, will be more likely to be a real alternative to crappy broadcast radio. The commercial loads will be limited to four to six spots per hour (broadcast radio runs 12-24 spots an hour, depending on format) so that will make a big difference right there. Of course, within a year or two it will very likely be just as bad as broadcast – we all remember how promising cable TV looked at first – but satellite radio might be fun for a while.
Toronto already has terrestrial digital audio broadcasting (DAB) using the 1.5GHz band and the European Eureka-147 system. All existing Toronto AM and FM stations got slots on the new digital band, but I believe that there may be new services on digital only. CBC Radio Three comes to mind; it will be netcast and DAB only, I think, but I may be wrong, and I’m not sure whether it has started.
The USA has not decided on a terrestrial digital radio spec. I believe thay were looking at a system to transmit digital signals within the existing analogue ones (IBOC–“in band on channel”) but they were having a hell of a time getting it to work. I wonder whether there was too much corporate infighting and competing standards, like the cellphone situation, leading to slow takeup due to consumer and supplier confusion.
Allegedly all the radio stations in Toronto have been broadcasting digitally off the CN Tower since last year. And indeed this has been advertised on CFNY (sorry, The Edge 102.1). But I have yet to see a functioning digital receiver.
However. I think that DAB in Canada may be undercut by two things:
Satellite digital radio.
Many small-dish satellite television providers, such as Bell ExpressVu and StarChoice (and terrestrial digital distribution services, aka “wireless cable”, such as Look) have dedicated audio channels.
There are also XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. These US subscription services are starting up this year, and will be North America-wide, with serious advertising dollars. They won’t have the coverage problems of terrestrial DAB, and will be suited for mobile reception.
Net radio. Given highspeed (wired or, later, wireless) Net access, we’ll be able to listen to audio from anywhere on the net. Why should I have to choose from a limited supply of prepackaged North American corporate programming, when I can listen to, say, Radio Vesteros from Sweden, a live webcast of a favourite obscure band, or (gad) my friends’ original programming??
With Canadian DAB, at least theoretically there is a requirement for diversity and alternative and local programming. But this may not obtain for the satellite services. Will the satellite radio services act as carriers of outside channels and existing radio stations or simply serve their own programming?
This question becomes reminiscent of the difference between the original MSN and a bare internet connection. I suspect that net access for streaming audio will soon be the most important source of new programming and new voices.
Yup! Just happened in the Boise area; 99.3 and 100.7 used to be country. Now 99.3 is best of the '80s, and 100.7 is smooth jazz. Not a bad trade, but it could have gone the other way! (shudder!)
And what happened to all the easy listening (instrumental) stations? WMRI in Indianapolis, I want you back! I want my Mantovani!
The part that pisses me off, is that every station that used to be cool in Denver is now going 80’s crap . And to compete they all try to be more 80’s than the others. I’m beginning to think we’re gonna end up with only four stations, one of which only plays ‘Tainted Heart’ over and over, one which plays ‘Down Under’, one which plays ‘99 Red Balloons’ and one that plays ‘Rio’.
A minor quibble that might not be so minor if somebody looks for Dennis Prager: just a couple of months ago Prager left KABC and is now heard in LA on KIEV (870 AM) from 9 a.m. - noon.
The story I heard was that KABC wanted to keep him, but was adamant that he drop from syndication and just be local. Prager didn’t want to do that, so he packed up and moved.
In the Rave!, from the Breeze of March 22, 2001, the radio columnist notes that the megacorporations that own most radio stations have started a de facto payola arrangement with record manufacturers. I regret that at the moment I don’t have the Rave! with me to quote (it’s in my car under some lawn tools), but as soon as I can get it I will quote Wagoner in this thread. It makes me wonder just why we need the FCC if they are sucking up this way to corporations.
Thanks for the update. Here’s a couple of stories from salon.com you may find interesting. First, a recent article about how the current not-payola system works:
Well, Myron, LPFM might answer a few of these issues, especially the localism problem. But, being very low-power, those stations, if they ever come to be (a big “if”) will serve only a very few people at a time. Also, the required interference protection means that most major markets won’t have any slots open for low-powers anyway. I don’t think there’s an LPFM spot open in the top 10 markets.
Were I ready to pin my hopes anywhere, it would be on satellite radio. For a year or two, anyway, before it goes the way of cable TV and decides “niche programming isn’t profitable, and surely no one would mind if we bumped up the spotload just a little to keep their rates down.”
