Radio is going where tv is

I'm sitting here before singing and piano lessons composing this blog while listening to Radio Total from Romania (where I was born) http://www.radiototal.ro . I'm streaming through the internet and it works quite nicely. This whole Internet thing may be here to stay ... not the fad I thought it would be:). It definitely brings me back and it's a good feeling ... until they play Back Street Boys!! AAGHH ... wish I could skip forward ... but of course I can't because it is a radio station. The motto is "Muzica buna se imparte cu prietenii" which translates roughly to "Good music must be shared with friends".

I guess you can't account for taste. Somehow the Romanian DJ, sitting in some building in Bucharest doesn't seem to know what I like. Shocking!!! Just for fun, do some searches for internet stations being broadcast from different provinces, states or countries and listen in a bit just for fun. This is especially cool if the station is based in a place you have some ties to. There are so many of them, it is incredible and overwhelming. Getting to any decent ones that actually work properly and that are good takes forever and it is frustrating but it is pretty neat to listen on all these different societies and get a totally different experience ... I'm going to try to listen in on some Jamaican stations to see how that goes ... should be interesting.

So where am I going with this?

As you start to exploring what the world has to offer on line, you realize how much great stuff is out there. My daughter walked in to my office the other day and listened in on one of the songs that was streaming through pandora. She said, with surprise "I've never heard that song before ... it is really good!". We've all gotten so used to radio pushing us the same stuff over and over, it is a surprise when we hear something new! I used to fill in surveys from Chez 106.9 The Bear (Ottawa Station) but now that I'm checking out different streaming services and radio stations from around the world, I'm literally pissed off at the local stations (except for Live 88.5FM ... a breath of fresh air). They are doing a crappy job of filtering stuff for me. I imagine satellite will do a better job but 150 channels is still a puny drop in the content bucket ... and it is still filtered.

TV went through this phase several years ago. It had a few generic free channels and then came cable with the subscription fees and hundreds of niche channels. That was a welcome improvement as is satellite radio for many people. However, we've already entered the TIVO/PVR world and Video On Demand (VOD) that allow us to have much better control of what we watch and when we watch it while even adding some mobility with portable video players. Radio is following a couple of steps behind. If you want to figure out where radio is going, look at where tv is. A major disruption is happening and earcandy will play its part.

BTW, incorporation has begun.

Before I go, I promised you something cool. Check out http://www.jajah.com/, potentially the next skype.

Cheers,

Allan Isfan
Engineer with an Iron Ring