A few observations from a new (part time) resident

[almaniac27]

I am a freshman at Kent State University and I have been up here for about a month.  I'm originally from Cincinnati, but I was pretty familiar with Northeast Ohio media because I have family that live in the Cleveland area.  However I'd never had the opportunity to really immerse myself in the local media landscape because I was usually only in the area for a weekend and was busy most of the time.  I brought my Sangean PR-D5, really an impressive radio when it comes to AM reception, but it's too big to carry around outside with me when I'm walking to classes.  I ended up buying a cheap Sony AM/FM/Weather radio at Wal-Mart about a week ago so I could listen to local radio more often.  A few notes:

First off, I think Kent is in some sort of radio black hole when it comes to AM reception.  Stations that I expected to come in strong have been less than stellar signal-wise.  The biggest examples I had are WHLO and WARF.  From looking at WHLO's signal map on Radio Locator I see that their tower is on the other side of Akron from here, but still, with 5kw daytime power at a low dial position like that, their daytime signal is pretty weak.  WARF's tower is closer, but I have similar issues with them as well.  WTAM comes in well, WJMP and WAKR come in excellent, but WKNR is a pain to try and listen to.  I see that there is a very tight null in their pattern and Kent is right in the worst part.

From flipping back and forth between WTAM, WHLO and WKBN during Rush Limbaugh's show I've noticed that WTAM sounds like mud while the other two sound nice and clean.  I blame this on IBOC.  Same goes for WKNR and WARF during Jim Rome's show, WKNR has a crap signal but good sound quality while WARF has a better signal but crap sound quality.

I like the radio landscape up here more than my hometown, it seems like there are more local personalities and presence.  I like and admire WNIR for having a strong commitment to local programming for so long.  Same goes for WAKR/WONE/WQMX, WKBN (I like Ron Verb), and WHBC.

I'm sure I have a bunch more of these, but it's late, I only got 2 and a half hours of sleep last night, and I have to be up at 8am to get to my Geography lab tomorrow, so my brain is fried right now.  To be continued...

[Rusty Blades]

Who says no one under 40 listens to AM radio?

[HHH]

"Who says no one under 40 listens to AM radio?"


OK, that's ONE...... 

Seriously, some do listen to talk radio (those who actually believe this over-the-top nonsense) and sports radio on AM.

But few under thirty get their music from ANY radio anymore, FM included.

I really believe that new music will be moving pretty much completely off of terrestrial over the next few years, unless some new owners come in an hire people who actually have ears and break new music again.  However, if things continue the way that they are going, music on commercial terrestrial radio will be pretty much 100% aimed at over thirty.  Then over 40.  Then over 50.

[Rusty Blades]

As far as breaking new music goes, there is precious little out there right now that is worth breaking.  I feel bad for young folks these days, because there really isn't much exciting going on in music right now. 

[OhioMediaWatch]

It's not about music for our new poster here...he only mentions two music stations, and that's because they're the FM sister stations of WAKR.

All the other stations he mentions are talk/sports, and all on the AM band except for, of course, WNIR...

[almaniac27]

It's not about music for our new poster here...he only mentions two music stations, and that's because they're the FM sister stations of WAKR.

All the other stations he mentions are talk/sports, and all on the AM band except for, of course, WNIR...

I don't really listen to radio for music much anymore, and I know most people my age don't either.  In my Intro to Mass Communication class, the professor asked people to raise their hands if they had gone on Youtube, watched TV or listened to the radio in the last 24 hours.  Very few people raised their hands for the last one.  I listen to the radio just because I happened to be bitten by the radio bug and I can't help it, not out of necessity.  It's weird that I love radio so much considering that I can't stand the likes of Rush, Sean, Beck, Savage, etc. and I also can't stand the likes of Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas and pretty much 90% of what's played on commercial radio.  The stations I find myself listening to the most so far have been WKRK, WCPN and WKSU.  I do enjoy NPR, I'll say that much.

[Nathan Obral]

AM stations like WAKR, and the WOBL/WDLW combo will survive in part because of the super-serving they offer to their communities. The latter two also heavily focus on local advertisers (which is to be commended given Lorain County's ghastly economy) and actually took advantage of WEOL's cost-cutting measures a few years back to gain listeners and support. WAKR focuses on their heritage and news department, and is the primary news feed to WONE and WQMX.

Super-serving a COL or region is one of the reasons radio will never totally "die." There will and should be a contraction on the broadcast spectrum. Which is another reason multi-casting on HD Radio is a FAIL - the last thing we need are MOST robotic stations that no one will listen to.

[HHH]

"As far as breaking new music goes, there is precious little out there right now that is worth breaking.  I feel bad for young folks these days, because there really isn't much exciting going on in music right now. "

Not true.

Go check out some of the European CHR stations online, or maybe KCRW in L.A. 

There is some great new music, but you would never know it by listening to commercial radio in the USA.

[Rusty Blades]

"As far as breaking new music goes, there is precious little out there right now that is worth breaking.  I feel bad for young folks these days, because there really isn't much exciting going on in music right now. "

Not true.

Go check out some of the European CHR stations online, or maybe KCRW in L.A. 

There is some great new music, but you would never know it by listening to commercial radio in the USA.

And what do you call this exciting new movement in music?

[HHH]

"And what do you call this exciting new movement in music?"

It isn't "called" anything.  I am simply saying that there are all kind of great new artists and some old timers who are releasing new music that is not heard on commercial radio.

Here is an example.  This is public station WFUV in New York's add list.  I'll bet (from what your posts suggest) that 90% of these acts are unknown to you:

http://www.wfuv.org/music/current.html

As far as a "movement" goes, you may want to check out some of the cool (IMO) drum and bass stuff on BassDrive.com or Jungletrain.net.

It's all out there.  There are just no more music hosts on commercial radio to find it for you and play it.  You have to look for it yourself now.