Harker Research: Will iHeartRadio Kill Radio?

"Is iHeartRadio an apocalyptic doomsday machine that will ultimately destroy broadcast radio as we know it?" That's the question posed by Harker Research on their Radio InSights blog. "Or is iHeartRadio a gateway to radio’s salvation, radio’s best chance to remain relevant in a digital world?" continues the start of the new posting from Richard Harker and Glenda Shrader Bos. "The rate at which Clear Channel is signing up new radio groups suggests that many believe the latter." Harker Research goes on to ask if "iHeartRadio really the answer?" and then explaining: "Broadcast radio’s greatest strength is a station's strong link to its community. Radio’s local link is the medium’s most potent weapon in the battle for a listener’s heart and soul. That personal connection between a listener and her radio station is something that national radio (both digital and analog) fails to understand, and can’t duplicate. Yet iHeartRadio’s very essence diminishes radio’s local roots." Harker writes, "The service neuters local radio, homogenizing radio into interchangeable undifferentiated lumps of similarly formatted radio stations." But is that loss of localization just a perception or an oberved reality? We're told, "Too often one hears the same national playlists, and the same national personalities talking about the same national contests with the same national promos. The growing interchangeability of stations across the country is all that more apparent with the convenience of iHeartRadio. A listener is just a couple clicks away from hearing the same thing on dozens of stations." There's a lot more to this article. Read it here.