If I Was a Teenager Today, Would I Dream of a Radio Career?

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?