Satellite killed the radio star

[Dr. Whiplash]

Satellite killed the radio star
Peter Kenter, CanWest News Service

The first car I ever rode in was a 1950-something Plymouth with a beautiful radio that lit up while my father drove. I doubt he ever listened to popular music then because, short of a vague recollection of hearing Roger Miller singing 'King of the Road,' I mostly recall static, the distinctive voices of sports announcers and the homogenous roar of NHL hockey fans.

This isn't a sad recollection extolling the virtues of Original Six rivalries or the superiority of listening to a favourite team losing on the radio instead of seeing it on television. If I could have reached into the front seat, I would have changed the channel without a thought. On the other hand, I wouldn't trade the textured memories of hurtling through a frozen February night with the buzz of Leafs fans and what I'm now sure must have been the actual voice of Foster Hewitt providing a backdrop.

In high school, I'd ordered a giant whip antenna from a dusty local store that specialized in charging a premium to import items that were readily available in the next town if you knew where to look for them. I loved AM radio not so much for its content but because it provided a context for whatever I happened to be doing at the time.

Local stations offered relatively clear reception because they were YOURS. Weaker signals from neighbouring towns offered extra flavour. Then there were the mysterious, exotic stations from hundreds of kilometres away, popping and crackling in and out of existence, delivering "tests of the Emergency Broadcast System" and the experiences of people in New York City or small towns in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. Radio interference somehow made the experience more organic, heralding sunspots or distant thunderstorms.

I'm not going to get up on a soapbox to decry satellite radio. There's a lot to be said for crystal clear stereo signals, knowing the name of the group you just listened to and hearing more of what you always liked to hear before you decided that radio wasn't free any more. But something is lost as well.

Chris Stein of the group Blondie once complained that the now-primitive computer animation featured in the video for Dire Straits' 'Money for Nothing' was so distracting that, every time he heard the song on his car radio, he thought of nothing else but the two pixellated delivery guys hauling "re-FRIDGERators" instead of the music itself. He contrasted that to his memories of listening to a local station playing a song by the Supremes on the car radio while he ate a hamburger and crested a hill near his high school on a particularly fine fall day.

Satellite radio relieves us of some of those rich random experiences by giving us only what we ask for at exactly the moment we'd like to hear it with limited local context. The driver listening to Greg Brady's very own '70s satellite music show in Fredericton enjoys an experience identical to that of a driver in Burnaby, B.C.

If radio programmers were a smarter breed of manipulators, I'd accuse them of some sort of Orwellian (perhaps Communist) effort to disassociate the masses from their surroundings. Radio produced in Tuktoyaktuk is delivered with equal signal clarity to programming produced in Fort Worth without the slightest hint of local flavour. In some not-toodistant future, we might be driving down a featureless city street that looks a little unfamiliar -- in what city were we driving again? We turn to our car radio for clues, but all of the local disc jockeys and newscasters were fired long ago. Station call letters are a meaningless concept.

Deepak Chopra's phone-in radio program on satellite radio offers us no cues. We change the station to hear a selection of early 19th century French-Canadian folk songs. Are we in Quebec? Mais, non. Howard Stern is next, but he offers nothing more salient. A CBC news report pinpoints nothing. Eventually, we give up. It no longer matters where we are. If our totalitarian radio taskmasters have their way, we will no longer care.

Soon, they'll just escort us from our cars and take us to a collective farm where we'll help our Glorious Leader to avert a disastrous grain harvest while we prop up his failing Five-Year Plan. Once there, we'll listen to a single radio station offering digitally enhanced political propaganda and folk songs extolling the virtues of working in the soil and doing as we're told.

One radio station. For everyone. Don't say you weren't warned.

[AmpedNow]

I'm not going to get up on a soapbox to decry satellite radio. There's a lot to be said for crystal clear stereo signals, knowing the name of the group you just listened to and hearing more of what you always liked to hear before you decided that radio wasn't free any more. But something is lost as well.

Some of us gladly pay for additional audio options.

Get over it.

Satellite radio relieves us of some of those rich random experiences by giving us only what we ask for at exactly the moment we'd like to hear it with limited local context. The driver listening to Greg Brady's very own '70s satellite music show in Fredericton enjoys an experience identical to that of a driver in Burnaby, B.C.

So?

If radio programmers were a smarter breed of manipulators, I'd accuse them of some sort of Orwellian (perhaps Communist) effort to disassociate the masses from their surroundings. Radio produced in Tuktoyaktuk is delivered with equal signal clarity to programming produced in Fort Worth without the slightest hint of local flavour.

If the content I hear is good, I could care less if it comes from Tuktoyaktuk...

In some not-toodistant future, we might be driving down a featureless city street that looks a little unfamiliar -- in what city were we driving again? We turn to our car radio for clues, but all of the local disc jockeys and newscasters were fired long ago. Station call letters are a meaningless concept.

By then, GPS navigation will be standard in vehicles, as well as Google...

Deepak Chopra's phone-in radio program on satellite radio offers us no cues. We change the station to hear a selection of early 19th century French-Canadian folk songs. Are we in Quebec? Mais, non. Howard Stern is next, but he offers nothing more salient. A CBC news report pinpoints nothing. Eventually, we give up. It no longer matters where we are. If our totalitarian radio taskmasters have their way, we will no longer care.

Wah.

I'm an American first. I like being connected to the entire country, not just an island called West Virginia with occasional blips from the "outside world".

