Streaming Radio that doesn’t work

First the disclaimer – people who use Streaming Radio Guide are not typical radio listeners.  About 99% of people who use this web site found it in Google by searching for something specific – and many of them (80%+) are looking for syndicated conservative talk radio shows.

With that out of the way, after several years of maintaining schedules and watching statistics about what you are listening to, “pushing” certain programs for a week to see if I can influence people to listen and a few polls, I’m ready to draw some conclusions about what “doesn’t work” on streaming Internet radio and suggest some of the reasons.   As more people start streaming regularly and putting their “real radio” in the attic, this eventually will spill over into programming decisions for the over the air programming as well.

Starting with the obvious:

Infomercials and brokered programming

If people are not trapped in the car with no choice and/or there is not just one station they can hear – nobody wants to hear about the latest colon cleansers and male enhancement products.  There are now 7,100 choices just in FCC licensed radio stations in the United States that can be streamed.

Religious programming

There is *zero* interest in any recorded spoken word religious programming.  None.  Not even a hint.    This is just an extension of the “brokered programming doesn’t work” rule above, since typically the station is paid for putting the program on the air, directly or indirectly.

Many of the preachers on religious ministry radio have been dead for 20 years.   If people want to hear that message, they can download a podcast from a web site or order cassette tapes by mail.  

There is a not even any interest in LIVE or at least same day religious programming with political content, like Focus on the Family or Jay Sekulow.  People also don’t come here looking for religious music.   Keep in mind that 80% of the people here are “right wing Republicans” – yet they don’t look to streaming radio to find religious instruction or inspiration.

Public Service Programming

Nobody wants to hear that recorded interview with the head of the Local Water district about the new 50,000 gallon per second water pump – not even his wife.  Station owners may feel a need to produce this show to mention in the public comment file to make the FCC happy that they are serving their community, but the FCC doesn’t make the rules on the Internet (yet). 

Left wing hate radio

Not the Air America mild type of anti-Conservative/Republican hate radio (which does draw 2% of the listeners) – this is the programming typified by Pacifica radio – going back to the very beginnings of radio in the 1930s:  hard core socialist/Marxist, anti-religious athiests, profit is evil, corrupt businesses are destroying the planet, everything America does is wrong (at least pre-Obama), Europeans and their ancestors are the source of all evil, pain and misery in the entire history of the planet – radio.   Al Sharpton and minority broadcasts fit into this niche as well (very few people outside of  “the community” even know Al Sharpton has had a syndicated radio show for several years).    Government mandated setasides for non-profit organizations and ethnic minorities create radio that is painfully bad.  People who may want to listen to it already know where to find it.

Local Morning Shows

First to say it again – this is not saying that nobody listens to local morning shows – people don’t come here to find them on the internet

Most people don’t stream the internet in their cars yet (but that is coming in a year or two).   People who aren’t in a car during morning drive don’t care about the weather, traffic and current time, and probably don’t care about last night’s sports scores.  If the host(s) talk about controversial issues of national or regional interest, it might draw a small audience, but not likely.   Quinn and Rose are a possible exception to this, but they are also on XM radio – they aren’t really doing a “local” show – but they are now down to 3 streaming affiliates.

Local Sports talk

People on the Internet are mostly “out of market” listeners, or they are people in the same city listening from work.  People in California don’t care what the prospects are for the Kansas City Chiefs this year.   Sports talk is what you put on a station while you’re trying to figure out how to sell the station – or because you have a contract to broadcast Pro sports and need something to fill time.   Your entire audience is composed of 3 teenage boys who call the show every day to talk for hours about their fantasy sports league picks.  There may be a few niche markets and stations that draw listeners, but the listeners don’t stream over the internet (or they don’t come here to find those streams).   Jim Rome does have an audience, but he’s the only sports show that generates any interest.   Quality does matter – Jim Rome knows what he is talking about, and sports fans know he knows.

NPR news/information shows – beyond the “big two” shows

Morning Edition and All Things considered are franchise shows going back decades and they do draw a smattering of listeners.  They have a measurable streaming audience.  None of the other syndicated shows on Public Radio do. 

This may be because NPR has done such a good job of drawing people directly to its own web site by being a pioneer in streaming (at least until the local affiliates fired the head of NPR for centralizing the NPR listenership on the NPR web site and podcasts). 

This is not saying that nobody listens to NPR stations – just that they don’t come here if they do.   There is a lot of overlap between Public/Community radio and the “Left Wing Hate Radio” category above – shows like Amy Goodman.

Business News / Financial Advice

People do not trust *any* host giving investment advice on the radio, and for good reason if they have watched the news for a few decades of all the former radio hosts convicted of swindling listeners who became clients after they trusted “the voice on the radio”.  

Bob Brinker does have a following since he has been on the air for long time – but he never gives specific investment advice.   All he is selling is his newsletter.  However, people are growing increasingly skeptical of him as well – judging by the calls from well informed callers challenging his opinoins that  he takes on the air for the past six months.    

The big exception to this generalization is Dave Ramsey, and to a lesser degree Clark Howard – who does a consumer advocacy show rather than investing advice (although there is a lot of overlap).

Classical Music

Other than being free, why would someone stream a low fidelity symphony they didn’t choose on their computer’s tiny speakers instead of CD quality sound from their personal collection on their high end stereo system?   If the host is doing the show live (talking about upcoming concerts or events he/she recently attended) and actually knows a lot about classical music, then it might develop a following – but most classical FM is just evergreen voice tracking with hour long “songs”. 

People want other people to know they listen to Classical Music to demonstrate their superior cultural awareness – but they don’t actually listen to it if nobody is around, know much about the composers, or the context of the times when the music was written.    People who DO have a genuine interest and appreciation of Classical Music don’t listen to it on the internet, or wait 3 months until the symphony they want to hear shows up in the station’s rotation. 

Jazz  also fits into this category of music that people want others to think they listen to (hey, if you listen to jazz that proves you’re not a racist!) – but they don’t actually listen to.

Typical weekend programming fare

Car repair (nobody can repair a car themselves any more, even local repair shops), hunting and fishing shows, invest in real estate and make billions of dollars,  legal advice, home repair, gardening, health and nutrition, personal advice.   People might listen if the stream is already running, but they don’t search out this type of programming.

Coming soon:  what does work on internet streaming?