Chapter 11-Question 11 (Page 373)

Discuss how various new digital technologies are impacting radio listening. What are some of the ways the radio industry is responding to these changes?


Satellite radio
IPODS
Podcasting
HD radio
Internet
Cell phones with MP3 player built in

The above new technologies are impacting the amount of radio people are listening to. All of the above technologies are allowing people to download their favorite songs. Many people will change channels if they do not like a song or if they don’t feel like listening to commercials. Utilizing these technologies allow people to listen to music without any commercials interfering with their listening.

Radio stations are decreasing the amount of advertisements that they are allowing to run per day. As a result, radio stations are allowing themselves to almost triple the amount of songs they play each day.

They are using the “Jack” format that was created by the IPOD. The “Jack” format is when a radio station will shuffle all their songs for the day and play them at random.

Even though the above new technologies are impacting them, researchers say that terrestrial radio still reaches almost 94% of their audience.

Radio stations that upgrade to HD radio are able to increase their capabilities. Even though radio listening is stable at the present time, the amount of people listening to the radio is slowly declining. By using HD radio, radio stations will have better quality and will be able to provide their audience with a lot more channels.

I researched the internet and found the following results. Some larger radio stations are selling their station, and turning into privately owned stations. Some radio stations are merging with others. Furthermore, radio stations upgrading to HD are realizing that the high cost of upgrading will be worth it in the end. Radio stations are also realizing that they need to be on top of all new technologies by doing research about their target markets’ perferences.

With upgrades, radio stations are able to provide their audiences with better and faster service. Many radio stations are performing surveys to see what their audiences want. One radio station found out that their audience level decreased by 27%.