1 of 1- RadioActive
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It's 25 Years From Today. What Does Broadcasting Look Like?
Never mind AM. Will there still be FM? Will everything be digital and nothing free over the air? And what about so-called free network TV? Do the NBC, CBS, and ABCs of the world still exist? In what form? And what about the CBC?
Do cars still come with a radio? And are we still tied to cell phones or will something even more elaborate take their place? How about a chip implanted in our heads that acts as an internal cell? Is streaming still the only way to get music?
The way things are going, nothing is off the table.
Safe to say radio as we know it today will be either very different or non-existent. If every station abandons the broadcast spectrum, I can just see tons of amateurs or pirates taking their place, at least for a while. I'll take 1050, because it occupies a special place in my heart.
One thing that I can predict with some certainty - there will still be some kind of entity like the CRTC because governments can never give up having an influence in the mass media, whatever form it takes. They just can't keep their grubby mitts off the industry.
Just curious where you see the broadcast world a quarter of a century from today. If recent changes are any indication, things will be very, very different.
- Walter
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Re: It's 25 Years From Today. What Does Broadcasting Look Like?
If radio still exists, somebody will still be filling in on the 'Alex Pierson Show'.
- RadioActive
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Re: It's 25 Years From Today. What Does Broadcasting Look Like?
Here's my favourite prediction, as seen in this fantastic episode of the modern version of The Outer Limits. It's called "Stream of Consciousness," about a world where everyone's brain is connected to what's called "The Stream." (Amazingly prescient of the writers to come up with that term, considering streaming as we know it didn't exist in 1997.)
It centres on a guy who for whatever reason is not able to connect to the stream, while everyone else can. He's considered to be unfit for anything except being a janitor, because the rest of the world instantly knows everything about everything, while he has to get what he learns from those old fashioned books.
But what happens next is pretty startling and it's a cautionary tale for those who depend too much on technology. A wonderful episode and well worth your time.
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Thread Starter- Fitz
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Re: It's 25 Years From Today. What Does Broadcasting Look Like?
I have not watched the 90's outer Limits but I love the 60's One.
In old Sci Fi films and TV shows, they mostly got the predictions wrong. Lost in Space supposedly takes place in the 90's. Also very few really came close on the tecnical innovations. They either under or over shot. The one prediction that seems to have come true is the video phone however unless you use a very large monitor the size is smaller than predicted.
I believe we are a bit more savvy now and our predictions now might be more realistic but one can never really predict innovation.
In the film below they did get some of the concepts correct if not the exact execution
Last edited by Fitz (August 30, 2026 11:18 am)
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- Aytononline
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Re: It's 25 Years From Today. What Does Broadcasting Look Like?
I think radio will be around, but there will be no big players. I think radio will return where it started with very small local and community owned stations.
What Toronto radio will look like will be interesting.
- darcyh
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Re: It's 25 Years From Today. What Does Broadcasting Look Like?
I expect the medium wave or AM band to be pretty much empty except for a few high power stations from the US.