I like radio, I just don't like ads or paying for it. Sports radio in particular is good, especially for baseball. I'd even go so far as to say Baseball on radio can be better than on TV.
The first radio I listened to by choice was sports talk radio and Red Sox baseball games. I never liked listening to music on the radio unless I was absolutely sick of listening to whatever talk radio or audiobook I was listening to. Then podcasts came and I now only listen to a local college station very occasionally because they play a capella and other cool stuff on the weekends.
It is hard to go back to regular radio after listening to NPR. With the exception of pledge drives the content:commercials ratio is just through the roof.(Yes they have commercials even though they refer to them as sponsor call outs.)
Occasionally I flip through the FM dial in the car but the stations all play the same music and far too many commercials.
The bullshit level is much lower on NPR too. Occasionally you encounter pairings where the host and guest are too much in sync for a good interview but most of the local hosts on CT NPR have no problem calling out the BS when it is spoken.
It's weird, even though we all have that ability with CD's now, plus ipods etc, and many people had that ability with tapes, radio is still pretty important down here. It's hard to find a generation of Australians in the last 20 years that hasn't grown up listening to Triple J.
If radio in the US was anywhere near as good as Triple J is, I'd happily to listen to it. Every channel in Orlando except for the local college one are all owned by the same company and played the same awful music, sometimes even at the same time.
If radio in the US was anywhere near as good as Triple J is, I'd happily to listen to it. Every channel in Orlando except for the local college one are all owned by the same company and played the same awful music, sometimes even at the same time.
I know that feeling. Thanks to the internet, I have access to just about every major radio station in the world - and you can bet your left bollock that I'm not streaming fuckin' KROQ or Q104.3.
Even amongst Australian stations, JJJ is the standout, since most of the other popular stations are owned by one of the three big non-public networks, Southern Cross Austereo, DMG, or ARN. A distant fourth is CAAMA, but basically that's because they broadcast a lot of country, indigenous hip-hop, and hyper-local content on stations throughout the parts of the country that the other networks don't give a shit about, which is basically everything that isn't the East coast, Darwin, or Perth. Essentially a half shaky step up from volunteer community radio - but to be fair, it also serves a lot off communities that sorely need it.
Across all the similarly branded stations under the big three banners, they often run national content, and vary the scheduling and mix as little as possible from city to city, to cut costs - which is understandable, to be sure, but does make for the situation you're talking about - sometimes exactly the situation you're talking about.
Funny coincidence, though - New York's biggest rock station is Q104.3 FM, and my city's rock station is Triple M, who broadcast on 104.5 FM.
If radio in the US was anywhere near as good as Triple J is, I'd happily to listen to it. Every channel in Orlando except for the local college one are all owned by the same company and played the same awful music, sometimes even at the same time.
So many times when I cruise the FM dial the "pop" stations are either playing the same song at the same time or playing the same list of songs within a few minutes of each other. They also play their commercials at the same time so you can't even get a benefit from changing stations during a commercial.
I like radio, I just don't like ads or paying for it. Sports radio in particular is good, especially for baseball. I'd even go so far as to say Baseball on radio can be better than on TV.
Absolutely. I pay for MLB At Bat. I think it was $15 or something for the whole season audio. Baseball makes for great radio, and it's great to have on when doing other things. Funny enough I do not have cable, but I have an antenna hooked up for basic TV, yet it gets every channel great EXCEPT the broadcast channel that shows weekend Mets games.
Speaking of NPR... What is going on with On Point this week? They have a woman hosting the show and she is using late night talk radio techniques and topics.http://onpoint.wbur.org
Radio can never die. It's installed into all cars by default, so even when it's turned off, radio stations will still get their ratings.
Sorry, dude, but you have NO idea how ratings work. An radio that is off generates no ratings. Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) measures ratings by giving people pager sized devices called "portable people meters" that listen all the time for radio stations and other sources of music, logging them all day until you connect it to upload it's data.
So, radio that's on in a store someone happens to enter counts?
Of course. If I own a radio station I want to count every ear that hears my station so I can tell as big a number as possible to ad buyers.
You better believe it. Also, remember that stores that play music recordings have to pay a license fee to ASCAP or BMI. Playing the radio is free and legal. Thus, playing ad-laden radio (or even public radio) is incentivized.
Stores that only play broadcast radio are often required to pay ASCAP fees in the US anyway.
"Permission for radio and television transmissions in your business is not needed if the performance is by means of public communication of TV or radio transmissions by eating, drinking, retail or certain other establishments of a certain size which use a limited number of speakers or TVs, and if the reception is not further transmitted (for example, from one room to another) from the place in which it is received, and there is no admission charge"
"A food service or drinking establishment is eligible for the exemption if it (1) has less than 3750 gross square feet of space (in measuring the space, the amount of space used for customer parking only is always excludable); or (2) has 3750 gross square feet of space or more and (a) uses no more than 6 loudspeakers of which not more than 4 loudspeakers are located in any 1 room or adjoining outdoor space; and (b) if television sets are used, there are no more than 4 televisions, of which not more than 1 is located in any 1 room and none has a diagonal screen size greater than 55 inches.
