analog channel

FM radio, a broadcast channel coming from an analogue era, has thus far shown resilience to the intense onslaught of digital media. Contrast that with the fate of analogue television and print which have succumbed spectacularly to the digital beast. After all, traditional TV viewers have now become multichannel media users. As a result, cable and satellite TV are the big losers. In fact, results from a recent US study indicated that 61 percent of young adults rank online streaming services as the main way they watch TV (Christiane Cordero, CBS Minnesota). At the same time, the print media has also been heavily disrupted by digital media. In fact, news has now gone primarily online. For that reason most major media companies have changed their business models to accommodate consumer preference for digital content (Forbes Communications Council). For traditional television and print media the battle against digital media has largely been lost. But what is it about FM radio? Surely, as radio made its first broadcast in 1906, the sequence of disruptive technology should have made it absolute a long time ago? But not so – here’s why…