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by Kevin Clang
Their homes had been absolutely devastated by weather. One day everything was fine, the next torrential rain and winds had completely ripped apart everything they knew. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina forever changed the lives of the citizens of New Orleans. For three days they were left completely in the dark with no way to get information. Newspapers certainly were not being delivered to the affected regions and with no electricity, televisions and computers were rendered useless.
Elon Students Broadcast from WSOE's Radio Booth Seven Days a Week
On Sep. 1, 72 hours after Louisiana levees had been breached, United Radio Broadcasters was able to go on air using resources donated by competing companies who joined together for the tragic occasion. For the people of New Orleans this meant the world; anyone with a receiver and batteries could listen to the important broadcasts to receive information that could save their lives.
Radio had saved the Gulf Coast, giving people not only the vital information they required to survive but also providing music as a reprieve from their hardships. For traditional radio, the URB Katrina transmission marked a resounding triumph in an otherwise bleak quarter-century.
Investigating New Orleans
Connie Book, assistant professor and associate dean of communications at Elon University, has spent years researching this event. In January of 2008 she and 10 Elon communications students traveled to New Orleans to interview victims and document just how large a role traditional radio played for hurricane survivors in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Throughout the trip students kept their own personal journals and an online blog documenting their findings, which will eventually be published in a book on the subject.
Since she began teaching broadcasting nearly 20 years ago, Book says “each year I talk about broadcasting radio less and less.” Competition for the attention of listeners is fierce. “Every year I ask my students the same question, how many of you listen to local radio? Fewer each year raise their hand.”
In an informal survey of over 40 student DJs at Elon University’s student-run station, WSOE, only 25 percent of respondents said they listened to traditional radio daily.
Recently people have had a hard time deciding just what exactly radio’s place is in the world of media. With Hurricane Katrina, Book says that “Radio was taking the lead, recognizing the role it serves as an industry, a role that includes significant investment in the communities it serves.” Despite the obvious tragedy of the natural disaster, Book was amazed and excited when she heard the news of United Radio Broadcaster’s achievement.
Radio’s Role in America
Each day when Americans all across the country enter their cars to set off on their morning commute, they have a decision to make: what do I want to listen to? What used to be a clear-cut choice has evolved significantly since the emergence of the Internet. As a result, the number of people listening to traditional terrestrial radio has declined in recent years. What used to be a powerful medium for both journalism and entertainment is now often looked upon as a joke; a mere shell of the powerful force that it once was.
This fact has many pundits asking themselves how much time terrestrial radio has left.
To be fair, people have been calling the “death” of terrestrial radio for years now. First with the introduction television, then the debut of cassette players in cars, and again when CDs were invented. Things have never looked as dreary as they do now, however, with satellite stations, iPods, and Internet radio outlets such as Pandora always siphoning away precious listeners. Audiences are down, and thus advertising revenue has also suffered. Since selling advertising is what radio has always done for profit, it is not inappropriate to start asking “what if?” Is a world without traditional radio a possibility in the near future?
Results from an Informal Survey of Over 40 WSOE DJs
Elon University broadcasting professor Rich Landesberg does not think that it is all doom and gloom for terrestrial radio. Through his 20-plus-year career in the medium, he has heard people say that radio is “dead” more times than he can count.
“Terrestrial radio is still the most portable and useable medium available,” he says, adding that terrestrial radio still secures millions of daily listeners for pundits such as Rush Limbaugh, Clark Howard and Rachel Maddow, and for content on specific topics such as sports, weather and traffic. And as opposed to things like television or computers, which are ineffective without power, all one needs to operate a radio is a battery in times of emergency.
The Satellite Scare
Terrestrial radio had a huge scare with the initial launch of satellite radio, a fear that has subsided recently. Satellite radio was popularized by two companies: XM, which debuted in 2001, and Sirius, which launched in 2002. Both were introduced offering music, sports and news programming for a monthly subscription.
Over time the two companies were able to attract personalities such as Playboy Radio, Bob Edwards, Martha Stewart and most notably Howard Stern, who accepted a $100 million contract from Sirius in 2006 after being frustrated by the limitations of FCC-regulated terrestrial syndication.
XM and Sirius have since merged into one company, a union that was finally approved in 2008 after much fervent debate on Capitol Hill. Since the merger, the company has run into trouble. In tough economic times, many see satellite radio as a luxury they can no longer afford. Because of this, Landesberg says that the Sirius XM stock is worth “pennies.” Today most new satellite subscribers are car buyers who opt for a satellite radio upgrade installation from car companies that are partnered with Sirius XM. The only problem is that with the current economic crises, most people are not buying cars and thus, no satellite radio.
When he first heard the idea of satellite radio, Landesberg says he thought to himself “Who would pay $10 a month for radio?” A few years later, when he began commuting an hour to Elon every day, Landesberg began to see the usefulness of a satellite radio provider.
“There was no news on terrestrial radio in the morning,” he said, adding that “satellite also has a better market for music,” with its many specific-genre-oriented stations. Since satellite is not hindered by a limited bandwidth, companies have the luxury of offering specialized stations. While these stations must find listeners, there is more freedom for niche markets; stations don’t have to conform to a corporate playlist.
