Radio Survivor

After languishing in near-penny-stock territory for the last year, Sirius XM Radio stock hit the dollar menu on Wednesday, topping out at $1.05 a share. Investors who bought their stock a year ago when it sold for less than 20 cents are probably cheering. Sirius hasn’t seen the plus size of one buck since September of 2008.

The prevailing opinion on Wall Street seems to be that investors think Sirius XM has finally gotten its financial affairs in order, along with adding a net of 257,000 listeners–more than expected–in the fourth quarter of 2009.

There also seems to be a growing confidence that, despite all the recent hoopla, Howard Stern will sign a new contract with Sirius. I don’t really understand how that’s a strong sign of strength for Sirius, although I guess it can be seen as a indicator of stability. If Sirius has to cough up another $300 million to keep Stern I really wonder if it will really be worth it. Even given Stern’s recent headlines over his claimed invitation to join American Idol, I doubt he has the magnetism to draw a significant number of new listeners. At best, Sirius can hope to hold onto the current crop of die-hard Stern fans.

But, then again, getting the stock price over $1 is only a relative achievement. Although the increase will likely help the company avoid a reverse stock split. Sirius’ viability will depend on how costly it is to retain Stern and how well it can continue to add listeners, despite very few new receivers being announced at last month’s CES.

There was once a time when a rare breed of radio DJ could scare up controversy and big ratings–not to mention FCC indecency fines–using just his voice, a few on-air cronies and whole lot of bravado, innuendo and hot air. Remember Howard Stern? Arguably the original “shock jock” he was one of the few American radio DJs able to make a nationwide name for himself, including late night talk show appearances and even producing an autobiographical feature film. He made big news in 2004 when he abandoned broadcast for Sirius satellite radio. But once Stern made the transition at the beginning of 2006 he pretty much faded from the mainstream limelight. CBS Radio made attempts to fill the void–such as tapping former Van Halen signer David Lee Roth, who lasted about four months. But no new jock has been found who can replicate Stern’s nationwide morning show dominance.

Chicago-based Mancow Muller was one potential candidate for the King of All Media’s throne. Just as Stern prepared to exit the broadcast airwaves Mancow was experiencing a boost in the number of station’s carrying his “Morning Madhouse” program, and was even beating Stern in the ratings in his home market. Yet only a half-year into Stern’s absence from terrestrial radio Mancow was booted from his home flagship station, Chicago’s Q101. Though the Madhouse continued to air in syndication, Mancow’s candidacy to replace Stern seemed to fade.
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For as much as I love radio I have to admit that there’s very few programs that I might consider appointment listening. Sure, I tune in to NPR daily to catch up on the news with Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but they’re pretty interchangeable to me. If, for some reason, the BBC News Hour were on instead I’d notice the difference, but I wouldn’t turn off the radio.

My #5 is not appointment listening. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I do know when it’s on, and if I happen to be in a radio listening mood at that time, I will be sure to tune it in. In fact, when it comes to commercial radio–especially syndicated commercial radio–it’s my favorite program currently on the air.

Little Steven’s Underground Garage stands out from most commercial music radio because it still shows the idosyncratic touch of its namesake host. Focused on the somewhat ill-defined subgenre of garage rock, the program plays rough-edged rock and roll that finds its roots with 1960s bands like the Troggs who went on to inspire early punks like the Ramones and later rockers such as the White Stripes. While this sort of rock is a mainstay of the Underground Garage, Little Steven takes a kind of “I know it when I see it” approach to the show, including a healthy does of Motown and other early rock nuggets alongside the more catholic selections. But his approach is not a hodge podge, like any real music DJ he draws connections between the songs he plays, often explaining why he deems an unorthodox choice worthy of inclusion.

Host Little Steven Van Zandt is otherwise known as a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, but in his off time has dedicated himself to the promotion and preservation of garage rock. While I certainly like most of the music labeled garage rock, I would never have considered myself a particular fan, as such. I first became aware of Little Steven’s campaign for the subgenre when a band local to Champaign-Urbana, IL, where I used to live, The Blackouts (now The Living Blue) won his first Underground Garage Battle of the Bands. That’s when I first tuned in to the program Sunday nights on the local classic rock station.
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I keep reading all this hype about how HD Radio is the big audio deal at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, yet I fail to quite see what’s so exciting. Sure, there are some new models of HD Radio receivers rolling out, but the number of new entries roughly equals the number of models being retired. The end result is that there will be about as many HD receivers on the market as last year. That’s big news?

