Issue #0007

From http://www.radioink.com/

Survey: 'Net Radio Grows, But Terrestrial Radio Holds Steady
CHARLESTON, SC -- April 9, 2009: A new survey from American Media Services finds that the popularity of Internet-only radio is growing, with 27 percent of Americans saying they've listened to 'Net-only radio from a website. The figure is higher for 18-24s -- 47 percent -- and for those under 50, at 34 percent.
But, says AMS, regular radio is maintaining its audience. Seventy-three percent of those surveyed said they are listening to radio about the same amount or more than than they did five years ago.
"Our latest survey shows the continued vibrancy of radio," says AMS Chairman Edward Seeger. "Online radio is an increasingly important medium. Regular radio is holding its own. The two media offer choices that are compatible and complementary of each other."
The survey also found that more than half of American homes have WiFi, up from 37 percent in the September 2008 survey to 48 percent in the latest study. And Americans want to take the 'Net on the road, with 46 percent saying they'd like to have Internet service in their cars, up from 37 percent in September '08.
Among those who have listened to Internet radio, 46 percent expect to be able to listen to it in their cars in the future, and 74 percent say they would listen to 'Net-only radio more if their vehicles had an Internet hookup. And even those who have never listened to Internet-only radio like the idea of hearing it in the car: Forty-eight percent said they would be prompted to listen if they had an Internet connection in their vehicles.
Most of those surveyed, unsurprisingly, like their Internet-only radio free. But 23 percent said they would be willing to pay $8 or less a month for commercial-free listening.
The poll of 1,005 adults was conducted for AMS by Omnitel over the weekend of March 27-29, and is accurate to within plus or minus 3 percentage points.

No matter what, radio some how makes it through all of the changes in media. Why? it's cheap, accessible, and when done right it's very entertaining. It is the cockroach of the media... When TV came around people said radio is dead. But, radio abandoned the radio plays and leaned heavier on News, information, and music. Each and every time a new form of playing music comes around that you can play in your car (Cassettes, CDs, MP3's) people say "radio is dead, I can just listen to my own music". In a way it hurt radio but radio leaned to it's personality even on the music end of things. If you have a good DJ you will get people listening that would normally listen to a CD but that CD can't entertain you in a way a good radio personality can (emphasis on good). If you listen to satellite radio (and I do) they constantly pound in your head how "terrestrial" radio is dead. No matter how much I love Opie and Anthony, Ron and Fez, Howard Stern, and NFL radio my XM is just an extension of my "terrestrial" radio. It's just a few extra stations that I jump to while I drive and has actually expanded my scanning on "terrestrial" radio.
Will radio ever die? It can absolutely die, but the only thing that can kill radio is it's own content. We are flirting with suicide in this business as long as attorneys are controlling our content. In radio when ever you want to do anything... ANYTHING... that involves listeners, women, language, or interns you have to run it through the lawyers. So you send the idea to a lawyer that is paid to say no... If he says yes it either means the idea sucks or he made so many changes to the idea that it isn't any good anymore. Radio has relied on content to get it through every change and distraction to its audience and with out quality content radio will die.

Not a sermon just a thought