Embraceable New

The Oscar nominations last week reminded me once again, as I mentioned in the closing of last week's column, that I've never won an award.

That's not a complaint. I've never really been in a position to win an award. They don't give Pulitzers for writing this kind of thing. Oh, I did get featured as "PD of the Week" in a trade magazine once, but that wasn't an award and the regular editor (who now works for us!) didn't write the interview. I was handed off to a writer who deeply hated the kind of talk radio he thought we were doing (I don't think he bothered to listen to the station or do his homework). Needless to say, his misapprehension of who I am and what I was doing led to the least enthusiastic "PD of the Week" column that ever appeared in that publication. It read like he wrote it at gunpoint. He went on to become a well-known political writer and "media watchdog." I went on to.... this.

Even back then, though, I knew I wouldn't win any awards even if there was an award to win, and that was okay by me. The larger question, though, was one that I have to credit then-consultant, now syndicated radio host Walter Sa... er, Sterling for asking at least 25 years ago. I remember him standing in my office asking of nobody in particular (he does that a lot), "why doesn't radio have an award for best new format? Why doesn't radio reward programming innovation?"

Great question. Almost 30 years later, we still don't.

Your immediate response might be, hey, that's because there hasn't been a new format since Jack FM. Fine, make it an award for best new spin on an old format. Make it an award for most unique station. How about best new host -- rookie of the year for radio? (EDITOR'S NOTE: Ben Simmons WAS a rookie.) (That's an NBA joke, for you non-sports fans.) I'd suggest best new morning show bit, but you know that people would immediately claim that they'd done the same bit in Jibip, Wisconsin back in 1983. But, you know, awards for the NEW.

New, in radio, is usually met with derision. We've been over this before. You try something different and a) you get no time to let it develop and to fix any problems that arise, and b) everyone in the industry rushes to say "it'll never work," unless it does, in which case c) everyone takes credit for its success. That's less of a problem when there's no innovation. And, no, slapping a new brand on the same old material is not innovation. We can't even come up with a new programming clock; if nobody's even willing to break for commercials at a different time, how can we expect them to come up with new ideas of any kind?

Yes, I know, can't risk it. Can't jeopardize the revenue stream. That's the kind of thinking that leads to stagnation; it's management by fear, in this case fear of investors, fear of the audience, fear that it won't work and radio will do to you what it's done to people who tried new ideas and got slapped down for it in the past. Best to keep your head down and hope the ax doesn't hit you in the next layoffs.

That's why most of the innovation is in podcasting, and as radio folks continue to gravitate to that business with the "the big boys are here, get out of our way" attitude, I hope they don't squash the impulse for innovation that's been energizing podcasting for the last decade. Podcasting is where you can try new stuff -- not just extending your radio brand to on-demand but really do different things. (And you can swear, too! Not advocating that so much as reminding you that there are no rules in podcasting, nobody has the magic formula for podcasting success, and the more creative you are, the more possibilities you can find there.) Also, at some point, someone's gonna make money doing it, whether you believe the numbers Bill Simmons pitched in that Wall Street Journal article or not. (My experience in podcasting is to be skeptical of ALL numbers, revenue or downloads, unless I can see the actual audited numbers. But, nevertheless, I'm optimistic that it will grow.)

Back to radio, then: Can we reward new ideas and new talent? Or are we going to keep doing the same thing over and over and funnel everything through the same formats and styles that haven't changed in 30 years? It doesn't have to be an actual award. All we need is to not react to unusual or left-field concepts with "it'll never work" or "someone tried that and it failed" or "we can't do that because nobody else has done it first." Perhaps it's heresy, but maybe the way forward isn't "the way we've always done it."

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My Super Bowl prediction? I predict that I'll eat too many chicken wings, I'll wander away from the TV when Maroon 5 comes on, and my Twitter feed will be overrun with Tony Romo comments. I'm pretty confident in all of that.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
www.facebook.com/pmsimon
Twitter @pmsimon
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