Radio Investment Dwindles For Digital News Garthering Hardware

In his RTNDA blog, Bob Papper says radio invenstment in digital news gathering equipment is continuing to fall faster than ever.

As usual, bigger markets and non-commercial stations are most likely to gather, mix and playback news digitally.

Technology shopping in radio has been plunging over the last several years, and the decline appears to be accelerating.  Three years ago, 38% of radio news directors and general managers said they'd be making no technology purchases in the next year.  Two years ago, the number rose to 44%.  Last year, 69.3% said nothing.  This year, the abstention crowd is up to an astonishing 78.6%.

And that number didn't vary much no matter how you sliced it.  Non-commercial or commercial, number of stations, market size, geography ... no real difference.  The only group that was noticeably more likely to purchase new technology included radio newsrooms with 10 or more staffers.  And even there, more than 58% said no plans for new purchases.

For the relatively few in the market for new purchases, the answer to what new technology continues to spread out.  Digital audio recorders are usually at the top of the list.  Last year, recorders tied with computers at the top.  That's true this year as well, but the margin is much thinner ... simply because the numbers are so much lower, writes Harper.