I suppose the big news over the past week in Massachusetts was the election. Regardless of where a person is politically, one of the major reasons cited for the showing of candidate who came in second was apathy. The critical base in the cities was just not inspired. What does this have to do with radio in our town?
Well, at least for Jacksonville I do see some parallels. As a contributor to this board, I can understand and appreciate that what excites or motivates me may not interest others and that’s OK. Even given that, occasionally others will bring up really good topics that receive little or no response. Our friends in the Panhandle and even Gainesville /Ocala seem to always be motivated enough to post about a wide range of subjects. For Jacksonville, the feeling for a casual observer is that the radio community either doesn’t care, doesn’t want to exert the energy as little will change or is fearful of reprisal by management. Maybe it’s all of it.
While I understand it’s fairly easy to figure out who is who on the boards, there are plenty of occasions where response to certain subjects would not jeopardize employment. Maybe it’s just my nature to see the glass half full. Certainly, I don’t like the state of radio, especially in our market. But gees, I may be an idiot about certain things but it’s rare to get direct response to almost anything whether it’s providing a PPM Report, discussing a life of rock ‘n roll, or questioning business practices of seeing formats die on the vine. Learning is a wondrous thing and we all benefit via communication. I’d like to make something clear – I’m not on some ego trip in seeking a lot of adulation on posts – what turns me on is the health and creativity of radio.
There’s a lot of potential change that could affect AM drive. There’s Elvis Duran – he’s pretty hot in a lot of markets. Is he coming to Jax? Who knows/there’s no subject on it. We saw L&T loose Dallas. One would think there would be a lot of buzz about their future in Jax especially with the Alternative format war. I can certainly go on and on.
Hopefully, behind the scenes, encouraging words are spoken to those in prominent roles in the market who find themselves out of work. My impression is the radio community is cold and indifferent to its own if I were to use the lack of response here as a barometer. As an example, given Bob Schumann’s (sp) exit and his length of time in the market, I would have expected at least a dozen responses. His exit has really gotten to me because that was the last thing I expected – talk about being off guard!
I hope things change for our market. Maybe I’m naïve about some things to include the importance of empowering people to express themselves. I guess I will always be of the opinion that someone will make the time and consideration to listen. Radio is a business for which I believe is worth fighting for and IMHO, you should too.
Sorry for sounding preachy - I just hate apathy.
Well, at least for Jacksonville I do see some parallels. As a contributor to this board, I can understand and appreciate that what excites or motivates me may not interest others and that’s OK. Even given that, occasionally others will bring up really good topics that receive little or no response. Our friends in the Panhandle and even Gainesville /Ocala seem to always be motivated enough to post about a wide range of subjects. For Jacksonville, the feeling for a casual observer is that the radio community either doesn’t care, doesn’t want to exert the energy as little will change or is fearful of reprisal by management. Maybe it’s all of it.
While I understand it’s fairly easy to figure out who is who on the boards, there are plenty of occasions where response to certain subjects would not jeopardize employment. Maybe it’s just my nature to see the glass half full. Certainly, I don’t like the state of radio, especially in our market. But gees, I may be an idiot about certain things but it’s rare to get direct response to almost anything whether it’s providing a PPM Report, discussing a life of rock ‘n roll, or questioning business practices of seeing formats die on the vine. Learning is a wondrous thing and we all benefit via communication. I’d like to make something clear – I’m not on some ego trip in seeking a lot of adulation on posts – what turns me on is the health and creativity of radio.
There’s a lot of potential change that could affect AM drive. There’s Elvis Duran – he’s pretty hot in a lot of markets. Is he coming to Jax? Who knows/there’s no subject on it. We saw L&T loose Dallas. One would think there would be a lot of buzz about their future in Jax especially with the Alternative format war. I can certainly go on and on.
Hopefully, behind the scenes, encouraging words are spoken to those in prominent roles in the market who find themselves out of work. My impression is the radio community is cold and indifferent to its own if I were to use the lack of response here as a barometer. As an example, given Bob Schumann’s (sp) exit and his length of time in the market, I would have expected at least a dozen responses. His exit has really gotten to me because that was the last thing I expected – talk about being off guard!
I hope things change for our market. Maybe I’m naïve about some things to include the importance of empowering people to express themselves. I guess I will always be of the opinion that someone will make the time and consideration to listen. Radio is a business for which I believe is worth fighting for and IMHO, you should too.
Sorry for sounding preachy - I just hate apathy.