Resurgence of Radio?

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Was it last Thursday or Friday that Bernanke said that the signs of an improving economy were misleading because of many of the chronically unemployed are not being counted. They just stopped looking for work.

This isn't the forum for us to get carried away with discussion of the economy. We did get to this point because the status of the economy over the next few years may well influence status-quo in the media world, or rampant change in the media world.

I don't think of Bernanke as a PRIMARY weather vane for us as consumers. His audience tends to be what in the current heated rhetoric of our nation might be called Wall Street or The One Percent. As the head of the Federal Reserve he sits upon The Bully Pulpit and he has to say things that will give encouragement and reprimands to the people who have their hands on the control levers of the Free Enterprise System. He is preaching a sermon to the people who can and must get things done that as part of government, he is not supposed to get done and we don't want him to have the power to get done. He has to measure carefully every word he says in public.

You and I can and should listen to what he says, but we have to keep in mind.... he may be from time to time including some verbiage that in basketball they call "trash talk".

I call to your attention that some of the "talking heads" on cable news and talk are observing that the Republican Presidential Campaign issues are changing because the economy is changing. Granted, that is primarily with the liberal talking heads. It is their explanation why the birth control issue became such a flash-point last week. "If we can't defeat Obama because of a bad economy, let's go after him as an enemy of the church." (More trash-talk from both sides!)

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I've put in a number of hours behind the steering wheel of an old green John Deere meditating on what the grown-ups meanst with this cows and cabbage issue. A head of cabbage is much larger than most vegetables. Large enough to challenge the angle and size of an open mouth of the cow. And the cow has no hands, no opposable thumb to hold the cabbage still like we would in eating an apple. Farm folks of 50 years ago, and even further back when the term apparently originated, did not have the kind of education in many cases to cause them to discuss the philosophical issues that puzzled city folks, so they dealt with what they observed where they lived.

I have no first-hand experience with milk produced by cows who enjoyed the luxury of cabbage. Feeding them the left-over pulp from a citrus juice plant is noticeable. But the one delicacy that every country boy who ever had to roll out of bed at 5 A.M. to help milk the cows before going to school can describe in living color is the Bitter Weed. When you drive through farm country where pastures still exist, a crop of bitter weeds looks so nice. Something you might actually put on a picture calendar. But you don't ever, ever, ever want the milk from the cows in that pasture. I've never taken quinine but from the descriptions of what it tastes like, I get this mental picture of Bitter Weeds in the pasture on a sunny day.

Has all of this got anything to do with the future of radio? Maybe only in a mind like mine. Radio as we know it is built on the idea that people are all simple dots, bars and lines on a graph put together by some audience survey organization. And it has been the best tool, maybe the only tool, that the industry has to work with.

In my cynical moments I get the idea that the entire media industry assumes every kid in America grows up eating pop-tarts or the equivalent for breakfast, and goes to a concert every night, and has the mental capacity that would result from such a lifestyle. What does the guy want to hear that works in a warehouse in Ohio but grew up in Coal Country in Kentucky or West Virginia.What does the lady want to hear who grew up "on the wrong side of the tracks" in Macon, GA and today has an MBA and works in the field of Business Process Improvement. What about the preacher's kid who worked as a Forest Ranger for 20 years and has now settled down in Denver to work in an office and raise a family. The world is full of people with these crazy-quilt backgrounds that my mind just can't see fitting into the radio audience today.... no matter how good or how bad the economy becomes over the next two or three years.

 

[davideduardo]

Old brains rarely have new ideas.

Yeah? At what age did Steve Jobs have his best and most productive ideas?

Older "brains" may grow into a comfort zone, and be less prone to risk. But ideas are not the exclusive terrain of youth.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Our collection of community values have certainly changed through the years...

My view is different; people and their personal values have indeed changed, but standards haven't. Standards have largley been abandoned.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

My view is different; people and their personal values have indeed changed, but standards haven't. Standards have largley been abandoned.

That is a good contribution to the conversation. If radio management is going to do a good job of programming they need a good understanding of the terms.

One of our political parties has made the term "Family Values" a part of their dogma, their proclamation. You suggest the "Personal Values" have changed but in your description and comparison, you are indicating that your definition of personal values is maybe different than what I think of, and then you describe: "standards" as in "THE STANDARDS" which do not change.

Who defines "The Standards"? Can "The Standards" never be changed? What if I proclaim that my "Personal Values" are my definition of how to implement "The Standards" if you are my age, living in my geography, living on my available economic resources while making minor adjustments for the fact that "the world all around me is going to hell in a handbasket".... which is apparently the observation of every generation from the beginning of time.

