SatRad vs. Broadcast vs. DIY

[ljs0610@comcast.net]

I can't remember the last time I relied on or even listened to a local weather report on radio or television.  My smart phone gives me constant, up-to-date weather information and alerts on a real-time basis.  I don't know anyone who relies on the radio for weather reports anymore...and most stations don't program weather into their formats unless there is something impactful impending.  If so, most people are going straight to the weather channel....



omcast.net
Cc: B-R-I <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Tue, 05 Jun 2012 03:07:31 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: SatRad vs. Broadcast vs. DIY




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
>




>