Radio (not so free) Rafe

Rafe Mair the one time king of the British Columbia talk radio airwaves is back!

The once dominant voice of the always boisterous radio talk wars, was shuffled off of the airwaves a few years back, having been let go by CKNW and then finding that his next stop on the radio carousel Jimmy Pattison's AM600, wasn't willing to wait for an audience to build up for a run at the perennial leader. He provided a thoughtful examination of the trials and tribulations of the radio talk world for the Tyee shortly after being dismissed by AM600.

Since then Mair has kept active with a website and through his writing for the Tyee and other local Vancouver publications, but he's always made it clear that radio was his bully pulpit and that he missed the daily thrust and parry of verbal jousting that it offered.

So he's making a comeback of sorts, this time as a three times a week host on an Internet based radio program. No large corporation to be beholden to, no Program Directors and Station Managers to try and pressure him to tone it down or go easy. And to be truthful at the moment, not much of an audience to join in on the debate.

The plan is to grow the project over the next few months, which currently is available for free off the Internet, then once the audience builds suggest that a small fee of five dollars a month will be required to join in on Rafe's radio revolution.

He explained in the Tyee how the project is going to work for and what the future holds for his latest venture in the world of British Columbia commentary and debate.

The Internet talk radio streaming system has grown fast in the USA providing for some pretty large names in broadcasting. Rush Limbaugh regularly preaches to his converted ditto heads through his website and Dr. Laura Schlessinger has built her on air empire on the backbone of a web based Internet site that offers up archived shows, and special features as well as live broadcasts for the vast audience wanting to sit through her daily three hour tutorials on how to be a better person or solve those demons in your life.

Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, is likewise offered up as a streaming Internet subscription based program, one that looks at items that are on the stranger side of the agenda. From UFO's to shadow people, and exorcisms to earth changes and other phenomena, Noory's program offers extra features to subscribers as well and regularly draws listeners to the archives who may have missed a regular over the air show.

While all three appear on numerous over the air (free) radio statoins in the US and Canada, this expanded service is perhaps the future of what was once over the air radio, but Limbaugh, Noory and Schelssinger have built up a base over the years and can draw from a large worldwide pool of devotees.

Rafe Mair likewise has built up an audience over the years, but the pool will be significantly reduced from those big leagues of Internet subscription radio. Now you have to start somewhere I suppose, but it will be an interesting study to see if British Columbian's will be willing to part with 60 dollars a year for a daily one hour sampling of the latest thoughts of Rafe Mair.

While he's spot on as he would say, about the reach of the bean counters of corporate radio into the editorial world at times, there is still a rather faithful following of the CKNW offerings from Phillip Till in the mornings, through Bill Good's popular mid morning talkfest and now on to the latest politico turned gabber Christy Clark who has just been provided with her own platform to offer up ideas and stir debate (and the odd bout of animosity it would seem). NW wraps up the daylight hours with a fairly informative late afternoon show called the World today, the move on from there with some syndicated programming and then a three hour BC based sports talk show with Dan Russell. It's talk, talk, talk, talk talk non stop, a format that has brought in the numbers in the ever expanding upper reaches of the over forty demographic.

When Mair was at his radio post, the shows were always highly entertaining, informative and tended to annoy the powers that be, both in corporate radio and further afield into politics. A good sign for a grassroots gabber, but probably a career limiting trend in an industry that has become very corporate over the years. The key for his success however was that he was backed up by a pretty strong and powerful signal pounding out from a well known name brand.

Heading to Canada's still incubating world of Internet radio may bring him back to where he belongs and doing what he loves, but what remains to be seen is if his once loyal audience will be willing to pay for their punditry.

Click here for instructions on how to listen in to Rafe Mair on line, free for now...

Grampa, what’s a radio?

The iPod generation is on the rise and the traditional radio industry is going to suffer its effects in the years to come.

The Globe and Mail has some bad news for the radio industry on its website today, as they report the findings from a report courtesy of Statistics Canada, which used BBM radio ratings as benchmarks, has found that young people are listening to over the air radio less and less these days.

According to the Statscan report, Canadians spent less time listening to the radio last year than in previous years, tuning in for 18.6 hours during measured weeks of autumn, compared to 19.1 hours a week the year before. That has dropped almost two hours since 1999. Much of the change comes from 12- to 24-year-olds, with teenagers only deigning to bother with radio for an average of 7.6 hours a week.

But young people aren’t tuning out music, they’re just finding it from other sources, downloading it off the net or listening to internet radio stations that don’t appear in BBM measurements from their local towns.

It’s been a trend that has been building for the last few years, with radio becoming the staple of senior Canadians; women in particular are the most faithful of listeners logging in some 22 hours a week, while men dropped slightly to 19 hours a week in the survey.

The folks in the upper age brackets tend to enjoy the national broadcaster more than other age brackets, frequently listing it as one of their favourite on air destinations. But for the younger generations the CBC doesn’t resonate at all, coming in at dead last for their options for entertainment.

If the young do listen to radio, its most likely to a local college station, which are a thriving niche in the world of radio, but not recognized due to the cost of participation in the ratings structure. College campus stations provide not only an on air presence but frequently an on line presence as well, combining music and information that is relevant to that demographic. That could explain the widespread disappearance of the young from the radio ratings, they may still be there, but they’re just not being counted properly.

But even if they do listen in to the local college outlet, young people spend far more time with their iPods, finding their music from a variety of sources, many of which may not have even existed five years ago.

One such destination however may soon be no more, Internet based radio stations; a still developing industry have run into a copyright roadblock in the USA that threatens to shut down the business completely. As a shift occurred for many radio listeners many turned off the transistor radios and simply surfed the net for a wide variety of sounds that weren’t available in their local communities. The entire industry is a threat due to legislation in the US and the fight has just begun to try and turn things around before its too late for many of the still developing stations.

Regardless of how that fight turns out, it’s a given that the youth of today will find their music somewhere, somehow. But if you’re a local radio executive you had best expect them not to be coming back to the safe and frequently stale offerings of the small town station.

They’ve found their niche elsewhere, it’s doubtful that they’ll be satisfied with what is being offered up today by mainstream radio, they very well may be the lost numbers of today and even more disturbing for a radio executive, they could be a generation gone for tomorrow.