Traditional radio is bleeding, thanks to a sunken advertising market and a myriad of entertainment options. 'Distractions' like mobile phones are also draining listening hours.
But some of the downfall hype is simply overblown. Just ask any artist benefiting from big-station spins, or any of the millions of listeners lured by the total simplicity of the experience.
But many of these same listeners will complain about babbling deejays, repetitive playlists, long commercial breaks, and spotty station selection. The solution, according to a group of entrepreneurs behind Jelli (jelli.net), is to meld some of the interactivity and networking of the internet with big station reach.
The concept, launching Wednesday, allows users to submit songs for rotation on traditional frequencies - in real time, with real interactivity.
The crowdsourcing-meets-terrestrial idea takes request-driven radio to the extreme, and attempts to create a completely democratic playlist.
"We were
intrigued by the radio industry, just in terms of its reach and scale, but it's in
decline and less relevant than ever before," cofounder and CEO
Michael Dougherty told Digital Music News on Tuesday. The other cofounder is COO/CTO
Jateen Parekh.
The action also streams online, where the hotbed of voting, commenting, and networking happens. And the first station to experiment? That would be CBS Radio-owned Live105 ( 105.3 FM KITS) in San Francisco, and Dougherty pointed to more " big statons in big cities" ahead.
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