yellowradio_main

I have noticed phrases like “online is the way everything is going” a few times over the last week, both from advertising types and publishers. I had plenty of opportunity with the latter at the web 2.0 conference in Cape Town last week. Every time it’s said with a bit of gloom and wistfulness for the old days of television ads and/or the rustle of broadsheets on a Sunday Morning.

I feel sorry for these people because they obviously love the work they do and they feel the weight of doom and kids with iphones bearing down upon them. A good point in this weeks Digital Edge podcast was that media doesn’t work like that if you look at history. Cinema wasn’t killed by TV or internet piracy (in fact its pretty healthy),  There is far more broadcast footage being shot these days than ever before (its just going online more). And radio (if you broaden it to include podcasts) is actually thriving.

Based on my demographic study of one, radio consumption has actually shot up dramatically over the last year. It could be the rapid approach of middle age youth of course but actually think not. Audio is relatively cheap to produce so its quite easy to build shows around specialist areas of content (that old Long Tail thing). So rather listen to crap on 5FM during the day in the car I listen to downloaded shows. And if I have stuff to do round the house I often plug my ipod into the stereo to accompany it. It’s a great medium for multi-taskers (which is the main occupation of the noughties it seems).

My regular weekly consumption is something like this now:

Sunday:

  • Download the (excellent) new Monocle Weekly podcast and listen to it lazing on the stoep (with coffee)
  • Also use the BBC iplayer to listen to Radio 4 or Radio 6 while I read the paper

Monday:

Tuesday/Wednesday:

  • Get the latest two episodes of Beats In Space via itunes (Tim Sweeney’s excellent space disco show on a New York college radio) I listen to this mostly while driving around.
  • Also get the Media Guardian’s (UK) Tech Weekly podcast which again listen to while making food or doing the chores required to keep my crumbling Victorian bungalow from returning to the dust.

Thursday/Friday/Saturday:

  • As most of the podcasts I follow come out earlier in the week if i need new stuff by this point i’ll pay a visit to Myspace and let a page stream tracks (DFA for example), Download Digital Planet from the BBC, or listen to Tiga (if a new episode is available) or Modcast.

And just to show its not only me living in this brave new world i’ve checked with my mum and she downloads The Archers (long running radio soap opera) to listen to while she does the ironing regularly.

So my advice to those weeping into their pillows about dying media is cheer up and transfer your skills (the new world ain’t that different).