4 minute read
DEATH OF THE RADIO
DEATH OF THE RADIO
Today, listening to music is as simple as looking at your phone, compared to turning on the radio
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WORDS: Emily Brown, Kayla Oberholtzer, Humza Mohiuddin, Gabriella Simkus and Isabella Simkus DESIGN: Joanna Kouros
PHOTO: Emily Brown
On a day to day basis, people immerse themselves in sound or music. That may be listening to music or podcasts, from streaming services or the radio. This is the death of the radio. “I definitely use aux more than radio because I like having all the songs I enjoy on one playlist, instead of waiting for certain songs on the radio. If the radio had more options, I would probably still use the aux since all my music is on my phone. The last time I listened to the radio was a week ago, but only because my phone had died,” Isaac Madrigal (12) said. Listening to the radio is one of the many ways to find out what songs are on the range. This can help for those like Elijah Johnson (12), who is a DJ. Despite using the radio, he still uses modern-day streaming services and apps to know what others prefer. “I do listen to the radio! I’m a DJ and it helps because I get to hear other DJ’s mixes, which helps a lot with my own craft. On a day to day, I use Apple Music, maybe SoundCloud if I can’t find something I like on Apple Music. I also use Youtube a lot though; it also exposes me to a lot of different kinds of music,” Johnson said. An issue one of the students pointed out was about how repetitive the radio is. Stations will usually play a few of the same songs over the course of a few hours, to a few weeks. Due to this, some students
prefer to use different streaming services Megan
to get their music. ”The radio is definitely outdated just soeka (11)
because of all the different options on your phone. Also because of all the streaming services like Spotify,“ Mallory Hardesty (10) said. “I would definitely listen to the radio way more if there were more options. Like I do not wanna keep listening to Levitating by Dua Lipa. I promise I know that song word for word because they keep playing it.” The radio was a way for people to keep up with what was going on, whether it be local or worldwide. Using it to listen to music, news or sporting events. Nowadays we can find all these things on our phones and other devices. “If the radio was discontinued, I wouldn’t think too much of it because I could get the same songs on my phone; but when I listen to the radio I find myself discovering new songs. I think the radio is both outdated and not outdated. The [boombox] radio seems outdated because I haven’t seen one in a very long time. The car radios are not outdated because those are in pretty much every single car,” Megan Soeka (11) said.
Some say that the radio has a small range of variety. Hardesty pointed out that if more songs from different genres and time periods were played, she would listen to the radio more. “I feel like on the radio they should play more songs. I realized they started to play older songs from the beginning of the 2000s which I’m starting to like. It’s very few radio stations, if they did that more I would listen to the radio more,” Hardesty said. According to eMarketer, the at home speaker usage went up 10% in April of 2020. Despite all the radio has been through, Ryan Watson (9) believes that the radio can bring a comeback to modern-day streaming services. A few ways a comeback could be made is by sharing information about what is going on in the world and
including more variety in the stations. “I think that the death of the radio is almost inevitable, but there is a slight chance of saving it by putting things that the average human being likes, such as what is really going on in the world,” Watson said. Another reason to not listen to the radio would be its time relevance. “I think that the sort of people that listen to the radio a lot are the people in the age range of 50-80, and that people who occasionally listen to it are ages 20-40,” Watson said. Radio is used for music. It can as well also be used for distributing to the consumption of news media. People can get information on the weather, traffic and news. Even with radio built in the cars, phones are still used as aux. Once a phone is plugged in, the radio is no longer needed. “I learned more things about sports when my dad played the sports station in the car. The radio is a little repetitive, they play a lot of the same songs and the most popular ones. I think that would make me listen less because I want to hear new songs that I might end up liking,” Soeka said. Commercial ads that play on the radio can delay the number of songs listened to when commuting. This influences some to take charge and listen to streaming services which often offer a paid option for no ads. “There are so many different streaming services available where you don’t need to listen to ads,” Johnson said.
