For any non-Elvis Costello fans, that's a lyric from his hit "Radio Radio." I have been thinking about radio a bit lately — especially about both NPR canceling The Bryant Park Project (New York Times story here, reg. required) and PRI canceling Fair Game with Faith Salie. These two programs were both attempts by public radio to attract a younger audience. Interestingly young people are tuning back in to FM commercial radio for music, or at least the decline began to reverse itself somewhat this year. But the problem for radio (and most traditional media) is that it's still one way media, i.e. broadcasting out, in a two-way digital/online world.

For public radio, you can't just reach younger listeners with news and information by packaging it with younger hosts and stories you think will appeal to this demographic — the same could be said for CNN and Anderson Cooper 360. We've read study after study about young people consuming their news from multiple sources based on headlines that seem relevant to them, and that their preference is to get this news online. We also know that part of the appeal of consuming content online is the ability to interact with the stories, i.e. participate, through ranking (Digg), commenting (text, audio and video) and connecting with others about news. Even when broadcasters share "comments from the blog" or reader feedback, it just doesn't scratch the surface of real participation in a vibrant online community.

We must make news and information available to young people (really all people) on their medium(s) of choice. The only way traditional media will stop buckling under this massive shift, is if the metrics change — whether its "listeners" to traditional radio vs. podcasts, readers of physical newspapers vs. online or on a Kindle, physical CD sales vs. digital, or iTunes streams and DVR recordings vs. tuning in to live TV.

Regarding Bryant Park, I found this interesting…from the New York Times article:

The program's host, Alison Stewart, who is on maternity leave, said in a telephone interview that she had been informed of the cancellation, which comes after the NPR board's approval last week of a budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. "From what I understand, we are obviously in extra-tough economic times, and it is a financial and strategic decision," she said. "I was told it had absolutely nothing to do with the quality or content of the show."

Although the program is heard over the air on just five radio stations and available on 19 high-definition digital channels, NPR officials said publicly in recent months that "Bryant Park Project" was attracting the kind of Web audience they had hoped for. One NPR employee, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the program had one million individual, or "unique" listeners in both April and May.

Like Gossip Girl, they had an alternative hit on their hands, they just haven't figured out how to sell it to the old guard…On a positive note, NPR is looking to "developers to help make it easier to share its content on Web sites and blogs, including those owned by the 860 NPR member stations."

So I've been thinking a lot about how to expand Ypulse content beyond just text (which we are expanding - look for an announcement this week). I've toyed with the idea of some sort of video podcast like The Giga Om Show, but I have mixed feelings about both being on camera regularly and letting someone else host this sort of show. What I have realized doing publicity for Totally Wired, is that I LOVE call-in radio. I've always been an NPR junkie and a talk radio fan, but having been able to take people's calls on KQED's Forum, MPR's MidMorning and KPCC's Patt Morrison Show (yesterday), I am very interested in figuring out how to do a Ypulse call-in show expanding the conversation about teens, media and marketing. So if anyone out there works with Sirius or XM, get in touch!

P.S. This is the last thing I'll post about ME today, but since I still get consulting requests, I just wanted to let readers know that while I don't do consulting, I DO do paid speaking and can create a 90 minute preso for your company (I'm heading to Orlando tomorrow to present to a very large internet company at their meeting). If you're interested in having me speak, just email Ken Eisenstein at the American Program Bureau.

I've posted before about traditional commercial radio being on the decline with teens/young adults. According to this article in Radio World Newspaper (and Arbitron), "12-to-17-year-olds spent 11.3 hours a week with radio in 1998. Today that number has dropped to 8.7 and is trending downward." One HD station in Boston is attempting to buck the trend and rewrite the rules for radio. It's called Radio You. Here's how they plan to reinvent radio for young listeners:

- They're recruiting volunteer DJs, i.e. passionate/interested people (they might be local club spinners) who want to do their own two hour shows once a week via MySpace and message boards.

- The format is "bottom up" (most of the ideas coming from the DJs) and will include documentary shows, comedy and video game shows — one midday show is called "Acoustic Break-Dance."

- They plan to rely heavily on MySpace and Facebook to promote the station as well as the alternative papers. They're also planning Radio You shows at parties, clubs and colleges.

- They know they need "a wicked cool Web site" [ah Boston] especially since most people will stream the station online (vs. have HD radio).

- For now, there are no commercials. Since HD is a new medium, stations get to experiment.

Sounds like a station I would definitely tune into…

Marianne Richmond over at Blogher posted about a "meme" on personal media consumption that has been picked up by several bloggers. I thought it was pretty interesting and that I would just jump in detailing my own media diet. Feel free to share yours in the comments:

Web: I am a heavy Bloglines user — it's the only way I can manage my 100+ feeds from blogs and other news sources each day. My folders are: Advertising, Entertainment, Journalism, Technology, Trends and Youth/Media Literacy. You can see who's on my blogroll here. If you're not, and you should be, get in touch.

