Blinking at the Deathstar

An interesting article in the Globe and Mail (registration required, but its FREE!!) caught my eye today, Canadian broadcasters have asked the CRTC to delay it's review of conventional radio while the industry comes to terms with the new landscape they are working in.

Radio has been tied to the railway tracks for years now, watching the approaching train get ever so close as newer forms of media come along and split the pie that they once had to themselves. Every once and a while the business has a renaissance and then slips back into a comfortable groove, smaller than it once was and significantly further and further away from what once made it an integral part of a community.

The latest threat to your local radio station (according to local radio) is satellite radio, which the industry tried to keep out of Canada in the last few years trotting out the old song that it would cause irreparable damage to Canada's cultural fabric. Somehow confusing local radio commercials and a mandated 30 some odd percent of Canadian music as a glue holding the country together. In fact, the threat to local radio has been local radio itself.

The CRTC found some backbone and stood its ground, granting licenses to operate satellite delivered radio to a couple of major players in the field. Despite the grumbling of the CHUM group which lost out and a bit of cultural sabre rattling from Quebec, the two competing services, Canadian satellite Radio and Sirius Radio are still working on their plans to bring the newest gadget to Canadians in time for Christmas. Some small changes were made to the bids to satiate the parliamentarians on the Hill, but for the most part it seems that the proposals made earlier are still the ones to come to receivers shortly.

Satellite radio is basically niche programming on steroids, numerous formats all delivered with CD like sound, many without the interruption of commercial message. Though others won't be much different than what many in the larger centres have today, except the programming will be available to anyone willing to part with the money for a receiver and a subscription. The key players in this pay radio thing are numerous sports leagues and high profile talents like the much discussed, feared and at times loathed Howard Stern, though to date there's no actual suggestion that the Stern show will be allowed to beam down to fragile Canadian ears. Stern may not make the bandwidth (my bet is he will), but there will be many other options previously never explored in Canadian media.

The whole Sat radio thing seems like a convenient excuse for current broadcasters to shake their fists at the sky and scream Damn CPR or some such current equivalent. They can't get their heads wrapped around the idea that their world has changed and actually changed a while ago. The age of the internet provides anyone with a computer browser, a sound card and a pair of speakers the chance to listen to stations from anywhere in the world. The likes of the BBC, Radio Eire and Radio Australia all put their excellent options on the net. Numerous private stations such as Radio Paradise all stream their programming on the net, easily accessible and quite enjoyable. Sports fans have no shortage of streams to chase down to follow their favorite sport or team. Even the CBC has an internet only service called Radio 3. There's pretty well something for any interest out there if you want to take the time to search it out. Each hour listened to is one hour less that your local station has of your attention. And one less hour that its advertisers will have of your spending potential.

I live in a town with technically four "local" radio stations, a CBC affiliate that kind of broadcasts a morning show from here, though it shares the show with a host 700 kms away in a different city. They touch on local issues, but its a wide region they cover and two and a half hours doesn't give them much time to keep everybody happy (of course the last six weeks or so they've been gone completely, but that's another story.) Our other AM station is supposed to be the local station, however it long ago began broadcasting out of a central studio in a city an hour and a half down the road. They apparently have a local reporter who sometimes provides local stories for the chain and rumours persist that there is a local radio guy in town who goes on the air, but to be truthful I stopped listening a long, long time ago and wouldn't be able to testify that I've heard the guy or gal.

We also have two FM stations in our market both of which also broadcast from another town and only come to our city for remotes, where the station pretends to be part of the community by dropping by some local business for three hours or so. To say we have a thriving local radio station, that is deeply concerned about our community and is tapping the pulse of the place is just not a truth. What we have is a company that comes in here with sales reps and takes commercial dollars away while not serving the community in a very tangible way.

And ours is not the only community with this kind of arrangement. With radio having downsized itself over the last fifteen years, this scenario has repeated itself time and time again across the country. Mother ship studios provide the content for numerous towns, occasionally sending some announcer out on the road to show the flag. Automation has reduced the human contact and bean counting has reduced the visible presence in most towns. The big cities have been able to fight off the concept thus far, though automation has taken root there and recently the simulcasting of "network" shows in local markets has begun to take away blocks of programming from the local market. The best example of this has been a once mighty CKNW which has been a mainstay of Vancouver radio for years, now slowly the Vancouver audience is finding that local issues are being sidestepped for a more "national' vision, as the Charles Adler show took over the 1-3 slot. It's apparently an experiment, but who knows if its not the thin edge of the wedge.

