Obviously (though perhaps less than it should be), radio is becoming a system of hedging bets. You keep investing in transmitter maintenance and translator development while also investing in streaming, HD radio and everything else that isn’t expensive and exposes the operation to new possibilities for growth, listener relationship and revenue.

But it’s essential not to get too mired in the past that’s still present. An executive at one of the big-market public stations last year told me he had grown tired of what he called “transmitter mentality.” Never mind that most of the listening growth is coming over the Net, or that the percentage of listeners paying to become members is higher on line than on the air. All the energy continues to go radio-as-usual and keeping the old flywheels spinning.

Well, ya gotta keep the home fires burning. You just can’t do *only* that. Hey, I’d love it if in the U.S. we had *real* RDS in over-the-air radio. That way when I drive up 101 from Paso Robles to Monterey Bay my radio would say “KUSP” even though it switched from 91.7 to 88.9. But lobbying for that is a waste of effort. Better to put energies into, say, streams of multiple bitrates so iPhone radio tuners could switch between streams when the listener moves between cell and wi-fi connections. Stream-radios for mobile devices, especially the iPhone, are inevitable (as well as something we’re working on at ProjectVRM), and it will pay to be ready for that.

Anyway, I think the future is really quite bright for stations that embrace it. Looks like you’re doing that at KUSP. Rock on.