"BROADCAST RADIO: continuing to suck wind"

Well, yet another Top 40 station near me officially bit the dust
almost exactly an hour ago. At noon Eastern time, the local
Indianapolis pop/hip hop station, WNOU "Radio Now" 93.1, switched to a
temporary format of all-Christmas-music-all-the-time through the end
of the year, at which point it'll be replaced by an FM-dial version of
local WIBC's news/talk format.

The local owner of the station, Emmis Communications, has been on the
financial ropes due to mismanagement and an overly-aggressive
expansion strategy for quite some time now, as it struggled (and
failed) to try to keep up with the radio-industry behemoth, Clear
Channel Communications. But even Clear Channel has seen more than its
fair share of financial woes lately, and what was once the 800-lb.
gorilla in the radio universe is now on the cusp of having to be taken
private just in order to be able to stay afloat.

Emmis can spin-doctor its "choice" to switch from a music to a talk
format all it wants, but anyone who's paying the slightest bit of
attention in the radio industry knows damn well what is really going
on here. The funding for the Clear Channel private equity deal dried
up at about the same time that the RIAA released its latest batch of
truly dismal numbers regarding the state of purchased recorded music
in the country. Quite simply, no one cares about playlisted radio any
more. Since it's becoming easier (not to mention cheaper) to put
together one's own personalized playlists online through the myriad of
streaming options available out there, even so-called "HD radio",
which broadcasts in the digital frequencies between the regular analog
ones, hasn't taken off the way industry peeps expected it to. And that
means advertisers, the lifeblood of any "free" music station, have
been deserting in droves for other avenues.

Just about the only viable option LEFT on the FM dial any more is news/
talk, just as it was in the late seventies when listeners deserted AM
en masse for greener pastures. And on-air yakkers are a lot cheaper to
find, by the dozen, than their relatively more diva-esque DJ
counterparts, who get paid just as much but are on the air something
like 80% less.

This is it, people. You read it here first. Music is officially dead.
It's the end of the world. Society is on the brink of utter collapse.
Get in your bomb shelters now, we're all gonna die. XD

http://ozy-y2k.livejournal.com/338426.html

Ha! Ha! Eduardo!