Future of Radio

Very interesting post by Jerry Del Colliano of Inside Music Media

In it he discusses the latest meeting of The Southern California Broadcasters Association in which the major radio consolidators were discussing the future of the media. Apparently, these guys don't have a clue as to what's going on. They still believe that stand-alone radio is is a viable medium that has no need for Internet, podcasting or satellite distribution.

One of these days the so called "experts" will get the message...even though it will probably be too late by the time they do. Right now they are playing "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" and if that's what makes them happy, so be it. This reminds me of a situation in the late 80's, early 90's, when a certain large computer company (not HAL!), found itself in the position of having to offer "early retirement" to some of its' senior employees, primarily due to a new environment they had not experienced before - competition. As these senior employees were boxing up their personal effects, they were still proclaiming that the lowly PC could never replace the room-filling mainframe computer and they were holding on to that opinion even as security was escorting them out the door. Change is not easy for many people, even in light of evidence to the contrary, there are many who will maintain the viability of "regular radio" even as the lights are being turned off and the doors are being locked.