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Why Radios are Dead

NOTE: The cover story of the March 2005 issue of WIRED magazine is "The End of Radio," complete with a nice illustration of a bullet blowing through a radio. I beat them by five years!!! :-)

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First, a brief introduction to this... uh... "editorial."

For many years - I'd guess from about 2000 to Winter 2004 (when version 4.0 of the site came along) - I had this little section on my personal page about radios. Pretty random, huh? Over the years, it went through several different incarnations, but the gist of it remained the same.

Once I created the Editorials section, I thought, "Hey, why don't I put that weird thing about radios somewhere it would kind of make sense?" So I did. Anyway, here goes... from now on it's the original text that could be found on my page for, well, a while:

I think that stereos as we know them today are on their way out. Here's why:

Stereo Systems: Computers already play music CDs - just pop them into your CD-ROM drive - and some computer speakers are really good. Once you have a CD in your computer, you can "rip" them to your hard drive for later listening without the CD. Nifty new gadgets can even send music from your computer to your TV -- or, to many TVs! However, those devices don't stop there...

Portable CD Players: Regular old CD players can't last much longer. Instead, there are now portable MP3 players that synchronize with your computer. So, after you ripped your aforementioned CD to your hard drive and sent it off to a few TVs, you could take a little portable device, plug it in, and have your whole library ready to travel with you. The most popular example is the Apple iPod, which gives you capacity for up to 10,000 songs in a case that fits easily into your pocket.

Radios: Radios in their current incarnation might also leave us. XM Radio receives satellite signals for optimum reception, along with other handy features. Check out their web site for more information. There are also sites that let you listen to music in a radio-esque format, such as my favorite, MSN Radio. If you use Internet Explorer, it can even play in a small sidebar, which you can minimize for a larger viewing window.

Oh, and one more little addition to honor the creation of the Editorials section:

CDs in General: In a few years, fewer and fewer people will be buying CDs. First it was because of illegal file-sharing programs like Napster and KaZaA. Now, people are flocking to legal alternatives, such as the iTunes Music Store or MSN Music, where you can download songs for just 99 cents each.