PMS? NO! The future is in PMEDs!

I was thinking about the state of commercial radio earlier today and I realized that since I started using an iPod that I rarely listen to it anymore. Like most people, I have a commute in my car in the mornings and evenings to go to and from work. That used to be exclusively filled with FM deejays or AM Talk to pass the time. Of course I did a lot of channel surfing as I despise commercials in general and radio commercials especially. So it was a few minutes of Howard (or equivalent) and then over to the local alternative rock station and then over to the news station for weather or traffic. Then back to Howard ad naseum until I reached work or home. This was the pattern of my commuting life for much of the last 25 years.

Of course I had available to me CDs or cassettes with whatever rock band happened to be my flavor of the month but the problem with that is, you’re listening to really the same thing every time. Some variety of course as not each song sounds the same, but it wasn’t like you were going to hear the Beastie Boys sliding into James Taylor segueing into a recorded 1950s radio drama. You get my point. No real variety when listening to prerecorded material. Even with making my own CDs, you are going to rarely fit more than 60-70 minutes of stuff and it’s not like you are going to make 20 or CDs (or cassettes) to get some new stuff happening at different times. Plus, way back when, blank CDs were still pretty expensive.

So, no real variety when traveling in the car unless you bring tons of material with you. Radio with the consolidation of the industry is becoming vanilla bland. Of course some people like vanilla. I’m not one of them. In days gone by, there were FCC regulations that prevented an organization from owning more than one media outlet in any given market. Those days are long gone and most markets are controlled..er..covered by one or two large media corporations like Clear Channel. If that was as far as it went, I guess it wouldn’t be too bad, but most stations owned by the entities are so bland that it can be difficult to tell one from another. Each market has a carefully controlled Stern clone (OH those rascals!) and a top 40 station, Alternative Rock station, Country station, News station, and so on. Traveling around the country will show you that variety is hardly the spice of life on commercial radio.

In many ways these are probably the end days for what was once a great industry. Oh, it will most likely still be around for some time, but its influence and importance will become a shell of what it once was. Frankly this doesn’t bode well for Satellite Radio either. Other than being able to curse or have 30 different channels all devoted to the same music or political tastes, what do they bring to the table that is really any different than their commercially sponsored brethren? I guess you could say no commercials, but I’m not willing to spend $10 bucks or so a month to NOT listen to commercials. Essentially, Satellite Radio is more or less in the same boat. So, why has radio become a vast graveyard of insignificance? Easy enough to answer with but one word. iPod. Oh, I guess that’s probably too strong of a comparison. How about the advent of personal media entertainment devices (PMED for all you acronym lovers out there)? There’s a nice grouping of words strong enough for lots of buzz.

Personal Media Entertainment Devices (like, say’¦an iPod) made it possible for people to choose their own content to bring along so they wouldn’t have to rely on the usually questionable taste of Radio and Television Programmers. Pick and choose what you want to listen to or watch. Downloaded from your computer or through various other means, this grants you the freedom to listen to your polka records or Religious Left Podcasts (if you ask what a podcast is, I’m so going to find and hit you!) or watch advanced Kama Sutra positions as favored by radical druids. You have the choice and if some song or more difficult for the balance-challenged among us position comes up, hit that click-wheel and move on to the next.

Before you pooh-pooh this, give it some thought. When was the last time you saw someone walking along with a portable FM radio? Or CD player? Those are all so 1990s. Naturally, this is a Mac site and most people stopping here are probably iPod fans, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. The iPod won’t always be on top of the PMED heap. Eventually some other gee-whiz device will take the top slot and that will be the fashionable device for that generation. Chances are, there will be even fewer people left in Radio to see it happen.

So, goodbye radio. You had a nice run, but soon it will be time for you to enter that electronic nursing home with your friends the turntable , black and white Television, and 8-track players.