Radio's Declared Victory Over Satellite

This is what's wrong with terrestrial radio. Their leaders have lost focus on what's important. Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey mocked the satellite industry at a UBS conference saying it would have been cheaper to put toasters in cars. Many radio broadcasters let their egos get in the way when it comes to satellite radio. Satellite is not their real competition -- the loss of the next generation to the mobile Internet is. And some satellite operators are trash talking radio as well. Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin's disingenuous comment that he'd love to see terrestrial radio's revenue up by double digits is the same thing from the other side. Even in the media business you can't declare "mission accomplished" (remember what happened the last time someone did that publicly?). NAB's President David Rehr is trying to reposition terrestrial radio as local radio and that would be all well and good if the stations actually got more local. More slogans. No substantive changes. Can't radio executives see that they're fighting the wrong fight? Even sending in more troops (if you'll pardon the analogy) won't be able to stop the rebel uprising of YouTube, MySpace, iPods, smart phones, peer-to-peer downloading and the entire Internet. So let's appoint a terrestrial radio study group. Let's see if they can come up with an exit strategy that will save face for media consolidators who thought "shock and awe" would be enough to win the day in this digital age. As on the national and international stage, media consolidators just can't admit they were wrong.