I guess Ford announcing stronger support for HD and the new iTunes tagging features count for something. But where the rubber meets the road is whether car buyers are willing to pony up the extra cash for the higher-end stereos. While Ford is doing better than Chrysler and GM, the last time I checked, the auto industry isn’t exactly thriving. And let’s not forget that just few years ago the big hype was how the auto manufacturers were embracing satellite, yet that seems to have mostly resulted in lots of XM Sirius-equipped rental cars.

I keep searching for information about all these new non-automotive HD receivers and I keep coming up with the same iBiquity press release regurgitated all over the place. The release lists off a pile of model numbers, but no other info that might help me evaluate how great these new receivers might be.

iBiquity set up a special page just for “breaking news” from CES 2010. But today, the next-to-last day of the show, there’s no news to be found.

Only This Week in Consumer Electronics has any useful information, including the most valuable data of all: price. Amongst the models listed by TWICE, at $69 the lowest cost receiver is Radio Shack’s FM-only Gigaware-branded add-on for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The price isn’t outrageous, and marks only a $10 – $20 premium over a typical FM-only radio for the iPhone. Past that, all of the new HD receivers come in over a hundred bucks. That includes even the entry from discount electronics brand Coby, whose HDR700 has a street price of around $99.

I really believe that price is the key here. With the collapse in the quality of commercial radio programming, HD Radio really has not been able to sell itself on programming, despite the largest broadcasters like CBS Radio blanketing their stations with ads touting HD’s virtues. The quality issue is also debatable. So, at best, I think HD Radio is still a curiosity for most people who might be attracted by having a few more channels at their disposal, or having AM news, traffic and weather on the FM HD channels. But what are people willing to pay for this curiosity?
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The biggest news at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show might be Google’s new Nexus smartphone, but that doesn’t mean there’s no space for radio in all the gadget frenzy. Your resident RadioSurvivors don’t yet have the travel budget to jet off to Vegas to roam the show floor in person. Instead, I’m picking through the press releases and news stories (which often are just rewritten press releases) from cold and snowy Chicago.

Although I am not a car owner myself (I traded my old Subaru for a new bike this year–no lie!) the automobile is still the site of much radio listening, and the realm of some interesting tech developments. Internet and iTunes tagging appear to be the radio stars this year, with satellite playing a supporting role. As one of our readers pointed out, Ford recently announced that it would offer a factory-installed HD Radio receiver that includes iTunes tagging. In addition the company said it’s working on integrating tagging with Sirius satellite radio, which will also feature the ability to record and playback up to 45 minutes of satellite audio. Shades of Apple’s “live-pause” in the new iPod Nano?

Sony also offers up a car HD receiver with iTunes tagging (CDX-GT700HD) and Pioneer offers up several new models with the same features. But their new top-end receiver (AVIC-X920BT) goes one better by adding support for Pandora. The catch is that you need an iPhone that connects via a USB cable. Once linked, then you can browse stations on the receiver’s 6.1″ display.

Alpine also takes the iPhone route to offer Pandora in your auto with its iDA-X305S receiver. No to be left out Ford promises Pandora integration along with Stitcher, which is apparently the news/talk yin to Pandora’s yang, and something I’d never heard of before. Yet again, Ford’s approach requires an intermediary, with SYNC project manager Julius Marchwicki promising,

in the future, if you bring Pandora or Stitcher into the car on your phone, it will work seamlessly.

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As I said in my introduction to our subjective and opinionated review of radio in the 2000s, I still think it was darn near impossible to predict how the medium of radio would end up at the beginning of 2010. Sure, the seeds for satellite radio, HD radio, low-power FM, internet radio and MP3s were already planted by the turn of the century. But home broadband–nevermind wireless or mobile–was a relatively exclusive luxury. MP3 players were lucky to sport enough memory to hold about a hundred minutes of music and weren’t integrated into cell phones. Satellites for Sirius and XM were launched, and HD Radio was being experimented with, but no stations were on the air. Clear Channel was flying high for more than $90 a share.

