ABSTRACT
The environmental changes that have occurred since the 1980s as a result of technological advances and shifting audience demands have impacted the broadcast media profoundly. As the pioneer of electronic media products, the conventional characteristics of radio as a local, over-the-air commercial medium have to be reexamined as commercial-free satellite radio subscription services have become popular nationally among many music lovers and as technologies have enabled the delivery of radio signal worldwide via the Internet and the arrival of customized music CDs and portable music players (e.g., iPod). Broadcast television, once a favorite of most American media consumers, now competes against multichannel programming services such as cable and DBS as well as streaming content on the Internet. The broadcasters now have to fight for shares in a fragmented audience market, invest heavily in digital technology, and rethink their strategic role in a consolidated media marketplace where most competitors are verticall integrated and operate businesses in many other media sectors.
