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I live in Oklahoma City, and the radio stations here are among the worst I've ever heard. It seems almost every frequency is changing to either a talk or oldies format of some sort. It almost seems like FM is starting to become what AM used to be - talk and music aimed at the older generation. At least in this market, nobody wants to try anything risky or interesting anymore. Does anybody think this is part of a larger trend or is it simply just OKC? For what its worth, 10 years ago OKC actually had some decent radio stations so its not like the market can't or at least once did support good stations. I guess the younger people that were the bread and butter of these stations are now listening to Pandora or other Internet radio, and I am sure that has a great effect on the variety of formats on the dial. Thoughts?
The radio stations in CO from Denver to Pueblo, all suck-hard. Radio stations in San Diego were much more diverse and I felt were much better than most areas I've been to, outside of a station in Las Lunas, NM, and some stations between Barstow, CA and Las Vegas, NV.
Overall, yes, I believe FM radio is slowly dying, thanks to mobile apps like IHeartRadio and Pandora. Sad, because it really seems like FM radio stations don't really give a crap, either...
-The amount of choice and competition has exploded. There is so much on demand stuff now, why wait for something pre formatted?
It seems like people can look up so much stuff online, it dilutes/hurt radio....there isn't much of a surprise factor. Is anything exclusive anymore to radio? I wouldn't be surprised if fm/am go the way of network tv. Big corporations own all the radio stations....they want something "safe".
Also, there is so much more variety online. You can watch just about anything on youtube.
IMO one of the reasons people think radio gets worse as they age is that they age past the target demographic of the stations they listen to. The station no longer plays music that interests you because, as someone who is older than the target demographic, you no longer interest them as a member of the audience!
I've certainly experienced this. It's painful to hear the music I listened to in high school and college turning up on the oldies station! And once I pass age 54, I know they're less likely to be playing music I like.
Here in upstate NY it's hard to find a decent informative talk show...all politics, blame game. We have Sirius XM for traveling. Even then it's still difficult to find something interesting. Plenty of music, all years, all kinds.
Listened to Q101 Alternative station in Chicago for YEARS and then one day it was gone, changed to news.
Currently listening to 1057 The Point in St. Louis - Very popular station here and a friend of mine is a DJ there, but it's the same old tired ass format that FM stations have been doing since I was old enough to listen to radio. To make matters worse they constantly play ancient music like Nirvana 10 times a day, Old school Pearl Jam etc. I like this music, but I have been listening to it practically my entire life, and during my drive time I want to hear something current.
They pretty much need to Reboot FM - It's no wonder so many of my friends listen to NPR these days.
IMO one of the reasons people think radio gets worse as they age is that they age past the target demographic of the stations they listen to. The station no longer plays music that interests you because, as someone who is older than the target demographic, you no longer interest them as a member of the audience!
I've certainly experienced this. It's painful to hear the music I listened to in high school and college turning up on the oldies station! And once I pass age 54, I know they're less likely to be playing music I like.
I disagree. Here in Oklahoma City, there is plenty on the dial catering to the older generation. There is one decent Top 40 station and a low power, static-filled hip-hop station. There is a second Top 40 station but its a few years out of date in terms of the songs they play. Outside of that, it's all country, oldies, or sports talk. The younger generation today seems to be tuning into XM or Pandora more than FM radio, making it a tough market for them. I am not sure if other markets are seeing the same thing but that's how it is here. I know alternative/indie rock is the biggest thing right now for twentysomethings, but how many markets have a quality station for that format?
There are too many AM stations that do FM simulcasts, I can hear Rush on 5 different AM stations, don't need it on 2 FM stations. The music stations that remain on FM are terrible, back in the 1970s people were willing to lay out big bucks for high quality receivers, today you can get all kinds of Bluetooth boom boxes but a good AM/FM radio is as common as typewriters and 8-track tape players.
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