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davidtanny's Blog

Topic: Ranting About San Diego Radio Ratings

 
davidtanny   Offline  -  Artist & D.J.  -  01-11-09 12:33 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
Ranting About Fall '08 Ratings (Jan 11, 2009)

San Diego is a city that's fully wired for the Internet.

Since the dark cloud of corporate control of terrestrial radio covered most of San Diego, broadband Internet has been replacing dial-up phone line Internet as more people get broadband Internet for a more reliable Internet radio streaming experience to replace the time wasted listening to corporate controlled playlists on the AM and FM bands.

As music playlists and talk show ideas get smaller on the AM and FM bands they got bigger on the Internet band.

Thus, listening to streaming audio on your computer has become today's radio. It's what has replaced most of the time once spent listening to AM and FM.

Since the mid-90s, the definition of what a radio is (despite what some Name Withheld moron letter writer at the SD Reader thinks) has changed to mean streaming audio from websites, and that has become the new meaning of radio.

Satellite delivered playlists of music is also called radio, but the current model for satellite radio is flawed, and doesn't permit third-party radio programmers to take advantage of satellite technology to get their stations heard nationwide.

Podcasts are not, however, radio, but more like shows on demand, but many people are thinking that it's radio.

What is no longer radio, however, are the stuff that comes between the AM frequences of 540 and 1700 kHz. What it is are mostly right-wing wacko propagation machines in the guise of talk, religion, and news shows. The music played on the AM band tends to be aimed for people in the AARP age group. Generally, younger people think of AM as their grandparent's band, and is not relevant to their lives.

FM is the younger people's parent's band. That band too tends to play music that is controlled by suits in far away places who have no connection with what the general public wants to hear. On the corporate-run stations that's anything but radio, all you get is lite pop rock music aimed at young females, worn out dinosaur rock for what's left of the older listeners, watered-down country and alternative rock, light jazz, adult contemporary that sounds like rock, rock that sounds like adult contemporary, R&B that has anything but house music, and other monotonous ideas.

With younger listeners flocking to radio (Sateliite, Internet, whatever else) and away from merely corrupt AM/FM, the collective numbers for the radio stations continues to fall, with many more stations going below a 1.0, and a sizable portion under a 0.5 rating. As long as radio station decision makers continue to shoot themselves in the foot, the ratings will continue to ebb, advertising dollars fall, and deficits on the rise.

Stations are going dark, asking for donations, cutting back on local talent in favor of cheaper programming, and adding more informercial blocks. In short, radio is out of ideas on what to program to get an audience.

More people are discovering where their music went. The Internet. Satellite radio is limited to some 100 music channels, I don't know, and HD radio multicasted channels are low in number and often clone other main channel stations, so the only place where you can hear real music is on the Internet. That's what radio is today.

On the Internet, you can find oldies that go far deeper than what The Walrus is daring to do, dance mixes that commercial stations avoids, real comedy that you won't find on the morning talk shows, blues, bluegrass, folk, rock-country, and other genres that go ignored on the AM and FM bands, and so forth.

With that, the Fall '08 numbers show that KOGO-AM is number one despite having a bunch of right wing wackos dominate the station, assuring other people that this station is not for them. For music, lite jazz at 98.1 is in second place, showing us that their idea of jazz leaves many others confused as to what it was that they heard.

KSON the country station continues to dominate the country scene, while competetor New Country 95.7 continues to lag behind. In the adult contemporary wars, KYXY beats Channel 933 (yes, it sounds more like adult contemporary than pop), Star 94.1 (it's adult contemporary disguised as hot A/C), and Sophie 103.7 (light modern rock, which is really adult contemporary).

In the oldies, Magic 92.5 beats KGB, Jack-FM, Walrus, and KURS.

In the today's rock wars, FM 94/9 beats 91X, KPRI, and to a surprise, Rock 105.3. Rock carries the Charger games, but the ratings remain low, suggesting that their rock format isn't doing any good anymore.

Z90 beats Blazin 98.9 in the R&B/urban format wars.