Remember, we're really evaluating whether radio is declining, radio is surging or radio is now ready for resurgence. So pretend (this takes some vivid imagination)... pretend I am 35 years old, I have a fabulous resume of success in the radio business and a station in Atlanta comes and hires me away from my assignment with some other company that has me toiling in Denver or Buffalo or somewhere.

My job is now to program their Atlanta property(properties) to be examples of radio resurgency putting money in the bank. Do personal values, family values, standards, accepted mores have any impact on me and how I do my job?

 

[MickeyD]

Old brains rarely have new ideas.

Yeah? At what age did Steve Jobs have his best and most productive ideas?

Older "brains" may grow into a comfort zone, and be less prone to risk. But ideas are not the exclusive terrain of youth.

Steve Jobs managed younger brains with a bull whip. He wasn't actively developing anything with cancer. He was a good manager.

 

[MickeyD]

Our collection of community values have certainly changed through the years...

My view is different; people and their personal values have indeed changed, but standards haven't. Standards have largley been abandoned.

YOU ARE CORRECT SIR!

 

[davideduardo]

Steve Jobs managed younger brains with a bull whip. He wasn't actively developing anything with cancer. He was a good manager.

First, management is one of the most creative aspects of business.

Putting together teams, identifying ideas with value, and encouraging the development of only the ones that had market potential is an example of considerable developmental skills.

I recall, anecdotally, on case where I managed a very creative program director who came up with eight or ten new ideas each week. I only approved one or two, and after a while, he felt rejected and we talked about it. I explained that some ideas were too expensive, some to limited in return on investment and some just did not hold up. But if we picked the best couple of things each week, while our competitor did nothing new for months on end, we would win. The ensuing teamwork took us above the station that had been #1 for many decades in a decisive victory. Ages? I was 24, he was nearly 50. Now tell me about older people not having ideas.

 

[MickeyD]

Steve Jobs managed younger brains with a bull whip. He wasn't actively developing anything with cancer. He was a good manager.

First, management is one of the most creative aspects of business.

Putting together teams, identifying ideas with value, and encouraging the development of only the ones that had market potential is an example of considerable developmental skills.

I recall, anecdotally, on case where I managed a very creative program director who came up with eight or ten new ideas each week. I only approved one or two, and after a while, he felt rejected and we talked about it. I explained that some ideas were too expensive, some to limited in return on investment and some just did not hold up. But if we picked the best couple of things each week, while our competitor did nothing new for months on end, we would win. The ensuing teamwork took us above the station that had been #1 for many decades in a decisive victory. Ages? I was 24, he was nearly 50. Now tell me about older people not having ideas.

Back in the day when things remained the same for decades it was easy. You could rely on experience but today the ten or twenty year old experience is no longer valid. The Radio and TV business has changed drastically (any business for that matter). This posted twice for some reason.

 

[MickeyD]

Steve Jobs managed younger brains with a bull whip. He wasn't actively developing anything with cancer. He was a good manager.

First, management is one of the most creative aspects of business.

Putting together teams, identifying ideas with value, and encouraging the development of only the ones that had market potential is an example of considerable developmental skills.

I recall, anecdotally, on case where I managed a very creative program director who came up with eight or ten new ideas each week. I only approved one or two, and after a while, he felt rejected and we talked about it. I explained that some ideas were too expensive, some to limited in return on investment and some just did not hold up. But if we picked the best couple of things each week, while our competitor did nothing new for months on end, we would win. The ensuing teamwork took us above the station that had been #1 for many decades in a decisive victory. Ages? I was 24, he was nearly 50. Now tell me about older people not having ideas.

Back in the day when things remained the same for decades it was easy. You could rely on experience but today the ten or twenty year old experience is no longer valid. The Radio and TV business has changed drastically (any business for that matter).

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Back in the day when things remained the same for decades it was easy. You could rely on experience but today the ten or twenty year old experience is no longer valid. The Radio and TV business has changed drastically (any business for that matter).

I think you have a different view of "experience" than David does. As I read your post I get the idea that you see experience simply as memory.... as in "I know what works because I have seen it before, and I have seen what fails before." And frankly, that is about all experience does for some people.

Ideally, if a person has the mental skills to "manage"... memories can be analyzed. An idea is presented to do something NEW, something never done before, and a true "manager" can see WHY things failed in the past and why things worked in the past, and can make an intelligent prediction whether some new, never seen before (never heard before?) concept will work.

There is "monkey see, monkey do" mental ability. There is "monkey think, monkey invent" mental ability.

 

[davideduardo]

Back in the day when things remained the same for decades it was easy. You could rely on experience but today the ten or twenty year old experience is no longer valid. The Radio and TV business has changed drastically (any business for that matter).

A friend, upon being fired, was told, "son, you don't learn from your successes."

