50% Of AM/FM Stations Will Be Gone In 10 Years, Says Top Analyst
Half of all AM/FM broadcast stations will disappear by 2024, according to a new report from top radio analyst Gordon Borrell. The reason? The rise of the so called "digital dashboard" and more choices for in-car listening. “There are other means of sending out audio – you won’t need an FCC license,” says Borrell.
“That was one of the toughest predictions to make,” Borrell told RAIN News.
"There could be some economics in play that will allow some of these stations to continue to broadcast. there aren’t many variable costs. So a tiny AM station affiliated with a church could stay in business. It doesn’t take much money to run a station like that," he continued. "The key thing is that as the listening audience gets smaller, or faces more competition, it coagulate around the most known and powerful stations. There are 36 stations in my market. Probably, only five of them are generally recognized.”
I remember a similar prediction in regards to TV when Youtube launched… Digital stations are a much too new phenomenon to call it right now.
ya, sure. people have been predicting the death of radio for 80+ years now. spotify, pandora, and satellite radio have no local presence, which is why traditional radio is still listened to more than all other music services combined during drive time, and that’s when radio makes most of its money. everyone can already easily listen to pandora and spotify in their car via a smart phone. that means predicting how much that may increase when those services are part of a car’s dashboard is a total crap shoot. the difference could be quite minimal.