Nickname: Alex

Review: Why is Westwood One being labeled "standard radio"? Uninformed article indeed. WW1 is a content provider that provides programming and content to AM/FM Radio, Satellite radio, internet, television, etc. In addition, Metro Networks is part of WW1. It's only the largest traffic infomation gathering operation in the world! Again, this information is distributed across many platforms, not just "standard" radio. I will say that the state of AM/FM radio today is pretty lackluster. But it's just a transition period. And for everyone that thinks satellite is the "wave" of the future, consider this: You can now download music to your cell phone directly from iTunes. WiFi is everywhere. How long do you think it will be before WiFi enabled Internet radios become mainstream? How long before your WiFi connection is free? The point is that distribution technology is constantly changing and is impossible to keep up with. But no matter how it's delivered, content will always be king.

Date reviewed: Mar 6, 2006 2:47 PM

Nickname: Mtgmann99

Review: Radio to lose even more investors! I believe that satellite subscribers will continue to grow in great numbers based on one sole factor: "Standard radio is now in the process of killing itself by trying to find the next "Howard Stern" of radio." Standard Radio is now like MTV--they play everything except actual music! Every station has their own new "Shock Jock" and switched to tasteless talk radio. As an account executive I'm in my car 90% of the day and now have problems finding actual music on the radio ever since Howard left standard radio. Sure I can find a station or two with some old instrumental jazz or big band swing but top 10 music? Forget it! Note I'm have never been a big Howard Fan but am switching to Sirius-- not to listen to Howard but actually to get away from the tasteless talk shows that are now flooding standard radio in an attempt to capture the "Howard Stern" audience still listening to standard radio. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way!

Date reviewed: Mar 5, 2006 5:22 AM

Nickname: Mr. K.

Review: It's the commercials stupid! I can barely stand to listen to "commercial" radio anymore because of the constant barrage of commercials. And it's not just the number of commercials, it's their tone. Yelling, screaming, and jacking up the volume to hawk all manner of snake oil--weight loss, aphrodisiacs, MLM scams, no money down real estate scams, hypnosis scams, eye excercise scams, it is all just too much. I've pretty much abandoned the medium for public radio and the Internet.

Date reviewed: Mar 4, 2006 7:25 AM

Nickname: mike

Review: Westwood One and CBS radio should admit that Howard Stern was their main source of income and entertainment. That is why listeners switched and they are losing their shirts. With 14 months to plan his replacement all they could come up with was to sue Stern. Ridiculous.

Date reviewed: Mar 4, 2006 5:19 AM

Nickname: SatelliteBubble

Review: You neglect to mention that 2004 was a presidential political year. So, of course, year-over-year revenue gains are more difficult without the same level of political spending. You also neglect to mention the early 2005 Supreme Court ruling in favor of movie and music companies vs. theft of copywritten material from file sharing sites--which over the last five years was the major aberration affecting radio audience levels. As music dowloads are more and more likely to be paid for, a more traditional symbiotic balance between music players and radio listening time will return. Plus WON is an outlier. The vast majority of radio revenues are from local sources, not national. Locally programmed radio stations are not very well represented by Westwood One's revenue situation or programming costs. All in all, the article was a very stilted and an uninformed job.

Date reviewed: Mar 3, 2006 11:42 PM

Nickname: Pat

Review: The problem with radio is there's nothing to hear. It's the same rock/country/sports/sports sports/obnoxious talk/Praise the Lord stuff on every station. The music is limited to the same tunes over and over. As long as the Citadel's of the world own the air waves, there's little chance of inovation or change. I rarely listen to broadcast radio any more.

Date reviewed: Mar 3, 2006 9:41 PM

Nickname: minasmorgul

Review: What did they expect? That satellite radio, downloadable content, and portable MP3 players were just going to be fads? That people would eventually go back and listen to tinny AM talk and the same 20 songs played over and over again ad-nauseum on FM? People were trapped with AM/FM, they just didn't have options. AM and FM delivery technology has not improved in decades. The only technological improvements made, were to cram more advertising onto the airwaves and for station automation. These things improved the bottom line, but further degraded the listening experience. They should have been working on high-definition radio five years ago, but it was ignored.

Date reviewed: Mar 3, 2006 4:58 PM