The major and minor players in Canadian radio say that the oncoming rush of satellite radio will fragment the Canadian market, but that Canadians will always want local product. Which is probably quite true, but sadly in many markets it isn't provided. Playing a tight rotation of the same old songs over and over again, utilizing automated voice tracking with no local flavour, reading PSA's as the only local involvement offered up, while airing the odd newscast and running local commercials, is not quite keeping the pulse of the local market. Eventually more and more choice will have listeners voting with their fingers, clicking from pre-set to pre-set looking for something worth listening to.

To go back to my local market for just a bit, Twenty years ago there was more or less a full service radio station here. They had four on air announcers, three news people who found local stories to relay, a sports guy that went out and covered local sports as if he was covering the Lions or the Canucks, commercial copy writers and sales reps that lived in this town and understood the market. Today they're all gone, the station lives on in call letters only, the afore mentioned newsie and possible on air person providing a sliver of content. But to call it a service of local importance would be folly. The difference between that station 20 years ago and what we have now is like night and day.

Now to be fair and upfront the town has gone through a rather severe economic contraction, as near to a depression as any town in Canada, yet there are other markets in similar economic distress that have managed to keep a local comprehensive radio service in business. Our market was abandoned by the chain that owns the license, the news reporter is basically lip service for license maintenance. But that's all ancient history now. Yes some people still listen, but with more and more choices to come, the numbers will continue to erode away as people seek out a more reliable barometer of the local community.

Now about that change, the fear of satellite radio seems rather silly as there is so much more out there now and on the way that will have a much larger impact. Perhaps one day a co-op radio option may arrive in our town, but that's really old time thinking. More likely is some new form of media. I wouldn't want to be banking on anyone under the age of thirty being a dedicated local radio listener here or anywhere, with Ipods that can hold over 1000 songs or more, MP3 players in cars and homes, the idea of waiting for your local radio station to play a song you might like seems like a quaint old tradition. One the old folks harken back to when they talk about the good old days. Podcasting is still in its infancy, but it's making huge gains every day. New podcasts pop up each hour, some good, some awful, but all offer a choice. If local radio continues on its current path, where safe is best and cost cutting is the religion, and the local community is treated as only a vat of revenue then the alternatives will soon find a ready audience.

Even the large cities will not be able to stem the flow of the new media experiments. Satellite radio is really only one small piece of an ever changing spectrum of options. Your average listener may one morning load up their Ipod with a dozen podcasts of their liking, some put together by local guerilla journalists not encumbered by corporate chill. They'll then select a collection of their favourite songs for the day from their own library or download some for ninety nine cents at itunes, maybe download a chapter from an ebook that they have wanted to read, a seminar from a well know speaker or last night's Jon Stewart show or Letterman monologue, the possibilities are endless. Your favourite blogger may have a podcast, perhaps you'll take a half hour of his or her thoughts on the way to work. Click, click, click, your local old media outlet suddenly has no one listening.

Local media will have to compete, but if the last twenty years is any indication they won't really be up to the task. They have taken the easy way out for far too long, taking their audience for granted because the competitive options weren't there. That day has apparently changed forever, no wonder they want a delay of three years for reviewing the industry. The industry of today most likely won't even be in place by the time the CRTC calls its meeting to order.

The stations that today say they aren't worried are only whistling by the graveyard. As the old spiritual goes, People get ready there's a change a comin'.

For the listener it's a day of celebration as they will soon have the power to choose what they want for entertainment and information. For creative folks with something to say, it will be like a revelation, the new era of communication will make your voice heard by more people than you ever thought possible.

But most importantly for those radio and other media outlets that have shown nothing but contempt for their audiences and communities, it's more of a day of reckoning! The train is getting closer, one wonders if they can get off that track one more time? Do they even know how to get off the track? More importantly, do we the listener even care anymore?

Update: As though to re-inforce my point about new technology the folks at Ipod today announced an upgrade to the current Ipod players, this one will offer video, so instead of just listening to your favourite new tune you can view the video to it. Plus, ABC has signed a deal to offer up current episodes of its prime time lineup, the two mentioned in this article, were Desperate Housewives and Lost. Hmmm, Desperate and Lost, two terms that come to mind for certain head in the sand broadcast executives!