general
07/07/2006, 2:15pm, EDT
Friday, July 7th
iPod blamed for Chicago radio demise
Apple's iPod has played a major role in the death of one Chicago radio station. WBEZ, Chicago's National Public Radio (NPR) member station and one of the oldest public radio outlets in the U.S. has elected to scrap scheduled music programming, which was mostly jazz, in favor of a 24-hour news and public affairs format, according to Reuters. A major contributing factor proved to be the growing popularity of Apple's iPod, as the portable device generated a culture of listeners who dictate their own musical selections. Loyal jazz fans are crying out in response to the change, while WBEZ and other public stations say they haven't kept pace with the changing U.S. population. "Local news has simply been abandoned by the commercial broadcasters and sometimes even the commercial newspapers," said Ken Stern, vice president of National Public Radio. "What you see as a trend is stations like WBEZ investing heavily in local news and information," Stern said.
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maybe if the 'full service local' format would come back to chicago it would improve! but again, 3 main companies owning the stations, guess what... they are all gonna be the same!
great city but get real.
wwaayy ccooll mmaann...
look out radio, the new iPod monster is in town...
(somebody tell the author NPR doesnt care about ratings; this is free public radio)
Perhaps the reason why everybody is ignoring NPR now is because the neo-cons have adjusted the spin cycle and removed 'public oversight' and 'eliminated liberal talk' and replaced it with 'news that lacks leftist thought' or shall I warn 'contains facist bullying attacking the left' at the expense of the public'. Up you heard it right, Bill Moyers is out and now the neo-facist pigs are feeding our children HATE radio...
No wonder the iPod is saving them with PODCASTS of TRUTH (yes from both sides of the sewer...) Who wants to be force fed BS when you can serve up your own krap on demand...ha
People could "dictate" their listening choice before the iPod came along. Heard of Sony's Walkman. They can also just change the station. So WBEZ, please take responsibility for your own demise.
Although in Chicago you can still hear The Dr. Demento Show, so that's a plus. Dr. D hasn't been on in NYC since about 1985.
NPR does care about ratings. Those quarterly pledge drives not only reign in money to fund the station, the individual shows that spend a portion of their airtime to the pledge drive use the call traffic to help gauge the size of their listening audience.
People seem to think that WBEZ is dying. They're not. But they're realizing that their jazz audience is no longer as big as it used to be. And with this dearth in local news coverage, they think they can get a larger audience by switching to all talk/news.
I don't completely agree with the move, but that's how I understand the situation.
Funny that the article ignores one of the other public radio stations in the Chicagoland area (there are at least three). 90.9 FM, just down the dial, is broadcast from the College of DuPage and the city of Chicago is well within range of their signal. They play jazz 24 hours a day (except on weekends where they sprinkle in shows dedicated to other genres of music).
WBEZ is going to all-news? Awesome; there's nothing quite as innovative as listening to broadcast after broadcast of wrong-headed dimwits blaming Bush for everything while hailing Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro as the salt of the earth. Throw in the ocasional "Prairie Ho' Companion" and the picture is complete.
NPR is a sinking ship. Kiss it goodbye...