http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2009/08/book-review-fighting-for-air/ When I was 10, I caught the radio bug, it appears to be terminal Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:01:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2009/08/book-review-fighting-for-air/comment-page-1/#comment-194 J. Aegerter Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:39:57 +0000 http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/?p=320#comment-194 It sure isn't what it used to be. I saw this coming back in 1980 when a BBL System 3 computerized paging terminal was installed to supplement an answering service with DID trunks such that the public could dial directly to a paging subscriber and leave a message without a human operator taking and dispatching it. It was kind of like a rebirth of 'self-service gas station'! Any business owner will tell you that the greatest cost to any business is human labor, and under Capitalism, the stockholders always seek the greatest return on their investment. So the Prophet and the Scott Studios automation systems entered. I remember when I maintained an IGM (International Good Music) automation system on the FM station part of a AM/FM station I worked for. You couldn't sell the FM time at all, there were hardly any receivers! So, it was a way of keeping the station on the air with little cost. I believe that all radio has to be interactive to attract listeners, and the Cheap Channel stations have come, torched the markets, grabbed all the revenue they could and are exiting leaving almost total ruin. I do think that it will get worse before it gets better. Hopefully, it will be the small groups of devoted radio broadcasters that find niches and bring back the excitement to this industry. Radio broadcasting is basically a local business, and fails when a nationwide "one size fits all" mentality is applied. It sure isn’t what it used to be. I saw this coming back in 1980 when a BBL System 3 computerized paging terminal was installed to supplement an answering service with DID trunks such that the public could dial directly to a paging subscriber and leave a message without a human operator taking and dispatching it. It was kind of like a rebirth of ‘self-service gas station’! Any business owner will tell you that the greatest cost to any business is human labor, and under Capitalism, the stockholders always seek the greatest return on their investment. So the Prophet and the Scott Studios automation systems entered. I remember when I maintained an IGM (International Good Music) automation system on the FM station part of a AM/FM station I worked for. You couldn’t sell the FM time at all, there were hardly any receivers! So, it was a way of keeping the station on the air with little cost. I believe that all radio has to be interactive to attract listeners, and the Cheap Channel stations have come, torched the markets, grabbed all the revenue they could and are exiting leaving almost total ruin. I do think that it will get worse before it gets better. Hopefully, it will be the small groups of devoted radio broadcasters that find niches and bring back the excitement to this industry. Radio broadcasting is basically a local business, and fails when a nationwide “one size fits all” mentality is applied.

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