The Gathering Storm is my look at the future of internet audio and the opportunity and threat it presents to broadcast radio. It started off by splitting the comparison between the two media into three parts – output, delivery method, and content. In the first column, I covered how internet audio, while not quite there yet, is approaching the quality of broadcast radio. In last week’s column, I explained that the delivery method of internet radio is improving every day – to the point where it may be equal or superior to broadcast radio in a few years.

So that leaves us with content, or the input part of delivering audio. As I explained last week, even with internet audio gaining, radio still has quite the ingrained advantage. It will take years for internet audio to approach the ease of use of radio – and even with the development of 4G and WiMax, wireless internet in cars is still going to take many years before it even approaches the penetration of radio. Even then, wireless internet will not replace radio in cars. I doubt car manufacturers will be pulling out radios to make room for wireless internet when radio is so common and free.

All of this does not mean that radio should not be concerned, however. This storm will be bigger than the iPod or the CD player or the cassette deck. Those forms of entertainment require planning, and they aren’t updated unless the listener thinks about it. Unless you remember to rip more music to your iPod or bring out a new CD, those options will remain the same. Internet audio is like radio in that the listener is presented with a multitude of changing options without even lifting a finger.

The CW had a press conference for its new show "Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll" - another crappy reality talent search show.  That's a little funny on its own - but it gets a lot better:

 --- "Dolls" creator Robin Antin insisted that the program -- a talent-search show for a new member of the chart-topping pop group -- was "inspiring to women" with its message to "find your inner doll," adding that getting dressed up like a doll is "like, great for women."

... 

And then all hell broke loose:

"My daughter's almost 17. . . . She just sees this all as, like, a giant step back for women. Why should young girls aspire to dress up like skanks and sing, 'Don't you wish your [girlfriend] was hot like me?' " inquired one critic.

Ron Fair, another executive producer on the reality series and chairman of Geffen Records, took that question. "It's a philosophical question. Not to go into Jean-Paul Sartre here for a second" -- I swear. He really did say that.

Anyway, back to his response:

"Not to go into Jean-Paul Sartre here for a second, but there's a lid for every pot. It's very simple. There's a lid for every pot."

... 

By now, critics were alternately foaming at the mouth and laughing at McG (the exec producer). McG does not like to be laughed at.

"And I don't think you answered it, either," a critic shot back. "In no way did I say I don't find the Pussycat Dolls entertaining. I think hot girls are tremendous. I'm just totally baffled at how you get from 'Dontcha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?' to celebrating women."

McG jumped back in: "Truth be told, it's just saying, 'Don't cha wish your girlfriend could be free and comfortable in her own skin and do her own thing like me?' "

Critics began to boo.

----

I love the pomposity of entertainment people.  And the ability of TV critics to be so bored with press conferences that they will say things like "I think hot girls are tremendous."

If you haven't noticed, "The Wire" is a critically acclaimed but somewhat ignored TV show on HBO.  If you're not watching it, you are both not alone and horribly misguided.  On a scale of 1 to 100, The Wire is a 98, Arrested Development is an 82, Sports Night is a 70 and just about everything else is less than a 50.  (This includes: The Sopranos, The West Wing, Seinfeld, and the biggest gainer on the charts - 30 Rock.  -- 30 Rock might just be the funniest show on TV right now.)  Maybe I'll put The Office, Friday Night Lights and the Colbert Report in the 50s, but nothing other than the above-mentioned three above 60.

 Anyhow, if you have not seen the first four seasons of The Wire, DO SO NOW!!  No show has done more to explain the current economic, criminal and educational situation our country is in right now.  The first three seasons are on DVD.  The fourth is available On Demand through many cable operators and will be on DVD soon.  The fifth and final season will be airing sometime next year.

I could go on, but I actually have a ton of work to do.  The original purpose - to point you to this interview with David Simon, where he talks about what he actually means to say with the characters and plotlines, as well as revealing his political leanings (as if you hadn't guessed) and more - WARNING:  THERE ARE MULTIPLE SPOILERS INVOVLED!! Do not read this if you haven't finished season four - and you have to watch the episodes in order, or you're wasting your time.  Anyhoo - on to the interview. 

FOLLOW-UP:  Here's Part 2.

This is the second column in my New Year’s look at the future of internet audio and opportunity and threat it presents to broadcast radio. As I explained last week, I’m breaking it down in three parts: output, delivery method and content. The parts intertwine somewhat, but are worth looking at individually. I’ll also be using the term internet “audio” instead of internet “radio” because it comes in so many forms, from streaming audio to podcasts to short embedded audio segments, like on NPR.org

Last week, I explained how if internet output, or the audio that leaves the speakers, has not risen to the quality of radio yet, it is certainly close and will get there soon. With increasing bandwidth and better codecs, internet audio quality will soon be approaching CD quality in many situations.

This week, we take a look at delivery method, which is the most interesting of the three. I will assume that everyone who visits this site knows at least the basics of how radio works. Sound is transmitted wirelessly to receivers, which output the sound to speakers or headphones. The receivers are everywhere and cheap. If this is news to you, its probably best you read no further.

So, I finally got around to fixing my site so I could again make entries (over the last few months, the Joomla backend had been messed up and I never bothered to fix it, so when I wanted to make a new entry, I had to manually insert it in the database via PHPMyAdmin.  I am so lazy.)

Anyway, this evening I was having yet another fun day with my HDTiVo.  Apparently, the latest versions of HDTiVo software, 6.3, 6.3a, and 6.3b had some really nasty problems.  They expand the HDTiVo's functionality a great deal over the previous 3.1.5 software version, so I upgraded - only to find it rebooting about once every two hours, which is awesome when it's main job is to record things.  I've caught up on the shows that were screwed up through BitTorrent, but I needed to return the software to 3.1.5 so it would stop rebooting.  That took most of the day for various reasons even more boring than this story so far.  But it did result in me going out to pick up a Frosty from Wendy's - which is the point of the story.

I have never tasted a Vanilla Frosty, so I decided that I would give it a try.  I have been watching what I eat and working out a lot, so this was a big risk considering that I only let myself have one dessert like this a week (Carbs and sugar = Bad, Protein = Good).  I was apprehensive pulling up to the drive through as I wasn't even sure if Wendy's has vanilla Frostys anymore.

As I am reading the backlit menu/sign, the lady asks for my order.  Of course, they ask for your order as you are seeing the menu for the first time - so I asked for a second (there was no one behind me.)  I ask, "Are there still Vanilla Frostys?"