A Radio by any other name…
A lifetime radio guy and friend of mine just sent me a link to a new radio toy - http://www.sanyocanada.com/Internet-Radios/Internet-Radio
It’s interesting that the design of many of the new wi-fi and internet table-top radios hearken back to some seemingly yearned-for romance hidden in broadcast radio’s halcyon days. A radio still looks unmistakably like a radio.
In talking about internet radio, Jerry Del Colliano, founder of Inside Radio, recently said, “DJs will not be necessary although personalities will always have a place… many young people seem to like the personal in-your-ear approach.
Well, if you take DJ’s to mean, literally, ‘Disc Jockeys’, that’s true. We well know that a computer can ‘jockey discs’. I, having been around awhile, often use the term ‘DJ’ and’ personality’ interchangeably. To me it’s the person who introduces the ‘records’, another old fashioned term that actually is still technically correct. Whether it is vinyl, a compact disc, an MP3, or whatever the media, it is a ‘recording’. That’s where the word ‘record’ came from. I digress…
There is a romance that is there in the subconscious of audio lovers who can remember first hand that unique connection with personalities and hosts. The reverberations are strong enough that even those who did not experience it first hand seem to feel some longing and identification with that experience. It’s great to stumble onto a show that you can connect with but, almost as often, I find myself compelled to listen only in the same way as I can’t turn away from a train wreck.
In an interview with Mark Ramsey in his book ‘Making Waves: Radio on the Verge’ Douglas Rushkoff said:
Most stations are looking at the listener community as a bunch of consumers to be segmented, targeted, manipulated - the sort of spreadsheet approach to radio as opposed to the passionate approach…They don’t ooze their culture anymore. There was a smell and a quality and a texture to everything radio that I think was the fun of the industry…When I turn on the radio now… It’s just another working stiff with some computer telling them what to play and when to play it…
I know that this is not always the case and, again, that you take exception to these sentiments. There are still pockets of resistance out there… and they need our help.
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