I have been mystified by the celebration surrounding this news story. "Steve Jobs put an FM radio in the new iPod!!!!!!!!" Well Merry Christmas, war is over. I understand that the heads of Citadel, CBS, and Emmis are all convening in a locker room, wildly shaking bottles of champagne and crying, while they hold their extended index fingers over their "Steve Jobs approves" hats. Elsewhere people are hugging, shaking hands, and in Times Square, a sailor just kissed a nurse.
I hate to rain on the parade, but who cares? I guess I missed the memo, but was the issue a lack of available radios? What does this solve exactly? So we think that the TSL problem or the relative apathy about radio is solved now. I hate to burst your bubble but it doesn't help at all. Radio continues its self loathing routine, and it still isn't helping.
When Apple released the latest iPhone earlier this year, their was a rumor of an FM radio being installed. When that didn't happen, out came the critics. People who just want to take shots at the industry, like Del Colliano (who apparently has a dump truck somewhere full of "staring uncomfortably at the lens" pictures), came whooping out of their houses. It was confirmation of everything they have been saying, because the genius said it too. King Jobs had spoken, and now we all had to hang our heads because we were dumb enough to work in an industry that He had deemed obsolete. This was stupid, too. Let's not forget Jobs was behind AppleTV, and the iMacs that looked like they had fashioned a screen to a desk with a wire hanger. Now, Apple is releasing models of iPods with radios, and in doing so, saved the industry. The stories from radio trades became a ticker tape parade, with guys that own companies riding in the back of a convertible, pulling their shirts off and spinning them like the proverbial helicopter.
The iPod has become this buzzword in the industry, and I for one have never understood it. I have sat in very plush rooms with men in very smart suits, and heard fear when the word is brought up. Its usually brought up with a sense of defeatism, and I am willing to bet money that most radio management who fears the iPod also doesn't own one. Someone just says, "People are buying iPods!", and the boardroom will murmur for a while in recognition that we are dinosaurs rumbling toward a tar pit. Because its never brought up in a discussion about the future of radio. Its always brought up in this light where we need to make as much money as possible, because this buzzword is putting us out of business soon, and we can't compete. Its the self loathing again. The radio has never understood the iPod, its limitations and why we should have never been worried about it.
When the first generation iPod came out, I was a promotion director at a radio station. A record company had sent both the PD and the MD iPods as gifts. The record rep might as well have given them rocks to bash their own heads with, and the boxes collected dust for a week before I said I wanted it. I loved it immediately. It was everything you ever wanted a walkman to be. It was easy, you could hold thousands of songs in it, and it was compact (I thought so at the time, looking back that iPod was the size of a station wagon compared to current models). But it never occurred to me that anyone would view it as a replacement to radio. For one, its just songs one after the other back to back. If you want more, you must buy them or illegally download them. The illegal download is ALWAYS a lot harder than it sounds, btw. you always get shoddy versions with huge problems in the file. No matter if your library 3000 songs, you are going to get sick of listening to the same ones.
Our industry has problems, and none of them are solved by this. Radio stations are not worth listening to anymore because for some reason we have decided to start imitating iPods. iPods were NEVER a threat to the industry, just like CD changers and Internet streams out there. The thing that we never consider is that we actually know how to present this stuff!! For years we built a formula of brand building, where listeners got excited and were actually entertained by what was being done on the air. There were funny pieces of production, DJs that sometime annoyed us but always entertained us. There were guys and girls that knew how to make us laugh, cry and destroy our disco records in the middle of a baseball stadium. So what have we done? We have decided to imitate the worst part of iPods, their repetitive, mechanical song switching. Don't you realize that Apple has been trying to solve that problem? The "Genius" list is basically Apple's attempt to make a music director. They are trying to improve it now, because the basic problem remains. Its still the mechanical, dry clicking between the songs. You listen to a song, and then you are bored. Either clicking through hundreds of songs that you have heard a million times or scrolling through more that you have heard hundreds of times.
iPods will always be around, always. Devices that play sound are always going to exist. The phonograph predates the radio (barely). But iPod users will put them down, and they are going to turn on the radio. Have we stopped and asked ourselves what they are going to hear when they turn on? We have stripped radio of all its fun. Most jocks are micro-managed, afraid of saying anything interesting because saying something interesting could lead to the latest firing. The problem with saying something interesting is that someone somewhere will disagree with it. Radio has completely lost is sense of fun, and that's why we have the TSL problem. We have slashed air staffs and turned who remains into robots. There is no sense of danger listening to the radio any more. You never get the impression that something truly memorable is about to happen, and you might be part of it. It seems like just about everybody is just going through the motions. What ever happened to the mantra: "You win between the records." That worked every time.
