Radio wars will get hotter

BusinessWeek reports on another aspect of media fragmentation, and another local medium that is reaching an advanced state of collapse -- local radio.

Satellite services, they tell us, more than doubled their subscriptions in 2005 (from 4.5mil to 9.3mil), and Jupiter Research says they'll hit 55mil by 2010. But that's not the end of it -- BW says that Motorola is preparing to introduce a service as are several cell service providers, and maybe Apple.

The response of the radio industry is to put on a big push for high-definition radio, on the grounds that listeners are upset over sound quality (supposedly HD FM sounds as good as a CD). I think they're delusional. My own feeling (supported by the comments to the BW article) is that radio's problem is content (or lack of it), not sound quality. From my days as a commuter, I recall the endless yammering of the "morning crew" that every station feels they need, at whom I used to often scream, "Shut up and play the #$@% music!" (I very much recommend screaming at the radio -- it's a great release for commuting stress). Putting these stations on an HD signal just means being able to hear their drivel better.

Enough of my anti-morning crew prejudices, however. The point for trade promo people is that it will be even tougher in the future to reach your local audiences.