Now, around 20-30 years later, during the golden age of our nation, we have unlocked different forms of entertainment where cinemas now not only show coloured films but also 3-Dimensional ones, radio dont come in a form of the big and bulky black box, they are now a software that can be downloaded though the net to whatever your handheld devices might be and played with just a push of a few buttons or rather touchscreen.
This is our local radio 91.3fm IPhone Download Application.
From radio91.3FM, this is what you get if you stream it live through the net.
This is MeRadio by our very own Mediacorp Pte Ltd.
From MeRadio, it allows you to browse through the lyrics of the song
currently playing and also show u the title, artist and the album name.
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Now what do all of the above show as time ages? Modernisation. Without it, evolution of technology, life would be as tedious as how our forefathers felt after the war, where everything needs to be done manually. However, the bad thing about modernisation is that people tend to rely on machines and technology so much that they become really lazy and take things for granted. There are alot of pros and cons to it, and if i am to list every single one of them, it will bore you out and slowly drift out of point, now we dont want that to happen do we?
The singaporean chinese used to use this metaphor to say how the past is the past and lets just move on, "the policeman last time wear short pants one lei" (direct translation). So during the past few decade, changes to life have be made so much easier. For instance, i am a radio listener, so if i am to go out carrying a big black thing hanging over my shoulder, how inconvenient is it going to be. If i am to change that into a handheld device that can be fitted into my pocket, that device can not only allow you to listen to the radio, it also allow you to surf the net, check your mails and make calls wherever, whenever you want, now thats called evolution in technology or preferbly IPhone.
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Just because listening to radio so convenient, alot of our fellow Singaporeans tune into the local radio station now. So, do they choose their radio station according to their taste or the crowd favourite? Lets take this 2 station for example, radio913 and 987fm. Both plays the latest english songs but have huge gap different in their amount of listeners and fans.
As you guys can see at the huge difference of listeners compared to each other. Now why's that? 2 radio station that plays the lastest english songs such a vast different amount in listeners. I might have found out afew reason why.
Radio913 have this weekly/monthly survey asking listeners to rate their songs. Personally, i've done the survey thrice and got irritated by their monthly request as i dont have the patience to do them. These survey will then decide what kind of music this radio station is going to play. The majority would love them but not everyone agrees to what's hot and what's not. So if listeners dont hear their favourite song playing on the FM soon, they are going to change station.
Maybe you guys might not know that both stations are owned by different companies. Radio913 is owned by SPH while 987fm is owned by MediaCorp. We all know that MediaCorp owns most of the radio station here is Singapore while SPH does printing services for the papers. From this, it shows that 987fm have a more radio background compared to Radio913 as SPH only owns 2 radio station.
Whatever it is, New Media might proved to be both useful and harmful to the radio society. Despite of the lesser crowd that tunes in to Radio913, I still find it doing everything that it can to increase its listeners and it is doing a great job. Less than 1.5thousand people joined the facebook page when I first LIKE it around. Now that it have reached 24 thousand plus, almost 24 times of the the statistic i got 4 months ago. Thats quite good for a 1-2 years old radio station.
* I support both stations by the way.. What station do you peeps listen to and tell me why you enjoy them, maybe i can join you as a listener..
Some interesting comparisons, but be careful to stay focused on the topic. It seemed that in the second half you were focusing more on comparing the 2 stations.
ReplyDeleteBesides radio using new media to interact with fans and listeners, what else does it do to engage listeners with new media?
What research did you do on the topic? Do share with us your links and references.
Also, please make the font bigger and use the scannable writing layout.
I think its kind of sweeping to say new media has killed the radio. Clearly radio is still active given that there are facebook pages promoting radio stations and also nowadays there is internet radio which is sort of an old media as it basically provides the same thing
ReplyDeleteI don't think that new media has killed the radio. People like one of my friends still listens to the radio on his phone because he wants to know what are the latest music. He uses the internet to do other things. The radio industry is still alive and kicking after all. And your reasoning for why more people listens to 98.7 is because the station generally is meant for the teenagers, which makes up the majority of Facebookers.
