For those who haven't been reading this blog for that long I've made a point of keeping track of a Radio Station named My 92.5 (a.k.a. KGBY in Sacramento) which recently switched formats (in several ways).

Here's a quote from my original post on December 26th of last year...

When I was a kid I spent a lot of summers in Sacramento, CA and one of my favorite radio stations was Y92 a.k.a. KGBY Sacramento (Yes, I liked Soft Rock as a kid, sue me).  This morning, as I headed home at 6am, I got to hear Y92 go off the air for the last time as it switched formats and was replaced by My925 FM moving from "Adult Contemporary" to "Adult Hits" (Goodbye Elton John, Hello Foo Fighters).

Though the music change was relevant what was even more interesting to me was the station, which had kept essentially the same radio personalities on the air for the last 15+ years, was switching to a completely automated "DJ-less" format.  Here's one more quote from that original post...

The actual station itself is equally unimpressive with songs being played one after the other with a voice that sounds a lot like the lady you get when you dial a disconnected number announcing the title and artist after each song.

I'd wanted to check in once every few months but...to be honest...I forgot so its been about 7 months since my initial post.  It might have been longer if not for this post by Jeff Jarvis that reminded me of the situation.  Mr Jarvis says...

My most striking realization since getting my iPhone (love it, thanks for asking) is that radio is doomed. Pandora is a wonder, creating my own radio station, live and on the fly without need for a broadcast tower.

Now turning back to My 92.5 for a second you should know things aren't going well for them.  They've shed about 1/3rd of their existing audience since going "DJ-less" which is nothing short of a disaster.  On that point they've actually been forced to backtrack by employing a live morning team just to stay alive in the time slot (albeit a less experienced and almost certainly cheaper morning team than they had before)

This got me to thinking about what exactly radio meant in its hey day.  A friend of mine who is older suggested I watch the first season of a show called WKRP and to his credit it opened my eyes to a lot of things.

I think the radio industry ran into a situation that many publicly held companies have to suffer through in that they were still making profits but those profits weren't growing so the stock market started exerting pressure.  This led to a bunch of cost cutting measures which did more harm than good.  As far as I can tell, DJ-less radio is a disaster in every market its been tried and the reason for that is because radio was as much about personalities and culture as it was about music. 

So the radio industry actually killed off their biggest asset in a mad dash to cut costs. 

Los Angeles radio proves this point in many ways.  Ryan Seacrest for example has a huge audience almost entirely built from young people (who supposedly don't listen to the radio).  So Radio, as it was in the past, actually appeals to kids. 

This is where I think services like Pandora.com (which creates an automated radio station based on user preferences) miss out.  They're imitating the business model that's failed for radio.  It seems that, if people are going to listen to automated music, they'll just turn to their iPod where they can control the music themselves. 

Now for the record, I think Pandora will succeed to the point that they'll stay in business.  Doing that sort of thing over the Internet is so cheap that they're almost guaranteed some level of success.  But they won't make the same impact as Radio did in its successful years and they certainly won't replace radio in markets where quality DJs are still pulling in big audiences. 

Addendum (To a Post That's Already Too Long): I sort of used Mr. Jarvis' post as a jumping off point for the post I wanted to make but the more I thought about it the more I felt guilty for not at least addressing the point he was making (which is that radio should be pushed over IP Networks and not broadcast using traditional towers).  So here it is, in the near term, that's just idiotic.  Why would we replace a system that's working and push all that bandwidth eating traffic onto already over taxed networks?  The Telecom companies already complain about the amount of traffic being pushed over their network and Cell. Phone companies (though they try to hide it) seem terrified of wide spread adoption of 3g technologies.  I don't know what on earth he's thinking. 

Which is why I took a small quote from his post and ran in a completely different direction with it. 

To say it up front, I'd be more comfortable if the award in question was a little more...how shall we say...personality oriented.  That said, I really like Brigitte Dale which is why I'm happy about any recognition even if that recognition comes in the form of  Playboy's Hot Female Bloggers poll. 

The story behind my being such a big fan starts with something I'm a little ashamed of.  I...to a certain extent...enjoy entertainment news.  There, I said it.

Anyway, a couple years ago one of the sites I visit started featuring her videos on a daily basis.  At first, to be honest, they were a little rough.  Ok, a lot rough.  But fairly quickly she hit her stride and she's only gotten better since.  I personally think she's one of the top 3 video based talents on the web right now. 

By the end of her run on that site she had even inspired me to participate in the comments section which is unheard of. 

Which is why I've always kind of resented her lack of celebrity on the web.  To my eyes the explanation for that lies in her choice of topic.  She chose to cover a topic she's interested in (entertainment) as opposed to covering Tech (which is how pretty girls get big audiences on the Internet). 

To see what I mean, check out the chart below (courtesy of Compete.com) which compares her to two other prominent female tech vloggers...or vbloggers...or video bloggers...Oh whatever...

Now I'm not saying the other ladies here aren't talented but they certainly aren't more talented so the vast difference here definitely tell us something.  Just to hammer the point home I'd point out she even ranks below one fairly "no talent" man, namely me...

Look, seriously, joking aside I like to think I add something to the lives of people who come here.   I try at very least.  But lets be honest, I'm no entertainer.  The fact that I'd be above someone with honest to God talent is nothing short of obscene. 

Which leads us to the real question here of what exactly this teaches us.  To me, I think there's a lesson here and I think its an unpleasant one.  Some times, you have to sell out. 

Warning: Before I go further I have to point out the rest of this article was written by "Harsh Tom".  You know, the Tom that tells it like it is even though it will probably offend people.  I don't like him, you don't like him, but this is no doubt a job for him.  That said...

Look, I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, but the great majority of pretty girls doing tech related video couldn't care less about the topic itself.  If you think for one second that Amanda Congdon has a legitimate interest in technology (beyond its ability to make her famous) than you're being naive.  Pretty Girls who want to get noticed on the web talk tech because its a field filled with (mostly) guys and guys eat that up.

We all want hope and tech guys see a beautiful woman who seems to love video games as much as they do and it gives them hope.  Hope that, despite what real life has taught them, there are girls out there who love video games as much as they do.  Girls who'd rather stay at home and watch Halo than being taken out on a Saturday night.

(I'm sure a few girls like that do in fact exist but I've never met them)

Which is why pretty girls talk tech to get traffic and it works.

Brigitte Dale has more talent than most (if not all) of the aforementioned girls and, according to the voters of Playboy, is better looking to boot.  But she covered what she was interested in and didn't sell out which got her burned for the trouble (even though that's the advice everyone gives you when you start blogging). 

Just recently Ms. Dale has said that some big things are happening for her and I honestly hope that's true.  If/When that happens I'll happily revisit this topic.  But right now I can't help but feel this is one of those places where life just screws a person for doing the right thing.