Re: Radio Listening--Human Contact

[Nostatic <nostatic@attbi.com>]

Young people today not only have more music and entertainment options 
than older generations did, but they also have more communication 
choices as well.  Instant messaging is used quite heavily by teenagers, 
and older teens along with 20-something adults have cellphones and now 
text messaging. If a kid is bored, he/she goes online, and within 
minutes, they are streaming music from a website and IM'ing with 
friends. Most young people would rather do that than listen to some DJ 
talk over a song.  Since teens are turning to the internet more and more 
for their music, and they are keeping themselves connected and 
entertained with other media, it's no wonder they don't have the 
fondness for radio as we do, or the need for live DJ's. It's just not as 
intimate or immediate.  Rather, it's detached and generic, something 
this latest generation doesn't relate to.  In the world of cable 
channels, music, and websites specifically targeted to young people, 
generic just doesn't cut it.

Despite all the pot shots radio has taken during the post-consolidation 
years, the medium is not the problem.  Competition is forcing radio to 
reassess how it's being used.  When I was a kid in the 70's, radio had 
many of the same problems that it has today--too much meaningless 
chatter, lots of commercials and promotional clutter, and even stretches 
of time where the music was really bad.  Still, radio did well because 
thats all there was.  There was no MTV, Disney Channel, or Nickelodeon 
to watch back in the day.  Outside of kiddie shows in the afternoon, 
over the air TV was a totally adult-targeted medium. Radio was the only 
source of entertainment for kids and teens.  It's just not that way 
anymore.  

Mike Thomas


Dan Strassberg wrote:

>I know that a lot of young people are said not to care about anything on the
>radio besides the music (and now people are questioning whether today's
>young people even care about THAT). One of the attractions of radio is--or
>has been--that it provides companionship (of a sort). Is it just because I
>am older that I do not find companionship in music alone without some DJ
>patter? I always regarded the companionship provided by radio (with live or
>simulated-live voices) as fulfilling a basic human need. What's with young
>people who do not have that need? I don't understand it. Of course, for eons
>before radio existed, people got along without the companionship I've
>described, but since the advent of radio, which became widely available just
>about when I was born (in the mid 1930s), the companionship that radio
>provided was almost universal--at least in the US.
>