More Survey Results
In the survey of WSOE DJs, 62 percent said they do not subscribe to satellite. Those who said they do subscribe to a satellite company listed this attention to specialized music as the reason.
One student said, “The best advantage I would say is that (satellite stations) are more specialized niches of music that appeal better to whatever your specific taste is at the moment.” Another noted that “less commercials, wider variety and the ability to pinpoint a music interest,” was the main reason to pay the monthly subscription fee.
While this appeal is intriguing, in the end Landesberg does not think that satellite radio is traditional radio’s main competitor.
What is Radio’s Competition?
Ryan Sweeney, the current general manager of Elon’s WSOE, has a similar viewpoint on terrestrial radio’s main rivalries. “Pandora and the iPod are radio’s main competitors,” he says. An avid supporter of the value of terrestrial radio, Sweeney has worked at WSOE since early in his freshman year at Elon. He says he does not understand the appeal of satellite radio, adding that subscribing to satellite is stupid when it offers nothing more to listeners than free Internet services such as Pandora or Last FM.
“Satellite tries to appeal to too many people at once,” he says. “Now everyone wants instant gratification.”
Ryan Sweeney is WSOE's Current General Manager
Since the corporatization of many radio stations’ playlists in the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet has taken up the mantle of introducing people to new bands. Pandora and Last FM are free Internet music sources that attempt to link fans of one band to other similar bands they may not have heard of.
This wave of Web music will probably kill satellite radio first, however. The Pandora iPhone application is among the most popular, and this summer Apple plans to launch an application that will allow users to transmit music on their phones over the radio wirelessly.
“The problem with Pandora is that it has no personality,” says Sweeney. WSOE’s former general manager Erin Fox agrees. “People listen to terrestrial radio for personality,” she says. “With iPods, anyone is a DJ . . . people need a reason to listen.”
An Elon senior, Fox has interned at two major radio stations, including Chicago’s famous WXRT. “All across the country we’re experiencing a flattening culture,” she says, in reference to corporatization. “Spreadsheet programming is not enough, people like variety.” Fox said she believes that this trend to make every station sound the same, started by big companies such as Clear Channel (which owns over 900 radio stations across the United States) helped bring about radio’s recent downfall. “Corporate ownership and programming doesn’t work anymore,” she says. Sweeney agrees, saying that with Clear Channel “stations have no cultural identity – DJs stick to formats.”
More Survey Results
The Key to Success: Hyper-Locality
Most experts agree that radio can only remain relevant if it stays true to its roots and remain local.
“In its early days, radio was hyper-local,” says Landesberg, “it needs to return to that.” Fox lists locality as one of traditional radio’s main strengths, saying “stations need to have pride in the community and give listeners a taste of the city.” At WXRT for example, DJs are given the option of playing what they want and encouraged to dig deep into their collections, playing both popular songs and forgotten ones.
Sweeney strives for localization at WSOE. He and musician Jason Kutchma are the co-founders of Choose Local Music, an organization dedicated to aiding local bands. “Choose Local Music is a movement to inspire people to go to local shows,” says Kutchma. “Radio used to break bands, but now it doesn’t do that anymore. Blogs started to, but now there are just too many to keep track of.” A little less than half of polled Elon DJs use traditional radio to find bands, while 85 percent use the Internet. Choose Local Music is attempting to get independently owned radio stations to publicize, promote and play music from local artists and bring radio back to its original roots.
More Survey Results
Using the Web to Help, Not to Hurt
Stations also need to use the Internet more effectively. Fox says that convergence is the key to future radio success, and a simple Web site and streaming Webcast aren’t enough. “Stations need to use Web 2.0 tools to their advantage and offer complete packages with many entrance points.” While a station may not make any money on the Web yet, it can be an effective way to attract people to listen to a specific station. Elon professor Ken Calhoun is a big proponent of Web 2.0 tools, saying they can offer a station’s listeners “choice and control, two-way communication, and extend (their) reach).”
Since graduating from Elon University in 2005, Travis Lusk has done just that. As the new media director at New York’s WCBS, Lusk’s job is to stay on top of the Internet and make sure he is using it effectively to boost his station’s presence. In the past year alone, WCBS has completely overhauled its Web site, adding a news archive. It has also implemented a blog and a Twitter account, which are used to connect and appeal to the station’s listeners through updates and contests.
Natasha Vukelic has seen similar growth working as the news director for North Carolina’s WCHL. National Public Radio has also experienced a large increase in listeners due to using the Internet effectively, offering its most popular programs as free podcasts on iTunes.
Is radio dying? It all depends. A cynic who has not done a complete amount of research would say yes; across the country audiences are down, and many stations are struggling to make ends meet. Times are tough but there is hope on the horizon.
If stations stay true to their roots and try once again to reflect the communities in which they are based, telling local stories and breaking local bands, people may be more inclined to listen again. But only if they know about the change, and radio stations also need to use the Internet effectively to make sure this happens. If traditional radio does these two things and does them well, it may once again rise to the effectiveness that it is capable of.
“Mediums don’t die, they change,” says Fox. Radio has a lot of changing to do, but the foundation has been laid for the future.
