All Radio Is Local: (by Ivan Braiker) "There's one obvious loser: the guys in the middle, local radio stations. With free online music services appealing to those of us on a budget and SiriusXM taking the high-end, luxury listeners, there may not be any middle ground left … Streaming services and national programs may be the future of radio, but that will be cold comfort indeed." –John R. Quain, "Local Radio Is Getting Tuned Out –Thanks Internet," November 1 ,2011
Tip O’Neill famously stated, “All politics is local” – that a politician's success is based on his or her ability to understand the issues of their constituents. The same could be said for local radio (from the article I quoted above, Quain also states, “There's a comfort and cohesiveness you get from hearing the local jock rant about fighting the snow storm to get to work, just before you head out into the same storm”) – there’s a shared experience that listeners can only truly get through their local stations. But there are a number of forces that are making it more difficult for local broadcasters to engage with their audiences.
Technology and market forces are radically altering the landscape for traditional broadcast radio—but particularly at the local level. Already challenged by satellite radio, podcasts and online services like Slacker and Pandora, local outlets have been further affected by recent, widely-reported announcements from corporate owners—eliminating local programming, programmers and on-air talent.