SatRad vs. Broadcast vs. DIY

[Bob DeMattia]

>
> Hmmm...really?  No sense of currency?  The day Davy Jones passes, the
> sixties channel brought in their morning jock (who is very live and very
> current each morning) to play Monkees tunes, reminisce about Davy Jones and
> the group, and let listeners weigh in.  If that isn't a sense of currency,
> I'm not sure what it.   That is only one recent example, but I could
> certainly enumerate additional.
>

That's one example, and I'm sure there are more, but local radio has
satellite radio beat on a day-to-day basis.  I still stand by my impression
that the XM music channels
sound sterile.  You mention the 60's channel, but try listening to some of
the less popular channels up the dial.


> As for "local weather", how do you address that when your audience is a
> national one?  But when there is something unusual going on somewhere in
> the country weatherwise, it gets a mention.
>


I don't have to address it; that's my point.  Bringing weather, local
sports scores, traffic,  and other local community stories is an advantage
that local radio has over satellite.
Satellite has advantages too - like reception in mountainous rural areas
away from major markets.


-Bob



>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Bob DeMattia <bob.bosra@demattia.net>
> To: B-R-I <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
> Sent: Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:07:07 -0000 (UTC)
> Subject: SatRad vs. Broadcast vs. DIY
>
> Sirium XM came installed in my car with a free 1-yr subscription.
> About the only things I ever listen to are some of the produced-for-TV
> cable channels.
>
> I've tried to listen to the music channels, but it's like listening
> to an automated station most of the time.  The DJs, when they have
> them, sound voice-tracked.  There's no sense of currency.  Maybe the its
> lack of a local stories or local weather forecast; there's just something
> missing.
>
> So while I still have access to these stations, most of the time I find
> myself listening to broadcast.
>
> The one major exception is when driving through areas like central NH
> or rural PA, where it becomes annoying that the flea-power stations
> they have in the smaller markets only last for 20 to 30 minutes at a
> time.
>
> When I'm not in the mood for commercials, I have a 4Gb USB stick that
> plugs into a USB port on my dash.  Set the player to random and it
> plays from a collection of 250+ tracks, all of which I like.  No DJs,
> but no  bad songs either.  This is far superior than anything XM has
> to offer.
>
> Another problem with XM is the compression.  There just doesn't seem to
> be as much "umph" to the sound.   The compression on the non-music
> channels is even worse.
>
> -Bob
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 7:53 AM, Sid Schweiger **wrote:
>
> > "the formats on Sirius/XM that get ANY ratings at all are the ones that
> > duplicate the broadcast formats available to anyone on AM/FM."
> >
> > The only format on SiriusXM that gets any ratings at all, according to
> > Eastlan (the only company that includes satellite radio in its local
> > ratings, in the few markets in which it operates), is Howard 100, Howard
> > Stern's main channel.  No other satrad channels get enough mentions to
> meet
> > Eastlan's minimum reporting standards, and Arbitron stopped rating
> > satellite radio in 2008.
> >
> > There is NO satellite channel that duplicates an OTA broadcast station.
> >  Some of them come close in programming content, but none of them carry
> > commercials (and the five- to seven-minute stop sets that go along with
> it)
> > and all the other clutter that OTA music formats must deal with.  I can
> > understand why some people think that satrad is evocative of radio's
> past,
> > when you could actually hear music on a music-formatted station without
> > having to wade through all the other formatics, but the idea of paying
> for
> > radio hasn't taken hold yet, and probably never will on a mass scale.
> >
> > Sid Schweiger
> > IT Manager, Entercom New England
> > 20 Guest St / 3d Floor
> > Brighton MA  02135-2040
> >
> >
>