In the sports talk formats, XPRS shows up, while XTRA 1360 and ESPN 800 don't get more than a 0.3.

The only talk stations that matter are KOGO-AM and KFMB-AM. The other talk stations in declining order are KFI coming out of L.A., and KCBQ and XSURF coming below a 1.0. The other talk station, XEPE 1700, didn't show up on the list.

With so many stations getting below a 2.0 rating according to the Fall '08 Arbitrons, it makes us wonder why it is worth it for a radio station to keep pushing the same old stuff again and again when the audience doesn't care for it anymore. Get some refreshing talk programming that doesn't slam people and you'll get ratings. Get some music that has a beat, pulse, groove, and a real riff and you'll get some listeners again.

So when will the terrestrial analog streams on the AM and FM bands start acting like radio once again?

Member Comments:

fm123   Offline  -  Participant  -  01-11-09 10:21 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
I guess you were already signed up (hipman2) at radio-info.com.

How about this one - www.radio-talk.net/forum/index.php
davidtanny   Offline  -  Artist & D.J.  -  01-11-09 10:11 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
Here's another highly reccomended link

Chris Carmichael's SDRadio.net

www.sdradio.net/

He also does radio blogging.

fm123   Offline  -  Participant  -  01-11-09 09:56 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
That's great! Be sure to sign-up at radio-info.com and plug your SD radio site here:
For discussion of radio in San Diego.

nutcase:
---
My blog got highlighted today in www.radiodailynews.com/ today. It's linked to a San Diego Reader page.

I usually listen to 94.9 in San Diego.




davidtanny   Offline  -  Artist & D.J.  -  01-11-09 09:51 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
My blog got highlighted today in www.radiodailynews.com/ today. It's linked to a San Diego Reader page.

Actual location for the blog:
www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/san-diego-radio-views/2009/jan/10/what-radio-means-to-san-diegans-today

I usually listen to 94.9 in San Diego.




fm123   Offline  -  Participant  -  01-11-09 08:41 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
I mainly listen to radio for news, traffic, weather, and some talk shows like Coast to Coast AM.

My favorites stations are KFI, KNX, and KLSX. I rarely listen to music on the radio anymore. It's either the new stuff that sucks today, or the same old repeat songs from oldies that I've heard a million times before.

I have a very large collection of songs that I can listen to anytime, which is 10 times bigger and better sounding than any ones playlist.
peterpuck9   Offline  -  Participant  -  01-11-09 05:55 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
Or an iPod that you can play in your car. I only listen to terrestrial radio for traffic and weather.

Bob Guest:
---
You really need to get a car with a CD player, or a job with less drive time to get to.

My father thought music on the radio was crap back in the 70s, so he installed an 8-track in the car and stocked up on a stack of tapes most radio stations would never in a million years be caught playing.

Welcome to the next generation. The cycle continues to repeat every twenty years or so. But you can't deny that the music & radio execs are still making money. (Even if they won't admit it.)
Dave AuJus   Offline  -  Artist & D.J.  -  01-11-09 03:56 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
The radio that we grew up listening to is gone. Complaining about it is not going to bring it back. Sorry Dave, that's just the way it is.
If listening to commercial radio made me that frustrated, I think I'd just stop listening to it.

Tim P. Ryan:
---
But that's not fun for Dave. He wants to bully radio station, thinking that writing hear will change San Diego radio, or national radio.
Tim P. Ryan   Offline  -  Participant, MP3  -  01-11-09 03:36 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
But that's not fun for Dave. He wants to bully radio station, thinking that writing hear will change San Diego radio, or national radio.
Bob Guest   Offline  -  Artist  -  01-11-09 02:40 PM  -  15 years ago
fiogf49gjkf0d
You really need to get a car with a CD player, or a job with less drive time to get to.

My father thought music on the radio was crap back in the 70s, so he installed an 8-track in the car and stocked up on a stack of tapes most radio stations would never in a million years be caught playing.

Welcome to the next generation. The cycle continues to repeat every twenty years or so. But you can't deny that the music & radio execs are still making money. (Even if they won't admit it.)

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