From the March 23, 2001, South Bay (Los Angeles, County, CA) Daily Breeze; from The Rave!, page K22: MONEY-FOR-SONGS PLAN A ‘CLEAR’ DANGER
It’s not illegal to be a monopoly. But it is illegal to act as a monopoly.
Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio station group owner in the world with approximately 1,200 radio stations in the United States, is also the world’s largest concert promoter. Combine that with the fact that the company is one of the backers of XM Satellite Radio, and it’s easy to see that Clear Channel is a clear radio monopoly.
Now it appears it wants to use its new-found powers by making record companies “sponsor” songs that are played on copmpany-owned radio stations. In the old days this was called “payola,” and it was illegal. Now it’s called “sponsorships,” [Hooray for Roget’s Thesaurus!–d.m.] with executive Randy Michaels telling the Los Angeles Times, “We’ve been moving very slowly in launching this initiative, trying to make sure we dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s in terms of the legal issues.”
Here’s how it works: Clear Channel will sell ads promoting songs and identifying the artists who performed the songs for roughly $1,000 per spot. The idea is to add $20 million in revenue to Clear Channel’s coffers using money that once would have gone to record promoters.
Will the companies pay? They may be forced to do so, as the power held by Clear Channel is hard to ignore: A song not played on a CC station is a song that may fizzle due to lack of exposure.
So, the question is, once the plan is in place, will a CC station even play songs that are not “promoted”? And why is CC demanding payment for identifying a song or artist? In the BCC (Before Clear Channel) era, idenfifying songs was considered good programming, and trying to be the first with a new hit was the goal of every good programmer.
Several years ago, a friend of mine–mentioned in other threads as having died at the age of 73–:(–said that when CBS replaced Murder She Wrote with Cybill, she and some friends of hers taped the new episodes of Cybill and identified the sponsors, and contacted each one to let them know they protested the network’s move.
If Clear Channel’s sponsors (the advertisers on its stations’ commercials got an idea they might lost business because of CC’s shenanigans, they might hit the monopoly where it lives.
I have continued to follow this issue in Wagoner’s column, and it looks like the Clear Channel is about to hit the fan!
(headline) Someone finally takes on Clear Channel I have long felt–and stated–that Clear Channel Communications, with more than 1,200 radio stations (including an estimated 60 percent of the country’s popular music stations) and a huge portion of the concert promotional business, is and acts as a monopoly.
Judging from reader mail, reports on Salon.com and posts to radio-related Internet bulletin boards, many others agree.
Finally, someone is taking action. A Denver concert promotion company called Nobody in Particular Presents has filed an antitrust suit in federal court in Denver charging that Clear Channel penalizes performing artists who hire NPP by keeping those artists off Clear Channel-owned stations.
NPP alleges that CC “repeatedly has used its size and clout to coerce artists to use Clear Channel to promote their concerts or else risk losing air play and other on-air promotional support.”
Further, the suit claims that NPP has been unsuccessful in its attempts to buy ads on Clear Channel stations, giving an example of ads running late at night instead of earlier as scheduled, as well as having promotional tickets given to statione employees rather than to listeners.
Charges far less than this cost RKO its broadcast license for every station it owned 20 years ago when the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission actually looked after our public airwaves. In my opinion, Clear Channel is as large a monopoly as Microsoft and has proved itself to be just as anticompetitive and just bad for radio. Hopefully this suit will be followed by others, and the great Clear Channel Empire, with its bullying tactics and lame programming, will begin to crumble. In my opinion, it can’t happen too soon.
–From Richard Wagoner’s column in Rave!, South Bay Daily Breeze of August 24, 2001. His e-mail address: rwagoner@home.com.
After reading this thread, and seeing Ender’s mention of entercom, I decided to see how much of teh Seattle market entercom has. I knew they were here, because I listen toa couple of their stations already. Here’s the complete list:
KBSG - oldies
KIRO AM - news/talk/sports
KQBZ (The Buzz) - talk
KISW - active rock (whatever the hell that means - I think it’s aimed at males in their teens/early 20’s)
KMTT (The Mountain) - adult rock
KNDD (The End) - modern rock (this is the station that the kids on The Real World - Seattle ‘worked’ at)
KNWX-AM - business
They also own FOUR stations in the Kelso/Longview area. I didn’t think that they were a big enough market to HAVE four stations.
