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Is radio dead in the USA? In Australia I think the radio culture is quite vibrant. Personally I download music from time to time that sits on my phone but I lis

by mekazu 15y ago

Is radio dead in the USA? In Australia I think the radio culture is quite vibrant. Personally I download music from time to time that sits on my phone but I listen to the radio 99% of the time because it introduces and plays the best music anyway. The radio stations that I listen to are govt funded[1] so they don't have any ads and have a community focus of getting people to go see live concerts and listen to good music. We also have commercial radio stations that play disposable child-like pop music (combined with horrible ads and drone-like presenters) that is well suited to 13 year old girls but still becomes popular with the masses. So there is something for everyone. I don't support SOPA (not that it counts in Australia, or anywhere else for that matter) but I think that artists should get some money from somewhere for their efforts. People listen to the radio free but they still have the option of buying the album. Downloading the album free makes that option redundant. In Australia people typically pay $40 - $70 a month for their internet which - if they use the allocated capacity - they are using to pirate music, movies and TV without ads. I'd prefer to see part of that money going to an artist fund rather than the ISPs and broadband resellers. [1] triplej.net.au and www.abc.net.au/classic/

rdouble 15y ago
It's not dead if you listen to country music, mexican music, christian music or talk radio.
- davidw 15y ago
  Not just country music. They play both kinds, country and western.
pm 15y ago
Don't forget, with digital radio, we now have JJJ Unearthed as a radio station. For the unenlightened, that's the best of Australia's unsigned bands getting played on the radio.
TylerE 15y ago
Yes, it's dead. But basically minus the government stuff. Well, there is NPR (National Public Radio) which is about 15-25% government funded, but that's typically news/talk/classical. Some of the edgier NPR stations might have an acoustic rock/folk set at midnight on a Friday...
- mekazu 15y ago
  What do you think killed it? How do people find good music without having to filter through all the rubbish? Does the industry rely on advertising to sell bad music? Are "Top 40" artists built by record companies and sold on TV and/or the internet? Does good music travel through word of mouth by people in-the-know? iTunes is pretty and all but I can't picture people paying to download without having heard the music somewhere else before. Lots of generalising to do here to answer these questions I guess but I figure there's opportunity out there for someone who can make something of the answers.
  - krakensden 15y ago
    I don't work in radio, I'm not a radio historian, so there's a good chance I'm violently wrong- but my pet theory is that advertising killed radio in the US. You have to fit into a small number of surprisingly rigid categories in order to participate in the big money advertising campaigns, and if you don't have those, you're liable to go dark. There are exceptions, like the Pacifica network and oddities like KPIG, but they're few and far between. If you're looking for some corroboration, you could check out documentaries about the early days of hip hop.
    - mekazu 15y ago
      You paint a pretty bleak picture. Does anybody have any examples of USA radio that is intelligent, artist focused, youth oriented, community driven, ad free, subscription free, streaming on-line, etc? There are plenty to choose from on tunein.com but I'm looking for highlights. Sorry if this is heading too far from the topic.
      - 15y ago
minikomi 15y ago
I miss radio in Australia a lot now that I'm in Japan - the stations here are terrible (at least in the daytime).. Adelaide, where I used to live, has only a population of 1.2 million and had three(!) quite active community stations (subscribers pay a good deal of the cost + a little advertizing, the shows are staffed by volunteers..) http://radio.adelaide.edu.au/ http://radio.adelaide.edu.au/ http://www.threedradio.com/ http://www.threedradio.com/ http://fresh927.com.au/ http://fresh927.com.au/
joshuahedlund 15y ago
Radio in the US is dying, but anyone who thinks it's dead is in a bubble outside mainstream culture. Yes it's easier than ever before to become famous without radio, and artists with no radio play more frequently top the album sales charts, but just look at the iTunes single charts to see the continuing dominance of radio. 99% of the time the top 10 singles are all over pop/hip-hop/top 40 radio, and it's almost impossible to outsell those kinds of acts without the radio. Even the top-selling albums are still mostly driven by radio play (though increasingly less so).

by mekazu 15y ago

rdouble 15y ago

It's not dead if you listen to country music, mexican music, christian music or talk radio.

davidw 15y ago
Not just country music. They play both kinds, country and western.

pm 15y ago

Don't forget, with digital radio, we now have JJJ Unearthed as a radio station. For the unenlightened, that's the best of Australia's unsigned bands getting played on the radio.

TylerE 15y ago

Yes, it's dead. But basically minus the government stuff. Well, there is NPR (National Public Radio) which is about 15-25% government funded, but that's typically news/talk/classical. Some of the edgier NPR stations might have an acoustic rock/folk set at midnight on a Friday...

mekazu 15y ago
What do you think killed it? How do people find good music without having to filter through all the rubbish? Does the industry rely on advertising to sell bad music? Are "Top 40" artists built by record companies and sold on TV and/or the internet? Does good music travel through word of mouth by people in-the-know? iTunes is pretty and all but I can't picture people paying to download without having heard the music somewhere else before. Lots of generalising to do here to answer these questions I guess but I figure there's opportunity out there for someone who can make something of the answers.
- krakensden 15y ago
  I don't work in radio, I'm not a radio historian, so there's a good chance I'm violently wrong- but my pet theory is that advertising killed radio in the US. You have to fit into a small number of surprisingly rigid categories in order to participate in the big money advertising campaigns, and if you don't have those, you're liable to go dark. There are exceptions, like the Pacifica network and oddities like KPIG, but they're few and far between. If you're looking for some corroboration, you could check out documentaries about the early days of hip hop.
  - mekazu 15y ago
    You paint a pretty bleak picture. Does anybody have any examples of USA radio that is intelligent, artist focused, youth oriented, community driven, ad free, subscription free, streaming on-line, etc? There are plenty to choose from on tunein.com but I'm looking for highlights. Sorry if this is heading too far from the topic.
    - 15y ago

minikomi 15y ago

I miss radio in Australia a lot now that I'm in Japan - the stations here are terrible (at least in the daytime).. Adelaide, where I used to live, has only a population of 1.2 million and had three(!) quite active community stations (subscribers pay a good deal of the cost + a little advertizing, the shows are staffed by volunteers..) http://radio.adelaide.edu.au/ http://radio.adelaide.edu.au/ http://www.threedradio.com/ http://www.threedradio.com/ http://fresh927.com.au/ http://fresh927.com.au/

joshuahedlund 15y ago

Radio in the US is dying, but anyone who thinks it's dead is in a bubble outside mainstream culture. Yes it's easier than ever before to become famous without radio, and artists with no radio play more frequently top the album sales charts, but just look at the iTunes single charts to see the continuing dominance of radio. 99% of the time the top 10 singles are all over pop/hip-hop/top 40 radio, and it's almost impossible to outsell those kinds of acts without the radio. Even the top-selling albums are still mostly driven by radio play (though increasingly less so).