Requiem for a Wabbit

You know that thing Beloit College does every year with their "Mindset List"? The one that lists things that incoming freshmen know and don't know and are too young to know? The one made up of random and sometimes useless trivia seemingly designed to make you feel really old? The one that radio morning shows invariably use as filler? I know, it's a little early for this year's version, but I thought about that list the other day while listening to a podcast and hearing something I hadn't really considered. It involved Bugs Bunny. No, really. Stick with me here.

The podcast was Cartoon Network's "Drawn: The Story Of Animation," and in discussing how Bugs Bunny became the icon he is, one of the interview subjects noted that the old Warner Bros. cartoons no longer air on TV the way they used to air, that while Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were staples of every American kid's afternoon for decades, kids today just won't see them unless they seek them out. Sure, there were a couple of stabs at revival series a few years back, but they kind of came and went without much notice. "Space Jam" came out 22 years ago and is a thing more for older Millennials than anyone else. The upshot: It's likely that generations coming of age today and in the future really don't know who Bugs Bunny is, or at the very least have far less connection to the character than their elders.

It may not be true that cultural references are changing faster these days. It might just SEEM that way because we're all getting older. Still, things are changing, and for an industry that places a great deal of emphasis on knowing its audience, it's instructive to remember that things you might assume are universal might not be, and some of those things may make you seem... well, old.

And that's not to suggest that you start referring exclusively to things that appeal to 15-year-olds (unless you, yourself, are 15 years old, in which case, carry on). You don't want to be that creepy. But you do have to watch out for references that not everyone is going to understand or find relevant, which goes back to the old "know your audience" thing every radio station has done, that thing where everyone site in a conference room and throws out "facts" about the ultimate target listener ("She's 37 years old! She has two kids! She worked in public relations but put it aside to raise her kids! She shops at Publix! She frets about driving the kids to soccer practice! She likes Taylor Swift!") and someone cuts out pictures from magazines and pastes them into a crude collage and posts it in the studio so everyone can "see" the listener, and somehow the station continues to sound just like a thousand other stations.

Okay, that's unfair. Many stations do a good job of addressing the interests of their audience. But when you hear that young people might not know or care who Bugs Bunny is, you have to realize that keeping up with your audience is an ongoing, changing, evolving thing, and if you have any hope of attracting and keeping younger audiences, you're going to have to constantly revise your frame of reference and keep up with them. You can still refer to some of the old standbys, but know that some of your audience isn't necessarily going to get the references. If you're in your 20s now, Bob Hope is the name they took off an airport, Richard Nixon was a President you might have learned about in high school, and Biggie and Tupac were probably gone before you were out of diapers. You might want to update your material.

Or not, if you or your station are content with remaining targeted at an older audience, and for traditional, politically-oriented talk radio on AM, that's pretty much what you have to do, riding that audience into the sunset, because you aren't going to attract new and younger listeners to an AM station in 2018, and that's more common sense than defeatism. You go for what you can reasonably expect to get. Even so, there's value to understanding not only the cultural differences between generations but the political differences; your view on things like insurance, daycare, employment, taxes, commuting, practically everything is going to be altered by your stage in life, and seniors and Gen X and Millennials and younger will be coming at these things with different concerns. Understanding that helps you to gain, and communicate, more insight on those issues.

All of that means that while most people can just grumble and be curmudgeonly and all "get off my lawn" about how "these kids today" don't know the things their elders take for granted that everyone knows, it's really just part of a process that has been going on since time began, and if you're someone trying to communicate with large audiences -- like a radio host or station -- being aware of different frames of reference is important, even if you don't necessarily talk about it on the air. The more you know about all generations' awareness of everything, the better prepared you are to entertain and inform. That means knowing that some of the people you're talking to know Rick and Morty a lot better than they know Bugs Bunny, and that's not a bad thing or a good thing, it's just how we're evolving.

TL;DR: We're all getting old.

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Don't forget that you can see me at The Conclave, July 18-20 in Minnesota (register here), on a panel about podcasting or something like that. I'll also be making a personal appearance at Ralphs supermarket later today, buying chicken and bread and maybe something for dessert. See you there!

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
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