The Best of Talkmedia 10 - September 29, 2023: Medium waves on the FM-World app? - RAI CEO intervenes in a discussion

On September 11, a message appeared on the talkmedia group on behalf of FM-World in the first person, which asked readers how they would reorganize the stations in the app's grid and which ones they would want in the first 35 positions.Numerous reader-radio listeners took the opportunity to suggest their favorite radio: one reader proposed Radio Hemingway, another Radio Stop, and so on with many other radios mentioned by their respective fans.

One user suggested creating a section dedicated to medium wave radio stations, penalized in apps. Another stated that the most obvious solution would be to put them in alphabetical order.

Some complained that some independent web radio stations had been removed from the list, but then apologized because they had actually found them again. One commentator asked to be able to organize favorites with drag and drop rather than a predefined order.

Note from the caregiver: on drag and drop, a video appeared a few days later by one of the 22HBG developers showing this functionality at work. We look forward to it eagerly on testflight

Among the requests was also to show first the radio stations most listened to by each user, and the introduction of the search function on iOS devices. The admin answered by taking note of the feedback to improve the app.

TeleMeloni

On September 17, a reader linked an article in the group entitled "The Flop of TeleMeloni" claiming the existence of a drop in RAI listeners following the change in management.

"TeleMeloni" is not the name of a real network, but a kind of word game, invented by someone certainly less imaginative compared to those who invented the famous Tele Kabul (Ed.)

Among the comments there was even one from the CEO of RAI, who thus demonstrated that he is attentive to what is written on our group and is anything but the classic inaccessible RAI executive locked in the control room (or rather, in the potentiometer room given his passion for radio).

A first commenter dismissed the article as a mere pretext for attacking the current prime minister, accusing the author of manipulating data. A supporter reinforced this, denouncing the improper comparison between different years, and claiming balance from the new management compared to the past.

However, others believe the criticism is well-founded, opening a reflection on the difficulty for Rai to propose public service content, flattening out on private supply. Someone highlights the risk of excessive political "coloring" of public information.

There has been no shortage of criticism for the selective sharing of articles, which should be balanced by sharing more voices for a pluralistic debate. Someone speaks of real anti-government "propaganda".

The caregiver commented by underlining the lack of Fair Play of the newspaper Il Domani - where the original article appeared -, which cites listening data from others when it does not provide its own circulation data, always impossible to find in ADS (try it to believe it).

Now Music

Let's get out of the minefield of politics and deal with music. On September 22, a post raised a reflection on the music radio stations play today, sharing the episode of a listener who in a request program chose an Italo disco song rather than a less overplayed song.

The author of the post said he was surprised, having in the past shared the criticism of those who accuse radio stations of always playing the same hits. But from this request he deduced that maybe radio playlists are already too eclectic for the average taste of listeners.

The topic sparked a lively debate. There are those who defend the editorial choices of private radio stations, emphasizing that they must satisfy the tastes of the public if they want to have listeners. A publisher recalled that the music on the radio is decided by listeners with their requests.

Others, however, accuse radio stations of having educated the public for years to settle for mediocre music, fueling a vicious circle. There are also those who complain of a deterioration in the radio music offer compared to the past.

There is no shortage of critical voices towards listeners who always request the same overplayed songs. But there is also who defends everyone's freedom to listen to the music they prefer without prejudice.

The great blackout

Finally, the Facebook algorithm surfaced a three-year-old post. Which in turn recalled a past episode, the major blackout that hit Italy on the night of September 28, 2003.

A user recounts: "I was sleeping with the windows ajar in Turin when I was awakened by several alarms going off. After half an hour I realized the gravity of the situation".

Another recalls: "We all stayed outside the radio station where I worked, in Padua, and the gates didn't even open".

Someone mentions still having a list of FM frequencies captured in Novara, a city where there was no electricity.

A user recounts: "I parked under the house and pulled a cable onto the balcony to power the TV and satellite decoder with an uninterruptable power supply, thus managing to understand what had happened". Another says: "Here in South Tyrol after half an hour the power came back on and I didn't notice anything".

There are no shortage of experiences with improvised radio broadcasts, such as that of the writer: "I turned on 20W on a dipole on the roof of the house. With that signal I covered over 70km, crazy since the only one on air was RAI".

(Article created by PeperoniAI and Claude by Anthropic based on content from the Talkmedia community, with supervision by "AI caregiver" Marco Hugo Barsotti - for FM-World)