Mike McVay, McVay Media: The continuation of consolidation further eliminated smaller operators and that eliminated more localized programming. That’s a negative. The arrival of Smart Speakers put radio back into homes. That’s a positive.

Toby Knapp, WASH: We all know what caused the changes in local radio. We all know what the disregarding of the local studio rule means. AOC and Congress might do something about all of this sooner rather than later, but we all know where the death-of–local-radio changes started. As far as records, I think the rise of streaming and the ability for artists to go directly to their fans, end-running the established idea that a HIT has to come from certain producers, via a certain formula, system or process etc… That upended the apple cart, as it were. Oh, and the iPod/Apple Music rise. 99 cents for a song, now $9 bucks per month for an unlimited streaming subscription for billions of songs… that was a thing, too… Which brought forth Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, and other streaming platforms. All of this is a thing. So is Sirius/XM the HBO PLUS of radio and Howard Stern‘s migration to that platform… But much of it starts… with an app called Napster. That and when Lee Leipsner left a place called Waxie Maxie.

Orlando, WLLD: Deregulation changed the game because the bigs got bigger and the little guy got curved! Ironically, now that the bellies got to fat (speaking from experience), some littles are rising from the ash.

Lee Abrams mediavisions: Deep consolidation, new music consumption technologies, and social media.

Dom Theodore, Radio Animal Media Strategies: Risk-adversity. Once the debt levels became so high we stopped experimenting and commoditized programming, and radio content suffered irreparable damage.

Jammer, WEZB: Technology. It’s just a whole new thing now with a digital component in play. RADIO.com and the mobile app have been a game changer!

Heather Deluca, WSJO: Internet and social media have given us so many ways to connect with listeners in real time. And automation, which lead to downsizing of air staff in recent years.

Mike “OD” O’Donnell, WKRZ: The digital space is the biggest change we’ve had to deal with and we have to figure out a way to marry our traditional radio brands with digital space brands. In addition, we have to realize we’re not just a radio station. We need to think about our brands as full-service radio/digital brands so we can compete in the digital space and continue to reach younger demos.

Buster Satterfield, WIOQ: The streaming industry as a revolution especially on a mobile platform and of course, Napster before that.

Jonathan Shuford, WRVW: Technology…unmatched! Not only has it affected the way we operate but the way our competitors operate, and has further defined what our competition really is.

Rod Phillips, iHeartMedia: The most significant has to be technology that allows almost anyone to appear on any station in the country…from a closet in their home. One other significant change is how streaming is impacting the amount of available music at any given time. Artists can easily have a massively consuming single that hasn’t hit the radio yet, because their other single (or singles) are on the radio charts.

Jon Zellner, iHeartMedia: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is more than twenty years old but I believe that was the most substantial change in the broadcast industry in the past 100 years. More recent FCC changes that come to mind are net neutrality laws, common ownership laws for a radio station and a newspaper, common ownership of two TV stations in the same market and the Restoring Internet Freedom Order.

Kobe, WZNE: Long story short, we have more competition than ever. Streaming, video-on-demand, social media, cell phones, they are all forms of competition. Also, I can’t remember a time in my career where imaging means as much as the music.

Bartel, WKTU: Technology. Voice tracking, automation, the entire digital era and the iHeartRadio app.