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Clear Channel Radio, SSSSSUUUUCCCCKKKKSSSS they are the number one money grubbers in the radio industry.
I just read today in my local rag the b******d just got rid of my favorite dj on 102.5 here in Charleston SC. They say they are trying to economize and save money. Well they have succeded in losing me as a listener. I guess they don't seem to realize that by making their canned music and pop and rock they are playing what everyone else is doing. There is no variety , no reason to listen to any particular station.
I yearn for the return to radio dj's that played their own music rather than what corporate says they can play. This is why radio is loosing listeners ! No wonder they lose money with this crap.
Ed
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No mod of the Polk tuner can compensate for the piss-poor bitrate of the XM Radio CODEC. Let's assume, for discussion, that XM's best channel broadcasts a bit rate of say 160Kbps.A CD bitrate is 1,440Kbps.
So the best the XM Channel can do is send you approximately 10% of the music that was on the CD. And the other 90% or so of the bits are discarded because XM Radio uses a LOSSY bit rate.
So, if I opened a resturant and advertised 16 oz. steaks, and I served you one that was only 1.6 oz. after cooking, and I told you it was "Kobe Beef" quality, would you be happy?
I rest my case.
I don't know if you're a "Generation Y" demograhic person, but if you are, chances are you have already ruined your hearing by listing to iPods and MP3 players at way too high a listening level.
Personally, I'm buying stock in Beltone and the other major hearing aid companies because those of you who've been listning to 90Db+ music on your iPods and MP3 players are going to have serious hearing problems by the time you hit your 30's and my investments will really pay off when you go into get fitted for your new hearing aids :-(
This is why I subscribe to XM Satelitte radio. Do the same your ears will be happy again.
the morning dj pair here in Providence on the same day. They had been on the air for 20 years and after their show they were pulled into the office and fired. No time for a goodbye to their two decades of dedicated fans. Nice move, Clear Channel, you guys are a real class act. Needless to say it created quite a stir that night on the local TV news shows.
The large chain radio station business model is changing, and not for the better, for the large chains like Clear Channel and Infinity. The biggest problem, like always, is senior management that is out of touch with new business paradigms and who are too late and too slow to adapt to change.Case in point is satellite radio: None of the large chains chose to become investors and now a huge number of car radios are XM or Sirius equipped and for people that have long commutes, they don't have to change stations when one fades out. Yeah, the satellite people are still losing money, but if you examine Clear Channel's latest financial reports in detail, their revenues were DOWN on the broadcast side and UP on the outdoor billboard side. So their broadcast revenues are declining as advertisers abandon the shrinking terrestial FM broadcast radio audience. And when the ad dollars go away, so do the DJ's and the stations. Hopefully, some of these stations will be bought by local investors and become what they used to be: Local outlets carrying local news staffed by local people and playing good music like they did in the "glory" days of FM back in the 1950's - 1970's when the good stations played albums whilst their AM competitors were playing singles.
IMHO, the biggest threat to the Clear Channels and Infinitys of the world is going to be Internet Radio and WiFi Radio and I'm guessing the senior poobahs of the big chains are ignoring these new technologies just like they ignored satellite radio.
I will give them an "E" for effort in their feeble attempt to compete by broadcasting HD Radio, but why invest millions in a technology when there is no base of listeners and the technology has a maximum resolution of 96Kbps, less than MP3 AND there are no radios yet for people to listen on? The car manufacturers will make or break a new radio format and so far, all but one are ignoring HD Radio.
You'll hear a lot of advertising for HD Radio this Christmas shopping season, but HD Radios are few and far between and the HD Radio business model will hopefully crash and burn sometime next year. And when this happens, Clear Channel and Infinity will panic and start cutting even more and they'll go into a death spiral. YMMV, of course.
...as rare as local record shops (most unfortunately). It's something our children are likely to only hear about from us old timers.
Robotic DJ's, 24/7.
Heard on one of KDVS' public service programs where Apple's ipods were responsible for Clear Cut's apparent broadcast audience slippage! Since kids can program their own tunes for instant availability, why should they subject themselves to limited playlists & apparently interchangable djs? Here in NorCali, audiences appreciate & abundantly fund their local public radio outlets. Even the low power f.m.ers!!!
It's funny you mention Ipods. I read somewhere that Jack was intended to emulate a large capacity Ipod with about 1,200 songs played randomly. whatever...But, like you, We're pretty lucky also. Being right outside of NYC we get a plethora of low power college stations and a few sterling NPR stations, WBGO and WNCN come to mind. ... or is that WNYC? dunno. One of the latter two is "the music station of the New York times" and I doubt it's listener sponsored. ...but they both sound excellent!
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