So here come the iPods with radios. We should all be excited. We have invited everybody to our pool party, and we shall see what happens. We have filled our pool with water, and arranged some lawn chairs. We have sent out invitations. On the invitations, we have alerted possible guests that they must remain in street clothes for the duration of the party, and their will be no drinking, food or flirtatious conversation among guests. Sure hope someone comes.
I hate to rain on the parade, but who cares? I guess I missed the memo, but was the issue a lack of available radios? What does this solve exactly? So we think that the TSL problem or the relative apathy about radio is solved now. I hate to burst your bubble but it doesn't help at all. Radio continues its self loathing routine, and it still isn't helping.
When Apple released the latest iPhone earlier this year, their was a rumor of an FM radio being installed. When that didn't happen, out came the critics. People who just want to take shots at the industry, like Del Colliano (who apparently has a dump truck somewhere full of "staring uncomfortably at the lens" pictures), came whooping out of their houses. It was confirmation of everything they have been saying, because the genius said it too. King Jobs had spoken, and now we all had to hang our heads because we were dumb enough to work in an industry that He had deemed obsolete. This was stupid, too. Let's not forget Jobs was behind AppleTV, and the iMacs that looked like they had fashioned a screen to a desk with a wire hanger. Now, Apple is releasing models of iPods with radios, and in doing so, saved the industry. The stories from radio trades became a ticker tape parade, with guys that own companies riding in the back of a convertible, pulling their shirts off and spinning them like the proverbial helicopter.
The iPod has become this buzzword in the industry, and I for one have never understood it. I have sat in very plush rooms with men in very smart suits, and heard fear when the word is brought up. Its usually brought up with a sense of defeatism, and I am willing to bet money that most radio management who fears the iPod also doesn't own one. Someone just says, "People are buying iPods!", and the boardroom will murmur for a while in recognition that we are dinosaurs rumbling toward a tar pit. Because its never brought up in a discussion about the future of radio. Its always brought up in this light where we need to make as much money as possible, because this buzzword is putting us out of business soon, and we can't compete. Its the self loathing again. The radio has never understood the iPod, its limitations and why we should have never been worried about it.
When the first generation iPod came out, I was a promotion director at a radio station. A record company had sent both the PD and the MD iPods as gifts. The record rep might as well have given them rocks to bash their own heads with, and the boxes collected dust for a week before I said I wanted it. I loved it immediately. It was everything you ever wanted a walkman to be. It was easy, you could hold thousands of songs in it, and it was compact (I thought so at the time, looking back that iPod was the size of a station wagon compared to current models). But it never occurred to me that anyone would view it as a replacement to radio. For one, its just songs one after the other back to back. If you want more, you must buy them or illegally download them. The illegal download is ALWAYS a lot harder than it sounds, btw. you always get shoddy versions with huge problems in the file. No matter if your library 3000 songs, you are going to get sick of listening to the same ones.
Our industry has problems, and none of them are solved by this. Radio stations are not worth listening to anymore because for some reason we have decided to start imitating iPods. iPods were NEVER a threat to the industry, just like CD changers and Internet streams out there. The thing that we never consider is that we actually know how to present this stuff!! For years we built a formula of brand building, where listeners got excited and were actually entertained by what was being done on the air. There were funny pieces of production, DJs that sometime annoyed us but always entertained us. There were guys and girls that knew how to make us laugh, cry and destroy our disco records in the middle of a baseball stadium. So what have we done? We have decided to imitate the worst part of iPods, their repetitive, mechanical song switching. Don't you realize that Apple has been trying to solve that problem? The "Genius" list is basically Apple's attempt to make a music director. They are trying to improve it now, because the basic problem remains. Its still the mechanical, dry clicking between the songs. You listen to a song, and then you are bored. Either clicking through hundreds of songs that you have heard a million times or scrolling through more that you have heard hundreds of times.
iPods will always be around, always. Devices that play sound are always going to exist. The phonograph predates the radio (barely). But iPod users will put them down, and they are going to turn on the radio. Have we stopped and asked ourselves what they are going to hear when they turn on? We have stripped radio of all its fun. Most jocks are micro-managed, afraid of saying anything interesting because saying something interesting could lead to the latest firing. The problem with saying something interesting is that someone somewhere will disagree with it. Radio has completely lost is sense of fun, and that's why we have the TSL problem. We have slashed air staffs and turned who remains into robots. There is no sense of danger listening to the radio any more. You never get the impression that something truly memorable is about to happen, and you might be part of it. It seems like just about everybody is just going through the motions. What ever happened to the mantra: "You win between the records." That worked every time.
Perhaps PPMs aren't the problem. They are the proof of what the problem is.
So here come the iPods with radios. We should all be excited. We have invited everybody to our pool party, and we shall see what happens. We have filled our pool with water, and arranged some lawn chairs. We have sent out invitations. On the invitations, we have alerted possible guests that they must remain in street clothes for the duration of the party, and their will be no drinking, food or flirtatious conversation among guests. Sure hope someone comes.
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