Anyone taking a broad view of the radio industry in 2000 could certainly see a lot of balls being thrust up into to the air, but it would have taken a psychic to predict where they would land. Nevertheless, for all of the churn we can say very safely that audio-focused content is alive and well.

It’s become clear to me that we Radio Survivors do consider radio to be greater than just the traditional electromagnetic broadcast medium. While we included the RF-based college radio, pubic radio, LPFM, HD Radio and satellite radio in our review, we also touched upon internet radio, Pandora and digital downloads. I believe we are first and foremost fans of terrestrial broadcast radio, but that does not cause us to ignore or discount new audio media. Nor does it cause it us to claim that they are not, in essence, radio services.

The homogenization and delocalization of the broadcast dial caused listeners to seek alternative places to hear more interesting and diverse content. At the same time the popularity of MP3 players and Pandora shows that people were also looking for customization.
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At end of the first decade of the 21st century there are more audio entertainment options available than any time before. Even if traditional broadcast radio has a case of the doldrums, the viability of radio-like media has never been stronger. Satellite radio is one medium that entered the scene, although its long-term prognosis is still hazy.

By 2000 the perception that commercial radio had seriously declined in quality was widely held. Even listeners unaware of the massive consolidation in the industry perceived the tightening of playlists, more repetition, the inability to talk to a live DJ and make a request and an increase in commercials.

Then, with what seemed like perfect timing, two companies emerged on the scene to offer up a new radio service that promised a real alternative: satellite radio. Americans were already accustomed to receiving television by direct broadcast satellite. But satellite radio would be different. Where satellite TV mostly offered a cable-like service with the same channel, the new satellite radio companies–XM and Sirius–would offer up scores of new radio channels produced and programmed by the companies themselves.

Both companies vowed that their music channels would represent a return to the values of progressive rock radio, with programs hosted by live DJs choosing music according to their informed tastes. By the time both services were live in 2003, there were countless press profiles marveling at Sirius and XM’s array of narrow program genres and guru-like hosts. Home entertainment magazine Sound and Vision ran a lengthy cover story in June 2003 that asked “What’s so great about satellite radio?” The question was answered by four hosts from each of the services. Remarks by Lou Brutus, programmer for the XM freeform-revival station “Special X” were characteristic:

I don’t care how many CDs you have, there’s never been anything like Special X. It could be the day-to-day stuff that falls under the umbrella of “weirdness,” where you might hear “What’s He Building in There?” from Tom Waits, followed by William Shatner singing “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” followed by a 28-minute Jack Kerouac piece… The people at XM are thinking all of this stuff out and putting it together in coherent neighborhoods of sound, for lack of a better term. When radio is done right, I think it’s the most personal medium of them all. *

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I splurged and took a taxi to JFK airport in New York City today, and waddayaknow, my driver was a dedicated Sirius XM fan. We listened to the Love Channel for a while (I would not have taken him for a Lionel Richie type of guy). I asked him how much he likes Sirius XM. A lot, he replied, and took me on an extended tour of all the channels in his package.

This made me feel a little optimistic for the company. Checking the web I found some basis for this. Turns out that Sirius XM is issuing over 250 million in senior secured notes to pay back that humongous loan it borrowed from Liberty Media. Its second quarter financial numbers aren’t all that bad either. The company reports a one percent increase in revenue from the same time last year, which isn’t a lot, but beats Clear Channel and Westwood One, both of which appear to be in free fall, revenue-wise.

On the other hand, the satellite company says it is slightly down in subscribers—a one percent drop; at this point Sirius XM has 18,413,435 customers, my taxi driver among them. But given the state of the economy, that might be another sign of the services’ strength.

The company still has some loose ends it has to tie up with the Federal Communications Commission. Sirius XM still hasn’t figured out how to distribute those minority channels it agreed to share when it got merger approval from the FCC and Department of Justice (The FCC just gave Sirius yet another extention on this problem). And it still has to resolve a nasty dispute with the Wireless Communications Service over tower and translator positioning.

