Driver Lifestyles

The Future of Radio Looks Like More of the Same--and That's a Good Thing.

It seems that the Internet has sent a significant portion of mainstream media into something of an upheaval over the past five years, give or take.  Because of services like Netflix and hulu, video rental and television have changed irrevocably.  One need look no further than Blockbuster’s recent bankruptcy to confirm this.  Newspapers have been scrambling to make up for lost profit to the Internet over the last several years, and their response has been to reduce content, increase ad prices, and a seemingly endless series of changes that really haven’t done that much to improve their situation.  

But what of radio?  While similar changes to ad rates have affected radio, and the actual-content-to-advertising-message ratio has undoubtedly changed somewhat significantly, there hasn’t been a whole lot to challenge radio’s landscape.  There is, for example, satellite radio--and while the subscription model has presented some challenge to radio, it’s been more a challenge for listenership than for the entire industry itself.  

The difference between the terrestrial vs. satellite radio dynamic and that of the Internet vs. newspapers and/or television/video rental is one of raw consumer experience.  For example, the delivery of Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature to your television presents a viewing experience different enough from, say, watching the same movie on a cable channel that it offers an undeniable advantage for the consumer--there aren’t many advertisements to speak of, the technology is on-demand, and navigation is dead simple.  It doesn’t hurt that users of the technology love it, and heartily evangelize its advantages.  

This, of course, isn’t to say that lovers of satellite radio don’t evangelize for its gargantuan station list, its broader selection of content, and its minimal commercial messages--they do.  What radio in general doesn’t have going for it, though, is that despite the success of satellite radio and the fact that terrestrial radio isn’t showing any signs of stopping, the medium’s delivery method seems to have reached its peak.  Where television and the Internet have made advancements in significant ways over the last fifteen years, radio simply hasn’t--outside of satellite subscription service, of course.  

On one hand, this paints something of a negative picture of radio, which isn’t exactly what I intend here.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  While I don’t think it’s likely that you’ll see much further advancement with respect to radio in the coming years--the business model is simply too “set in stone,” so to speak--it’s also not going away anytime soon.  

In much the same way as a well-built diesel, radio is a reliable stand-by, especially for drivers--we’re in an age now where something on the order of close to 100% of automobiles come with radios installed.  Early-morning radio programs are termed “Drive time,” and the only stations without traffic reports are public stations.  Does this represent a paradigm shift?  In short, probably not.  Well, at least not since, say, the 1950’s or 60’s.  So, it’s been a while.  

The advantage that radio has over media like, say, television, is that it seems to be well-built for travel and driving specifically.  The technological advancements it’s seen since the 1920’s have primarily been to make radios more and more portable, and that’s something that’s made them ubiquitous.  While a hand-held radio isn’t necessarily as ubiquitous anymore as a cell phone, a car radio certainly is--and that’s what commercial radio capitalizes upon now--its simple ubiquity.  

In the interest of coming full-circle: radio has, of course, lost many listeners to the mp3 player and to the Internet in general, and this has represented some significant changes in how stations (and the corporations that own them) do business.  Ad rates are more often in flux, and it seems that there are more and more ads appearing all the time, even within segments of content.  Have you ever heard product placement on the radio?  I’m betting you have, and it’s less possible to do it gracefully in an all-audio setting than it is with the benefit of a visual element.  In other words, commercial messages in the radio world can get pretty awkward pretty quickly.  

While all forms of radio have struggled over the last ten years for listeners with the advent of devices like the iPod and there’s been quite a bit of internal movement among stations and their corporate bodies, radio seems to prove time and time again that despite whatever advancements occur around it, within it, or otherwise, you’re still going to get more or less what you want when it comes to radio--and that’s the draw, really.  There’s a reason that they call it the theatre of the mind, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_radio
http://www.markramseymedia.com/2008/09/the-future-of-radio/
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/09/22/howard-sterns-endgame-and-pandoras-future.aspx
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/06/radio_future.html