Satellite radio, a form of broadcast radio that emerged
in the 1990's, provides listeners with a captivating radio experience. Satellite
radio is a digital radio signal that is broadcasted using a communications
satellite. Older radio broadcasting stations are composed of only FM and AM
channels intertwined with commercial advertisements, whereas, satellite radio
provides a much larger variety of stations that range from music to comedy,
with a notable smaller amount of commercials. Since the launch of the SirusXM
radio, the largest satellite broadcasting radio company in the United States
and Canada, millions of people have obtained subscriptions to the company to
become a part of the intriguing experience. Despite the government limiting the
US to only to one satellite radio program in SirusXM, new cars are being
equipped with satellite radio receivers, giving people more access to buy it.
Satellite radio offers wide variety of stations that can be heard around the US unlike older radio broadcasting
Although traditional radio offers its channels for free, more people are paying for the satellite subscription each year. Traditional radio offers far fewer channels than satellite radio, which has convinced people to willingly pay for more variety. There are still more people that listen to traditional radio, but as society is going the digital route, that number will change in the future. According to a poll conducted in 2011, which covered a three year span from 2009 to 2011, the number of people subscribed to SirusXM has grown from 18.9 million in 2009 to 21.9 million in 2011. Based on the technological shift society has taken over the past couple of years, the number of subscribers will increase, putting traditional radio in jeopardy of being competitive. Even though satellite radio offers a wider variety of channels, it also allows listeners to listen to their favorite channel anywhere, despite their location. Traditional radio stations are based on a particular area. A radio station broadcasted in Baltimore will not be accessible on the same frequency in a different city, such as Atlanta. This technological advancement gives satellite radio a big advantage over traditional radio.
Satellite
radio is mostly commercial free
Traditional radio has been a platform for businesses
to advertise its products through the radio airwaves. All radio stations on
FM/AM frequency have commercials incorporated within because the advertising
helps them afford to stay on air since they receive no fee from subscriptions. Since
satellite radio funds itself through subscription fees, it has no need to flood
their stations with sponsors unless warranted. Fewer commercials allow the
stations to focus on providing certain types of music to listeners instead
focusing on when to play an advertisement. This is beneficial to the listeners
as well as they get to solely enjoy the music continuously without any
commercial interruption.
More
freedom is allowed on satellite radio compared to traditional radio
Howard Stern, an outspoken radio personality, has
made his radio station transition from traditonal radio to satellite radio. Howard Stern is known for is obscenity and profanity and satellite radio allows
him to speak his mind freely. Stern is able to do this due to the fact that F.C.C.,
the Federal Communications Commission, has no jurisdiction over satellite radio.
After being fined many times by the F.C.C., who regulates interstate and
international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable,
Stern and other provocative radio personalities felt the need to make the move
over to satellite radio. Traditional radio doesn’t allow much freedom of speech
due to the wide variety of people listening to it, such as children. The F.C.C.
does not want to expose children to inappropriate content and if people want to
listen to more racy content, they must pay for it on satellite radio.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteZuby’s post is constructed well. The headline does tell the reader something that they did not know before they begin to read. He begins by writing, “Satellite Radio’s Commercial Free Programming”, which informs the reader that he will be speaking about satellite radio. He begins by informing the audience of when the satellite radio emerged and how it is effective in its use. He then goes to explain how satellite radio offers more station variety than that of a regular AM or FM radio and also how there are millions of people that subscribe to satellite radio because of the variety. Satellite radio is mostly commercial free and also allows the radio hosts to speak their mind freely on the air. He has links to support his information as to how many people subscribed to the radio from 2009-2011 and how Howard Stern made a transition from regular radio to satellite radio in order to speak his mind. The main point of Zuby’s work that relates to the readers would be the widespread public adoption of radio because satellite radio can be listened to by anyone around the country. He says that a traditional station in Baltimore is not accessible to the people in Atlanta. With satellite radio you can listen to stations from around the country no matter where you are. For this post I would add the types of stations that satellite radio has as well as the future of traditional radio stations because satellite radio’s audience is growing. I say this because there could be someone that does not have their favorite genre of music on the satellite radio at all. I would try to find some type of statistics that show the audience of satellite radio and traditional radio’s numbers.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the headline is informative and clear enough to tell me the main point of the whole article. However, there is a spell mistake in headline of the word “commercial”.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the structure is significantly clear for readers to understand the main points. The article is divided into four parts: introduction and 3 parts of details related to the headline: Commercial free programming, wide variety of stations, and freedom of speech are the three main factors that lead to satellite radio’s prevalence nowadays. Besides, the author has used sub-titles, which improves the logical part of the article.
Furthermore, the evidence of this article is persuasive because most of the links explain the author’s points well. However, I think it would be better if the author could change the hyperlink from “the 1990’s” to “a captivating radio experience” in the same sentence, because the link itself explains “advantages of using a satellite radio system”, not the time. Besides, I will add a link talking about how the F.C.C regulates communications by radio. (http://www.oswego.edu/~messere/RadioReg.pdf) And for the third paragraph, I will provide more information about the cost of Sirius Radio and let readers know how much they should spend if they do not want commercials. (http://www.siriusxm.com/ourmostpopularpackages-sirius)
Overall, the author has done a good job!
Zuby's post was excellent! Starting with the title, it was very explanatory. It addressed the main point of the post (satellite radio) and reasons why it has become prevalent over traditional radio in recent years. I knew it had become prevalent but didn't know the reasons why and the headline provided me that information.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the overall structure of the post Zuby did a great job at formatting the post making it easy for the reader to read and understand. He started with a brief overview of the history of satellite radio and then broke his 3 reasons into 3 separate subheadings which made it easy for the reader to follow along. His links supported his explanations and provided credibility to his opinions.
Something I would have added to this post would have been why people are willing to sacrifice subscription fees for commercial free radio. Also whether or not satellite radio attracts a casual radio listener who only listens to the radio in the car. If not what are ways that satellite radio can attract the casual radio listener?
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ReplyDelete