“Of course there’s a place for it … it’s called radio.”
“Sad but probably true. Radio is desperate for attention. It’s irrelevant to entire generations, having niched and formatted itself into a box. Who needs robotic FM playlists when you can make up your own robotic playlist and change it anytime you want on your iPod? Local news could have been a differentiator, but most stations ditched it 25 years ago. Program directors and consultants claimed it was a “tuneout”. That manner of thinking was a tacit admission that the rest of a station’s programming was not compelling enough to bring listeners back if they did tune out. So the only thing that now sets radio apart from other media are loud-mouthed, childish talk-show hosts who’ll say anything to get a few minutes of attention. If CBS dumps Imus, I’ll be surprised. Imus and Stern and Limbaugh and Beck are all the same, really. They hang on to radio because radio programmers lack the talent to come up with anything better and radio management is too afraid to try something, anything new. The disappointing financial performance of the CBS radio division is likely to be a factor, too. If current management gives up Imus, they’re probably giving up their own jobs in a year or less.”
“Of course there’s a place for it … it’s called radio.”
“Sad but probably true. Radio is desperate for attention. It’s irrelevant to entire generations, having niched and formatted itself into a box. Who needs robotic FM playlists when you can make up your own robotic playlist and change it anytime you want on your iPod? Local news could have been a differentiator, but most stations ditched it 25 years ago. Program directors and consultants claimed it was a “tuneout”. That manner of thinking was a tacit admission that the rest of a station’s programming was not compelling enough to bring listeners back if they did tune out. So the only thing that now sets radio apart from other media are loud-mouthed, childish talk-show hosts who’ll say anything to get a few minutes of attention. If CBS dumps Imus, I’ll be surprised. Imus and Stern and Limbaugh and Beck are all the same, really. They hang on to radio because radio programmers lack the talent to come up with anything better and radio management is too afraid to try something, anything new. The disappointing financial performance of the CBS radio division is likely to be a factor, too. If current management gives up Imus, they’re probably giving up their own jobs in a year or less.”
— Posted by Mark Roberts
Couldn’t put it better myself.