The other day, I was thinking about the experience of using radio. Regular old over-the-air radio. My main radio has very few controls: on/off, volume, band selector (AM/FM), and a nice big tuning knob. As far as user interface goes, it’s dead simple. When I turn it on, I get immediate feedback (sound). When a station isn’t tuned properly, I get immediate feedback (static), and I know how to correct it (adjust the tuning knob).
And it got me thinking.
As much as I love the portability, choice, and convenience of streaming audio, satellite radio and podcasts, I wonder if these new-fangled ways of listening will ever match the UX of regular old over-the-air receivers. Will iTunes or Sirius/XM or Last.FM ever be as simple to use as my radio?
All this to say, I’ve been wondering about the future of radio. Specifically, how the experience of listening to radio may change in the coming years.
James Cridland is a radio futurist. He blogs about “what happens when radio and new platforms collide.” Next week, Nora will talk to him, and we’d love to include some of your questions and comments in their interview. Do you have a question for James? A prediction about the future of radio? Leave it in the comments, or dial it in to 1-877-347-7275 (toll-free in Canada).
[original image by C.P. Storm
[hat tip to @chagota]
In some ways, with podcasting and the tools to make radio now easily available, the future of radio is more exciting than ever, but I guess (like newspapers) I worry about the future of the radio station. The bigger networks might survive, but what about those college radio stations that gave birth to so many great radio producers? Local funding drives seem to really struggle nowadays. For instance, I pledged to New Jersey's WFMU – maybe US's biggest free form community radio station – for the first time. Good for them, but that might mean less or no pledge to my local station. Do we end up supporting the big brands – NPR, WFMU – at the expense of the little guy? How does small compete? PS: on a very Cdn note, I think it stinks that CBC radio has to cut costs to support CBC TV's funding shortage. A stretched public broadcaster can't be good for the future of radio? Can it?
I've been a huge fan of radio all my life – early memories of sitting with my grandmother in the farm kitchen with the wind howling in the stove and the radio playing in the background might have something to do with that.
A couple of weeks ago I had installed the CBC app onto my iphone and had started using this instead of my own Tivoli Radio. When, after a period of some weeks, I turned on a traditional FM radio I was intensely aware that I was using technology that was very much on its way out.
Data is data and using one distribution channel for everything – sound, video, images and text – is far more efficient than supporting a plethora of technologies that are specific to their own use. And while there is a romance to listening to voices from faraway on the short or medium band, the convenience of being able to listen to, say, BBC Radio4 whenever I feel like it is worth the loss of UX, as nice as it might feel.
I have been an avid radio listener since the 1950's. However, I have adopted new technology fairly quickly and I am finding that "time-shifting" of radio content is very useful. I don't have to be available at certain times of each day so I don't miss Quirks and Quarks, Spark, and the The House. I can easily listen to them later on my iPod. I have, however, noticed that I am listening to radio less. I use my iPod when I have the time and therefore am not exposed to other programming that I might find interesting and educational. I feel that I am missing out on the random learning I grew up with. Is this changing my perceptions of the world? Is "time-shifting" narrowing the audience and therefore speaking only to those who have a particular interest? Will the loss of "random learning" change the way we think about our culture?
You ask "will iTunes or Sirius/XM or Last.FM ever be as simple to use as my radio?"
The radio may be simple to operate, but I think it's easier to obtain the programming I want through something like iTunes. With a radio, I have to learn at what time the program is broadcast and then tune to the correct station. On the dinky clock radio I have in my bedroom, the stations are crunched together, so a minute flick of the tuning dial will take from CBC to a staticky folk music station. And heaven forfend if I reposition the radio in any way, because that means another five minutes of fiddling with the tuner!
By listening to my radio shows via podcast, usually through iTunes, this whole process is "simpler" to me. I don't have to worry about scheduling: I can just search for the show I want by title, download it, and it'll play without any fuss. While iTunes has more bells and whistles when it comes to the user interface, the controls for operating podcast playback are as simple as a VCR: play, pause, rewind, fast forward..
In case one can't tell from my position above, I find listening to my radio shows as podcasts enjoyable as well as simple.
I love that the CBC makes podcasts available, and I'm interested in hearing this interview. No question from me for now, although I like GaryM's point above about how our on-demand technologies give us less exposure to "random learning."
