It was like yesterday, took off time from busy vocational pursuits for a quiet night of solitude in Downey Idaho. A peaceful roadside motel, next to a near lifeless truckstop just off I-15.
On the no cable TV was ads galore from KPVI saying support your local TV stations. Urge business’s to advertise where possible and so on. The death of free Over the air TV was on the threshold, but few took the threat seriously.
In time cable, and satellite gobbled up channels, and during the great airwaves Government land grab, to supposedly gain air space for a nationwide government supported wifi Internet, that would be low cost if not free, millions of consumers had to spend $80.00 for a converter to convert analog TV's to a digital band set up. Still relatively free still a converter box. Yet millions depend on cable in towns and satellite TV’s in the rural kountry to get their news. If not watch good TV.
Still good old radio is still free, but the question becomes for how long? While it’s a fact that still today even the lowest cost radio receiver to the smallest transistor radio still has programming there’s a nationwide urgency by the FCC to get broadcasters to give up what is termed spectrum. Yet there are still many communities still poorly served if served at all by local radio.
Back in the last days and it’s a buzz word in Washington at the FCC, of localism in broadcasting. Small market radio stations with a real LIVE person, barking and playing music and bringing some entertainment and news to the masses. Yet even that is becoming strained. Internet Radio is a fast growing way to deliver content. Or even start a station, since all too many who want to throw up a station can’t. Even though there are allocations of spectrum or frequencies to put a channel on, the FCC looks at a big grid map and says nope. Yet too there are very few if any small Mom & Pop stations that are ran by and hosted by that same person LIVE every day. Even those are having to do fill in with syndicated programming, mostly by satellite .
While it would be a great task of connecting a wire all the time to a radio like cable is connected to a TV, still , between, Satellite Radio, Internet radio, and the like. I don’t see very far into the future that you’ll have to spend money to go out, buy a special little box for your ride, or have an extra APP, for your mobile device, Smartphone, IPOD whatever just to hear radio, even local. If people don’t support local radio as it is, both in listening to, as well as advertisers supporting it, you’ll see no more free radio.
The thing is though. There will still be a need whether on a live uplink to satellite or on a computer input, doing radio. This is also a great challenge to those in the management and/or programming departments. Whose going to fill the shoes , more over , whose going to warm the seat of that radio studio? The need for talented, somewhat experienced, but still people of all ethnic and political groups if not genders is crucial. To that end ; Confederate Steele Media, along with us here at HazzardAyre Radio, will be having a career fair at both CSI as well as at the Magic Valley Mall in February. The goal is to introduce many to being a radio personality and the career fields from on air to engineering to broadcast IT, will be pitched. But we still need to get people to support local radio.
Three years ago, an effort by Confederate Steele was made to buy lonely KBAR AM 1230 over in the Burley Rupert Idaho area. Within days of signing the sale papers in an effort to secure both talent and a new studio, some hiccups were had to the point owner GM Kim Lee backed out of the sale. However we are not yet done and efforts to throw up a station in that area go on. But all too many have jumped off the LIVE free radio thing, in view of satellite generated radio, namely because of income, lack of local on air talent and the view of many why try?
If it gets too bad your news and information will come to you at a price, but too it could come from Washington DC, ran by YOUR government. Say good by to free press, the death of Radio will be at hand.
Watch here for news of our Broadcast career fair in February.
L8R Ya’ll
Quote of the Day:
If you think nobody cares if you are alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
--Earl Wilson
| John 17:17“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved. |
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