If Facebork is a leveller, then it is to Facebork that I must look for exciting discussions about the world of radio.
But, why can’t I find any?
Radio enthusiasts (‘anoraks’) don’t seem to be talking much about today’s radio scene. Even a radio chatter website called Radio Today seems to have become very very quiet. Well, it still publishes a few bits, mainly corporate press releases, gossip that won’t get anybody the sack, and comprehensive analysis of RAJAR’s joke audience research results.
So, before I get sued, I’m of course referring to the hilarious (I mean, it cannot be serious!) way that RAJAR collects listening figures. You’d think that in this modern digital world it would be down to devices being worn by the listener and picking up and automatically recording what they are listening to, or devices fitted to their radios recording when they are switched on. But no. It’s all done on bits of paper, using a pen. The listener has to try to recall exactly what they listened to, what time, and for how long. Ha ha ha ha. Very 1950s.
For some inexplicable reason this ‘diary recall’ method is still used today, but it doesn’t end there. When the results are processed by RAJAR they are massaged and played with using ‘weighting’ until a result is arrived at. And, of course, the diaries are only handed out to people on the Electoral Roll. Pity the poor students who listen to the radio in their Halls or temporary digs, but hey ho. Hence why radio brands with middle of the road formats will always score higher than those of a more specialist nature.
But, I digress. I was writing about the lack of discussions in public places of t’internet about radio, and wondering why there was virtually none. Well, none about modern day radio. Well, none on Facebork.
Facebork seems to have plenty of discussion about radio things from the last millennium, but can I find any from this millennium? Nope.
There’s a brilliant discussion board using old fashioned style phpBB software, called Radionecks. Now, mainly it talks about pirate radio stations, and there was a time when it was ‘current’. Today it seems full of people talking about ‘back in da day’, and reminiscing about land based pirate radio stations from, well, ‘back in da day’, which is not as ‘back in da day’ as offshore radio, but certainly ‘back in da day’. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still current conversations there, they are just a lot thinner than they used to be, err, ‘back in da day’.
But, what about today and today’s non pirate radio? Nothing anywhere. Not Radionecks, not Facebork. Just old people reminiscing, or young people talking about ‘back in da day‘.
This is all rather at odds with the current exciting times for radio brands. Now, more than ever we have lots of different styles and lots of fantastic choice via DAB radio. A heck of a lot more choice. And more to come. So, where’s all the chatter about it on Facebork?
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