To reduce costs, staffs were chopped, formats were programmed from afar and DJs were piped in - often making taped token references to a local market that were flown to a broadcast to make listeners think that the DJs were actually there.
That radio is losing market share to Internet radio, iPods, and similar alternatives is no surprise. The same failure to recognize the folly of a mass-market mindset has knocked the broadcast TV networks out of their perches.
Even cable networks now face unexpected competition from YouTube and similar sites, as viewers learn that real people can be -- by accident or design -- at least as interesting and entertaining as anything a studio or network can produce. While DVRs and On Demand programing have significantly changed viewing habits, the ability to use keyword searches and RSS to filter and access video programming gives YouTube and similar services a level of personalization the even cable TV can't match. Not yet, anyway.
As Petkovic's article reports, change is in the airwaves, as the realization sets in among stakeholders in broadcast radio that a return to a local focus might save their bacon. As TV networks begin to offer their content online, jeopardizing the role to the local TV station, it's likely that we can expect a similar shift to a more local focus, beyond that already available in news and sports coverage (though I'm loathe to use the term "news" to describe what is often presented).
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