Who Needs Radio?

DragonMagic writes "MSNBC asks what many /.ers have been asking: Who needs the radio anymore? Rather, it goes on to really ask, who needs the RIAA anymore? With online music distribution sources, television, and the internet itself, how much longer will it be before the radio, and the RIAA, will be an obsolete means to promote artists?"

Music on radio is dead for me

[Anonymous Coward]

I get news and sports live, tunes on iPod.

reliability

[nil5]

at least the spammers of radio (ie legitimate companies, usually) don't launch DDOS attacks on those who wish to ignore them. Radio is regulated and that means it has somewhat better quality control.

Considering how easy it is for malicious attackers to bring down networks through DDOS, etc. it is useful to have a backup means for communications. And the electromagnetic spectrum is pretty much guaranteed to exist 8) Of course, you can jam that, too, but a script kiddy or spammer doesn't usually have such equipment.

Re:redundancy

[Davak]

Move to a college town!

I have lived in several college towns over the last few years... and those kids always put fresh interesting stuff on the air.

Yes, a lot of time it sucks...

but hey, at least it's not the same top 20 shit 24/7.

Davak

Translated for the America-Impaired

[RobotRunAmok]

For those Slashdotters from foreign lands just tuning in:

NPR is a good way to stay abreast of the latest news during my daily commute and provides some sanity, compared to TV news stations like FoxNews.

NPR is left wing (although it seems middle-of-the-road to liberals). Fox News is right wing (although it seems middle-of-the-road to conservatives.) NPR is commercial-free, being underwritten by corporations, donations, and tax dollars (to the great dismay of conservatives). Fox is a commercial enterprise owned by Murdoch and the top-rated newschannel on cable/satellite (to the great dismay of liberals).

Now, draw up sides, and... engage!

Sports & college radio is still good!!

[greyfeld]

Essentially the only time I listen to the radio is for sporting events that I cannot get on my television or while I'm in the car. So radio still has some uses.

Also there are still quite a few good college stations around like KJHK [ukans.edu] in Lawrence, KS which was recently voted by the local paper as one of the best reasons to live in Lawrence. Check the link and catch the stream!

If it wasn't broke, why the hell did you fix it!

Re:What?

[marshac]

What you really should do is to write your reps supporting NPR. After the whole O'Reilley thing, they could use some political support. Since Bill is talking to the politicians [foxnews.com], so should you. Read the link. Discovery channel? History channel? Please tell me you aren't insulted by your "choices"....

Re:What?

[Adam_Weishaupt]

Am I the only one just waiting for FOX news to start a radio station?

Why would anyone want this ? A recent study done by pipa [pipa.org] shows heavy viewers of the Fox News Channel are nearly four times as likely to hold demonstrably untrue positions about the war in Iraq as those who rely on National Public Radio (NPR) or the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

Re:What?

[Our Man In Redmond]

That's not entirely correct. Actually, there were three classes of stations: clear channels, regionals, and locals. I don't think there was an "odd-even" split, based on a few of the channels I can remember off the top of my head: KIRO is at 710, KSL at 1160, KGO 810, WOI 640, KMOX 1120, and CBR 1010 which was right next to clear channel KOMO 1000. (Canadians used the same general band plan as the US; Mexico sort of went its own way, at least as far as transmitter power was concerned.)

The locals were (and are) assigned to seven "graveyard" frequencies in the upper portions of the AM band and limited to 1000 watts of power. Try tuning in 1490 some night; unless you have a local station there, it's an unintelligible jumble. The regionals got what was left, which to be honest was quite a bit.

As for three-letter IDs, that wasn't always the case either. The earliest commercial station was Pittsburgh's KDKA, for instance. Originally (we're talking 1910s here) shore stations communicating with ships were given three-letter calls, but eventually broadcast stations started to ask for them, sometimes to fit their parent companies' whims. WGN, for example, was supposed to stand for World's Greatest Newspaper (it was owned by the Chicago Tribune), and WLS (World's Largest Store) was owned by Sears.

Re:NPR on iTunes music store

[ravenskana]

They are already doing this. In addition to This American Life someone else mentioned, you can also get Car Talk, Fresh Air, To the Best of Our Knowledge, Says You, Studio 360, and Science Friday. I may have missed some others.

Re:Radio Content

[whatch durrin]

Sometimes I don't feel like trudging through my CD collection to locate what I want to listen to (besides the fact that doing so would be quite dangerous in Atlanta traffic). Not everyone can afford to purchase an mp3 player, either.

Radio can suck at times, but sometimes a little exploration of the dial reveals a show, or song, or some news - that you're glad you found in the end.

The best part is it's free. Yeah, yeah...you've got to listen to commercials, which may be annoying as hell, but it sure beats paying a monthly bill (cold, hard cash).

Re: radio and 9-11

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, here on Long Island my first indication that something was amiss on the morning of September 11, 2001 was that my radio station wasn't operating. It broadcast from the top of the World Trade Center.