Could Internet Kill the Radio Host?

On September 7, 1979, The Buggles released their newest single, Video Killed the Radio Star. Two years later it ushered in a new era of music, being the first music video aired on MTV at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981. Fast forward for July 27, 2010 when The Limousines CD "Get Sharp" debuted. On it, a track called Internet Killed the Video Star became a hit among the electro-pop communities. Both tracks bring up how music has changed over the years, both in style and the public's tastes and opinion. To parallel this, in the past 10 years, media has similarly seen a shift when it comes to traditional radio. Its normal for ingenuity to breed change, and radio has been no stranger to that fact, though the evolution has made outstanding jumps in just the past 10 years, from AM and FM to XM and HD and more recently to .com.

In January of 2000, Pandora Radio was launched. With it came the rock that shattered the glass house on how people listened to music. With Pandora, people could get their hands on the dials and control what they listened to. No more commercials every other song. No more talk shows they cared nothing about. Just the music they wanted to hear, when they wanted it. After going public in June of 2010, Pandora decided it was time to reinvent themselves. What became was a new pandora for all. With the new update, Pandora put its hat into the social media realm, allowing listeners to share what they were listening to and connect to others with similar interests. How this this work out for Pandora? In the article Pandora Hits 100 Million Registered Users from July of 2011, it shows some information from the SEC Filings for Pandora in 2010. By the end of the year Pandora boasted a 2.3% share of ALL radio listening. Where do they stand now? 3.6% share of total radio listeners and as of Pandora's Annual Financial report released in March of 2012, boasts about 69% of all internet radio listening on their site. With resources like Pandora, what is traditional radio doing to survive? Everything it can.

If you turn on the radio to your favorite station, you will now hear a number of things that were not there 10 or 15 years ago. The key difference now? Internet. Shows and hosts all now have websites specifically for themselves, many of which offer the ability to listen to the show streaming as its happening, some even letting you listen to segments you may have missed throughout the day. In addition, traditional radio has embraced the power of the people and made the move to harness social media. Every day contests are run that require you to no longer call in, but to comment or follow on Twitter, Like on Facebook, or +1 on Google Plus. In introducing themselves, shows and hosts seem to have acquired an addition to their names. For instance, when radio celebrity Jason Ellis of Radio faction of SiriusXM introduces himself, not only is he Jason Ellis, but also @ellismate. Traditional radio is doing everything it can to connect to its fans, especially when it comes to the local fans. Hosts are regularly updating fans of their social media personalities with local events like concerts or other special functions, stuff they would not have time to mention on the air. Despite the power of internet local radio is still a necessity. You would not listen to a New York station for weather in Georgia. Nor would you listen to a California based station for when The Red Hot Chili Peppers will be playing in Atlanta. Where is Local Radio Surviving? points out exactly this, the decline in local radio is a boon on radio, and services like Pandora will continue this trend of declining local radio.

Traditional radio seems to have decided not to fight the internet counterparts though, instead joining with them. People like the internet, they want it, its natural human nature to embrace the new. It seems in an attempt to survive the internet blitzkrieg, traditional radio has jumped aboard and is hoping to co-exist with its usurper. In  last years Radio Advertising Bureau Revenue Report for Q3, the RAB points out that traditional radio is no longer in a decline. In fact it has shown marked growth in nearly all its sectors for the past 7 quarters. Interestingly enough, the sector with the largest growth is its digital, which encompasses the internet. Clear Channel stepped up to the plate in 2008 when it decided to unleash its "Pandora Killer": IHeartRadio. Originally just a website, much like Pandora in its early years, Clear Channel's brain child to compete with the internet wave quickly grew into a solid competition with Pandora. It has everything Pandora has, custom play lists based on genre or other tags associated with the music, ability to share with friends, but IHeartRadio has something Pandora does not, more than 850 somethings to be exact- traditional radio stations. Clear Channel brought its horde of stations online with the service allowing people to listen in anywhere, any time. This will be the big battle, the one to decide how traditional radio will progress in the future, a paradigm shift according to Clear Channel versus Pandora and What The Iheartradio Coming Out Party Really Means. The Clear Channel CEO Robert Pittman does not seem afraid to "toot his own horn" about their new service either.

