More from visionary CBC radio guru Tod Maffin on the future of radio:
XM, which last week signed Oprah Winfrey to program her own channel for XM Satellite Radio under a three-year, $55 million deal, said its cost of attracting additional subscribers rose by 39 percent in the fourth quarter.
Well, duh. Someone give these guys a calculator. And maybe a clue that the times, and audiences, are a-changing.
If you could get a phone with 30 GB of storage (enough for your whole music collection) which would pause if your phone rang so you could take the call (hell, you already have the earpiece and mic plugged in) why would you need a radio (or iPod for that matter).
Now I might find this scary if I weren't already doing a primitive form of podcasting with my radio program.
2 comments:
I sure am glad someone knows about all this high-tech stuff. It's all I can do to program the buttons on my car radio!!! I think with all this portable technology we might as well just have these phones implanted in our ears to leave our hands free for other stuff. Pretty soon people are never going to even talk to each other because they'll be so plugged into their own little private virtual world. Your own little bubble where you never have to have an interchange with another human being. I think that's one thing that people find annoying about the chronic use of cell phones in public places. It used to be that if you encountered people in the grocery store you smiled and said hi, or excuse me, or made some acknowledgment of their humanity, and there was something humanizing about being in touch with even strangers in your local community. Now people go around with their cellphones glued to their ears, engaged in their own private conversations with their own private people and they bump into you without so much as an apology, don't even bother to catch your eye or look at you as the barge past you talking with some disembodied voice. It's like people are walking around with an invisible third finger in the air towards everyone that they don't personally know -- like -- screw you -- I don't know you so you don't count. It's a strange sort of withdrawal from society as a whole, and I think in the end leads to a disintegration of basic courtesies and even a sense of community. Self-absorption taken to the Nth degree. But maybe it's just me -- love to read about all this newfangled stuff, though. Looks like you are right on the cutting edge here. Great work!
Well, can't say I disagree! I too have noticed, and experienced, the unpleasant and distinctly unfriendly ramifications of the new technology.
On the other hand, I have had the pleasure of blocking out trashy "conversations" on Skytrain thanks to The Kubasonics et al on my MP3 player!
And on the other hand, ya can't stop progress. Might as well try and make it better!
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