Lifeline

The radio industry prides itself on its service to the community in emergencies, and so, with large swaths of California on fire once again and utility company-imposed power outages affecting large numbers of people, I dutifully checked up on key news and talk radio stations in the state to see what they were doing.

They passed the test. Coverage was extensive. Down here in Southern California, KNX and KFI did what they always do, KNX with torrents of information and reports, KFI with coverage and context. KCBS and KSRO up north were on it, too. Some stations weren't wall-to-wall, but under the circumstances -- remember, this is a huge state with spread-out markets where part of the area can be in the midst of the apocalypse while another a short drive away can be totally calm and safe -- the radio dial provided what people needed. And, more importantly, it drew attention to the truth of what the industry has always claimed: There are times when radio is the only lifeline, because when PG&E or Edison cut your power, not only does that cut you off from TV and restrict you to the limits of your phone battery, it also has the nasty side effect of shutting off the cell phone antennae that connect you to the internet. No signal, no streaming, no information. Broadcast radio keeps going, and if you have an emergency hand-cranked radio (which you should), and the local stations are pumping out the information you need, that's how it's supposed to work.

You know there's gonna be a "but" coming up. Here it is.

In markets like Los Angeles or San Francisco, you can be relatively assured that your local news-talk station is going to cover an emergency, although with shrinking resources. I know that even the biggest stations are laboring under corporate-dictated conditions with smaller staffs and less flexibility, but they do what they can. And there are stations in some smaller markets, like KSRO, that marshal their forces and do amazing work in a crisis. But -- here's one "but" -- can the radio industry guarantee that if an emergency hits in a smaller market, local stations will have the resources to cover it? If we're talking about markets where the major consolidators have eliminated news departments and leave clusters unattended for nights and weekends, the answer is no. Whatever the truth is about Minot, the fact remains that there are significant expanses of America where radio has been left without the resources to cover emergencies. When radio becomes the only reliable conduit for information and can't provide it, that's a significant problem. It belies the industry's self-congratulation about its community service.

One more "but": Emergency service is great, but once the emergency is over, where will the listeners go? Once the fire's contained and the smoke clears, will people go back to other media? The answer is yes if the industry doesn't see the business opportunity presented by being not just the source when there's a crisis but being a go-to for information, period. As I've pointed out many times before, commercial radio is missing a bet. Newspapers, strip-mined by private equity and unable to successfully transition to digital, have in many markets abdicated the local news position. Digital news operations haven't consistently been able to either fill the gap or monetize it. Radio can do that. Public radio is trying, both on a local level and with statewide collaboratives like in Texas and the proposed Ohio partnership. Commercial radio should be doing that, both on broadcast radio and via podcasts, because it's a need it can satisfy that's unlikely to be filled by competing media, and which it's done before. It's also an industry that knows how to monetize the content in ways that digital entities haven't.

In the meantime, at least in California, at least this time, when Californians needed radio to come through, radio came through. I just wish it was always that way, everywhere. Serving the public and making money are not mutually exclusive.

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One way to keep people coming back to broadcast radio is to talk about things you can't here elsewhere. Same for podcasts -- talk about interesting stuff and people will come back for more. You know something? Even if you're just talking to people at a bar or in your living room, you want to have unusual and interesting things to say. Where can you find topics like that? Why, Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, of course. It's free. Click here and/or follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item.

Make sure you're subscribed to Today's Talk, the daily email newsletter with the top news stories in News, Talk, and Sports radio and podcasting. You can check off the appropriate boxes in your All Access account profile's Format Preferences and Email Preferences sections if you're not already getting it.

My podcast is "The Evening Bulletin with Perry Michael Simon," a quick (two minutes or less) daily thing, and you can get it by just clicking here, which should take you directly to the page or app that will work best for your device. It's also on Spotify; just search for it there, or ask for it on your Amazon Alexa-enabled device by saying "Alexa, play the Evening Bulletin podcast."

You can follow my personal Twitter account at @pmsimon, and my Instagram account (same handle, @pmsimon) as well. And you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pmsimon, and at pmsimon.com.

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Oh, yeah, here's a reminder that the west coast edition of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System conference is coming up on Saturday, November 16th at California State University-Long Beach. I'm on at least one and possibly two panels. You should come, even if you're not a college radio or podcast person. Find out more at mediaconferences.org. See you there.

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