I am also an avid Google News user — I have loads of word combinations I use to search for news and press releases - that's my secret to finding stuff before a lot of other media.

I subscribe to several email newsletters - all of the Media Post updates, ClickZ, Marketing Sherpa, iMedia Connection, Trend Central, Mediabistro's Daily Newsfeed, AdAge.com's emails, BusinessWeek's Weekly Insider and TMZ's updates.

Communication: I use Yahoo! Messenger and AIM occasionally — I hate when stuff pops up while I'm working. I also have an LG phone that is not currently meeting my data needs. I thought I could downsize from my Trio after leaving Current - WRONG. If anyone has a Motorola Q they want to get rid of, I'll take it! The only person who really texts me is my husband, and I am usually buried under loads of email. I maintain two profiles on MySpace (personal and book) and Bebo and respond when people get in touch through those sites, but don't spend much time there. I also have a profile on Linked In. I can't deal with having so many multiple profiles. I just don't have time.

TV: This is my downfall. I'm a TV-a-holic. I watch "Heroes," "24" (we use our DVR a lot), "Veronica Mars," "Friday Night Lights," "Lost," "The Office," "30 Rock" (please don't cancel it!) and "Rome." I'll watch "The Sopranos" when they're back as well as "Entourage" and "The Wire." I have been known to consume entire series in a weekend on DVD. I peek in on MTV occasionally just to see what's up and can tolerate CNN for about 10 minutes at a time. I sometimes put on Current TV as background noise on the weekends. I rarely laptop when watching TV, I spend so much time online as it is, I just want to veg when I'm on the couch. My husband watches all the Sunday night cartoons on FOX, so sometimes I watch them by default.

Books: I'm in a book club, so I try to read one a month. When I'm on vacation, I can read a whole book or two. Most recent reads include Black Girl White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates, The Keep by Jennifer Egan and Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder. All this is on my Amazon profile.

Newspapers: What are those? I read them all online, unless at a hotel or on a plane.

Movies: Movies are date nights for me and my husband. An excuse to get out of the house. If they're over 2 hours they better be GREAT. Last movie I saw was Dreamgirls. We also use Netflix and buy movies on demand and rent them from our neighborhood video store (got to support them!).

Music: All my CDs were stolen from my car and I erased the music on my iPod twice, leading to a bit of a music hiatus. That said, I want back in, it will just take me time to rebuild a collection and discover new music. I do listen to the radio a lot in my car — mostly NPR and the old school funk and soul station.

Magazines: I get free teen magazines in the mail, and bought subs to Entrepreneur and Inc. from a crew selling mags to help pay their tuition (I hope). Otherwise I buy them when I'm traveling - US, People, Entertainment Weekly and Vanity Fair.

I feel so exposed right now…and very 1.0.

We all know commercial radio (at least stations with music formats) is in decline. Frankly, I couldn't be happier. Most commercial radio sucks. There I said it, and I'm not even that much of a hard core music fan although I did listen to the local college station (91 ROCK in Nashville, TN) for my new music fix growing up. Commercial radio has always felt like free advertising for a handful or labels and artists that are played with a sickening repeat factor.

Chet posted about music blogs on Friday — I think part of the value of music blogs or music social networks is discovering new bands based on trusted opinions. Whether that opinion is coming from a music blogger or a friend or just someone who seems to have the same music taste as you do. The internet has blown open the music industry — not only allowing bands to sell directly to and connect directly with their fans in meaningful ways, it's also challenging the corporate bottleneck of commercial radio by giving people real diversity and choice in the music they want to hear.

It appears that one French radio station gets this in a big way. According to the International Herald Tribune, the French youth station Skyrock is expanding with blogs in a major way:

"After attracting 11.1 million unique visitors monthly to the station's online social network, Skyblog.com, Bellanger is planning to reach for the skies in January. That's when he intends to spin off new blogs in German, Spanish and English to offer the same rich, raucous mix of the inner thoughts and videos of thousands of young bloggers…

…The constant conversation is also having an effect on Skyrock radio, which remains the most popular French radio station among listeners under age 24, with about 3.9 million tuning in daily. The e-mails and phone text messages pouring in at the rate of about 25,000 daily are shaping the style of Skyrock disc jockeys, who face a giant screen with scrolling commentary as they choose their tunes."

Definitely seems like an interesting model for U.S. Radio to look at, although when I think about the people behind the "morning zoos," it's hard for me to imagine they will…

Update: From Ypulse reader Michelle: You should check out this station out of Seattle - KEXP. It's a non-profit, chock-full of new and eccentric music. I actually learned about it when I lived in Dallas and listened everyday online. Now I'm in Seattle and they have a very strong community here, and across the world. Blogs, charity events, social networking, etc.

