Today there are two big pieces of news that happened in the past month and that we wanted to share. Unfortunately, they are both bad news, but part of a natural process in a changing industry like radio; we’re hoping that in the longer term, the consequences will be better for the industry as a whole.
The first one, which brought a great deal of attention, was the announcement that the BBC will stop broadcasting BBC 6 Music and BBC Asian Network at the end of 2011. The decision prompted a backlash from listeners, trade unions and the music industry, and even the presenters and DJs of the BBC 6 Music station. If you’re interested, check out the complete guide to support it.
The second piece of news actually appeared on the other side of the Atlantic and covers online media. CBS Radio decided to shut down its streams to non U.S. listeners, which affects all the content accessed via the AOL, Yahoo! and CBS streaming networks – that represents A LOT of radio stations in our radio directory.
It’s really interesting to see how two similar decisions elicited such different responses. In one case, the CBS Radio decision affected a very large group of global listeners, but no one revolted. In the other case, it seemed that it hit a smaller yet close-knit community of listeners, employees, and other radio-related folks – and the resulting effect is that they joined forces and have been rallying to stop the shutdown. This situation reminds of the classic Margaret Mead quote…
“Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Anyway, we’ll keep you posted on all of this as it evolves. Stay tuned for the next episode of Radio News!
The Streema Team