I still listen to the same amount of CBC I did before – now I split it between the interweb and my actual radio. Living in Ottawa, I also stream NPR, BBC, etc… which I really couldn't get without the internet. Not everyone offers the best streaming choices – often it sounds better to tune in manually. And I usually prefer the radio over streaming. Especially in the car; I hear the best stuff when I'm tuned into a program I wouldn't otherwise listen to. But what about stuff like morning edition (NPR. In my home town, I can pick up the signal from across the boarder) – now I can get all the national/international stuff without the local state news that doesn't really affect Canadian life. Ultimately, I'd hate to see either go. There's something to be said about drive way moments, and stumbling upon new music in the car.
I can’t see terrestrial radio dying short-term, but it needs to stop being formatted to death. Computerized playlists and rigid formats (i.e., ‘adult album alternative,’ soft rock, ‘new rock’, BOB-FM-type stations) have taken the personality out of radio. Terrestrial radio needs more niche formats. You don’t get the widest audience, but the variety format doesn’t work as well in a fragmented culture.
Satellite radio has been slow in gaining traction. If you pay for satellite radio, it’s for big-ticket items like NHL/NFL games and Howard Stern’s channel. It’s only due to Liberty Media’s 40% stake in SiriusXM that satellite radio still lives. While I don’t wish death on SiriusXM (and I do understand CBC’s stake in Sirius Canada), satellite radio has been one big promise that so far hasn’t panned out as a business.
I hope Internet radio becomes widely adopted; it has the clear narrowcasting advantage over terrestrial radio. The big question is how to fund it and how to best serve the niche audiences. Wi-fi also needs to become more universal, to serve more rural audiences. I think Internet radio is the true growth market, at least long-term.
I have two teenage daughters who get all their music from iTunes, music videos from Youtube and other Internet sources. They NEVER listen to radio, and I think they are fairly typical in this regard. Are they and others like them a lost generation as far as radio is concerned?
I work for the ABC in Australia – Public Broadcaster… but this is my view not the view of the ABC.
From my perspective while I love podcasts and listen to them back-to-back during an endless summer of cricket broadcasting (don't tell the sport dept), podcasts/itunes can never replace live radio. In an emergency the quickest way to get info to biggest number of people is still radio, and I'm not going to scroll to my favourite podcast to find out what's happening with the fires in them thar hills.
So I believe (maybe I have to believe) that there is a future for normal radio that you can pick up on a portable device that uses batteries for more than 9 hours.
As far as the youth of today go – we've got a much better chance of getting them to listen to "snippets" of radio and related content as they are browsing their facebook/twitter pages rather than listening to traditional radio… unless they are stuck in the car with me.
Interesting question. I think for the most part, commercial radio stations will be gone 50 years from now. Although I think there might be satellite stations.
While I listen to quite a bit of audio programming, I only listen to the radio during special events (Obama inauguration, when the power went out in Ontario) or if I am in someone elses vehicle and they control the audio. In general the issue is control over programming: I only have so much time during the day, and want to pick my programming.
With this in mind I wonder if radio has a future beyond an event/emergency broadcast system? Am I a minority? Will I stay a minority? Am I part of a wave that will reshape not only radio but other mass-media broadcasting where someone other than the audience decided programming? I'm curious to hear what the statistics thus far are indicating, assuming that there is any real way to know who is listening to radio (I remember the previous show that spoke about journals vs personal eavesdropping devices — this is still a self-selected group of people who consume OTA media).
I would like to give thanks to CBC for this program being released as a standard MP3 audio feed. This is how I access and enjoy this program. If it were radio/streaming only, or only available in a proprietary format (There is still a lot of legacy Real Networks and Microsoft feeds on CBC) then I wouldn't be listening.
Hi,
I have already made the decision to tune out and pretty only listen to podcasts. I like using my iPod as opposed to listening to an off air signal. I agree that in emergencies live radio does have the advantage. However, that to is being reduced by things like the internet and portable texting.
With few exceptions radio pretty much sounds like crap. On the FM everyone plays the same thing pretty much again with some exceptions and they spew the stations ID like a bad car sales guy/gal after what two songs. I am not an idiot I know what station I listen to or in this case listened to. The AM band has so-called talk radio, most of the hosts barely research the topics and really are just trying to get a rise out of folks during a 15 minute cycle so that the auto audience readers can pick up a sound and say hey look we have 10,000 people listening we can jack our ad rates up, I bet only a 3rd are really listening. Point is they say nothing on the AM and FM bands, again there are some exceptions and they talk to audience like we are idiots.