ReplyDeleteThe radio is still alive. Although a lot of things are being promoted on new media, the radio is still the best. They update us on almost everything we need to know first hand. New media is just basically to further elaborate on the topic aired on the radio I would say.
ReplyDeleteMost countries also still stay in touch with the radio while driving to keep themselves updated for the latest music.
newmediascapes: Ok.
ReplyDeleteAdeeb Ashraf Bin Mirzha Alam Arif: True, new media dint kill the radio. I did not agree with that statement as well.
ReplyDeleteGamerGeek: Yea new media didnt kill the radio. Radio913 and 987fm are both meant for teenagers. I still think people follow the majority flow whereby if they see 987fm have more ppl they will go with the crowd.
ReplyDeleteIsaac: Yea, i agree.
ReplyDeleteClearly New media did not kill the radio. For example, singer still need help from radio stations to promote their new albums and they can't really just depend on new media. Most of the people get to know new songs from the radio(just like me)and radio saves life by keeping the driver awake! So i don't agree to this.
ReplyDeletePersonally I find that Radio listening has been losing its popularity bit by bit. The reason why Im saying this is that, I think radios playing latest songs are facing competition from sites like youtube which nowadays shows in the background about which singer is releasing their new album on which day and has this convenient link to their hit songs and at the same time provides visual impacts instead of the just-audio spectrum that you gain from the radios. New media has so much power that it is tossing everything that it is compared with.
ReplyDeleteI think new media in this era, is indispensable.
I personally find that radio has become too commercialized over the years. Furthermore, I dislike the fact that radio DJs have to limit what they say to appease a certain target audience.
ReplyDeleteI don't think new media has killed radio per se, but has definitely downplayed its role over the years
I personally think that the number of people tuning in to traditional radio will drop over the years.
ReplyDeleteCase in point I have not tuned in to traditional radio stations for the past 2 years, instead I have been relying on internet radio stations such as 1FM & shoutcast to get my audiokicks.
People are still listening to the radio as there are some of people who prefer hearing two people talk instead of hearing someone sing all the time.Besides, radio are still being installed in cars isn't it, which means people will make use of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the radio is still relevant, but the radio services have to be updated in order to accomodate the rise in New Media. For example, incorporating radio as part of podcast in New Media.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that more features in the radio services with bring in a higher level of popularity. And that is precisely why radio services nowadays can be flexible in their incorporating of features and services to be able to make full use of New Media in order to sustain the popularity they had in the past.
For me, i will still listen to the radio as nowadays, there are still interest radio programs and interactions with listeners. Just that now, I may not listen to it that often. Radio too, can cover news and interviews. But we can say that new media is much more convenient for people nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI have seen DJ using facebook to keep listeners interacting, which has also shown great responses.
by yanpeng
ReplyDeleteI have not tuned in to radio myself for a year
ReplyDeleteBut im sure there would always be people listenning to radios, especially when you're bored of your own playlist and would like to hear some other songs the radio stations reccommend or perhaps just to hear a lovely human voice lifting your spirits - that was my radio motivation.
Radio stations also interact with the listeners with activities such as traffic updates, food reccommendations, health information, interviews with various experts based on feedback, call-ins and morning birthday prank calls. -your playlist cant provide. eileen
Most of us doesnt listen to radio anymore, its always MTV hits for new music. but radio isnt all about music,theres news traffic updates and like eileen said, call ins. so having radio stations keeping up with new media is really helpful for us say teenagers whos always on our mobile. that explains the free app available for downloads. but like e-media, ithink radio itself wouldnt be completelely remove, its just made easier with new media-Rozaidi
ReplyDeleteI don't really like listening to the radio, but I think that 98.7fm is better as they've more updated songs.
ReplyDeleteHowever, people that are listening to the radio might not be only looking out for music. They might be listening to the radio for urgent reports or weather information as well.