The march of Reggaetón into the public eye continues to ramp up this year, and forthcoming is a minor commercial explosion of records and crossover products throughout 2006. The genre was a rare success story in 2005 (with Latin music sales up 12%). And the fact that Jennifer Lopes recently signed on to co-produce a film titled "Reggaeton" is a pretty decent signal of what's to come.

But far beyond J-Lo, the achievements of Daddy Yankee are a pretty good yard stick for measuring the explosion of this genre. His "Barrio Fino" sold a sweet 1.6 million records last year in the U.S. and his new live album "Barrio Fino el Directo" sports the big hit "Rompe" and has been at the top of the Billboard Latin charts for 4 weeks selling over 500,000. His "DY" Reebok apparel line and shoe are launching imminently, which will help stoke the fire leading up to his major label debut LP later this year. Oh yeah - get ready for more than a few good years of Daddy Yankee and grinding dance floors.

The story of the Daddy Yankee phenomenon was painted quite nicely in the New York Times Magazine profile (reg. required)of him this past Sunday. I like the part that talks about the impact Reggaetón had on radio last year:

"The music's growth on mainland America has contributed to a mini-revolution in radio programming. Last year, Clear Channel switched four of its English-language stations in major markets like Houston and Miami to a Hispanic-urban format called Hurban, featuring reggaetón and Latin hip-hop. Univision Radio similarly has converted seven of its Spanish-language stations from more traditional Latin music like merengue and salsa to a reggaetón-driven format known as La Kalle."

The article goes on to note the record industry scramble to go Latin, with Wu-Tang Latino, Bad Boy Latino and Roc La Familia appearing on the scene. Yes, the commercial engines are firing pretty hard, and Daddy Yankee appears to be in the driver's seat.

I have to admit, I haven't really been into the whole podcast thing. I just haven't found anything or anyone that I really want to listen to. Granted, I haven't tried too hard to find anything, but still…

A 15 year old girl in California might just finally get me into this whole trend…Zoeradio.com is a radio show and podcast run by Zoe, with help from her dad Ian.

I'm currently listening to her "Best of 2005" show, featuring artists One Block Radius, The Hold Steady, Okkervil River, Brendan Benson, Alaska!, The Break and Repair Method, Dios Malos, Art Brut, Fannypack, Natasha Benningfield, Kanye West, Fallout Boy, Deerhoof, Jamie Lidell, The New Pornographers, The Books, and Ted Leo.

Trust me, I was not this cool or knew this much about music when I was 15.

I admit it, I am very slow to the whole podcasting trend and kinda thought it was more hype than reality. But I'm coming around and press releases like this one make me realize not only is it really happening, but lots of teens are really into it. Martina Butler, aka Emogirl, is a 15-year-old pocaster who now has a corporate sponsor — Nature's Cure (an "innovative" acne treatment). Her show features music and celeb interviews and allegedly has a large teen following. But my bigger discovery when I visited Emogirl was the blogroll link to the Teen Podcasters site. She is not alone. Looks like it's time for me to spend some quality time with my iPod Mini and listen to what these teens are podcasting about….

On Thursday, mtvU (MTV's college only station) announced the list of bands and artists up for their now annual Woodie Awards. The announcement reminded me of the station, which I've sworn off a while ago as a sneaky and poorly contrived commercial endeavor on MTV's part.

It might be a surprise for most of you to know, MTV does have a college only station, which started to appear on my campus (and campuses around the nation) last year. Also, it might be astonishing to all that MTV actually, in some small form, champions and celebrates music.

I respect MTV for producing a channel and an award show that reflects what most college students enjoy. The music on the lists of finalists and on channel truly reflects what the majority of my classmates listen too. The shows on the channel at times have great information for the college crowd.

However, mtvU seems evil to me and the majority of my college friends. First off; they are using their power and connections to attract students away from college run television and radio stations by producing the same content and music. Secondly, if you go to the mtvU site or watch the channel, you will witness MTV trying to market and make money off of the college students' fears and desires. For instance, there is an mtvU credit card for a college student (which we all know is in need of money) to rack up bad credit.

For a while, mtvU seemed promising, but here the bad completely outweighs the good. I'll continue to stick with my humorous and completely authentic student run television.

The Teen Environmental Media Network (TEMN) trains teens in a specific journalistic niche: environmental or science writing. In this innovative Bay Area program, teens learn about more than just science. They also "develop and practice skills including researching, interviewing, writing, digital audio editing, and voicing." The Website includes a feature from TEMN journalist Sheryl, who covered August's "Crowding the Rim" conference, focusing on how youth are affected by natural disasters in countries like the Philippines and Costa Rica. There is also a first-person account from Annemarie, who shares her tale of self discovery in Colorado while on an outdoor education trip. Youth are the future and the environment's going to be around for a while — it just needs a little TLC, and these teens are the ones to get it started.