More Talk About Cell Phones And Baseball

Remember last week's column? I closed it with this:

If anything happens during what's left of this convention, I'll talk about it here next week. I hope something DOES happen. If not, I'm going to be hurting for material. When next week's column consists of nothing but my detailed analysis of the National League playoffs, you'll know just how desperate things got.

As it turns out, nothing happened, so....

How about that Roy Halladay? Was that awesome or what? And Lincecum was... okay, I'll stop. This is a radio column. I'll talk about radio.

Anyway, one thing I mentioned last week was how it seemed everyone at the NAB/RAB Radio Show convention seemed to be lusting after the mobile space, how it was all about FM in smartphones and apps and streaming, and how it seemed that all the action is in mobile and the attendees seemed to wish they were part of that.

Yet there's another technology out there that's pretty amazing, too. Imagine this: It's standard in practically every car, it's easier to use than any other entertainment technology, there's no learning curve, and it just works. Why, yes, it IS radio. How did you guess?

But that's not to say that radio isn't challenged, or that people aren't increasingly turning to other technologies for their entertainment. (It's not happening quite as quickly as you'd think, not with just 17% of Americans packing a smartphone right now, but it's real) It surely doesn't mean that all radio needs is a marketing effort to sell the medium to "the kids." ("Radio Heard Here," anyone?) It just means that the particular technology is important mostly if you happen to own a radio license, a transmitter, and an antenna. That could be a problem down the line. But if you're a host or a producer or even a radio company which just happens to have a lot of creative, entertaining people under contract, it'll be wide open for you.

The trick will be to make money doing it. Nobody has that part nailed down solid. And anyone who claims to have the answers -- hey, it's easy, just charge a subscription fee! -- probably doesn't. There's a lot of experimentation yet to come; That's bad if you need to make money right away, but promising in the long run. In the meantime, if you're a host and want to pay the bills, you probably still have to be on the radio. Or do a lot of live shows and sell a lot of t-shirts and coffee mugs. Or marry well.

(In case you think that the people in mobile are somehow way, way more progressive and have a better handle on the future than radio does, by the way, the carrier I use just made a big, big deal out of offering "ID packs." ID whats? They're just bundles of apps with ringtones and wallpapers that the press release calls "innovative" and "revolutionary" but turn out to be just a way for a bunch of companies and advertisers to jam their apps onto your phone because they figure you're too lazy to go download the stuff you want yourself. Just like radio, it's not "give the people what they want," it's "give the people what WE want." Like HD Radio and the way some companies program stations to fit their cluster rather than fit a need in the marketplace, it's all about what makes sense for the corporation rather than what the public really wants. It's not limited to "old media." Seems like nobody listens to the customer anymore)

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

Once again, I've pushed the deadline to the hairy edge, so as for Talk Topics, just go there for all the material you need to make yourself a show, whether it's on the air or online or muttering to yourself at a corner table in Starbucks. Check it out at All Access or subscribe via the handy Twitter feed attwitter.com/talktopics. Also on tap this week is/are "10 Questions With..." WPEN-A-F (97.5 The Fanatic and 950 ESPN)/Philadelphia PD Matt Nahigian, who's got the FM Sports thing going and whose station has plenty to talk about right now, plus the rest of All Access with the industry's best, fastest, most reliable news coverage and all the columns and music charts and resources you need. Job listings, too.

We're not just a website, you know. You can find us at the Net News Twitter feed at twitter.com/allaccess and on Facebook, and you can download the All Access iPhone app by clicking here or the All Access Android app by clicking here; both apps were developed by our friends at jacAPPS.

As for me, there's my own personal Twitter feed at twitter.com/pmsimon (no relation to All Access), and pmsimon.com, where, time permitting, I post random, mostly non-radio stuff on a daily basis.

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

Hey, look, another convention next week! At least there's no travel for this one. If you're going to it, I'll see you there. If not, I'll talk to you here.

Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
psimon@allaccess.com
www.facebook.com/pmsimon
www.twitter.com/pmsimon