It's right behind the smartphone - a gadget that increasingly will also function as a radio. Arbitron supplied some research data to A&E and makes a very valid point - we take radio's ubiquitous nature completely for granted. We grew up with it, it's always been in our lives (unlike an iPod or BlackBerry), and when we use a little less of it, we somehow think it's dead or dying.
The A&E special, produced with Popular Mechanics, even ranks radio ahead of television and personal computers. The Arbitron data carries another message we forget about - the huge numbers of listeners a Rush Limbaugh can aggregate in a national audience, compared to the measured audiences of TV programs that get ten times more publicity. Emmis' Jeff Smulyan talks about how radio's lost a little of it's mojo - not its talent or creativity, necessarily. But its confidence and even swagger. The "101 Gadgets" program is a useful reminder of a medium we take for granted - and we really should know better.
-- Tom Taylor
No comments:
Post a Comment