Radio vs Online Radio

I am one of those people who like to listen to talk radio as well as music when I am at work or in the car much to the shagrin of my wife and kids.

My favorite shows are sports radio shows but only the shows that have intelligent conversation and not just the trash talking and stupid non-sports related conversations that are so prevalent in sports talk radio.

I have 3 girls who play sports, watch sports and love to talk sports from time to time. I like them to hear intelligent sports conversation rather then talk about the busty babes the sportscaster dated or the one that just walked past the window. A little bit of this stuff is ok but some take it to far.

In todays electronics world it appears that tuner manufacturers have given up on AM Radio. No matter what type of antenna I attach to my system I cannot get reception on my system in the office or the house. But the stinking little walkman type radio I have gets great reception. But I do not want to walk around the house or office with earphones in my ears.

So recently I discovered online radio on ESPN. Now I have known about it for some time but I just got around to trying it out and I tell you what, it is great. I love to listen to Colin Cowherd and Mike Tirico in the mornings and it prevents me from having to listen to Jim Rome on the radio. Cowherd and Tirico's shows are smart and funny. They have class and can cover subjects in an intelligent manner without having to stoop to the trash talking of the listeners to fill show time.

My problem now is that the local sports radio station requires you to have a membership to listen online. I find that to be an issue. Now I have memberships online for all kinds of things, but not one of them is something that I can get for free via another source. So why must they collect information about me? I know all about marketing, that is what I do. It just does not seem right.

There are a couple of the local shows that I would like to listen to on saturday mornings or during drive time. If the local station were to offer those services without the membership I would be there for sure and so would more listeners I think. So the demographics that they are collecting by requiring membership to listen is skewed because more people would listen if they offered the service without membership.

So unitl my local station figures this out and changes their policy I will continue to find ways to enjoy intelligent sports radio. I will listen to Colin and Mike online at espnradio.com without a membership and not on my radio that gets no reception.

More radio stations need to figure out that they would get more listeners online then over the air if they only offered the service.

To ESPN Radio, Colin Cowherd and Mike Tirico, keep up the good work. Don't let your shows slip to the dark side of talk radio. To my local stations, get a grip! Whatever happened to customer service.