It has been interesting to read about the continued malaise that is a plague upon our radios in the Hudson Valley and Albany. The sad fact is that radio as many of us knew it in our childhood is dead. It just took 25 years for the corpse to give up the spirit. The final blow to radio happened the moment that computer automation took over the studio functions. But that was merely the coup de grace.
Radio started down the long slippery slope to oblivion when two trends started in the late 1970's. First, when owners began to realize that high priced radio talent was hurting their profits, they put their assets in programming and consultants rather than entertainment. Jocks "back then" knew the music and didn't need a "recipe" to make their shows work ... just a mike, some carts and a good stack of vinyl. But the moment that "managers" tried to do a job for which they neither had the training or skill, the quality of radio personnel started spinning around the bowl.
The second error in radio was greed. When corporate America sank its teeth into radio and started gobbling up the independents, creativity was shot through the heart. Jocks followed the same path as the program managers of the olden days ... the guys and gals who could pucker the best and plant a kiss on all four cheeks were in.
The new generation of "music broadcasting" is already in place. Artists don't need AM/FM radio to promote their new works. Web sites and satellite radio are already in place. Why listen to some loudmouth, low-rent jock/program director when you can play CD's, tapes, Sirius, iPods or anything else and not have to listen to six minutes of commercials every 20 minutes?
So let the Jacks and Scott Shannons and Delilahs and all of the other Max Headrooms of radio handle the voice duties. Nobody will be listening. And radio commercials will also be dead (meaning more slick radio ad salesmen to work selling Yellow Book or Pennysaver ads).
So let radio be left to Clear Channel, Infinity, Cumulus, Pamal and every other bargain basement shopper. The Randy Turners and Bob Millers of the world will have another few death gasps until they will need to pursue the career at Mickey D's that was always their true calling. Best of all, all those radio consultants who killed this industry with their asinine research and half-baked ideas can jump in the graves they dug.
The rest of us can "remember when" radio really was "the best."
Radio started down the long slippery slope to oblivion when two trends started in the late 1970's. First, when owners began to realize that high priced radio talent was hurting their profits, they put their assets in programming and consultants rather than entertainment. Jocks "back then" knew the music and didn't need a "recipe" to make their shows work ... just a mike, some carts and a good stack of vinyl. But the moment that "managers" tried to do a job for which they neither had the training or skill, the quality of radio personnel started spinning around the bowl.
The second error in radio was greed. When corporate America sank its teeth into radio and started gobbling up the independents, creativity was shot through the heart. Jocks followed the same path as the program managers of the olden days ... the guys and gals who could pucker the best and plant a kiss on all four cheeks were in.
The new generation of "music broadcasting" is already in place. Artists don't need AM/FM radio to promote their new works. Web sites and satellite radio are already in place. Why listen to some loudmouth, low-rent jock/program director when you can play CD's, tapes, Sirius, iPods or anything else and not have to listen to six minutes of commercials every 20 minutes?
So let the Jacks and Scott Shannons and Delilahs and all of the other Max Headrooms of radio handle the voice duties. Nobody will be listening. And radio commercials will also be dead (meaning more slick radio ad salesmen to work selling Yellow Book or Pennysaver ads).
So let radio be left to Clear Channel, Infinity, Cumulus, Pamal and every other bargain basement shopper. The Randy Turners and Bob Millers of the world will have another few death gasps until they will need to pursue the career at Mickey D's that was always their true calling. Best of all, all those radio consultants who killed this industry with their asinine research and half-baked ideas can jump in the graves they dug.
The rest of us can "remember when" radio really was "the best."