Wake Up Call

I was sitting in the back of an empty hotel ballroom Friday morning, bereft of ideas for a column. Other than the location, this follows my regular Friday morning routine, but with the additional complication that it meant I'd have to write this thing at the same time as writing coverage of the Worldwide Radio Summit Presented By AllAccess.com and A&R Worldwide -- I think that's the official name, and if not, close enough -- and while after several decades of this, I'm pretty good at this multitasking thing, it's still a challenge.

And then, Art Vuolo came to the rescue. No, he did not start videotaping me. He just said that he was staying at this hotel, which is hosting a radio convention, and he noticed something: no radio in the rooms.

You know, come to think of it.... The hotel placed those JBL Bluetooth circular speaker-and-clock deals in every room. Not a clock radio. (They also put white noise machines in the rooms, which came in handy considering the construction site across the street.) This compliments what we know from research like TechSurvey about radios in the home; Fewer people are using clock radios; their phones are their alarms. (Or their cats. I have experience with that.) You can't really find too many radios in stores anymore. Yet listening at home is still a thing.

And there's a next step to that. You may have seen stories about hotel chains testing placing Amazon Echo or Google Home in rooms. You may have concerns that the devices will be listening to whatever you're up to in those rooms. (Ew. Stop that.) But, as we've discussed here before, listening to radio as streams on those devices is, essentially, radio, only potentially even better -- no dial, no effort, just "Alexa, play me (name of station)." As I recently wrote in this column, there are pitfalls aplenty with that, from increased competition to making sure Alexa plays your station when you ask for it (maybe, just maybe, having a "Mix" or "Power" or "Z" in every market wasn't the best idea after all. But it's overall a promising thing.

And it's a reminder of something else research shows, and which popped up in a slide in NuVoodoo's presentation at this conference as well: increasingly, to listeners, it's all "radio." Podcasts, streaming, broadcast, Alexa, Bluetooth, smartphone, customized or not, subscription or free, it's all radio. We're entering -- we're IN -- an age when people just assume they'll get the content they want through whatever device they want to use. That's opportunity, not a threat. Look, if the audience thinks it's all "radio," that phone in their pocket is radio, too. (Even ones without an activated FM tuner chip.) And that means everyone, everywhere is practically never without a radio.

So that's what I'm taking away from the Worldwide Whatever Device You Want To Use Summit this year. The short term is about the drama of the big radio broadcasting companies and their financial problems. The long view is about audio of all kinds being everywhere, with no intermediaries necessary unless you want them. It's actually pretty cool.

And I didn't miss the clock radio. The hotel ones never work right anyway.

=============================

And you're gonna need things to talk about on those devices, aren't you? Enter All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics, which will provide you with exactly that, all by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And there's the Podcasting section at AllAccess.com/podcasts.

Getting Today's Talk, the daily email newsletter with the top news stories in News, Talk, and Sports radio and podcasting, plus my PerryVision! video commentaries? Good. Wait, for those of you who said no, go subscribe by making sure you're checked off for it in your All Access account profile's Format Preferences and Email Preferences sections.

You can follow my personal Twitter account at @pmsimon, and my Instagram account (same handle, @pmsimon) as well. And you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pmsimon, and at pmsimon.com.

=============================

At this writing, I'm still in the back of the room at the Worldwide Audio Delivery System Summit, so if you're in the room... wait, if you're in the room and reading this, you're not paying attention to the panels! FOCUS, people! And drop by my table and say hi while you're at it. I rarely bite.

Perry Michael Simon Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast AllAccess.com psimon@allaccess.com www.facebook.com/pmsimon Twitter @pmsimon Instagram @pmsimon YouTube @pmsimon