One of the reasons radio is so good is radio is extremely cheap:
The transmission equipment, costing just over $1, may be the cheapest in the world. But the local people definitely love it. On a balmy morning in India's northern state of Bihar, young Raghav Mahato gets ready to fire up his home-grown FM radio station. Thousands of villagers, living in a 20km (12 miles) radius of Raghav's small repair shop and radio station in Mansoorpur village in Vaishali district, tune their $5 radio sets to catch their favourite station.The real problem radio (and broadcast TV) faces is there are only so many spots on the dial. There is already talk in the US about how switching to digital TV is going cost homeowners masses of money to replace perfectly good TV sets but it is moving ahead in under 3 years:
Manufacturers, broadcasters, cable and satellite companies and accessory developers are rushing to complete the transition to digital high definition before Feb. 17, 2009, the date the U.S. government has set for termination of all analog broadcasts. In January 2008, about a year before the HDTV transition takes place, the analog channels will be auctioned to the highest bidders. Proceeds from the sales are expected to top $10 billion, with $7.3 billion going to the U.S. Treasury. For those who haven't bought an HDTV set by the 2009 deadline, the government plans to provide $1.5 billion in subsidies to owners of older sets for converter boxes that will transform the digital signals to analog.All to avoid a crackle or a shadow on the screen and maybe squeeze more onto the broadcast band. But it is to be seen whether the public reception of digital TV will be the same as digital radio. If over the next three years the 20 year promise of convergence gets a little more traction, there may be a significant sector who won't make the leap. Interesting to note that my favorite media source these days runs on something like 2 bucks a year per listener. Not that far off young Raghav Mahato's business model.
Comments
Flea - February 27, 2006 10:09 am
My own problem with the independent FM radio is not that it's selling out to the mainstream, but that most of it is spectacularly boring. The dominant quality is tedium: writers without editors, fact-checkers or paying subscribers to keep them in check. As Alan McLeod succinctly quoted it: "If the pornography of opinion doesn't leave you longing for an eroticism of fact, the vast wasteland of verbiage produced by the relentless nature of (independent radio)* is the single greatest impediment to its seriousness as a medium."
*My paraphrase.
Alan - February 27, 2006 10:18 am
You are a little impatient with Ms. Leah, M. Flea. <p>I do take your point but I do not think it entirely overlaps given the local nature of radio and the publication to the world of blogs. It would be more applicable if we were talking 'zines and 1992 desktop publishing with black ring-bound paper versions. But, despite my tepid dip into 'zineworld, I don't think the massive awakening of authoriship coincided with the opportunity to photocopy, staple and stand on street corners passing out one's work.
Flea - February 27, 2006 2:19 pm
Local radio listened to by few people so good! Blogs read by millions so boring! Throw all earlier ham radio buff analogies out the window!
Alan - February 27, 2006 3:05 pm
How many blogs read by millions? How many stations heard by millions?
Chris Taylor - February 27, 2006 3:19 pm
Radio just isn't convenient. You have to have an FM antenna handy, and you have to be within range of the transmitter. I have two thirty-minute windows to listen to idle radio/TV babble, but there's no radio coverage at all on the subway.
Being able to download the previous day's radio show in a podcast is slightly better, but on the whole, broadcast radio and TV are dead to me. It's much, much more convenient to grab half-hour shows off the PVR and watch them on the Treo on the way to work.
Alan - February 27, 2006 3:45 pm
But if you had the chance, you really would listen to ham and CB radio operators on the commute, right?
Chris Taylor - February 27, 2006 4:41 pm
Actually I would probably listen to ATC frequencies for Toronto Departures, Arrivals and Pearson Tower. I might listen to CB as it seems to have the same sort of transportation-related live comedy potential (depending on the source/broadcaster).
I remember one night in the early 90s -- not long after I got my first RF scanner -- I stumbled across a cellular phone conversation between a man and his mistress. They spent about 4-5 hours fighting and bickering, breaking up and making up. A real-life <i>Days of our Lives</i>, complete with unnecessary drama and shocking revelations. It sort of put me off civil RF and I've stuck to the aviation / police / fire / EMS bands ever since.
Alan - February 27, 2006 5:12 pm
RF scanners = blogs.
portland - February 27, 2006 10:57 pm
i wish my mistress would fight with me.
Alan - February 27, 2006 11:02 pm
She would, baby, you know she would.
cm - February 28, 2006 5:44 pm
Just give her time.
Flea - February 28, 2006 7:33 pm
They say Alan's independent FM radio broadcast fascinating stuff! Alan's blog some sort of vanity piece/scratch pad/laundry list! Think of it as a loss leader for his high-concept content on air!
Alan - February 28, 2006 10:22 pm
I don't know why I deserve this but I am rolled into a ball on the kitchen floor in a pool of my own chilly sweat. Who are <i>they</i>, Flea? Who? Who?<p>PS: you goin' to see Queen?
Jay Currie - March 1, 2006 4:28 pm
(Coming late to the party....) I suspect flea has it right as to boredom. Blogging, mini-FM, garage bands started by people over the age of 18....but, to really get boredom down you have to consider the flattening possibilities of video blogging/casting. Everyone his own community access tv station. Oh joy!
Alan - March 1, 2006 4:32 pm
You got me. I really have no idea what the recent string was about and why unless it is all performace art which it really is.