If you are bored with the same 200 songs in the current classic rock/oldies/country playlists, tired of talk radio hosts that have dug themselves into a rut, or tired of 13 minute commercial stop sets, the answer may be personal playlists and downloaded podcasts. Millions of people are either building a playlist on their mp3 player or downloading podcasts to listen to at a more convenient time. Radio doesn’t do it for them any longer. They see the writing on the wall. The radio apocalypse is at hand.
Doctors recommend you begin with apps such as iHeart or Entercom (radio.com) before you go through complete radio withdrawal. You certainly can’t quit cold turkey. My personal favorite is radio.com, the Entercom platform. This type of app will be the future of TV. There may be dozens of those competing for the audience and there will be subscriptions, similar to cable tv or to the upgrades offered by Hulu etc.
If you are adept at using audio editing software and stream recorders, you can quickly build a huge playlist with an iHeart music subscription. Those songs can be transferred to a stand-alone hard drive and your mp3 player. (I don’t condone or recommend you do what might be considered ‘pirating music’, just saying it is something that could be done). Take stream recorders and audio editing software away from people and only criminals will have stream recorders and audio editing software, as the saying goes.
Most major market stations, networks, and various celebrities provide content in podcast form. My favorites: AJ Benza, Fame is a Bitch; Tim Conway Jr/KFI; Ron & Don/KIRO; Dori Monson/KIRO; Adam Carolla; Marc Maron’s WTF podcast; Kevin Pollock’s Chat Show and a few others, including a couple old time radio collections.
These podcasts, a stack of VHS tapes/DVDs and something to play them on, will get you through the ‘end times’. Perhaps radio will survive in some form. Possibly only a handful of stations in each major market, and these will have to stream online to stay alive.
In the final days, transmitters will be shut off, towers will be taken down and the AM band will be given over to cellular telephone carriers. there will be looting as scavengers hope to take away small treasures left behind at abandoned facilities. Those who have saved airchecks from the halcyon days of radio will be able to trade copies of this audio for items such as station promotional goods, t-shirts, and bumper stickers.
Start preparing now. Every home should have a supply of radio merch that can be traded. If you think this is science fiction, look around you. There are zombies among us who still request the same songs that play each day on the radio, Brown-Eyed Girl, Hey Jude, Another One Bites The Dust. Now, are you convinced? They have already formed clans, led by what are called, consultants and programmers. Lock your doors and start downloading now.
From the Internet Archive, some of our Lost Comments—
Steven Smith says:
July 21, 2018 5:55 pm at
Brown Eyed Girl….now that is one overplayed tune. I liked it better back in the sixties prior to it being played to death.
maplevalleymike says:
July 21, 2018 10:46 pm at
But do you remember then?
pugetsound says:
July 22, 2018 9:20 am at
I don’t get it? Did you mean: Do you remember when we used to sing
Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah
????
mikec says:
July 22, 2018 11:02 am at
YES! Out in the green grass behind the stadium…
Quite right Steven & Jason makes this point in his editorial on Podcasts. Given how much this song is overplayed, one could be forgiven for thinking Van Morrison is a ‘one-hit-wonder’ Far from it! Van is an incredibly prolific singer-songwriter with many, many albums & singles under his belt. So many of these get overlooked by the “classic hits burnout machines” that are today’s remnants of oldies stations. Just a few night ago, I was listening to my copy of the “Tupelo Honey” album & thinking how fresh & relevant this ol’ gem still sounds today. Van The Man is still a busy camper – still singing & playing jazz, blues & R&B with fellow 60’s artist Georgie Fame; also sometimes a member of ex-Stone Bill Wyman’s loose conglomerate band called the ‘Rythym Kings’
What we need is a DEEP oldies formatted station reminiscent of KZOK’s successful approach on air for many years! A station with plenty of the singles AND album cuts we grew up with & played on the radio. I have my hopes that the new KRKO will develop over time, deepen the library & perhaps introduce some live personalities & specialty programs
pugetsound says:
July 22, 2018 11:34 am at
We need a station that covers the Pacific Northwest region, like 106.9, or 94.1 to go deep with the album cuts we grew up listening to.
Consultants took a survey many years ago and fed the questions they wanted to be answered in a certain way. It is not rocket science, nor is it accurate. These results have formed the cookie cutter radio stations heard in all major markets. There is no creativity in the industry.
There will always be the zombies that call radio stations to request the tune they heard just 20 minutes ago.
No programmer has the balls to do it the right way. It just won’t happen.
radiofollower says:
July 23, 2018 12:11 pm at
I agree that radio today is a total lost cause.You have people on air who are not even in the city or station they say they are.I grew up (and did my years in radio) when it was fun and “we” were never in the control room alone,ie: we had our little friends in there with us (just like Pat O’Day & Lan did, among others) and I know today that kind of thing wouldn’t go very far with listeners…it did back then.If I had the financing I would start up a station that played only the songs between say 1954 to 1968 when it was good music and things were a hell of a lot better than now.Radio will die, the question is when?…there is way to many other ways to access what you want to hear now than listening to idiots on the radio.People on/in radio today can in no way compare to those who were in radio in the 50’s & mid 60’s.
mikec says:
July 23, 2018 2:10 pm at
Agreed on all points. Sadly, we’ll never get to experience this on one of the blowtorch 100kW FM’s here. The corporate broadcasters have no interest in serving listeners, let alone an aging demo which broadcasters seem to think don’t matter. The only innovators in our region are all stuck on the AM band, but now most have low powered FM translators to bring their programming to the core portion of their served area. Instead of innovation on today’s airwaves, we’re stuck with “Zombie 108.1” KZMB.