March 15, 2005
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I’m a fan of talk radio, and I’m aware about the whole situation with
the “threat” of Satellite Radio muscling them out of people’s
lives. Right now, several car models are now coming with some
Satellite radio already installed, so I can see why they are worried.
Standard FM talk radio has been on the defense the past months, with
the whole Howard Stern situation, cutting him out of stations, etc…
but it never really peaked my attention until I started hearing those
commercials they’ve been playing the past weeks.“You are listening to L.A.’s FREE talk radio.”
“Who would want to pay for talk radio, when you can get it FREE?”…and so it goes. First off, broadcast radio while very
accessible to the common joe isn’t really “free.” You “pay” the
station by listening to the commercials, which in turn gives them their
ratings that determines the money flow that goes into their pockets.
Sure we can choose not to listen to the commercials and listen to
another station, but notice how many stations have their ads on at the
same time? But even then, there’s no subscription fees or anything like
that, so the normal person can simply say that FM talk radio is in fact
FREE. Sure, whatever. Just don’t be naive about this whole FM radio vs
Satellite business. Know the facts surrounding it before posing
an opinion.
