Radio broadcasters have a rough future ahead: ex-exec’s book
New York Post
Former Cumulus Chief Executive Lew Dickey has penned a tome about the media business, with some gnarly words for those in terrestrial radio broadcasting.
Dickey’s new book, “The New Modern Media,” from publisher Tourbillon International, a unit of Dickey-owned Modern Luxury Media, points out just how tough it is for ad-supported media businesses to make a shift into subscriptions.
“Radio broadcasters will be unlikely to benefit from subscription revenue for their core service, leaving them highly exposed to the ad markets,” he writes.
Cumulus acquired a stake in subscription music outfit Rdio as a hedge against the vagaries of the ad business. Then Rdio was acquired out of bankruptcy by Web radio player Pandora, and servic57 e was discontinued.
On Friday, the nation’s No. 1 radio station owner, iHeartMedia, announced it is getting into the subscription music business.
“Broadcast has a narrow path to participating in subscription revenue with its core business,” observed Dickey.
That’s a viewpoint that’s bound to spark a lot of static within the business.
(Pandora has totally changed the radio business. I am the biggest radio fan you will ever see. The other streaming services like Spotify are going to totally wipe out regular radio. Sure some people will still have cd players but it is a thing of the past. I listen to music on my phone now.
I also listen to all the games on the radio these days. Much better than watching it on TV. It takes me back to the days when I was listening to a transistor radio under the covers when the Yankees were on the West Coast. Or sneaking it when I was in class in grammar school. The fact was I was always so far ahead the nuns gave me special dispensation. I used to love to listen to radio comedy like Opie and Anthony. Now all of that stuff is on Youtube. Both of them are on subscription radio separately these days. Opie and Jim Norton are on Sirius and I am not going to pay that. Anthony has a private podcast for about seven dollars a month. Radio is going the same way as television. You should only get the product you want. You don't need 57 channels because nothing is on. You just bundle what you need. The few podcasts I enjoy like Bob Kelly are either on Youtube or on their own pay-wall for a minimal fee.
It is a new world. Old industries like radio and TV need to adapt or die. Of course you know what the tv and radio executives have been saying.
Those horseless carriages will never catch on.)
8 comments:
I used to listen to distant Imus in the Morning broadcasts with an 8-element active phased array antenna scattered around the yard, switching stations as the propagation conditions changed with sunrise. You need the phased array to null away competing stations on the same frequency, my best trick being nulling away two "local" stations to hear a third much farther away on the same frequency. Augusta GA was a regular source of Imus, listening in Ohio.
Alas IBOC came along, aka High Definition radio, which puts every station spread out over three channels, which tripled the interference, and that was the end of that.
Fortunately online streaming started to pick up the slack.
Alas Imus has not been funny since 2007.
Rush is still good at noon. The commercials are just background noice, as Rush is most of the time, but I turn him off a lot now when he gets repetitive, or moralistic. He's not good at either.
That's all the commercial radio I've ever listened to so I may not be the target audience of the Dickey brothers.
Andrew Klavan is good, for M-Th podcasts, available each day at around 1:30 Eastern.
Armstrong and Getty in SF is good for regular morning radio; actually I stopped streaming them when Dominic came on the scene, because he changed the whole dynamic to something not as interesting, and now he's left but I haven't taken up the habit of listening again for some reason. Their streaming ads are slightly too long and annoying, too.
Hey rh, did you know that Klavan just converted to Christianity?
I loved Stern when he had Gilbert Gottfried on. Wonderfully meaningless radio.
I can't listen to AM radio. Its 5 minutes of worthless news, 25 minutes of commercials, and 30 minutes of actual programming.
I paid the $$ for Rush's podast, but I probably won't renew, since he's only interesting about 50% of the time. He's good at bashing the Dems and RINO's and talking politics in general but when he tries to play economist or foreign policy expert - its embarrassing.
Gilbert Gottfried can be very funny. I think he has a podcast. I listened to one between Gottfried and Norm MacDonald and it was hilarious.
I stopped listening to IMUS after he whimped out over the "Nappy Hoes".
Be PC or don't. Don't pretend to be edgy and then cave.
I bought a new Honda in 2010. On AM radio it sounds like everyone is speaking with a lisp. FM is fine. I took it in to Honda, they agreed it sounded like lisping but said the radio is fine. Anyone have any idea what causes this? It's like listening to GayM/FM.
Imus is into victim porn.
Even Dick Cavett tried to course-correct him, without any luck.
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