I've grown frustrated with local radio, to be precise, I'm tired of hearing "live and local" when it only adds up to 4 hours of the day. Now while that is one station, I'm not just ripping on them, it's almost this entire market. Hence the comparison chart below:
Radio vs. I-pod

Radio: Plays music, although not just what I want to hear.
I-pod: Plays only music I want to hear.

Radio: Has 14 minute per hour (or more) commercial breaks.
I-pod: No commercial breaks (unless you're an A.E., and listen to spot reels all day)

Radio: Has live up to the date info 4 hours per day
I-pod: Has no live info at all.

So far, I-pod beats radio 2 out of 3, 3 out of 3 for 20 hours a day.
Feel free to add to the list, either side.
The times are approximate, but you get the idea.
What's the point of listening when there's nobody there?
Radio used to be the place you went to when anything happened, you didn't have to wait for the EAS system to go off in the middle of a voice tracked show to let you know to go to the basement.
Fortunately the TV stations are still staffed, otherwise there'd be no local coverage at all, although most people don't have mobile DTV's, so there's definitely a lot missing that used to be on the dial.
I don't understand why local stations like WION or WCSR can staff live people and serve their audience in much smaller ponds, yet that's just impossible in a market that is much more lucrative?
Won't this approach just hasten the death of radio? The government wants spectrum, and that FM band is a big juicy chunk of spectrum, once the audience is gone.
My personal vote is that it's time to take a couple of steps "backward" big radio gurus, and remember, don't forget your roots, after all you're playing to an audience.

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You're never too old to learn something stupid.

i listen to both, i have my ipods vacant FM Station on preset

When you say "ipod," are you talking about an mp3 player, a smartphone or tablet?

If it's a music player, then the music is music you've bought and transferred or downloaded (legally or illegally) and transferred. Music players are old stuff, a generation or two previous. I guess they still make them but they don't sell many of them. Music players are almost as obsolete as terrestrial radio.

As far as playing the music YOU want, broadcast radio will never be able to do that. There are too many people with too many preferences of their own. It used to be the PDs job to play music that was close enough to what you want and not objectionable enough to make you tune out. If you were lucky, a couple of times an hour, you'd hear something you wanted. If the PD did his job right, the rest of the time you'd hear something you didn't mind too much (but it was something somebody else wanted to hear).

Music players are passe because it is too expensive and too much trouble for most people to stock their own music library. However, Internet radio - including streaming stations and on-demand services like Pandora - offer enough options that you can find pretty much what you want without going to the trouble of building your own library.

By the way iPod should be capitalized. It is Apple's trade-mark and one brand of music player. There are a lot of others out there. Many of them, IMHO, better. Every time I see some write "iSomething," I wonder if they are really using an Apple product or if they just drank some of Steve Job's Kool-Aid (a brand of powered drink mix).

Radio is not the product. Radio is the distribution system. If you listen to Whittle on the Internet, it's still Whittle. Someday they may get rid of the rusty towers but Whittle can stay in business via the mobile Internet.

iPhones suck as "media phones." Get an Android phone.

It's pretty obvious that I'm referring to a music player, if I called it a "cassette deck" would that make you feel better?
(those are even older, how about 8-track?) let's just all accept i-pod (since I didn't capitalize it) as a term for said generic music player.
Thank you for pointing out that radio has to play more than just I want, the thread is not about that, it's about radio becoming just another background music source, albeit it with commercials.
How can you diferentiate between radio and said i-pod (generic term for music player remember?)
Radio is indeed the product, not just a distribution system, although that seems to be what it is morphing into sadly.
If it were not a product, radio stations would devote no time to promotion, personalities, and format, and instead just play music and commercials. (which I'm pointing out is where it seems to be in this market).
I believe that the opinion that towers will go away and only the internet will be necessary in the near future is ridiculous, although I would not be surprised if the FCC doesn't impose a spectrum saving move to a digital modulation format of some kind to shrink the band and use it for another purpose in the near future.
So again, a little higher fidelity, but just an i-pod (generic term for music player remember?) still.
There's a BIG difference between a live person at the board letting us know traffic, weather, news, and all the other info, and a voice tracked the day before i-pod (generic term for music player remember?) broadcast that has no more value than just listening to recorded media. (media not referring to news people, just another way of referring to personal recordings rather than someones commercial i-pod ((generic term for music player remember?)).

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You're never too old to learn something stupid.

I agree with your assessment of terrestrial radio.

(Sorry, with or without the capital "P," iPod is not a generic term and Apple has bunches of lawyers making sure it does not become one.)

Question is: How many people are willing to go to the time, trouble and expense of building a music library and putting it into an electronic device of some kind?

I strongly suspect, not many.

Easier to find an Internet radio station - of tens of thousands of them out there - that reflects what you want to hear and does all the work for you. Even better to use a service like Pandora or Last.FM which learns what you like and plays it for you and even helps you discover stuff you probably will like. This latter is a little more work but may be most customized to your own tastes.

