As of late, the internet web site Pandora is being touted as Radio’s evil — the threat being that the streaming music service provided by Pandora will result in the demise of traditional Radio.

It could happen, if Pandora could somehow manage to

• Provide local news content
• Update listeners on local weather
• Furnish local emergency information during floods, tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes, and other natural disasters
• Participate in local events such as fund drives and other public service events
• Have local personalities appear at community events to interact with listeners
• Have local personalities, period

The key word in each of the above: local.

I first found Pandora a couple of years ago, apparently shortly after the service was inaugurated. While I enjoyed the uninterrupted music, the lack of personality — of fun — made the service little more than a jukebox. After a few months, I stopped listening, choosing instead to avail myself of my own extensive music library on my computer’s hard drive. My custom-programmed jukebox was a better choice for me than Pandora’s semi-custom jukebox.

Is there a place for Pandora? Certainly. With the projected increase in in-car audio streaming, Pandora will certainly be a major competitor for Radio.

But will Pandora cause Radio’s demise? No. Hopefully, it will cause Radio to start doing a better job in the areas I outlined above.

When it comes to local content, Radio is king. Pandora will find a long, difficult road ahead in trying to approach the throne.

Those of us in Radio could see it begin back in the late ’70′s. In the early ’90′s, the trend was obvious. Now, as we enter the last year of the 21st Century’s first decade, the monsters are visibly in pain, trying to hold off the inevitable.

So it is that the daily local newspaper prepares to go the way of the dinosaur.

As an enthusiastic Radio sales rep in the ’70′s, I was shocked one day when a client had to cut our meeting short. He said: “I have to get my ad down to the newspaper before two or it won’t get into tomorrow morning’s paper.”

That’s right: the newspaper sales rep was too lazy to come by the advertiser’s business to pick up his ad–the advertiser was forced to deliver it to the paper!

Those days are long gone.

However, it has been the internet, not Radio or television, that has dealt the death blow to the printed page. Back in the day when our stations were battling with the local paper, we ran a promo line at the end of each newscast: “When you hear it, it’s news. When you read it, it’s history.” Now, people Google the news and get what they want when they want it. Newspaper could never keep up with the immediacy of broadcast news. Today the world wide web offers the virtually instant coverage of broadcast but with infinitely more choices. No longer are consumers limited to one newspaper or a handful of Radio or TV stations.

Generations of consumers were trained to depend on newspapers for their information. With the advent of the internet, the generations of the ’90′s have switched to the instant gratification of the web. By the time the local paper is printed and is on the street, it is “old news”. That “newspaper only” generation is dwindling, and with it the legions of readers that once made that media king.

While Radio and TV will survive, it appears newspaper–in printed form–is quickly going the way of T-Rex. Some newspapers may remain on the ‘net, but the mega-bucks of local revenue the printed page once demanded will soon join the hula hoop and 45-RPM record as little more than a fading memory.

I hate starting off a new year with a complaint. But I hate ignorance in media even more.

Headlines in a number of internet media–including FoxNews.com–proclaimed that revelers were celebrating the beginning of a “new decade” on January 1, 2010.

Not so fast.

The “new decade” will begin with 2011. The year 2010 is the last year of the first decade of the 21st century. This is due to the elementary fact that there was no year “zero”. The first decade of our Common Era (C.E.) comprised years 1 – 10. The second decade consisted of years 11 – 20. Do the math and you’ll see where we’re going.

Perhaps it’s just another example of declining journalism skills. First the words, then the math.

Accuracy? That was a casualty that succumbed long, long ago.

Happy New Year.

In the last two weeks, I’ve heard from hundreds of new friends who have appeared out of cyberspace to inundate me with good news:

• Sgt. Perry Gibson, fighting valiantly in Iraq, wants to share millions of Saddam’s newly-found loot with me. His rationale for keeping the money is “we found it first”. It’s good to know that the “finders keepers” rule is still in effect.
• Jim Peters asks for my urgent response to his quest to share millions from a deceased uncle who was the Director of Golf Ball Measurement in Nigeria. Said relative managed to accumulate quite a stash while measuring his balls.
• George Bogucki insists I get back to him “ASAP” on a matter of some urgency and confidentiality regarding the shipment of funds from his country to a “safe haven” in the U.S. It appears he has found several million dollars in cash misplaced during a recent coup.
• Chen Guangyuan Lili sends his “compliments of the season”. This could be the Easter season or perhaps hunting season; Chen does not specify.
• Mrs. Sousse Pressons is holding a courier package for me containing another 3.2 million in U.S. funds. If I will only pay the modest excise tax and handling fee of $1,500, she’ll ship it right out.
• Jerry Smith sends a message he instructs me to “TREAT AS URGENT!!” Only my wife can get away with using that tone.

To top it all off, I’ve apparently won every Internet lottery, sweepstakes, giveaway, and cash award there is! This is especially amazing, in that I’ve had virtually no luck at all winning my state’s little lotto which requires selecting only five numbers.

Since the economy took its well-publicized nosedive, the amount of spam pouring into my inbox has doubled. This is a good indication that hard times can affect scam artists as well as honest members of society. Hey, a guy has gotta make a living!

Fortunately, the combination of Spam Assassin, MailWasher, and an aggressive filter means 99.9% of this junk never does make it to my inbox. Once a day, I visit a special “spam box” I’ve set up and delete the contents, consigning these hucksters to oblivion. Every so often I take a spare moment to peruse the messages before carrying out the execution. It’s sad, really, so see such creative juices go to waste.

But spam, like taxes, will continue. And tomorrow, there will be more of both.

I’m talking about spam.

As anyone who has created a blog knows, spam artists are quick to seize any opportunity to promote something, anything by hijacking comments. In creating the Radio3K.com blog, I had hoped to avoid this pestilence. Alas, such was not to be.

After receiving a constant barrage of comments from sites such as xyowidnvuen.com and tpo29fnasloop.com for everything from viagra to rubbing alcohol, I reluctantly took the only easy option open to me — disabling comments. This has closed the spam spigot, and unfortunately also terminates your opportunity to respond to my posts.

I suspect this step is not one that is catastrophic; it will not be ranked with the financial meltdown or the current (as a I write this) fake hysteria over bonuses for AIG employees that the new administration knew of and approved before they decided to condemn it. This supposition is backed up by the evidence that few readers take time to comment on these posts. While less generous souls would credit this to a lack of readership, I choose to believe it’s because most visitors are in accord with my musings.

Nonetheless, comments may be reopened at some future date. In the interim, feel free to respond to anything you read here via the Radio3K.com contact page.Through the magic of electronics, such responses will be whisked to this blog and posted under the appropriate topic.

And to the folks at wifhvjeufyaugwjk.com: go pound sand.