Embrace Individuality

Has radio lost its way? In my opinion, the "way back" is for the medium to rediscover individuality.

Radio cannot clone success. It must be built.

One radio station at a time.
One daypart at a time.
One entertainer at a time.
One record at a time.

Passion needs to earned, one listener at a time.

To accomplish this:
Know your core.
Enthrall them.

That's what radio people have always wanted to do from day one. It wasn't the guy behind the mic who said "let's save money by firing people." The guy behind the mic said "I'm gonna effing OWN this town. Then let the sales people raise rates."

In the old days, the market's 500 pound gorilla wasn't just a ratings monster, it was a sales monster too. I remember a PD who used to bitch about his fax-machine sales staff. He'd built an arbitron juggernaut through hard work, sweat, creativity and love for the medium. Meanwhile, too many of his salespeople weren't even going out to make sales. They'd sit at their desks and wait for the orders to get faxed in. Today, that radio station is still a market monster - but you can bet your ass their budget is a fraction of what it was 15 years ago.

And. That's. Crap.

Look at an example from last week: KRBE. Cumulus bought a special station. The first thing they did upon taking over was fire a talented engineer and push out a successful G.M.

And. That's. Crap.

Cumulus should be ashamed for firing people who more than got the job done.

The saddest day of my radio career was the day I held in my hand research that proved my radio station was on the right track. It was the same day corporate announced the 'new direction' for my station because our current direction made no sense to suits fifteen hundred milesaway who wanted us to be a clone of a station over a thousand miles away from both them and us.

It's not often in this business you find yourself in a position to build something truly special.

What can I say? They broke my heart.

I keep hoping someone will come along and start prioritizing individual success again. I suppose the problem there is that these companies own too many stations, which lead to seeking simple solutions for complex problems.

Don't cut expenses.
Don't clone properties.
Build greatness, one station at a time, because, for the listener, it's the same as it always was:

If Station X rocks, they listen.
If Station X sucks, they don't.

Until owners understand and even embrace that basic truth about radio, radio will be stagnant at best.

The answer is individuality.