For Rock Radio, The worst May be Over

As many of you may know, the longtime guilty pleasure of many (mostly male) listeners in large market radio--Howard Stern left the broadcast airwaves in January of this year to begin a long-term deal with Sirius Satellite radio.


Sirius paid millions to Stern, and basically turned over several channels of their satellite to his programming "prowess."


But now a new study suggest that just about all the damage has been done to FM stations that programmed Stern (and were left to find his replacement). The study, conducted by Jacobs Media a rock n roll consultant house in Detroit, found that more than 3 out of every 4 former broadcast Stern listeners opted to stay put with their broadcast options rather than sign up of satcasting.

And, this wasn't just a small survey, either....over 25,000 respondents.

Not in the US--Not even in Vegas

It's spring break at Indiana University, and I'm using this as an excuse to have a very brief posting today.

However, check out this story of a new talk radio format about to hit the airwaves in Brazil.

Why should I subscribe, if you're just like everyone else?

I know that XM wouldn't have taken this decision lightly. In fact, it was probably the very last thing they wanted to do....but, the word is out that they have begun planning to put commercials on four of their programming channels.

Now, if I'm going to have to pay as much as $11.87 a month to get your service, as well as pay to get a special receiver, why in the world would I want to do it if the product is the same as I can get for free just by turning on the radio. The irony of this is that the four channels are programmed by Clear Channel--the gigantic company that is also programming most of the radio stations in the country. So, now on these four channels at least, the MUSIC sounds the same (most likely) as what you can get via broadcast and the COMMERCIALS are there as well.

I'm also not sure that this is a good idea for Clear Channel, either. They have wanted to separate themselves from the concept of commercial clutter for about 18 months. Something I've been interested in as a researcher. So, even though it's only people in the industry who will know that on these four XM channels it's CC that's loading them with commercials...that's an image I wouldn't think they'd want to send out there.

Simpsons Fans

I am going to be spending my Spring Break watching the first season of The Simpsons, which I recently got from Netflix.

A colleague emailed me this link earlier this week. If you like the show...check this out:

Link

What a great way to start the day

Here's part of an email I had waiting for me when I woke up this morning:

I know I didn’t really say too much in your class this last eight weeks but I thought I’d tell you a little story. So, I went to what I thought was my 2:30pm class and was about to step through the door until I remembered that it was over.... I just wanted to thank you for being such a great teacher. There was not a day that passed when I didn’t look forward and get excited to be in your classroom and I feel that it’s a shame that more students don’t feel that way about their professors. Although our short eight-week course is over, you’ve impacted my life and I thought I’d thank you for it.

All the grading and lecture prepping and meeting with students who obviously are not trying very hard in class fade away when you get an email like this. I know that this blog is mostly about research (or is supposed to be), but teaching is a big part of what my week is devoted to. There is the teaching of the craft of research to graduate students, of course. But there is also teaching in the undergraduate classroom--helping them to not only have enthusiasm for the Telecommunications Industry, but also to be able to assess common practices critically.

As with anyone, I sure do love affirmation.
Makes me forget it's forcast to rain most of today! :(

It's not about you, it's about the listener

I thought that this little news blur in Radio and Records this morning was pretty darn insightful.

Read it here, first.

Radio program directors often feel like they need to come up with the slick station moniker ("Washington's Superstation") in order to be perceived among the industry as good marketers. But, so often those monikers mean very little to the listeners. I'd say I agree with Sirius' Coleman, what listeners ...especially talk radio listeners...care about is the personalities associated with the station. This is a point that I make in a chapter on talk radio in Susan Eastman's Media programming book.

Don't tell them you are "The Hot Talk Station." What does that mean? Tell them you are the home for G. Gordon Liddy.

Okay, Okay, O! K!

I'm very glad that people check in with The Audio Prof every once in awhile. I must admit that there are other colleagues' blogs that I check out every morning--and I'm disappointed when they don't add new content. So, I can empathize with those who have not taken very well to my recent LONG bouts of silence.

The excuse that I'm giving myself is that I've been very swamped with TEACHING this semester so far. You see, I was scheduled to teach a first 8-week course. The students love it because they can either take a second 8-week course and thereby get as many as 18 credit hours in a single semester...or they just have the second half of the spring to go to the lake!!

The time off at the end of the semester will be much welcomed by me, too.
But the teaching load for these first 8-weeks has pretty much prevented me from doing ANY research of substance. I've got GREAT graduate students who have been working on projects--more about that later, I'm afraid. But to cram a whole 15-weeks' worth of content into half the time has been a challenge. Plus, the course met twice a week from 2:30-5:15. Talk about a black hole of time!

But, now it will be soon coming to a close. In fact, I'm posting this while waiting for the last two students to finish the final. Then, I can hopefuly get back into the research lab!

So, thanks for checking....thanks for being patient. More later.