On the way to Philadelphia this weekend, my friends and I bemoaned the current state of commercial radio -- something that had driven all of us (even a free marketer like myself) to abandon commericial stations entirely and start listening to NPR.
Looks like we're not the only ones:
The strategy of stuffing commercial radio full of ads has backfired, as a handful of investment banks predicted slower growth, downgrading six key radio stocks -- Clear Channel, Emmis, Cox Radio, Entercom, Citadel and Westwood One -- and the sector as a whole.He (Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Rosenstein) and others said the ad inundation -- which consumers have bemoaned for years -- has eroded the value of the spots. Advertisers have started to worry that their message is being diluted by the sheer number of blurbs.
Whenever I get into my car and turn on the radio, I'm either confronted with music I don't care to listen to, or an endless blizzard of commercials I just don't want to deal with. This results, more often than not, in turning off the radio, or spinning the dial to either NPR, or C-Span. Now that the folks on top of the business are getting smacked where it hurts (their stock options), perhaps they'll find some way to draw the audience back.
It might be time to replace the 8-track with a CD player so you can listen to Scott Frank’s reviewed CDs, Eric.
Satellite radio, anyone?
X-M! X-M! X-M! X-M!
I am as big a raido basher as there is, so I figured I would see what these comment posts were about…and then shazam, I did a double take when I saw my own name. DCTHROWBACK, that is some serious pub.
And I have been off the OFFWING radar for what seems like months. Home computer has been frozen by spware, but I have gotten a decent amount of new CDs lately…so reviews are forthcoming.
“And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anesthetize the way that you feel …”
What would you expect? Radio talent is just one step up from birthday clowns.
Television. Now there’s a classy, cerebral and entertaining medium!