Radio: Listening to HealthyLife.Net is Part of What Everyone is Doing

by Debbi Dachinger

It's probably not news to you that traditional FM radio is dying out at an increasing rate. This trend has been taking place for the last two decades thanks to a string of events that have set us up for a brave new world of streaming Internet radio.

The demise of radio can be traced back to the 1990s. Before 1992, a company could not own more than two stations per market, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 completely took the shackles off ownership. Clear Channel went on a buying spree, purchasing more than 70 other media companies, plus individual stations. It now owns 850 radio stations in the U.S.

This caused a switch from locally-driven programming to corporate-directed programming. In the old days, the program manager of the station decided what was played. A smart Program Manager knew their local area and played what the area liked or was open to hearing. Now, that's no longer allowed. Playlists come from corporate HQ and there is no deviation from it.

The result is listeners are switching off in a big way. This past April, the radio business got its first wakeup call: Internet Radio is now the largest radio station in Los Angeles. L.A., the city of so many aspiring artists, the city with more recording studios and music stores than upermarkets, the city with radio stations that gave us super DJs like Ryan Seacrest and the now deceased Casey Kasem.

But a survey by Media Audit estimated that 1.9 million people in Los Angeles listened to  Internet Radio between September and October of 2011 while Seacrest's station, KIIS-FM, had 1.4 million listeners during the same time period. Now in 2015 Internet Radio has grown even greater.

Internet Radio is doing a good job of getting into new cars. Many of the major car manufacturers offer Internet Radio as part of its in-dash system. These are usually sold as extras, and are available through your browser, on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. For living room use, HealthyLife.net and Pandora can be found in Samsung Internet@TV sets, Sony TVs and Blu-ray players, Roku, Sonos, TiVo and LG Blu-ray decks.

If you're tuning in to HealthyLife.net it's because our programming is original, globally available and has content that listeners desire to hear. Let us know how you like what we're doing and what you are enjoying about the station and our hosts. We are listening!

Listen to Debbi Dachinger on "Dare to Dream" Radio, Wednesday's at 11 AM PT in

HealthyLife.net http://deborahdachinger.com/