I became addicted to radio by listening to great nighttime radio personalities. But those hours are now filled by anything but inspiring, innovative personalities and that makes me sad.
Great Radio Delivered
Great radio stations delivered personality, stationality, promotions, jingles, and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Today, the difference between one radio station and another is about as different as one fast food restaurant from another. Not all that much.
On-Air radio production was exciting when I was growing up. Radio stations were tight and focused. Every programming element that was allowed to hit the air was overseen by a program director that was obsessed with maintaining his/her radio station’s mission.
Those days are history.
SiriusXM
The other day, one of my daughters was complaining that SiriusXM was tripling her current rate of $5/month. She said she called to complain and was told there was nothing that could be done, so she cancelled the satellite service.
That’s not the shocking part of this story however.
What she said next was sad. She said that the local radio stations “sucked,” and that there was nothing on her car radio worth listening to.
The following week, SiriusXM sent her a $5/month for a year offer in her snail mail. She quickly returned to the satellite service.
We’re Creatures of Habit
There are so many things we do in our daily lives without thinking. We’re creatures of habit, and our habits are like being on autopilot; we do them without giving them any thought.
For example, you might be able to remember the last time you showered, but do you know which hand you always grab the shampoo with? Which armpit do you wash first? Which foot do you always put your socks on first? These are just a few examples of the many things we do every day without giving them any conscious thought.
Radio Listening Is A Habit, or It Isn’t
What my daughter learned, without thinking about it, was, listening to SiriusXM had become a habit. A habit that she had become addicted to. Only when forced to listen to today’s broadcast radio did she realize that it had changed from the days when she was growing up. Sadly, broadcast radio no longer served her listening needs.
Spotify, Pandora, RadioTunes etc.
My wife’s favorite music listening habit is Pandora’s “Secret Garden Radio.” In my case, RadioTunes serves up the best music mix of instrumental Smooth Jazz music.
What streamers offer the listener is the ability to match the genre of music to their mood of the moment. A broadcast radio station is a one flavor option, while streamers offer a myriad of flavors like Ben & Jerry’s.
CES2026
The other day I sat in on the first of many CES2026 (Consumer Electronics Show) recaps. What struck me was that the potential of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to sense our mood and serve up a stream of music that matches our mood.
Even more concerning for commercial broadcasters, AI may also be able to sense when a commercial break starts and switch a listener’s audio source to continue the genre of music they are listening to, avoiding the commercials.
Broadcast radio depends on its commercials as the primary source of its revenue.
That’s scary!
Yet, it is something I don’t hear any commercial radio broadcasters being concerned about. Instead, they are focused on keeping a century old radio service (AM radio) in the dashboard of every vehicle. (And like coal, it ain’t coming back, as I wrote in August 2017. You can read that blog article here: https://dicktaylorblog.com/2017/08/20/coal-aint-coming-back-neither-is-am-radio/ )
Is this really the best place for commercial broadcasters to be focusing their time and money lobbying Congress?
DickTaylorBlog 
Pingback: If I Was a Teenager Today, Would I Dream of a Radio Career? – Radio News
I believe in AM radio, being a former AM station owner… all it takes is the right content and better receivers, which is the problem with AM right now. The narrowing of the audio response to reduce noise was the wrong idea. The radios need noise blanketers and wider bandwidth. Manufacturers refuse to do it though. They need to be pressured. I had SXM and got tired of the 300 song rotation there…70s on 7 dropped a lot of jingles, etc..done right, local radio, even AM works…several AM mom and pop stations doing great in their markets show that…AM radios need NB, stereo and DSP…all available in modern radios for next to nothing if the manufacturers would enable it in software..I’d rather listen to a local personality giving the weather or other info between songs…plus the role of EAS for Amber Alerts cannot be overlooked…you don’t get that.on Sat radio…only local signals
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Edwin Howard Armstrong realized the limitations of AM radio and dedicated his life to creating a better radio delivery system. That system became FM radio, and it is the most widely listened to broadcast service around the world.
Would-ofs, should-ofs, could-ofs are now in the rearview mirror.
We must deal with the reality of today.
-DT
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Dick â When at 17 I got my on-air job, it was the envy of my high school classmates. Today, my teenaged grandsons donât even know what âradioâ is! â Robin Miller [author of âAmerican Radio, Then & Nowâ (Amazon)]
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Hi Robin, I was 16 when I earned my FCC 3rd Class Radiotelephone License, Broadcast Endorsed and began working in commercial radio. I was in the 10th grade in high school and yes, like you, it was something my fellow classmates were envious of for sure.
