Friday, July 7,2006 @ 2:15pm
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.