A Laptop And A Webcam Don't Make You a Broadcaster

Please excuse me while I step into my bedroom closet and express my exasperation with a primal scream, where my audience will be about the same as your podcast, that is unless my two dogs follow me into the closet.
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Since the advent of Internet streaming and podcasting, an increasing number of fact free individuals are populating cyberspace with so-called "Internet radio stations".

Earth to podcasters... HELLO... You are not on the radio so stop referring to your internet stream as a "radio station". Calling yourselves "radio broadcasters" is a misnomer of the nth degree.

Please excuse me while I step into my bedroom closet and express my exasperation with a primal scream, where my audience will be about the same as your podcast, that is unless my two dogs follow me into the closet.

Seriously, an internet stream or podcast can't be legitimately compared to free, ubiquitous over the air, terrestrial radio.

As the founder and CEO of a real radio station, I think I'm qualified to attest that internet streaming and podcasting is nothing like the most efficient information delivery system ever created, terrestrial radio.

The Internet is a modern miracle of point to point communications but it's not radio and its limitations will prevent it from replacing radio until long after driverless cars allow the mesmerized masses to stare at their smart phones throughout their travels.

As long as bored motorists want subscription free local information and entertainment while they are stuck in traffic, terrestrial radio will be there to play the leading role.

The numbers of people who listen to terrestrial radio during drive time on I-10 in the Inland Empire region of Southern California totally overshadows all point to point internet only streaming in the region. A December 2014 article written by David Holmes in Pando.com is instructive. In the article, the following statistics are disclosed...

"The share of total hours Americans spend listening to terrestrial radio is a whopping 81 percent. Meanwhile Internet radio's share is only 11 percent and satellite radio's share is 8 percent"

Here is the article.

Much of the increases in "time spent listening" to Internet streaming and podcasts is coming from simulcasts of terrestrial radio.

Our experience at KCAA can add anecdotal evidence to support it. Our record podcasting and streaming hours in 2014 were reached in the first six months of 2015.

This Pew Research Center fact sheet expresses current trends...

To be sure, podcasters have found a badly needed outlet for their voices with almost no barrier to entry on a platform that could only be imagined 30 years ago... and that's a good thing. It's also a good thing that millions of people around the world have a new way to amplify their opinions but neither group has earned the right to compare themselves to representatives of the greatest point to multipoint communications system ever devised in the history of the planet. RADIO

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