Radio means business

When I spent some time in the Washington D.C. area this Spring, I found the most compelling stuff on the radio wasn't talk, or sports, or news, or even my usual morning favorites, NPR and Howard Stern. It was WCSP, better known as C-SPAN radio. In other words, the station I liked best on radio was one I skip right past when I'm channel-surfing on television. Interesting, no?

I said yesterday I'd talk more about network services. What we're seeing here, I think, is a difference between the information service we call radio and the entertainment service we call television. I could go into that a little deeper, but I think the implications cover the matter pretty well.

Now let's compare broadcast radio with the online variety. Obviously, online radio hasn't evolved to the point where you can get it in your car. (Although I recently found that I could stay with a broadcast from the excellent Radio Paradise while driving a couple of blocks in Los Altos, California — I suppose because buffering masked the transitions from one hot spot to another, of which there are plenty in this upscale Silicon valley town.) So business leads the list (with 30.1%) of elsewheres that people, according to this survey by the RRadio Network. Misc. comes in second (22.1%) and , and "just listening" come in third third (18.1%).

Many years ago, Larry Josephson, the best morning radio personality in human history, told me "radio is personal," adding "that's it." Maybe, now that online radio is at least real enough to survey, it will finally succeed where broadcast radio has failed its original but rarely acknowledged mission.

Posted by dsearls, June 15, 2004 03:41 PM | | TrackBack