What is so wrong with FM Radio?

Question

I work in the radio business. I have heard many people say that they are tired of radio and would prefer to listen to their IPOD's. Many radio companies have poured money into asking rooms of people what songs they like, what topics they want to hear, what their favorite (everything) is...so what gives? Why has your (personal) radio lisenership dwindled away?

Answer 1

There is nothing wrong with it.  One just has to find stations he/she likes and listen away.  In a time when patience with everyone seems to be very thin it's probably easier for people to listen only to what they want to listen to on their iPods and what not.  Plus with satellite radio becoming increasingly popular commercial based radio is going to have to try and find a way to appeal to a crowd that is looking elsewhere for entertainment and music, and unfortunately for them ($$$) it can't include more commercials.

That's my 2 cents.

Answer 2

The music all sounds the same anymore.  No sooner than a specific craze hit our airwaves everyone else had to copy.  When Britney Spears came out every sexed-up teen kitten had to come out of the woodwork.  When the Backstreet Boys came along, every other boy band was crammed down our throats.

This also leads to the record companies who are no longer interested in niche music, you have to have a home run right out of the gate or they want nothing to do with you.  I don't know if a band like REM or U2 could start up today, they took a few years to gain a following.  That means the music is all mediocre.  

To me, the music is what drives me to listen.  If it's not worth listening to, I'm going to stick to listening to news and sports radio.

Answer 3

The biggest problem with FM radio came from deregulation in the 1990's after the Republican Revolution.  It took the 'local' out of local radio in many markets.  There used to have to be a live person in the studio at all times.  Now a person can record their shows for the week on Monday and do other things, instead of be in the studio interacting with listeners via the airwaves or over the phones.  What does that mean?  That means that those who cannot fake the "I am here right now" thing when they do their vocal recording make the station sound very generic and robotic.    Or worse, why have local people when have some pro phone it in (or email it in), so they really don't know much about the local market they are talking in.  Its pretty obvious with many of the Clear Channel stations if you do much cross country driving.  Its amazing hearing the same guy in New Mexico in the afternoon that you heard in Alabama the previous afternoon.  Or still worse.... satalight radio.  Which is usually so poorly programed and timed that even the average listener can tell it is done via satilight.

It also means, as sad as it sounds, that there is nobody in many stations to answer the phones.  People get jaded when they hear "call in your requests" and when they do, nobody ever answers the phone... because nobody is there.

Very few stations put in the real effort to make it sound like there is a person sitting behind the mic.

Answer 4

Ok you want to know what's wrong...

Why do we have to hear the same songs? Wanna know why stations in the middle of nowhere get high ratings for (Other than the fact that they are in the middle of nowhere)? Could it be content revelant to the listener?

I don't hate some of the conglomerates in that there are a few clusters still not VTed in who play a wide variety of songs at a time. Most of my favorite stations are either mom and pop or stations like Clear Channel in market 160.. cause they are live,local, play more of a variety in rotation as they aren't as worried about the competition coming in and trying to format a station to take away their listeners.

That's why people went to sat radio for.. more variety and less commercials. but I realized years ago they were following the cable company way of making money... spend a few years building up a customer base with no commercials and then ween them on to the commercials.

I'll stay with my local mom and pop who plays songs that hit the top 20 say 10 years ago that the conglomerate won't play as a room of people I don't know don't listen to music more than 2 hours a week said they didn't like it cause they weren't remembering it.

It's weird, the local station has 12,000 songs on it's mp3 player ... Most clusters might have 2-3,000 songs at most... Some are less than 500

But then that's my opinion.. I could be right

Answer 5

Here's is my nickel (two cents adjusted for inflation).

It is really hard to answer such a question without really getting specific and "long-winded".  I'll try to summarize for you some of my important points.

I believe that people are getting bored with the same old stuff.  Playlists are really tight, without putting in something that will break-up the normal routine once in a while.  Refreshing the schedule/playlist once in a while will help.  I have appreciated listening to stations that played more variety in the same style of music and after some time passed, I could tell if the programmer changed the playlists after a couple of months.

An opinion:  These variety hits stations are guilty of what they were suppose stop...not playing enough cuts, at least in the market I live in (#42).

Music isn't as popular anymore as it use to be.  Music is promoted by a organization that's too lazy to promote good music and will force anything out there because they know it will make them some money (which is better than none...the alternative).  Good music in the present is scarce.

Just look at how long it took them to embrace downloads on the internet.

I like personality in a station, so having talent that is good for the atmosphere that is being portrayed by the station would help.  It might come down to having air "personalities" having a writing team and perhaps it would help if they did more show prep that fit the station, instead of the individual.  I don't like automation running the station for 19 hours of the day, but I don't like someone talking in between every song either.

Several stations here have problems with sound quality.  I have completely stopped listening to one station because of the sound quality.  The days of using hyper-compressed sound for loudness are gone.  Now having a good sound is paramount considering that most of us are not using slide-rule tuners anymore and quality is important.

I am afraid that radio will be on it's way out in the future...unless it changes.  We already see it now.  IBOC services like Hybrid Digital (or HD radio for short) isn't really going to change anything.  Radio will have to offer content that is much different than it is today (offering talk for some of the day instead of playing music all the time) or developing shows that currently don't exist for whatever reason (perhaps something that will go against the grain of what has been popular for a long time running).  Radio will always have a place if it offers content that cannot be downloaded from the internet, which most people are doing now.

I had been in radio in DMA #44 for a little while, so I know a little bit about radio.  I also run my own music service on-line and posted in top 100 of the SHOUTcast yp page...a feat not easily accomplished considering the number of streams on-line now.  Naturally, working for less than $8 an hours, I had to decide what was more important, the rent or the station.  Obviously, I made the choice not to go back to living with my parents.  :-)

Answer 6

C'mon, Ted. You know the answer to that. Same as 40 years ago when I first got in the business. Rotations are too fast and there are too many spots... and the DJs talk too much (and you know how bad some of those newbie jox are in the small to medium markets).

The difference is, now there are alternatives that don't require a 25 lb. boom-box on your shoulder.

Don't forecast too much from what you read here, or elsewhere on the net. By definition it's the place where those who would complain - complain.

You never hear from those who don't complain. So it's a pretty small sample and it's about as accurate as your focus groups. Check with Arbitron and RAB. They'll tell you that, though we're not at the old levels radio enjoyed (97%-98% - had to memorize that to get my CRMC-Diamond Level ;<) - more than 90% of the population tunes in at least once a week. Way more. Peace, bro...

-a guy named duh

Answer 7

There's nothing *inherently* wrong with FM radio... I listen to FM every day for NPR, and sometimes my university's student-run station and the local jazz station.

I don't listen to much commercial FM radio for two reasons: there are too many commercials and I don't like the music.

As a public radio listener, I've gotten kind of spoiled and unused to my content being broken up every ten minutes for a five minute block of commercials.

I'm not really fond of a lot of the music that the FM stations in my area offer. There are a couple of top40/best of the 90s stations, some urban/hip hop, and a couple of oldies/classic rock. I prefer folk music, new wave, and Canadian rock... and nobody plays those because it's not very popular, especially among my age group (I live in a college town, and am a college student).

That doesn't mean that there's a flaw with FM radio, just that my local stations don't offer the variety I generally care to listen to. Radio *is* immensely popular among my peers.