Dan, Again, I agree with you on many of your points but did you even pay any attention to my comments about PUBLIC broadcasters? Many of them are using the airwaves exactly the way they are intended and are doing some very innovative things.
The shell games that many commercial broadcasters play in terms of buying, selling and moving stations to turn a profit drive me nuts. The FCC has for some reason decided that these kinds of actions actually serve the public.
These kinds of games along with poor programming and too many commercials do indeed drive away listeners and do nothing to serve the public.
You seem to really like Internet streaming. I do as well, however, when you start thinking about the cost per listener it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense as a business model. It's a nice thing to offer but it will never be able to serve the same number of people as cost effectively as a large FM or AM transmitter will.
With traditional broadcasting the initial investment in hardware is only made once. There is no recurring cost per listener. It is inherently a one-to-many technology.
Perhaps as the Internet changes and mobile broadband becomes more and more common this will change, but for now, broadcasters still have an advantage in that regard.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shane @ Sep 28th 2007 4:35AM
Dan, Again, I agree with you on many of your points but did you even pay any attention to my comments about PUBLIC broadcasters? Many of them are using the airwaves exactly the way they are intended and are doing some very innovative things.
The shell games that many commercial broadcasters play in terms of buying, selling and moving stations to turn a profit drive me nuts. The FCC has for some reason decided that these kinds of actions actually serve the public.
These kinds of games along with poor programming and too many commercials do indeed drive away listeners and do nothing to serve the public.
You seem to really like Internet streaming. I do as well, however, when you start thinking about the cost per listener it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense as a business model. It's a nice thing to offer but it will never be able to serve the same number of people as cost effectively as a large FM or AM transmitter will.
With traditional broadcasting the initial investment in hardware is only made once. There is no recurring cost per listener. It is inherently a one-to-many technology.
Perhaps as the Internet changes and mobile broadband becomes more and more common this will change, but for now, broadcasters still have an advantage in that regard.