Experience is a great teacher. As GRC mentions, experience hones the creative and analytical skills of the best thinkers.

And, while you may not have been interested or involved in radio for long, there have been changes every bit as significant and even as fast moving as those happening today.

The speed at which TV took over drama, comedy and similar programming following the lift of the Freeze was much faster than the gradual intrusion of new media into radio's listenership and revenue. Radio responded by creating music formats, although the purveyors of network drama on radio took a long time to realize they were dead.

The somewhat less speedy but nonetheless rapid shift of listening from AM to FM is another case. Between the FCC simulcast mandate on 1/1/67 to FM acquiring a majority of listening status was almost exactly a decade.

I could add in other issues that created major changes such as the AFM and Petrillo, W.W. II, the profusion of new stations after the War, etc., etc., as examples of pretty fast moving changes or issues and you could see that nothing stayed the same for decades as you assert.

 

[Lotus503]

Do you want to know want to know how to bring young people back to listening to the radio?

Go to reelradio.com and listen to the airchecks from the time you were growing up. Also...while you're at it...go to oldiesradio.us and listen to Wolfman Jack on Saturday & Sunday evenings.

The radio pros you hear on these sites succeeded back then and the same formulas could work today...with a few modernization adjustments, of course.

People have forgotten what made radio so great back in the day. It wasn't shock-jocks, it was radio people who were dedicated to the listeners. They made radio fun and exciting to listen to. They made people want to be involved.

Even with all of the technology, young people haven't changed. As a matter of fact, most of the young people that I either know personally or have just spoken to about radio and music, listen to much of the same music that we listened to growing up in the 1960s to the 1980s. The Top-40 music scene on the radio is a bit...well...lame.

I keep hoping that they'll be a 'P. T. Barnum' in the radio world who will step up and put the spark back into music radio...

 

[landtuna]

I agree with much of what you said Lotus.

When I was a teenager the people who spoke for us were the DJ's. They were the social network of the day and kept us advised of events, new music, concerts, football scores - everything that is of interest to teens and young adults.

Now days there is no one doing this. True, they have peer-to-peer comm ability (we did too, it was called the telephone) but all they see are wackos and weirdos whose music is crap and who have to dress funny to be obvious.

Bring back the DJ's. Give them the freedom to play the music their audiences want to hear. Send them out on remotes, stage shows, concerts and other events popular with teens. But most of all let them be showmen and "do their thing" with emotion and personality. There is some great talent not being utilized right now. Make it interesting and entertaining and the audience will show up.

 

[MickeyD]

I agree with much of what you said Lotus.

When I was a teenager the people who spoke for us were the DJ's. They were the social network of the day and kept us advised of events, new music, concerts, football scores - everything that is of interest to teens and young adults.

Now days there is no one doing this. True, they have peer-to-peer comm ability (we did too, it was called the telephone) but all they see are wackos and weirdos whose music is crap and who have to dress funny to be obvious.

Bring back the DJ's. Give them the freedom to play the music their audiences want to hear. Send them out on remotes, stage shows, concerts and other events popular with teens. But most of all let them be showmen and "do their thing" with emotion and personality. There is some great talent not being utilized right now. Make it interesting and entertaining and the audience will show up.

When we were young radio WAS OUR INTERNET. That is simply not the case anymore. Listeners would come down to a radio remote to see their favorite DJ. That wouldn't happen today. I have been to some pretty large remotes in NJ and the turn-out was terrible. The money that allowed stations to hire the best is gone and when many stations are iPods plugged into the transmitter, there is no interest or money to do it right. The days when a 1KW AM station owned a market are over.

 

[TheBigA]

Do you want to know want to know how to bring young people back to listening to the radio?

Go to reelradio.com and listen to the airchecks from the time you were growing up. Also...while you're at it...go to oldiesradio.us and listen to Wolfman Jack on Saturday & Sunday evenings.

When you grew up in the 60s, how did you feel about old time radio drama? Sitting around the radio and listening to radio the way it was done in the 30s?

Everyone feels what they did growing up was the best, and future generations should listen to the same music, and the same kind of radio. Have you listened to the music young people today listen to? It's very different from the music Wolfman Jack played. So his presentation won't work with a lot of today's music, and doesn't relate to the lifestyles of today's young people. You can't just bring back what worked in the past ansd expect today's generation to feel the same way you did. It didn't work when you were young either. So enjoy the oldies radio stations, and don't tell young people what they should listen to. They aren't interested in what older people want them to hear. Just like you didn't care what your parents wanted you to hear back when you were their age.

 

[TheBigA]

Bring back the DJ's. Give them the freedom to play the music their audiences want to hear.