SmartPhones, unlike mp3 players, also have GPS devices and can provide traffic alerts customized for your route (along with driving directions, maps and locations). the iPhone does everything the iPod does and much, much more. Same for all other Smartphones compared to mp3 players. In addition to customized traffic, you can get customized news and customized alerts. Everything that live, local radio once offered - and is still supposed to offer.

Agreed.
Have to go underground now to hide from the Apple cops.

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You're never too old to learn something stupid.

I like Sirius/XM radio myself, although the talk/comedy stations on there are getting more and more commercials. I think the music stations on satellite radio are still commercial free, but I'm not sure. I like podcasts a lot too. Most are free and there are a lot of good ones. People like Adam Carolla can get decent guests and he has minimal commercials. If I want local news, sports and weather I turn to TV or websites. Local radio has too many commercials and too many of them are either voice tracked or they have a syndicated show like Bob and Tom, so they don't have to hire a live jock. If I want music I'll pop in a CD or listen via i-tunes. Local radio has gone downhill so much due to consolidations and staff cuts.

I've lost track of the exact number, but I've got thousands of mp3s on my player (smartphone), with many play lists (Alternative, Oldies, Motown, Classic Rock, Classical, 70s/80s, etc.). The audio quality is excellent, for the most part.

But I still like to listen to the radio. I listen to The Impact and The Edge for new music, and possible additions to my lists. I also like listening to WOAP, even though I already have most of their library on my player. I like how the station SOUNDS on the AM car radio.

I don't have Sirius/XM, but I do have several channels I created and like on Pandora, and that also gives me some choices for new music.

I have about 8GB of music on my i-tunes but I'm old school. I still like having physical CDs (about 500), due to the liner notes/art work and having them all organized on my shelves. Sometimes WJIM-AM and WILS-AM are decent sources for local news in Lansing. They both have local, live hosts for morning shows.

Geez, I forgot about the CDs. Yeah, I like them for the same reasons you do. Along with vinyl too of course, though you can't play a vinyl album in the car (unless you have a car like Laurel and Hardy's...).

- An iPod never soothed your fears when a tornado leveled your neighborhood
- An internet stream never volunteered its time and money for your local community
- A satellite radio station never brought your favorite music artist to your town
- A mobile phone never tossed you a free T-shirt at a concert
- You never call Apple to play a game or request a song or enter a contest
- Internet radio never helped you find your way around an accident on the freeway and never helped you know what to wear to work or school. It never made you smile or cry or feel like you're a part of an extended family, singing along to the same tune and laughing along to the same jokes.

The magic of local radio is not that we play the same songs our competitors do, but that we do everything else they can't.

The thread wasn't about the name of portable music devices, it wasn't about your favorite version of a portable music device, it was about radio as compared to those devices.
Beerman, you got the concept, but, local radio does not supply those things anymore, at least in Lansing on the FM dial. The "magic" has fizzled, when the only time you have a station staffed is 4 hours a day, "the we do everything else they can't" has gone out the window. This is why I started the comparison in the first place. If you want to do everything they can't, add some human beings to the staff that aren't salespeople. (nothing wrong with salespeople, but they need something to sell).

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You're never too old to learn something stupid.

There are several smartphone apps that provide weather alerts. Their purpose is not to sooth fears but to scare you enough to get your butt to a safe place. And if my neighborhood is leveled, I don't need "now, now, there, there" afterwards from some DJ. I want government agencies and my insurance company out doing the jobs I've paid them for.

Radio stations don't volunteer time and money. They do promotion. One way they promote themselves is to associate the station with what other people are doing.

They do concerts to make money (and promote the station).

They toss out a few t-shirts to get everybody else to buy t-shirts (and promote the station).

There are also several apps that will play the song you like on demand. No need to call anybody.

Smartphone apps and GPS devices will tell you about an accident immediately (no waiting for traffic on the 1s, the 2s or whatever), they will tell you about the accident on your route and not about one on the other side of town. And they will never run out of time and not get around to the accident which affects you. Besides, during rush hours when there is a lot of activity, radio traffic reports seldom devote time to alternate routes.

When was the last time you heard local radio do the kinds of things you describe? Maybe you haven't been listening lately. Or maybe you've been drinking NAB Kool-Aid.

Radio in the 50s, 60s and 70s did have some advantages over new media - and over today's radio. New media beat heck out of today's radio.

FredLeonard - That's because there's very few talented broadcasters nowadays. It is very top-heavy with a few great syndicated voices and few quality local voices.

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There are talented people out there but they don't go into radio. Younger people don't listen to radio - don't grow up involved in it and excited by it. The pay is terrible and opportunities few or non-existent. Radio no longer has a farm system, small market stations where talent can be grown and developed. Talent is only potential; broadcasting is a skill that must be learned and perfected. And those small market stations which once nurtured aspiring talent are now automated and all syndicated, all the time.

Radio is like long distance passenger trains. Nostalgic for a few but no longer relevant to most.