Radio Shack To Become Just...Shack?

Indeed, that's what we've got this morning, on the heels of a major heavy rainstorm across our area of responsibility yesterday.

We give John Gorman credit for telling us about the switch via his Media Blog.

It seems, according to the entry above, Radio Shack/Shack execs think they need to re-brand because “Fewer of the company’s customers going forward will ever own a radio.”

Ouch.

Now, this prompts another of my "musings".

I don't think radio is going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, the technology of old is being replaced by the technology of new (read: HD Radio).

But in a world where we want what we want and we want it right now...even radio has its place.

Think about it. In your car, where else will you get traffic reports? You're not going to (in spite of what yours truly's own brother suggested yesterday) take a laptop with you, hook it into your cigarette lighter, and check the traffic on the road.

No, you're going to tune to local newsradio stations such as 700 WLW/Cincinnati, 840 WHAS/Louisville, 630 WLAP/Lexington, or 1100 WTAM/Cleveland to get the information. Even if you have those GPS systems which give you traffic information...I doubt there's anybody that doesn't use their radios if only to confirm what they see on those touchscreen consoles.

Until they come up with technology in which you can have your IPod plugged in and get traffic over THAT, I can't see radio going away as a medium in my lifetime...