BCE Inc. is selling off 45 of its 103 regional radio stations as it cuts nine per cent of its workforce, including journalists and other workers at its Bell Media subsidiary.
BCE Inc. is selling off 45 of its 103 regional radio stations as it cuts nine per cent of its workforce, including journalists and other workers at its Bell Media subsidiary.
Realize that radio is not profitable because nobody is listening to it
Run more ads in order to get more revenue
More people stop listening to radio since there are too many ads
Return to step 1. repeat until the business is viable.
Invisible airwaves crackle with life, bright antenna bristle with the energy. Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength. Bearing a gift beyond price almost free.
Rush, The Spirit of Radio
How did we take such an amazing thing as having music beamed into the air around us for free and enshittify it to the point that nobody believes it has value?
When I go to France, I'm amazed at how many clear TV channels you can get over the air for free. Same with radio stations. And every region has their local little thing going on alongside the big players like Virgin or whatever. I never met anyone there that had a cable subscription.
To me, this is one sign of a healthy democracy because information and entertainment isn't blocked behind paid subscriptions and not all sources are manipulated by mega media corporations to provide biased information and opinions.
Are you sure the tv channels are free? I'm only familiar with Germany: you can get a ton of channels as well but you have to essentially pay a tax for having a tv.
This is probably a factor as well but I know many tradesmen and the like still just listening to radio. New guy doesnt like the song? Too bad, its what the station played. I also like to listen to local stations while driving, camping or fishing to get weather or traffic updates.
I mean you could get a bluetooth speaker and download some music but then you'll have to decide what you want to listen to and thats a lot to ask some days.
I actually run my own streaming setup where I stream off my computer through VPN, local buffering on the phone, it works really well in the truck where service is usually not interrupted for that long.
However a lot of people don't realize just how many hours of music you can burn through when you're putting in 12hr+ days in the field or even the mental effort in picking what to play next when your eyes are up front (I don't run autosteer on anything). So just turn on the radio and get the job done!