Film, Radio and TV - 22b |
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RadioStation FormatsPart II
Approaches to Radio Formats First, station program managers looked for ways of developing unique music and personality mixes. (Their jobs, like those of football coaches, depend on a winning season. In radio this means high station ratings.) To further specialize, the major formats were subdivided; "rock" became "soft rock," "hard rock," "contemporary hits," etc. Tapping into the power of nostalgia and associations with past memories, some stations specialized in hits of the 50s, or hits from the 70s, or the 80s. Some stations boasted of having a "perfect mix" of various kinds of music.
"Talk-personality" radio is #22 in the 12 to 17 age group, but it quickly moves up with age until it's #2 in in popularity in the 45-54 age group. Interestingly, "Contemporary Christian" is 8th in popularity in the 12 to 17 age group, but it thereafter drops in popularity until about age 40 (where it's #14). At that point it starts to climb again until it reaches #11 in the 45-54 age group. The most dramatic shift is in Classical Music. It's # 22 in the 12-17 age group and #4 in popularity with the 45-54 group. There are more radio stations in the United States specializing in country music than any other format. Most are in rural areas. On the other hand, there Note that in the graph on the right that, despite this disparity, country and news/talk have similar audiences — at least when it comes to audiences that listen on their car radios.
News/Talk Leading the list is Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh came from a conservative Republican family, started as a radio announcer at an early age and eventually worked his way to New York City. His efforts at TV didn't last and he eventually moved his radio studio to Palm Beach, Florida where he now does his daily broadcast. In 2003, Limbaugh's show was being heard on almost 600 radio stations and is credited with reviving AM radio in the United States. Limbaugh often uses humor to charm audiences and get his points across. By making fun of or mocking women's liberation, gays, environmentalists, former President Clinton and his family, and more recently Barack Obama, he has won millions of faithful followers. Limbaugh, who does not use a script, but speaks "off the cuff," has said things that were later proven to be untrue. He had problems with drugs, and his comments have often created negative national responses. He is considered to be one of the most powerful voices for the conservative cause. It was reported in July, 2008 that Limbaugh signed a contract for his show that goes through 2016 that is worth over $400 million. If so, this breaks records for any broadcast personality. Even though most talk radio personalities are conservative, there are two well-known radio personalities that might be considered (somewhere) on the other side of the ledger: Don Imus, and Howard Stern. "Shock jock" Howard Stern is the more impertinent of the two. His irreverent abandon during his syndicated morning talk show managed to fascinate and stir listeners — as well as stir the retribution of the FCC, which has fined him (or, more specifically, the stations that carry his programs) more than $1-million. However, since the revenue his show generated far exceeded the fines levied against him, there seemed to be little motivation to tone down his antics. In 2006, Stern moved his show to satellite radio, where he doesn't have to deal with FCC
content limitations.
Pushing the Envelope to the Max The questions
is where do we draw the line -- or should we even draw a line? To what extent we can deride segments of our population
-- even spawn hatred -- without it undermining our social order? It may be
related that according to a recent FBI report, hate murders (on the basis of
race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation) have reached a
five-year high in the United States.
Net Radio
Many listeners are people displaced from their hometowns who listen to net radio to keep up with events "back home." (Most on-air radio stations can only reliably broadcast over a 50 to 100 mile area, and net radio is worldwide.) There are tens of thousands of Internet-only radio stations. Since there are no laws governing Internet radio, anyone with a computer, the right hardware, software, and know-how can start an Internet radio station.
Satellite Radio The first fee-based service to transmit digital signals from a satellite was called XM Radio. In the first two months of operation
In addition to far fewer (or no) commercials (depending on the service), the new services offer a much wider choice of digital-quality programming.
Depending on the supplier, the monthly fee for the new satellite radio services ranges from $10 to $15. In addition to a wide variety of music and original programming, the new services include familiar programs from radio networks and programming services. The iPod Era
Users can assemble hours of their favorite music (up to 2,000 songs) on a computer and transfer it to a pocket-sized, solid-state listening device such as an iPod (on the left) or to one of the new generation cell phones. "Podcasts" of broadcasts from TV networks (photo on
the right) can also be
downloaded and listened to or viewed at the user's convenience. Radio and Media Conglomerates The whole CCC enterprise is run by one man: Texas billionaire L. Lowry Mays (whose profits went from $74 million to about $8 billion — a 100-fold increase — in ten years.) When a few media companies get too much power, allegations of unfair or biased content control often emerge. For example, according to The Los Angeles Times, (Feb. 25, 2002) singer Britney Spears alleged that CCC stations have refused to play her records because her company didn't hire CCC as their tour promoter. When more than 1,000 stations refuse to play an artist's records it represents a major blow to their success. We'll detail some of the major disadvantages of conglomerate control of the media in an upcoming module.
The next Matching Quiz will be after Module 23. |
Although appealing to audience segments by programming specific formats may have worked well in midsize markets, in the larger cities there were more radio stations than music formats. The question then became how to make your station — regardless of its format — stand out from the rest.
are a limited number of news/talk stations; but, since they are in urban areas, they have many more listeners.
"
devices
and computers that can "rip" (copy) musical selections
from
CDs and Internet sources arrived on the scene, the popularity of radio took
another "hit."
