Re:Wanna buy a radio station? (2015)
by reaperducer on Wednesday January 26, 2022 @01:52PM
(#30089993)
It would be hard to imagine you couldn't make money buying a radio station for $150,000.
You would think so, but a couple of weeks ago I was looking at one of the trade web sites that published a weekly list of radio and television stations shutting down. Not put up for sale, or even going dark. Going away forever, as in turned in their license.
I expected to see lots of AM stations there, but there was also FM and TV stations. Probably two dozen in total, just for that week. Surprising, to me.
I think people on the West Coast have a distorted idea about the quality of radio and TV service in the rest of the US.
In my experience, it's market to market. I move a lot (~15 cities in 14 states in the last 20 years). In spite of all the complaining I read on the internet, almost all of those markets have one or two, or even three really outstanding local radio stations.
Then recently, I moved to a large city with absolutely terrible radio, and I understand all of the complaints. Before I thought it was just that people couldn't find exactly what they wanted. But even when you find the content you want, the presentation is awful.
The common factor seems to be ownership. The more radio stations in a market with local ownership, the better the quality of the content on all stations.
Even New York, which should have the best radio in the country, has gotten really really bad in the last five to ten years. And it seems like it really went downhill right when the big players got bought by out-of-state conglomerates.
You would think so, but a couple of weeks ago I was looking at one of the trade web sites that published a weekly list of radio and television stations shutting down. Not put up for sale, or even going dark. Going away forever, as in turned in their license.
I expected to see lots of AM stations there, but there was also FM and TV stations. Probably two dozen in total, just for that week. Surprising, to me.
I think people on the West Coast have a distorted idea about the quality of radio and TV service in the rest of the US.
In my experience, it's market to market. I move a lot (~15 cities in 14 states in the last 20 years). In spite of all the complaining I read on the internet, almost all of those markets have one or two, or even three really outstanding local radio stations.
Then recently, I moved to a large city with absolutely terrible radio, and I understand all of the complaints. Before I thought it was just that people couldn't find exactly what they wanted. But even when you find the content you want, the presentation is awful.
The common factor seems to be ownership. The more radio stations in a market with local ownership, the better the quality of the content on all stations.
Even New York, which should have the best radio in the country, has gotten really really bad in the last five to ten years. And it seems like it really went downhill right when the big players got bought by out-of-state conglomerates.