As I've said many times before, even back in the day, DJs didn't have "the freedom to play the music audiences want to hear." After the payola scandals, DJs lost the freedom to play anything. Their music lists were dictated by PDs and MDs. By the 70s, those music lists were dictated by consultants. It is total mythology that DJs had lots of musical freedom. They didn't. They played what they were told, and what fit the specific format they worked in.

 

[MickeyD]

Do you want to know want to know how to bring young people back to listening to the radio?

Go to reelradio.com and listen to the airchecks from the time you were growing up. Also...while you're at it...go to oldiesradio.us and listen to Wolfman Jack on Saturday & Sunday evenings.

The radio pros you hear on these sites succeeded back then and the same formulas could work today...with a few modernization adjustments, of course.

People have forgotten what made radio so great back in the day. It wasn't shock-jocks, it was radio people who were dedicated to the listeners. They made radio fun and exciting to listen to. They made people want to be involved.

Even with all of the technology, young people haven't changed. As a matter of fact, most of the young people that I either know personally or have just spoken to about radio and music, listen to much of the same music that we listened to growing up in the 1960s to the 1980s. The Top-40 music scene on the radio is a bit...well...lame.

I keep hoping that they'll be a 'P. T. Barnum' in the radio world who will step up and put the spark back into music radio...

I listen to the master of radio The Real Don Steele, KHJ on Reelradio. I never heard him live or even when he was alive but he had more energy than most of the east coast guys.

 

[borderblaster]

Was it Roger Christian on KHJ who produced or managed the Beach Boys? As I recall reading he was prohibited from playing any Beach Boys song on his shift until it reached the top 10.

The bedroom of myself and everyone I grew up with in the 1970s consisted of a stereo. Today it consiste of a big screen TV, game system, smartphone, laptop and ? The DJs were all we had (but in the mid 70s, many I grew up with were just as happy with the automated station replaying TM Stereo Rock tapes). If I were to see two recurring themes that these boards seem to think is radio's salvation from all things digital it would be 1) stop playing the hits and play obscure songs and 2) DJs who sound like DJs did in the 1960s and 70s. Neither are an answer for today. People can listen to all the obscure songs they like without having to sit through yours, and care little about DJ patter.

 

[landtuna]

When we were young radio WAS OUR INTERNET. That is simply not the case anymore. Listeners would come down to a radio remote to see their favorite DJ. That wouldn't happen today. I have been to some pretty large remotes in NJ and the turn-out was terrible. The money that allowed stations to hire the best is gone and when many stations are iPods plugged into the transmitter, there is no interest or money to do it right. The days when a 1KW AM station owned a market are over.

The topic was "Resurgence of Radio" and the discussion is what needs to happen to get young people interested again. Repeating the status quo and moaning that it will not change are self-defeating.

Your first sentence is absolutely incorrect. When I was a kid virtually all of our social interaction was done face-to-face. We didn't set behind a keyboard interfacing with people we hadn't met in person. When the DJ came to our sock hop we were there, anxious to see in person what that voice that was our homework companion looked and sounded like in person. When there was a remote we drove by, if for nothing more than getting to talk with the radio personality or maybe to see how he worked and perhaps pursue a career one day. They appeared at store openings, car lots, football games and even on TV stations. It is 50 years after the fact and I can still remember the names and faces of my favorite DJ's of the era. I'll bet I am pretty typical of my peers.

The Internet is a valuable tool and for some it provides a social interaction where face-to-face is difficult but it is not a good substitute for people-to-people skills.

I agree that today's radio is but a skeleton of its former self. The DJ's of today are not permitted to perform the way they once were and there is virtually no personal interaction on the radio or off. Unless that changes young people will continue to ignore radio and that part of the radio experience will eventually disappear.

 

[landtuna]

Bring back the DJ's. Give them the freedom to play the music their audiences want to hear.

As I've said many times before, even back in the day, DJs didn't have "the freedom to play the music audiences want to hear." After the payola scandals, DJs lost the freedom to play anything. Their music lists were dictated by PDs and MDs. By the 70s, those music lists were dictated by consultants. It is total mythology that DJs had lots of musical freedom. They didn't. They played what they were told, and what fit the specific format they worked in.

We are talking about the "resurgence of radio". I'm giving my opinion as to what must happen to get young people interested again. If you in the biz continue to say no then you have sealed your own fate because you are failing now and will continue to fail unless dramatic changes are made.

Teen radio was popular years ago because it was informative, exciting and entertaining. Get back to the basics or look for another career.

BTW, perhaps on the radio the playlists were dictated but I know personally of several stations where the playlist was a committee function consisting of the DJ's themselves. So apparently there were exceptions to your "rule". And when the DJ appeared at a dance they played whatever the audience requested. Some of this translated back to the station.