My grandkids know what radio is (mainly because there is one in their folks cars & trucks) but for their own personal use, they have Google, Amazon and iPads/iPhones as their main way to access the audio content they wish to hear.
Hometown radio was the way to the future back in the 60s, as television captured our parents attention.
Thanks for stopping by the blog and making a contribution.
-DT
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I misspoke, because of course I told my grandsons about radio. I was on-air as a news editor-announcer and DJ through engineering school, and have a 1st Class (now General)
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During Hurricane Sandy everything was out. Everything except AM radio, which I accessed from my car as I charged my phone.
Sports talk and talk radio aside, AM served a vital communications service in that situation.
So, it may not be a bad idea to keep AM radio in all vehicles.
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James, in today’s household, TVs outnumber radios.
Edison Research reports that in 2008 only 4% of American households reported having no radios, but by 2020 that number had risen to 32%.
Since 2012, cellphone communication has
shifted from 4G-enabled, app-focused browsing to a 5G-driven ecosystem centered on instant, multimedia, and AI-powered interactions. The core, once focused on voice and SMS, has transformed into a high-speed, always-connected environment.
When I was operating an AM/FM combo in Atlantic City back in the 80s, we commissioned a perceptual research study on who in our market listened to our FM radio station (beautiful music) and our AM radio station (news/talk). Sadly, we found back then that only in times of an emergency did anyone feel compelled to listen to our AM radio station. Radio stations need listeners in order to sell advertising. See the problem?
Today, like it or not, the audience has moved on to other delivery platforms.
-DT
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When Hurricane Sandy hit, everything was out. Everything but the
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And that was 13 years ago. How has the world of communication changed since then?
WINS radio is the #2 radio station (according to Nielsen) in NYC. Today it’s on 92.3FM. In our nation’s capital, WTOP News Radio is on 103.5FM. In fact, today, most of the major population centers now have an
FM station as their primary radio news source.
-DT
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I subscribe to sirius/XM, though I prefer when it was just XM. It was more alive ,longer playlists, better features old jingles,etc. Today I still have it, but do not listen to it much. So I use my phone, and at home a grace wifi radio to listen to the Genres I prefer, plus old radio shows, most are completely commercial free. I even hear at times, legendary dj’s ,full scoped, and It takes me back. I hear internet stations here in the U.S, and Europe, all in english. It is more compelling than terrestrial stations,and sirius/XM. Sirius /XM’s short playlist rotation reminds me of terrestrial radio. I have not listen to terrestrial stations in almost 14 years due to corporate real estate investment. there ya go. I worked in media 52 years,mostly radio.
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You’re verbalizing the reality of the world we live in today. You can’t go back to the way it used to be. You have to embrace where things are and the direction they are headed in.
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
-DT
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Spot on, Dick. It’s time to move on, though. Old guys like us want it to be the way we remembered it in everything (not just radio). We would still be traveling with a horse and buggy (slight exaggeration). The fact is we either adapt or are left in the past with nowhere to go. I, like you, and some others commenting spent almost a half century or more in the biz. I recognize it’s a different business today, like every other type of business in existence. So, we must “deal with it” and quit wishing it to be in a different time period when we were in it. Those in the business today will be complaining the same way a generation or two from now. That’s human nature.
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Complete agree, Art.
-DT
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Here’s another thought. Even Radio One recognized AM Radio is dead. They just recently put there 50,000-watt WBT-AM Charlotte NC (although directional at night) on their 100,000-watt FM (former Mix format) after celebrating their 100-year anniversary on AM. Yes, they still simulcast with the AM signal, but don’t even mention it in all on air activity except for the obligatory legal ID. It’s now FM Talk WBT FM 107.9. It was a smart move as it’s their revenue king in the cluster with live local programming from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m.
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WINS in NYC is now #2 and broadcasting their news format on 92.3FM.
WTOP in Washington, DC has been on the FM band since 2006. I can hear them both on my WiFi radio.
You make an excellent point.
-DT
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An excellent observation, Art.
In NYC, 1010 WINS is now #2 with their broadcasts on 92.3FM.
In 2006, WTOP – Newsradio for Washington, DC – moved off their AM band location to 103.5FM.
As I monitor the latest Nielsen reports, I find that most metros are now served by a news/information station on FM.
-DT
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Here in Rochester, NY, a long-time and popular DJ’s son really wanted to get into radio. His dad discouraged this, and he didn’t. Because we can all see that traditional radio and newspapers ain’t a growth industry. My four kids, 25-35, will listen to radio in their cars, but they are not even aware that one could have such a device in their house called a portable or table radio.
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That truly is the reality, Chuck.
-DT
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