It is possible that traditional radio could soon see an end to how it functions now, but it is clear that they are fighting for their position with every thing they have. While internet radio provides a lot of convenience and niche programming, there is still something to be said about the personalities involved with traditional radio and the necessity for local programming as well.

Little of this, Little of that

My name is Michael Tucker and this semester marks the second half of my fifth year in college. Ive decided to take my time and do it right, along side working a full time job. Balancing the two isn't always easy and its put me behind a bit. Now that I have settled on my major as Mass Comm, after switching from Comp Sci after 4 years, I look to have about 2 years left including this semester. At least my Minor is done (Since I was so far in, I made Comp Sci my minor and it was finished then and there). In the past few years I've bounced around jobs a bit. Was night manager at Dairy Queen for a while, made trophies and t-shirts, a bit of construction, managed Blockbuster for 3 years and currently am managing a car wash in Villa Rica. For now. I am already looking to change that job after a year. Its not that I am a lazy person or a bad worker, I have enjoyed all my jobs, I just like to do different things, experience it all, and what better time to do that than college. I've spent nearly my entire life between Carrollton and Villa Rica, though I was born in Kennesaw. I've tried moving away from this town but at times it seems to be a black hole that just keeps sucking me back in. When I am not at work or school, what little free time I have is spent with friends. Usually we are hanging out playing some video games, watching movies, or just killing time. As far as my interests, other than games and movies, music takes up alot of the background noise in my life. And I am not afraid to say I am a geek. From Star Wars to X-men, Dr. Who to Sherlock Holmes. I enjoy hobbies and the best ones I've found I guess would make me a geek.

Now on the important matters. Surely by now you've heard about SOPA and or PIPA. The two bills going through the Senate and House at the moment that could very quickly destroy the internet. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are both very similar in their goal, stop piracy of digital media. This in itself is a great thing, many companies are losing money from piracy. Here's where it gets tricky though. They are aiming more at overseas piracy, not so much local. And their means of doing so is less than savory. Were these bills to go into effect, anytime you wanted to post something (you personally or a website itself) you have to make sure of one BIG thing: What you are posting, whether its a link, image, video, or audio, can not be from a site that has EVER had pirated material on it. If so you get the fine and both sites involved get put on a blacklist. It gets better, not only do you have to make sure that your source has never pirated, but also any site that has contact to that source. Good luck with that. Also, say you have an old home movie of your kids growing up, and in the back ground Metallica is on the radio, or The Cosby Show is on TV. If that video were to be posted somewhere, oh lets say everyone's favorite social media site Facebook...yeah thats piracy. You get fined, and Facebook is shut down. With these bills there would no longer be any open source site, or social media, or many other sites, all because of the guidelines laid out in the bill. Sure, for now they are put away, after protests, virtual and physical, took place Jan 18th. But Lamar Smith (R- Texas), who is pushing these bills through, has already said that he will try again in February, so while you aren't hearing about it for now, don't forget it, that's exactly what they are hoping for. Also its worth noting, other countries are trying the same thing, Canada has a bill nearly identical to SOPA going through legislature now, and in Europe, a Global version is being mediated over.

WARNING: Shoulda SOPA/PIPA pass, the following content will be considered piracy.

SOPA According to Wikipedia

Yes, the link is from Wikipedia, a major information sharing site and the video is from YouTube, the most popular video social media site. With SOPA and PIPA, these sites will be closed.

Oh, and one more thing, on Jan 19th, the US Feds successfully shut down a major site called MegaUpload. It was a popular file sharing system operated from New Zealand I believe (point is, out of the US). This was without the help of SOPA or PIPA. This shows that the government already has the power to stop piracy, as it claims that is all it wants, without further restrictions to our internet. Why need more restriction?