But things look better for satellite radio than they have in a while. The Love Channel sounded good, too.

Did you know about Vatican Radio?

Around since 1931, it’s the official voice of the Pope and the Catholic Church. All these years it’s been broadcasting the Pope’s musings commercial free. Starting on July 6th, the station began airing ads in order to help defray some of the mounting costs associated with their global broadcasts (in multiple languages) via FM, satellite, the web, short wave and medium wave. According to an article in the LA Times:

“The radio service, which broadcasts around the world and on the Web in more than 40 languages, costs the Vatican about $31 million a year, and until now brought in zero revenue.

‘It’s like having an 80-year-old child living at home all this time, and you say, “Darling, we still love you, you can go on living here, we’re not going to kick you out, but it would be nice if you would contribute to paying the phone bill, the gas bill or something,”‘ said Sean-Patrick Lovett, director of Vatican Radio’s English and Italian sections.”

Not only does Vatican Radio broadcast directly, but its programming is also syndicated on individual stations all over the world. I was quite interested to read about its history on the official Vatican Radio website. Vatican Radio aired its first inter-continental broadcast on February 12, 1931:

“At 3:30 p.m. the Marquis Marconi arrives; the illustrious inventor goes  directly to the Amplification Studio, places the earphones on his head,  and begins the transcontinental conversations. The voice arrives clearly  in New York, Melbourne, and Quebec. Fr. Gianfranceschi works with his  usual conentration [sic] in preparing the final arrangements for the broadcast  of the Pope…

Now,  the Station is immersed in a profound silence: the powerful machinery  awaits in silence; the lamps on the control panel are switched off;  the entire world nervously waits. In just a few moments the spark will  be struck which will send out the signal to the entire world. This will  be the miraculous moment that will give glory to God and to His Church.

It’s  now 4:20 p.m. The trumpets sound the arrival of the Holy Father. He  arrives in the automobile, and makes his way to the Radio Transmission  Station…

The Pope is then accompanied  to the Generator Room where, with a steady and definite manner, he moves  the controls which activate the power. First a whirring is heard, then  the sound of the powerful vibration of the motors takes over the room.  His Holiness accomplishes several other maneuvers which will complete  the opening of the circuits necessary to initate the transmission.

Now  everything is ready; the Pope has completed the operations necessary  for the first transmission of Vatican Radio.

The  first signal to be sent out is in Morse code. The technician types the  words, In nomine Domini, Amen, that is In the Name of the Lord, amen!  At this very instant radio stations, ships, and anyone who has the equipment  to receive the signal hears this benediction and invitation. After a  brief introduction of the Pope by Marconi, Pius XI takes the microphone  and inaugurates the first world-wide radio message ever given by a Pope.”

It’s an amazingly poetic description of radio and a reminder of just how magical it must have seemed in the early days of broadcasting.

Fandom is an amazing thing and thanks to the Internet it’s easier and easier to find like-minded obsessives who share one’s passion for the most obscure objects, idols, and idiosyncrasies. Radio is no exception. Loads of websites document radio history, with nostalgic archivists collecting ephemera, airchecks, and reminiscences from San Francisco to Boston. Various forums also exist, like those on Radio-Info.com, allowing listeners and industry types to talk shop and share current radio gossip.

And then there’s Garrett Wollman. I recently ran across some of his photographs of radio towers and was fascinated. As part of his work with The Archives @ BostonRadio.org, he’s been traveling around the country meticulously photographing every radio tower that he can find. Sometimes he even ventures into radio and television stations; but for the most part it’s the outside architecture and landscapes that he finds so compelling.

In order to learn more about this project, I contacted Garrett to get the scoop about his love for radio towers and his work to help document the history of radio and television. I was surprised to find out a couple of things: 1) Garrett’s a young guy—a rarity in radio history circles and 2) He’s not a big fan of current radio offerings. After chatting with Garrett, I also was made aware of pursuits like DXing and county counting, making me realize that there’s so much more to the radio scene than I ever realized. On to the interview: (more…)