To top it off from what I hear most grads and I am referring to recent ones may have learned how to cue a record up and set a cart dec up but, few will remember as most times it's done with the push of a button. I love my iPod because I avoid all that racket and goofy nonsense by selecting the content I like. I still tune in a bit vis-a-vis on a bus, Montreal drivers have radios, and in a car, or at a friend's home but, that is far as I get as just a few minutes of that and I am annoyed.
It would be sad to see small radio stations go off air, then again most have or are nothing more than a repeater. It's too bad because I actually did take a broadcasting course and had the pleasure of being a tech at CBC and also a producer at a community station, yes a paying job, and I loved it but, seeing what has come as of late I am glad I got out of the game. The only radio I do these days is ham radio a hobby I have been in for 20+ years. Outside of that it's Itunes all the way.
C. T. VA2UTC.
I'm a huge fan of all things radio. I grew up listening to dad's radio which was mainly tuned into CBC. One of my first radio memories was looking forward to hearing 'Quirks and Quarks' on the weekends! Since then Toronto radio has filled my memories with sporting highlights, great selection of talk, music, and most importantly a wide range of pizza and car dealership jingles!
I now live in the UK where I tune into BBC programming mainly along with some local stations. The biggest change I've seen is the use of SMS text messages. On all stations here in the UK listeners are asked to request songs, send in feedback, report news, enter contests etc etc by the use of text messages. This keeps the listener engaged during a live show and it's something of an experience which cannot be replicated on a podcast.
I think radio in Canada needs to start using this facility more, in order to stay a relevant medium.
I listen to CBC Radio, almost to the exclusion of all else when I am at home. . I live close to the border so NPR forms part of my radio week. In my car I split between CBC and satellite radio. When we bought a new car in '08 the satellite receiver was installed and although I had promised myself that I would never pay for radio I must admit I got hooked. I listen to it for the music, not the news or the Oprah channel or hockey or baseball or the awful comedy offerings. I find this especially handy when we are in the US or parts of northern Ontario where you can be between transmitters. Commercial FM radio is in my opinion for the most part junk that I choose not to listen to. I also have an MP3 player for when I go walking or am in the city for a day and even though I have a good selection of my favourite music loaded on to it I find that it is usually on the FM tuner with CBC Radio 1 tuned in. Because of where I live and the lack of high-speed connectivity podcasts and music downloads are often an exercise in frustration. I sincerely hope that free over the air radio does not disappear.
I operate heavey equipment in a gravel pit, sometimes for 10-12 a day. As soon as I get into my loader, on goes the radio and tune it to the CBC. As I am by myself most of the time, I find it to be my coworker that always has interesting stories and some good laughs to help me get through my day.
If not for my radio and the CBC, my day would feel so much longer and I find it much harder to concentrate on my job.
Am not allowed to wear head phones or ear buds, so the radio is my only way to go. If there ever became a time that tuning into any radio station on a radio simply came to an end. I guess my day would be a very boring one. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we should stop technical advances, it would just be great if some of the old ways were kept around for us old die hards. Besides, I need my weekly dose of Spark to keep me in the know.
Love your show, keep on putting it on the airwaves.
Your idle thinking about radio has created another new show! Seth Godin was right- you are in the 'gift' giving economy.
Maybe I will IM how bad the UX of XM- just as Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen, advocates thinking and creating in analog, there is something magical about trying to get a signal for 88.9 on an old analog radio. I can still remember as a 10 yr old kid, lying back and listening to hockey games or trying to get Spokane baseball over the airwaves and never minding the occasional static or fade.
Maybe get an old sportscaster or DJ to join in?
ps. would this show air in any other sphere than radio rich CBC? I doubt it.
sincerely yours,
Al Smith- Spark fan
What is a Spark fan? Gladwell has his Gladwellian handle. Sparker?
A few years ago an episode of Spark was co-hosted by the students of Spartan Youth Radio at Espanola High School in Northern Ontario. At the time, the small podcast was only heard by a select number of people in Canada but these enterprising kids now have listeners on every continent but Antarctica, just won a $20,000 prize from Best Buy Canada, and interview celebrities like Margaret Atwood, Billy Talent and Jack Layton.
With plans to live stream in the near future, Spartan Youth Radio (the only high school podcast radio station in Canada) IS the future of radio!