It could be a “scary time to be launching a media venture,” warns the Vancouver Daily Xtra in a feature about Roundhouse radio, a new commercial community station scheduled to go live in September.
“[M]edia locally and globally is contracting, with independent platforms getting snapped up by conglomerates.”
The times are apparently so terrifying that just about every Vancouver watching newspaper has written about the hyperlocal venture, and it hasn’t even gone on the air yet. This includes the Vancouver Observer, the Vancouver Sun, the Global Mail, and Business Vancouver.
Part of the buzz is that the station is the brainchild of veteran Canadian broadcaster Don Shafer. The other part is that Roundhouse just sounds like it will be a really great thing.
As the above Roundhouse graphic explains, the station will be four fifths talk and one fifth music. Half of the music streamed will be Canadian. As for the talk, it will emphasize “distinctly local conversations.”
Shafer, BTW, came up with a nice response to that Daily Xtra bromide. It could be a “terrific time,” he replied. “With fewer voices, with a shrinking media landscape and fewer perspectives, and less focus on what’s happening in the local community, I think it’s a perfect time for us. The time’s never been better.”