An other establishment is eligible for the exemption if it (1) has less than 2000 gross square feet of space; or (2) has 2000 or more gross square feet of space and satisfies the same loudspeaker and television set requirements as for food service or drinking establishments. "
I was thinking more along the lines of small stores. Bigger stores and restaurants generally have to pay. The general rule is if you have speakers in the ceiling, you have to pay.
Yes, yes it is. Thing is, this whole bit stems from the days when radio and, later, television ownership was uncommon (yeah, that far back). Bars and such would buy a TV or radio and that would bring people in. Content owners (not the stations) didn't take too well to the idea that their content (Predominantly music) was being used to generate profit that they didn't get a piece of. So, ASCAP and BMI fees. Even creative commons music has Jamendo Pro for venue music.
So many times when I cruise the FM dial the "pop" stations are either playing the same song at the same time or playing the same list of songs within a few minutes of each other. They also play their commercials at the same time so you can't even get a benefit from changing stations during a commercial
I ran into this a lot when I was living in a more urban area. This is often because the pop stations are part of the same conglomerate or subscribed to the same feed as other pop stations, so they end up playing the same things, albeit slightly time-shifted. It's also not uncommon for them to have an eight-hour loop with preconfigured slots for commercials and news breaks, where you'll hear the same top hits anywhere from 4 to 8 times during that loop. Examples in the US include the JACK FM branding (owned by Sparknet Communications) or KISS FM (owned by Clear Channel Communications) - the station itself may be local to your area, but if you look up other channels with the same branding, you'll hear them playing the same stuff in the same time slots.
The local 70's rock station near me likes to brand their broadcast during the week as the "no repeat work day". Unfortunately they will never do the " no repeat work week " as they seem to be repeating the same songs every day with a little bit of time shifting.
In rural areas, the only things I can find on the radio are religious programs or top 40.
Oh man, Gympie. You can always tell when you've entered gympie town limits, because there's a sign that says "Golden Nugget Truckstop Ahead" and the only thing you can pick up on the radio is religious stations.
In rural areas, the only things I can find on the radio are religious programs or top 40.
Such is radio in the sticks. Around my neck of the woods there were a lot of stations you could pick up, but not a huge amount of variety. There used to be the country station, the other country station, the other other country station, the top 40 station, and the rock station that played rock & metal from the 80s through 2000s. As for what there is now, I don't really know or care. I tend to listen to podcasts during my daily commute.
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It is hard to go back to regular radio after listening to NPR. With the exception of pledge drives the content:commercials ratio is just through the roof.(Yes they have commercials even though they refer to them as sponsor call outs.)
Occasionally I flip through the FM dial in the car but the stations all play the same music and far too many commercials.
The bullshit level is much lower on NPR too. Occasionally you encounter pairings where the host and guest are too much in sync for a good interview but most of the local hosts on CT NPR have no problem calling out the BS when it is spoken.
Even amongst Australian stations, JJJ is the standout, since most of the other popular stations are owned by one of the three big non-public networks, Southern Cross Austereo, DMG, or ARN. A distant fourth is CAAMA, but basically that's because they broadcast a lot of country, indigenous hip-hop, and hyper-local content on stations throughout the parts of the country that the other networks don't give a shit about, which is basically everything that isn't the East coast, Darwin, or Perth. Essentially a half shaky step up from volunteer community radio - but to be fair, it also serves a lot off communities that sorely need it.
Across all the similarly branded stations under the big three banners, they often run national content, and vary the scheduling and mix as little as possible from city to city, to cut costs - which is understandable, to be sure, but does make for the situation you're talking about - sometimes exactly the situation you're talking about.
Funny coincidence, though - New York's biggest rock station is Q104.3 FM, and my city's rock station is Triple M, who broadcast on 104.5 FM.
"Permission for radio and television transmissions in your business is not needed if the performance is by means of public communication of TV or radio transmissions by eating, drinking, retail or certain other establishments of a certain size which use a limited number of speakers or TVs, and if the reception is not further transmitted (for example, from one room to another) from the place in which it is received, and there is no admission charge"
"A food service or drinking establishment is eligible for the exemption if it (1) has less than 3750 gross square feet of space (in measuring the space, the amount of space used for customer parking only is always excludable); or (2) has 3750 gross square feet of space or more and (a) uses no more than 6 loudspeakers of which not more than 4 loudspeakers are located in any 1 room or adjoining outdoor space; and (b) if television sets are used, there are no more than 4 televisions, of which not more than 1 is located in any 1 room and none has a diagonal screen size greater than 55 inches.
An other establishment is eligible for the exemption if it (1) has less than 2000 gross square feet of space; or (2) has 2000 or more gross square feet of space and satisfies the same loudspeaker and television set requirements as for food service or drinking establishments.
"
As for what there is now, I don't really know or care. I tend to listen to podcasts during my daily commute.