Radio Today

There is a common sentiment that the radio industry is on the downfall. This is not true at all the radio industry is just as strong as ever. There are many outlets for people who are looking to get into the radio industry. One outlet that is available to college students is to get involved in their campus radio stations. Many colleges around the country have these stations that are often run by students with a faculty supervisor, for example at George Mason University the campus station is known as WGMU. This station is broadcast over the internet and is run by students. This includes everything from the on air personalities to the commercials that they play over the air to promote different events and products. When asked on how he felt about WGMU and his future in the radio industry Andrew Hood, one of the students involved with the station said “Radio is something that has become my passion and my time at WGMU has helped me get better at the basics so I can carry on into the workplace in some form”. While the perception is that radio is on the decline, in reality it is just as vibrant and thriving as ever and there are plenty of jobs for those who know were to look.

In recent years there has been an introduction of a new medium within the radio world. Satellite radio has been on the rise due to it’s convenience. Satellite radio is claiming to be the way to the future. For a minimal subscription fee you can have access to radio that is available transcontinental and has no commercials that cause a break in the flow of the music. When this technology emerged many professionals within the radio community were concerned. They thought that the rise of satellite radio would cause the downfall and eventual destruction of terrestrial radio stations. When asked to comment on satellite radio DJ Khan a long time radio personality said “we thought satellite was going to be the death of us, luckily that didn’t happen”. The reason satellite radio was unable to replace the more terrestrial radio signals is because people were unwilling to pay for a service they could get for free. Another reason that it did not replace traditional radio is that it requires a special receiver to be installed into certain cars, which people once again were unwilling to pay for. While the professionals of radio thought that satellite was the beginning of the end for them, it just turned out to be another medium that people could use to access music if they needed.  So they comfortably found a way to exist side by side.

With all of the advancements within the radio industry not all of them were destined for greatness. The most recent example of this would be HD radio. This was a technology that sounded great in theory yet fell short in practice. What it does is it breaks the various radio frequencies into subsections which would allow for stations to cater to different audiences and programming stations. The reason behind it failing to catch on is that in order to receive these subsections a special receiver has to be installed into your car. When asked about HD radio Nicholas DeVito, a student at George Mason, stated “HD radio sounds awesome, but the reason I don’t have it is I don’t feel like paying for the installation”. This sentiment is shared by many across the nation which is why the HD radio market is turning into a failure. If you would like to listen to the broadcasts without having to pay for the installation fee there are several places you can do so online. One website known as tunein.com has several HD stations that you can listen too. So while HD radio is a failure so far in the car radio it may find a new life in the online radio medium.

For at least the last semester there has been a rule in place through Maryland that has lead to a decrease in opportunities among Virginia students. This rule was that Virginia residents could not receive college credit for any internship held in Maryland. While this does not seem like it would be too big of a set back for students due to the sheer number of internships and jobs available in the Northern Virginia area there was one profession that it caused undue stress, the world of radio. The reason that the radio students in Northern Virginia were troubled by this law is that many of the major studios in the area, DC 101, Hot 99.5, and Wash FM (97.1) are all stations that are based out of Laurel, Maryland. These stations are part of Clear Channel Media company and they will not give internships to students unless the student will receive credit for the job. So until recently any radio student in Virginia was unable to intern at any of these major companies, yet there is hope. Just within the past two weeks this law has been revoked and students can once again get credit for jobs in Maryland. This is an amazing development as Professor Smith from George Mason stated it “opens up opportunities for students to get experience at major stations” and “its a relief”. This recent revoking of the law means that the future is now much brighter for any student looking to get involved in radio who is studying in Northern Virginia.

Technology is expanding at an exponentially faster rate. Every day new inventions and devices come into existence. The radio industry, while timeless, is no exception to this change. The most recent shift in radio technology is currently going on within the world of news radio. That shift is a transition away from traditional recording equipment such as the microphone, and into something much more portable. The new technology that is revolutionizing the world of news radio is the iphone. Many news reporters these days are beginning to make the switch to this new technique because it is much more portable, faster, and is not noticed as easily if they are trying to stay undercover during an investigative report. Kevin Patrick, a reporter for WNEW said that the iphone is a great resource for news reporting because it allows reporters to “try to  make it sound like you’re in the middle of the scene”.  Being able to record on site is not the only benefit that the iphone has when it comes to reporting. It also has the capabilities to edit the audio, normalize it, and send it back to the studio. Once it has gone back to the studio it can be immediately sent out on broadcast. The app that many professionals use to do this is called Voddio. This amazing technology is available to anyone who reports it, which means if the initiative is taken anyone could become a reporter on the scene of a story. While this change is exponentially fast at its core radio has remained the same, making it a timeless industry regardless of the changes it undergoes.