Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Time Spent Listening To Terrestrial Radio Shrinks...

Terrestrial radio isn't being crushed like a grape but it is being squeezed like an orange and that orange is producing less juice. Add your own analogy, I think you get the point. Time spent listening to Terrestrial radio is melting like the wicked witch. The most telling stat from the new Bridge Ratings is the 5-year loss in listening to AM/FM radio. Five years ago, AM/FM radio listening totalled 22 hours per week - today, AM/FM radio listening totals 18 hours a week. That figure is based on traditional radio listening. If you include radio streaming on the Internet or other devices, terrestrial radio listening is down 2 hours a week from 5 years ago. More proof that the Internet and other devices are keeping radio alive but the patient is still on life support...

Weekly time-spent-listening to audio on the Internet has increased 10% since 2005 with all age groups. Internet TSL is now over 11 hours a week, which includes listening to streaming audio, Internet radio, AM/FM simulcast streaming and other audio streams. And how are other listening devices doing???

In descending rank, MP3 listening (tied with Internet listening) totals over 11 hours a week, Satellite radio listeners are spending an average of 8.3 hours per week, cellphones/smart phones average 4 hours of listening a week and podcasts trail the field with listening totalling under one-hour per week...

Here's more bad news for terrestrial radio. Bridge Ratings anticipates that Internet streaming will add another 11-12% more listening by 2013...

10 Timeline Memories:

1.1930] Empire Steel Building: The first steel columns are set for the Empire State Building...
2.1948] Some enchanted evening: Rogers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" starring Mary Martin opens on Broadway...
3.1957] The trolley swan song: The last of New York City's electric trolleys completes its final run from Queens to Manhattan...
4.1958] Screened in: The Los Angeles Dodgers erect a 42-foot screen in left field at the Coliseum to cut down on home runs, only 250-feet down the line. The screen won't stop Frank "Hondo" Howard from clearing it with his bombs...
5.1963] Diaper duffer: At the age of 23, Jack Nicklaus becomes the youngest golfer to win the green jacket at the Masters Tournament...
6.1967] Who's your daddy?: Tom Donahue begins the progressive aka AOR (Album Oriented Rock) FM format at KMPX in San Francisco. Donahue will become known as the "Father of FM Radio." ...
7.1969] Save me: The Dodgers' Bill Singer is credited with the first official 'save' against the Reds. Write it down trivia fans. Here's an audio clip of Singer's no-hitter from 7/20/70 w/the great Vin Scully doing the play-by-play...
8.1970] An Oscar for The Pilgrim: John Wayne wins his first and only Oscar for his role in "True Grit". It took him over 200 films to accomplish the feat...
9.1998] Filling Sonny's shoes: Mary Bono, Sonny's widow, wins a special election to serve out the remainder of her husband's congressional term...
10.2008] Jayhawks soar: Kansas defeats Memphis in overtime, 75-68, to win the NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship. Duke beat Butler for the 2010 NCAA Championship this past Monday night...


Music Memories:

•#1 on this date: 1968] "Honey" - Bobby Goldsboro...1970] "Let It Be" - Beatles ..1974] "Bennie and the Jets" - Elton John...
Elton lights a candle: 1985] Elton John performs "Candle in the Wind" at Farm Aid IV in tribute to Ryan White, a young AIDS patient who dies later that day...

Commentary:

On Tuesday, April 13, A Hearing Conservation Workshop will be presented at NYU's Steinhardt Music Technology Center, 35 West 4th Street (bet. LaGuardia Pl. & University Pl.) from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. This Hearing Conservation Workshop will offer a new approach to promoting awareness of the ever-increasing problem of noise and music-induced hearing loss. This event is open to all. Everyone is welcome to join. Additional information is available by clicking here...


"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":

Former Giant RB Tiki Barber & his twin brother Ronde (35), Russell Crowe (46), Jackie Chan (56), Janis Ian (59), John Oates (61), Patricia (Chiffons) Bennett (63), David Frost (71), Francis Ford Coppola (71), Jerry Brown (72), Charlie Thomas of the Drifters (73), Bobby Bare (75), Wayne Rogers (77), James Garner (82), Ravi Shankar (90), Bobby Doerr (92) and R.G. Armstrong (93)...


Timeline Countdown: 24 days until the Kentucky Derby, 32 days until Mother's Day and 54 days until Memorial Day...