100 years of RADIO

[Trenchfriend]

On 29. Oktober 1923, the first regular radio show went on air in Berlin.

And thank you, Federal Post, for supporting with your transmitting equipment AND lowering the monthly charge from 60 to 2 Goldmark in 1924, so more and more people could took part!

And you practically gave the five keystones from the very beginning on:
-News/information
-culture/educational
-entertainment
-politics
-commercials

And thank you, Weimar Republic, that you kept RADIO "on the long leash"!

So, what should I say, Radio?
Always loved you, always will, my old loyal friend. Even, when some day FM will have to go. Then, we will still have internet livestream and DAB+ (and DVB-Satellite).

If my favorite public, non-commercial culture radio channel would ever switch from fee-financed channel to "pay-radio channel", I would contract.

 

[tonyb]

I’ve read recently that radio listenership has largely recovered from its lows during pandemic restrictions. Over here, radio is most listened to in cars, and with a big chunk of the population staying home and not commuting to work via personal automobile, the audience for radio shrunk quite a bit.

I still wouldn’t bet on the future of terrestrial radio, though. It’ll be around long after I’m gone, but I gotta believe its heyday is behind us. Podcasts and satellite radio allow the listener to decide what he wishes to hear when he wishes to hear it. And in the case of podcasts, the listener can “rewind” to listen again to what he wasn’t quite sure he caught the first time through. I do that with great frequency myself.

 

[Trenchfriend]

From the german perspective, yeah, I would say, the days of the "direct listeners" of radio are long gone, maybe since the 80s?
The majority of people has a radio playing anywhere in a kitchen or bathroom and so on and listen indirect.

But, what's keeping radio running in old Germany are for sure it's low costs and cheap radio devices and it's "productivity". And we even don't have automated FM-stations, here. Countless automated commercial internet channels for sure, but do these count??

At our fee-financed public channels, the days of seperate radio channels with an own crew are of course long gone.
For example, you got a "modern" late 90s broadcast center with a handful of studios and you produce seven "6 to 24" radio channels.

And now have a look at general costs of TV...

 

[Lois Brown]

okay

 

[The one from the North]

Well the writing is definitely on the wall. Here the national broadcasting company just announced the cancellation of practically all specialised music programs, blues, country, proge, jazz, world music etc. They already went from weekly to once a month schedule. The reason? They are shutting down one channel that was only speech programs and sport, now they have to make room for sport in the remaining channels...
I'll guess more Spotify for me... ‍