Campfire: Has the Web Killed the Radio Star?

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Permalink Reply by Jordan on June 26, 2008 at 2:16pm

Radio isn't dead. I was recently on a roadtrip with 4 other people to Vegas. Two of them are the biggest music heads EVER, and I consider myself one as well... we all had our iPods full with a car jack and were taking turns blowing eachothers minds lol... but in the end We ended up listening to the Radio anyway. I think there are two reasons for that: 1 - laziness to keep djing the car. 2 - all 3 of us that brought our mp3 players have ALOT of the same stuff anyway..

So even though for the majority of the time we weren't listening to the radio.. in the end we did anyway. AND even if traditional radio is fading out.. radio stations are adapting. Internet "radio" stations and professional podcasts are becoming the thing to do. In fact, a friend and I plan to start one.. I'll post up a link if and when it's ever up.

Anyway, Radio will stay alive.. if not in our cars then it will on our computers.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Rey on June 26, 2008 at 2:58pm

I just wanted to chime in and let everyone know we're experimenting with Seesmic for this week's Campfire. Feel free to embed your videos to this thread as usual -- or use your Seesmic account and reply to Zadi's video directly. If all goes well we may intergrate Seesmic's plugin on epicfu.com, which would allow anyone to record video directly from their webcam and post instantly on our site in one swoop (even if you don't have a Seesmic account).

As always plz let us know how it works out for you!

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Permalink Reply by Apeck on June 26, 2008 at 3:34pm

i think that radio will never die out because of the fact that it is acessable of a push of a button, for example if i wanted to listen to music on a hi-fi, all it would take me to do is to push a few buttons and then theres sound instantly coming out of the speakers. however if i wanted to listen to radio over the internet, you would have to switch on the moniter, then you would have to wait for the computer to boot up, then search out a radio station on the web, then wait for it to buffer and then switch on the computer speakers. for me that method takes far too long and if i want to listen to something quickly i want it to work as soon as i switch it on

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Permalink Reply by Stefanthenautilus on June 26, 2008 at 5:02pm

The problem with radio is that with so much media consolidation in the past 20 years, not only do fewer individuals exercise a lot more power over what we hear, but they aim for more homogenized formats that generally don't latch on to new trends very fast. The most powerful radio stations in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, where I lived and now go to school, are either country, "classic rock", or Golden Oldies. These formats aim for an older demographic, one that might listen to the radio on a routine basis, but one that is slowly fading from the market and being replaced by...us. The most interesting radio stations I hear are generally locally owned and operated setups that are waaay more responsive to their listener base than the Clear Channels and Viacoms of the world. That, in part, is something that we should be pushing for if we want radio to remain a really vital medium.

And don't get me started on radio news and political talk. ~sigh~

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Permalink Reply by Alex V. on June 26, 2008 at 5:25pm

Radio is not dead, and I don't think it's going to die any time soon. It survived the TV when some people predicted its demise, and I think it will survive the Internet also. Maybe not in its current form, I'm sure it's going to go digital at one point in the future (that is digitally encoded radio transmissions, not streaming over the net) and maybe have some more features, like custom music selection, extra information, something like that. Also, for the moment, radio waves are much more accessible than internet streaming. And for me personally, I like that someone who is a professional is making a show and creating a playlist, and I just have to tune in and listen to it. It's something else than making it myself.

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Permalink Reply by J.J on June 26, 2008 at 5:51pm

Radio is not dead and will not be dead. I think that radio will evolve into a web integrated radio. With this i mean that we can have live programs on the internet coming directly to our phones or pcs live just like radio, then you can connect your phone to the car radio or something like that. But also in the near future i feel radio is going to be alive, lot's of people listen to radio for information while in the car or at the office (at least here). The main advantage is that it is accessible almost everywhere and at any time and that it brings good content besides the music. Some of them are comments, discussions, live bands and specially new bands we haven't heard off before.

So i think it is still a good media channel to transmit things but it will have to evolve and integrate to web while keeping the AM and FM transmissions.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Gowdy on June 26, 2008 at 11:07pm

I think radio may well evolve it's format a little bit here and there. But if it's going to die, then a long and slow death it would be. Hell, if video couldn't kill the radio star, I don't think the internet will. Of course, there's always the question of what we define as radio, if it falls under anything auditory, then we have nothing to worry about, podcasting would count.

I do have a video, however, since I do not have a webcam, I couldn't post it on Seesmic. So I uploaded it instead. Hopefully the audio isn't too low.

http://mix.epicfu.com/video/video/show?id=699622%3AVideo%3A134521

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Permalink Reply by Dale on June 27, 2008 at 1:10am

this may sound stupid but as long as people drive cars and work in public offices there will always be radio.

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Permalink Reply by shitboy on June 27, 2008 at 5:20am

punk's not... I mean, radio's not dead! Divine Forces Radio 90.7 Jonesy's Jukebox 103.1 kxlu... I love being able to find almost any song I want at any time on the Internet, I am a DJ recovering from what now looks to be a permanent seperation from a collection of 1,000's of records that took me 20 years + to collect, so it is part of the healing process, allowing me to hear that one song that I love whenever I get the urge. However, the removal of the DJ from the experience of hearing music destroys the element of human interaction in the listening experience whereby thoughts, feelings, ideas, and emotions can be conveyed by the DJ by playing certain songs. People develop a relationship with their favorite DJ, or they feel an immediate connection with a DJ that touches them by playing certain songs, songs we never heard before, or mixing them in a certain way. Internet radio with a live DJ is a great alternative to corporate mainstream radio saturated with a mash of mostly played out or unlistenable crap, and being able to access archived musical performances online is great too, but I hope the future will allow for an opening of the airwaves, so that wanna be DJ's like me can still have a chance to go LIVE on the air, even though doing it on the radio waves or over the Internet is practically the same thing if you're live and people can call in and make requets...anyone tried killradio.org?

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Permalink Reply by Pete on June 27, 2008 at 5:39am

The web hasn't killed the radio star, but it looks like the RIAA might be able to do it: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/senate-committe.html

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Permalink Reply by Jordan on July 1, 2008 at 12:39pm

What do you think is the best plausible way for artists to get compensated?

I personally think a cross between the "radiohead tip jar" method and the "rcrdlbl.com advertising money" method would work.

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Permalink Reply by CrazyCheshireCat on June 27, 2008 at 11:03am

As long as there are wicked public radio stations around and people who support good music, it won't die.

My fav: The CKUA Radio Network, broadcasting all over Alberta Canada and live to the world @ http://www.ckua.org/
I find all my new tunes from every genre on here, they are big supporters of indy music as well, so I am constantly getting new, random, wicked music every week. You rarely hear the same song twice. I would love to see their library!

It’s official! CKUA is one of Alberta’s Top 100 Destinations... and we have the hardware to prove it!!

As part of Alberta’s centennial celebrations in 2005, the Alberta Motor Association polled Albertans province-wide, asking them to name their top 100 Alberta destinations.

Thousands of suggestions poured in from all across the province, and guess what? CKUA was named destination number 24! And we’re proud of it.

Thank you Alberta for this wonderful honour. We are thrilled to be held in such high esteem and we are proud to be one of the great Alberta destinations that make you so proud.

They've been around for over 80 years and keep getting better, check it out!

Peace =^..^=

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