NAB revels in negative article about satellite radio
Steve Safran August 21st, 2006
The National Association of Broadcasters continues to take every opportunity to jab satellite radio. No opportunity too small, either. Today’s NAB SmartBrief leads with “NAB: Satellite can’t compete with listeners’ love of local,” a link to a story in the Kennebec (Maine) Journal in which they take a gleeful dig at sat radio. And yes - the NAB takes the opportunity to push how HD radio will squash sat radio. NAB: This is so important to understand. It’s not about Satellite Radio vs Terrestrial Radio any more than it’s about Satellite TV vs Broadcast TV. Satellite and terrestrial radio compliment each other. Work with them, not against them.
10 Comments Add your own
1. Barry S. | August 21st, 2006 at 10:21 am
I don’t have any idea what they are talking about. I don’t listen to anything other than XM radio. I even have a car kit dedicated for use in rental cars so I that I never have to be without radio I want to listen to.
HD radio won’t change the fact that radio programming today is awful.
2. Safran | August 21st, 2006 at 10:28 am
I sat through a good 4-5 minute block of commercials on a local sports channel this morning. That’s how they’re fighting back? MAKING me change the station?
3. Stephen Warley | August 21st, 2006 at 10:48 am
Exactly Safran! I’ve actually told local radio broadcasters to see if they can get some of their content onto satellite radio. They should get carriage for their content on every distribution platform possible!!
Any local broadcaster that doesn’t understand that they are exclusively in the content biz now, not the distribution biz, just doesn’t get it!
At the Texas Association of Broadcasters, Dennis Swanson said he advises anyone who wants to get into media to get into the content side, not the distribution side.
4. anton | August 21st, 2006 at 12:35 pm
For me Its about:
1. 20-25 minutes of commercials on ter. radio vs 0-5 minutes on Sat. Will HD Radio change that?
2. Diversity of offerings — not just # of stations. Who wants 20 stations with the same lame (sorry) local content -weather/news/traffic snore or stations that play the same 5 songs etc. HD might help with diversity of music…i stress might….
3. No censorship. I don’t want ’sanitaized’ conversation/content thats only ’suitable’ for kids.
“….but when I became a man, I put away childish things ”
my 2 cents
5. Gunner | August 21st, 2006 at 2:03 pm
I have Sirius in my truck and XM in my car and home. There is NO WAY I would go back to local radio. Sat Radio just has too many upsides.
6. Rico | August 21st, 2006 at 2:09 pm
um, “complEment??”
7. Steve Safran | August 21st, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Good catch, Rico. That’s one of those words I always get stuck on. Like Sheriff, Chief, and - of course - Misspell.
8. Dan | August 21st, 2006 at 10:09 pm
Here in Seattle we have a JACK FM station.
It could basically be in Dallas, running on a laptop.
There are no live announcers, no weather, no traffic,
no news, no public affairs. But they do have 6 minute
commercial breaks, god love um.
It have ZERO local programming.
They are stealing, literally stealing our local
airwaves for their corporate well being.
There is absolutely nothing there about “serving
the public interest as a public trustee” aspect to that
licensee. But is any local politician or state
or US Senator saying word one about this crap?
Not a peep. Nothing from the local newspapers
either, probably because they aren’t smart enough
to know about how it’s supposed to be with
broadcast licensees. Do they even know
broadcasters are supposed to serve the
public interest?
This is what “local” radio has become.
And the NAB is nothing more than a whore for them,
not that they haven’t always been thus.
The thing that’s so weird to me is, it seems like
today’s radio management has forgotten that they are
in show business. They have forgotten that they are
supposed to put on a new show, every day.
Otherwise it’s just a jukebox, or iPod to use the
vernacular of the day.
Give it up for Radio as we knew it.
Dan
9. Radio Industry Hypocrisy &hellip | March 13th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
[...] March 13, 2007 Posted by Riley, Not O’Reilly in Federal Government, Entertainment, Business. trackback Why is the National Association of Broadcasters supporting the Consumer Coalition for Competitionin Satellite Radio in opposing the XM-Sirius merger when they seem so confident that “Satellite can’t compete with listeners’ love of local” and that “free” local radio will squash satellite? What about all those ads running on 630AM WMAL in Washington, DC from the industry’s trade association about how great local radio is and how they “won’t send you a bill — there are still some things you just shouldn’t have to pay for”? And what of this? Others argue that traditional radio simply remains the more appealing choice to the masses. [...]
10. lucy | January 18th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Wow, thanks for the excellent information!
Leave a Comment
(Please keep URLs out of the comment body or the spam filter will block you.)Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed