“Terrestrial radio is in bigger trouble than ever, I am convinced. I just finished driving down a highway in rural (state), listening to streaming music on the free Pandora Radio app for my upgraded version 2.0 iPhone. This was via edge, not 3G. Pandora plays randomized songs. But when an all-you-can-eat music service (maybe Apple’s, someday) has this same kind of app, it’s game over for music radio.  I’ll be able to listen to any song I want while driving, and won’t even have to load it on my iPod before leaving.

If you are unfamiliar with Pandora, it works like this: I enter the name of a song or artist. Pandora creates a “station” that plays music like the example I submitted. I “like” or “dislike” each song and Pandora keeps tweaking my play-list accordingly. I can have as many stations as I choose. Just music. No annoying DJ’s. No commercials.

If I’m the program director of an “only the hits” radio station, should I be concerned about this technology? I can’t please all the people, all the time. But all of the people can please themselves, all of the time. What is my Plan B?