Radio is Dead

Radio is dead to me since I discovered the podcast. I know I'm late to the party and that people have been listening to podcasts for years. Hek, Fanscape was doing podcasts 4 years ago - ironically I never listened to those. Poor Shane in my office spent hours upon hours putting those together and sadly he gave up after he realized that the amount of people who listened didn't equate to the amount of effort he put into making the podcast. And do you blame him when his own boss wasn't even listening???

My epiphany moment happened when KLSX 97.1 in Los Angeles went off the air. Or rather, when it switched formats from talk to disco/pop/top40/hiphop/sameas3otherstationsinLA. My commute during the past year had gone from 7 minutes to 27 minutes and I was too lazy to change out the discs in my 6 CD changer in my car. Then I discovered 97.1 and I became a talk radio junkie. My morning commute was suddenly made heavenly by listening to Adam Corolla. My drive home was made bearable by Tom Leykis. Every day was different which is something I need. I LOVE music, don't get me wrong, but I can't listen to the same CD over and over. I need new. I've always needed new. And thank god for Adam Corolla, he gave me new every single day.

Adam took over when Howard Stern went to satellite. I thought about getting satellite for my car but (refer back to the laziness comment) I could never get off my ass to get XM or Sirius installed. I've been a fan of Adam for many years, from his days as the guest character "Mr. Birchum" on LA's KROQ morning show, to his cable program with Jimmy Kimmel, "The Man Show" to his co-hosting of sextalk radio show, "Love Line." Adam has always made me laugh, probably because I've always identified with him because we both grew up around the same time here in LA. His references to life in LA's San Fernando Valley in the 70's and 80's hits home on so many levels.

Then, about 2 or 3 months ago I went on a business trip to New York and when I came back Adam and his crew were talking about their last show. "Wha Happened?" I cried! Then I heard Tom Leykis talking about the same thing that afternoon. I soon found out, CBS Radio, owners of KLSX had decided to dump the talk radio format and switch to pop music. And I was crushed. The first Monday after they went off the air I got in my car and searched the dial. I tried KROQ again, and suddenly Kevin and Bean, the morning show hosts weren't as funny as I remember them being. They once held a special place in my heart, but they just didn't make me laugh any more. Much like Mark & Brian on KLOS had made my childhood (ages 10 - 15) so enjoyable but then they seemed boring after I discovered Kevin and Bean. So I tried NPR. I caught up on world events, heard a few good tunes on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" show, but overall I was bored. So I started listening to CDs again. But after about 3 weeks I found myself tuning out radio and music all together and drifting in and out of daydreams as I drove.

Every day I'd say to myself, as soon as I get in the office, I'm going to look up Adam's website. I know he said he'd do podcasts, but not sure if he has. Then I'd get into the office, look at my emails, get distracted, and forget to look him up. As I'd get in my car to go home, I'd curse myself for forgetting to look for Adam's podcasts.

Finally, one day, after yet another painful commute, I found Adam's website and saw that he'd been doing podcasts for weeks and he'd been interviewing people like Seth McFarlane. I listened on my computer and was astonished. It was Adam. 100% Adam. No commercials. No sidekicks. No censorship. Just Adam, sitting in his house, talking to one person but mostly doing all the talking. And it was glorious.

Then I fired up my iTunes and low and behold, Adam was in the Top 10 podcast list. Turns out in just the span of a few weeks, he'd become one of the most downloaded podcasts on the Internet. I believe that Seth McFarlane interview alone has been downloaded over 1 million times.

I connected my iPhone to my computer, hit "download all" on the Adam Carolla podcast button on iTunes and within a few minutes I had over 30 Adam Carolla podcasts sitting on my iPhone. I couldn't wait to drive home and test it out.

Needless to say, for the past 3 weeks, I've been listening to Adam in all his glory on my way to work and on my way home. I even listen to him as I hike through the neighborhood with my son every morning.

If you are a radio station, how can you compete with this? It's free. Much like a record store has trouble competing with music that is free, radio is in trouble.

Oh, there is time. Radio's death isn't going to happen today or tomorrow. They probably have a couple more years. Recorded music was the first victim of the digital age, newspaper/magazine publishing is next, radio will follow and then film/television/video games after that. The latter will hopefully learn from the mistakes of the others and figure out a solution.

For the moment I'm being selfish. I hate driving. Can't stand it. But the Adam Carolla podcast has made that feat bearable - actually enjoyable.

Hooray for the Podcast!