Death to Radio?

It had to of felt similar to this when a newfangled device call "television" came on the market...

We have so many ways for consumers to spend their time instead of listening to radio. Nowadays, we have the Internet, XM/Sirius, TiVo, PlayStation, iPods, etc. that will supposedly kill radio.

I don't believe it, but, the new technology that has got my ears perked is hard drives in cell phones.

Think about it...put a hard drive that can carry .mp3's, record video programs, stream the Internet via GSM/GPRS and you have a category killer, if... you integrate that into the automobile. And I mean seamlessly.

Make it where anyone just drops their phone into a cradle on the dash and BANG, instant connectivity. Not just for us early adapters and tech-heads, but for Mom's taking their kids to school and everyone that carries a phone.

Have you noticed that AT&T and others networks still using CDMA-like networks are trying everything (promotions: free phones!, unlimited nights!, free long distance!) to get you to switch to their GSM/GPRS network?

They need you on these networks to sell you data packages and to drive revenue quickly...not to mention have the largest subscriber networks to strike deals with XM, Sirius, Napster, iTunes, etc. for content...

Just wait...its coming...

However, radio has such an opportunity with great local, relevant and timely content. No cookie cutter formats, but lifestyle content that has passion.

[read] what Paul Allen has to say.
[article] in pcworld.com

Thoughts?

Comments

[Terry]

Sounds like a conversation that we had months ago. Lets see... radio. In my humble opinion radio as we know it will be a thing of the past in 5 or so years. All one way media will be gone. We are becoming way to "interactive" and will not put up with content driven to us that we dont want or need. In 5 or so years we will have tivo like devices that connect to our personal portal (that I call .Google) always connected to the Inet. Think about how wonderul it will be. Your personal portal we will have all our digital contect that we listen to, gigs and gigs of music at our finger tips, starbucks locators integrated with the GPS, and so on and so on... all available in any car with a user name and passord. Radio will be delivered to us in a much advanced XM type, with commercials driven by our profile on our personal portal. Local you say is the driving force... That is arguable, but ok, local talk will drive through as well, and you can select to listen to them, or go with the larger venue. I feel that we have a very exiting next 5 or so years in all our media outlets. Watch out... the old and slow media outlets will be bought up and gone. AOL Time Warner was a little ahead of their time.

[K. Todd Storch]

5 years, huh? I don't believe that will happen, but I do believe that radio will have a place in people's lives and with advertisers, it will just change/evolve.

Network TV is feeling this right now and has been with cable's national penetration. Main stream America isn't tech savvy, that's why the automobile holds such vital importance.

The car is the "Tipping Point" for these types of main stream technologies.

The other opportunity is the living room. TiVo has a good start, but they have a long way to go to become mainstream (even though guys like you and I would crumble in a crying heap if the company folds....)

Todd