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Radio Ain’t What It Used To Be

Dateline: 09/13/04

By , About.com Guide

Traditional radio may soon be in a fight for its life because technology is moving all of us forward and sadly, leaving the terrestrial stations behind. To be fair, there is a newer technology called “High Definition Radio” which promises to invigorate the traditional radio stations. HD Radio can make an AM station sound like an FM and an FM station sound CD quality.

But, it will also require an investment by broadcasting companies and even if every terrestrial radio station across the land was upgraded tomorrow, it still wouldn’t change the fact that innovation always trumps the status quo.

Terrestrial radio used to control the distribution of programming. Not so anymore. And just like traditional record companies had the distribution power pried out of their hands by peer-to-peer mp3 file swapping and CD burning, so have the traditional radio stations lost their distribution monopoly to Internet Radio, Satellite Radio, and downloadable audio and radio programming.

Nothing will ever be the same.

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