Can the Internet kill the radio star?

By Dan Fawson

May 7, 2009 | In a time when traditional media providers are constantly evolving, and in most cases, constantly struggling to try and stay afloat amidst the growing popularity of the worldwide web, Mike Carver believes there is reason to be positive about the future of radio.

Carver, better known in Cache Valley as former on-air morning personality the Real Michael Steele for Logan radio station Q92, was a prominent figure in the valley's media scene for nearly 15 years before leaving for Idaho Falls in 2006.

Carver began his radio career in 1976 and during that time has witnessed a number of technological innovations supposedly spelling the doom of traditional local radio stations.

"Radio was supposed to be killed by TV, and MTV," Carver remembers. Former new wave British band The Buggles predicted as much when their 1979 hit Video Killed the Radio Star was the first music video played on television's MTV. In spite of the resulting worldwide popularity of music videos, radio endured.

As technological advances emerge almost on a daily basis, radio has managed to remain a viable source for news and entertainment. "Our industry has not even been as adversely hit by satellite radio as we thought it would be," Carver says. In February, the New York Times reported Sirius XM, the byproduct company of a merger between initially popular satellite radio providers Sirius and XM, was working to avoid having to file bankruptcy.

Isn't it only a matter of time, though? While the industry has persevered, Carver acknowledges radio shares the music industry's problem of constantly battling to safeguard itself against internet music downloads and the overwhelming popularity of iPods, stressing that they have to "continue to try and find ways to keep young people into radio."

After 150 years of publication, the Cincinnati based E.W. Scripps Co. announced in late February that its Denver newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, would be closing after reporting daily losses of $43,333 during 2008. The losses were largely the result of a fledgling economy and an inability to compete with online advertising and news reporting, both of which are problems which have forced significant staff reductions at newspapers such as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times in recent years.

Carver also acknowledged radio hasn't been immune to its own workforce losses, saying hundreds of individuals have been laid off. The question then begs, while the radio industry has continued to prove itself over the years as a versatile and skillful adapter, how will it survive the ever-expanding, worldwide influence of internet media and entertainment? Carver suggests rather than radio widening its reach, the solution lies in a renewed commitment to its local audience.

"Radio must stay relative to its community," he says. "That is probably the only way radio will stay viable."

Carver stressed the industry's need to "try harder to stay in touch with the local community and what's going on in individual's lives," saying radio will stay relative as long as "we can shake hands and be at events and make people feel they can come to us because we are local and concerned about the area in which we live."

Carver says the industry started losing touch with local communities when 1990s FCC de-regulations began eliminating local ownership and opening the door for corporations to begin taking over radio. "It became strictly a bottom-line business," he says.

"Being so focused on the bottom-line and being taken into public stock for many large companies meant a reduction in staff and in being in touch with the communities which radio was supposed to serve," Carver says. Shorthanded stations began voice-tracking in on-air personalities from outside their community, leading to "someone in Kansas trying to sound like they live in Salt Lake," Carver says, lamenting the loss of the "fun, live, local touch" he grew up with.

Both Carver and Lynn Simmons, the on-air morning personality for Cache Valley's KIX 96, believe radio will begin shifting focus back to the community.

"I see radio returning to a more live, local sound," Simmons said.

"If we can be live, local sounding and in touch, people will continue to come to us for the immediacy of the weather, news and events we can talk about," Carver says. "I don't think radio is going away in 10 years or 20 years, if we give people a reason to come to us."

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