August 9, 2006Why terrestrial radio is doomed (talk is cheap)
Filed Under: Medium - neither rare nor well done
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I’m a big sports nut and a big Yankees (baseball) fan. On the radio, the best (and I think the ONLY) sports talk-station is ESPN (in the Tri-state area of New York-New Jersey-Connecticut, it’s 1050 AM) In the morning, the program of choice is Mike (Goldberg Greenberg) & Mike (Golick) During the day, there’s plenty of great shows from the likes of Steven A. Smith, Dan Patrick and Michael Kay.
So what’s the problem?
When I travel into the city on my every-other-day commute on the train, I typically leave around 7 or 7.05am in order to make a 7.20am train.
So what’s the problem?
When I arrive at the station and park, my car tells me I’ve been traveling for about 7 minutes.
So what’s the problem?
The problem is that in these 7 minutes, I don’t hear a damn word from Mike & Mike. All I hear are damn ads, promos (Summer Hummer crap) and more damn ads. Actually that’s not true, I change the channel and typically continue to change it as I encounter more ad breaks.
I’m not going to stick around and wait for ESPN to figure out how to better reach – and connect – with me.
I also don’t want to hear about the NFL or NBA or NHL. I want to hear about Baseball, Football (your soccer), Cricket, Rugby and headline making stories in general.
ESPN doesn’t care what I want. They just care what their advertisers want.
I’m out of here.
Radio is doomed.
Here are a few ways of helping to kill off this terminally ill patient.
1) Radio’s only remaining competitive advantage is the live or near live experience i.e. currency (as in current) and listener call-ins. So to make the East Coast commute, beginning around 6 or 6.30am, I would record a podcast every morning at 5am and upload it at 6am. 30 minutes; 1 sponsor maximum.
2) The third Mike. Are Mike & Mike truly (one of) the best in the game? Perhaps and perhaps note. Against ESPN’s arbitrary standards, absolutely. Against the wisdom of crowds, lifetime Yankees loyalists and sports nuts…not so much. It's time for the listeners to become the broadcasters...
3) Tailored Content. The podcast created in 1) would be a Yankees podcast (25 mins) with 5 mins of general content to balance out the sporting news of the day/night before
4) Satellite Radio. Need I say more?
5) The rise of iPod (or similar MP3 player) installed handsets in cars. Yes, the lighter thingy is nifty, but it’s a little cumbersome and the quality isn’t so great and besides, if they can put in GPS, Satellite Radio etc in a car, they can make sure MP3 players are standard
6) The obvious next step…who needs an MP3 player anyway? Ala Tivo and Rocketboom, how far away are we to being able to download podcasts directly to our “audio console” (or whatever we end up calling it) in our cars.
7) The obvious next step…the mash-up of SkypeCast meets Wi-Fi meets Podcasting. The inevitable and inexorable march towards LiveCasting (there’s a term worth coining), which should be able to comprehensively be the final straw or final nail for radio
8) 5 steps backwards…there are already plenty of Yankees Podcasts, right? WRONG. Can anyone spell out O P P O R T U N I T Y (see step 1)
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Comments
Keep in mind that ESPN currently beams it radio programming over Sirius and because it is being dual-purposed for terrestrial AND satellite radio, commericial/promotional breaks are the same. So hearing Mike & Mike in the morning over Sirius wouldn't solve your current problem.
You could solve your problem by leaving your house at 6:50 and catch the full segment and just as you park your car and head to the subway, Mike & Mike will head to their scheduled break.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)
Joseph,
I'll be thinking about you as I watch the White Sox versus the Yankees from the Fan Deck in center field Thursday night. I'm a Cubs fan and Yankee fan, but I'll should probably keep my mouth shut at US Cellular.
I was suprised to see only a couple of podcasts for the Yankees, with none of them being that comprehensive. The Cubs (who absolutely stink most of the time) have a couple of good podcasts including www.cubscast.com .
What's more impressive is that WGN Radio (AM 720 in Chicago) not only has a Cubs podcast, but also podcasts for most of the channel's shows. A link can be found at http://www.wgnradio.com/podcast/index.htm . For a company owned by traditional media giant Tribune, this shows me that they have started to "get it" much faster than their traditional media peers.
Posted by: Sean Cheyney
Good news on point 5: Ford's recent announcement that i-Pod connectors will be fitted in most of its vehicles from next year.
Posted by: Andrew Horberry
I disagree. I think that the death of terrestrial radio is still far off. It's still convenient and free. However, I do think that radio broadcasters better put on their innovation hats and think long and hard about how they are going to refresh good old terrestrial radio or "t-rad". (Oooh, another phrase worth coining.)
Posted by: Christian
I disagree. I think that the death of terrestrial radio is still far off. It's still convenient and free. However, I do think that radio broadcasters better put on their innovation hats and think long and hard about how they are going to refresh good old terrestrial radio or "t-rad". (Oooh, another phrase worth coining.)
Posted by: Christian
Joe,
Haven't you ever heard of the Fan - 660 AM? It became the very first sports all-sports radio station in the country and is the radio home of the Mets (baseball), Giants (football), Nets (hoops), and Devils (hockey).
Of course, I'm sure the commcercial situation is very much the same there, just as it as on WEEI, the main all-sports radio station in Boston, where I"m from.
I've just figured out the station's "clock." Commercials from about :00-:15 and :30-:45. I power up my iRiver during those times :)
Yes, it's ridiculous, but the station gets killer ratings, so people are obviously listening.
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Posted by: Bryan Person
I agree that radio is dying a slow, painful(to us) death. I cringe everytime I have to turn it on. Amazingly, if I don't listen to a music station for awhile and listen for some reason a few weeks or months later, the same songs are playing.
Radio seems to go to commercial at same time. Flipping from station to station leads you to more commercials (usually the same ones). If I don't have my iPod with me in the car, sometimes I will just drive in silence.
Posted by: Mike Bellina
New media do not kill old media. Old media adapt and, often, shrink, but do not die. Radio's demise was predicted once before, with the advent of television, yet somehow it continues to exist and make a boatload of money, even if you can't listen to Milton Berle, The Green Hornet, Playhouse 90 or Little Orphan Annie. Radio will eventually figure this one out, too, and while listenership may dwindle, there will continue to be listeners. I'll continue to be among them for my favorite talk show hosts and the ability to catch up ("give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world").
Posted by: Shel Holtz