That's what's neat about satellite... Whatever I listen to, not only are people across town listening to the same song as I, but so are people across the country. I still feel "connected".

One radio station. For everyone. Don't say you weren't warned.

That would be Apple's wet dream come true...

[Bob Loblaw]

I got my first real long-term listening experience with XM this weekend. Funny thing, there were almost 20 of us listening to it, and more than a few times I'd hear "Over 120 channels and nothing to listen to."

Granted, you can't satisfy so many people with so many different tastes, but the closest we ever came was 20 on 20, The Hitlist, Kiss, the Pulse, and whatever the 90's Modern AC channel is.

How generic and dull. None of those channels really stood out to me. If I was a potential XM buyer, I wouldn't be after this weekend.

[SPIKE NESMITH!]

But could 20 people all be satisfied by one FM station...? Maybe I'm the exception, but I've never experienced a radio station that I could listen to without hitting something I don't like within 15 minutes or so.

[Zak Tyler]

I got my first real long-term listening experience with XM this weekend. Funny thing, there were almost 20 of us listening to it, and more than a few times I'd hear "Over 120 channels and nothing to listen to."

did ya'll have a DC-Tampa shuttle for Kane's wedding?

[Bob Loblaw]

But could 20 people all be satisfied by one FM station...? Maybe I'm the exception, but I've never experienced a radio station that I could listen to without hitting something I don't like within 15 minutes or so.

By one station? No. It's not really possible. That was my point. Even with all those channels, there still wasn't anything except or the generic already been done by FM, formats that we could all listen to without wanting to kill each other.

did ya'll have a DC-Tampa shuttle for Kane's wedding?

Nah. Wasn't for his wedding. Went to a friend's lake house for the weekend.

[Arp2]

I got my first real long-term listening experience with XM this weekend....How generic and dull. None of those channels really stood out to me. If I was a potential XM buyer, I wouldn't be after this weekend.

I've found that what I consider the most valuable is the in-car availability of CNBC, Fox News Channel, other talk and information programming, and so forth. It's nice to be able to get a quick fix of reggaeton, salsa, and other stuff and to have artists and titles so handy, but, as far as the music goes,......eh!

[AmpedNow]

I got my first real long-term listening experience with XM this weekend. Funny thing, there were almost 20 of us listening to it, and more than a few times I'd hear "Over 120 channels and nothing to listen to."

Granted, you can't satisfy so many people with so many different tastes, but the closest we ever came was 20 on 20, The Hitlist, Kiss, the Pulse, and whatever the 90's Modern AC channel is.

How generic and dull. None of those channels really stood out to me. If I was a potential XM buyer, I wouldn't be after this weekend.

In a major market with 50 signals, you have an argument.

For people in the sticks, it's about having more options, period. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in WV likes poorly automated country...

Major markets are a harder sell, but that's where exclusive content comes into play.

[Bob Loblaw]

I got my first real long-term listening experience with XM this weekend. Funny thing, there were almost 20 of us listening to it, and more than a few times I'd hear "Over 120 channels and nothing to listen to."

Granted, you can't satisfy so many people with so many different tastes, but the closest we ever came was 20 on 20, The Hitlist, Kiss, the Pulse, and whatever the 90's Modern AC channel is.

How generic and dull. None of those channels really stood out to me. If I was a potential XM buyer, I wouldn't be after this weekend.

In a major market with 50 signals, you have an argument.

For people in the sticks, it's about having more options, period. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in WV likes poorly automated country...

Major markets are a harder sell, but that's where exclusive content comes into play.

Point well taken.

I've often said that SatRad should concentrate more on upscale users in smaller markets. That's where I think true brand loyalty can come into play.

[Jay Nunley]

What if the formats chosen by stations in smaller markets reflect the tastes and desires of the local populace? Don't you end up with the same paradigm?

It seems to me that audiophiles, frequent long distance road travellers, gadget heads, talk radio nerds that want something other than Rush and Hannity, and the few people who couldn't possibly be satisfied with OTA radio are the ones SatRad should be going after.

[Bob Loblaw]

The larger the market, the more "flavors" of more formats you can have.

Some places, like Charleston, are finally getting more flavor (like the Beat, and the Wolf). Others, still don't see it yet.

[Jay Nunley]

Yes, but are there enough people in a small market dissatisfied enough with OTA to pay for XM or Sirius to make that much of a difference?

I guess if you get a thousand people in a hundred towns that's one hundred thousand people. Is that enough?

[AmpedNow]

Yes, but are there enough people in a small market dissatisfied enough with OTA to pay for XM or Sirius to make that much of a difference?

No. At least not at this point in time.

Most people I talk to are still satisfied enough with their local stations to not pay extra for satellite... However, satellite radio is still in its infancy, and there's still many directions the industry could take, depending on whether or not the merger goes through.

As time goes on, satellite radios will become more streamlined into new vehicles and everyday life, and people will become less resistant to pay for radio. But I think there's still a long time to go before OTA broadcasters see significant TSL eroded due to satellite...

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a very atypical listener, and I tend to be an early adopter of new tech, if the price point isn't too high. I still tune in to OTA radio regularly, but I also admit that Sirius takes up a considerable amount of my in-car listening.

[Arp2]

I experience a strange, little stress with it -- my brain says to me, "you're paying for it...you should be listening to it."

So I do. I take it with me and surf it like you would cable TV at 3am.