The Great Rekindling

Every year, as it did once again last week, National Radio Day comes and goes without much fanfare. The industry doesn't do anything to recognize it, maybe because it's one of those unofficial holidays that somebody made up for no apparent reason, and what you get is a bunch of jocks posting Johnny Fever-like lists of call letters from their careers as if they've mistaken Facebook for LinkedIn. And you get several people noting that it seems, every year, as if the only people celebrating National Radio Day are the hosts themselves. You rarely see a listener respond. It's all about self-congratulation.

I've given up trying to fight that. You can't expect to help anyone who doesn't want to help themselves, and when I noticed that, on National Radio Day, the largest radio station operator was using that hashtag to send out the exact same tweet from many of its stations, all at the same time, all asking the self-centered and pointless question "What's your favorite song to hear on our station?," it reminded me that management doesn't care enough to hire people for individual stations to engage social media users on a local level, that a lot of jocks are happy to just have a job, that the industry, rather than looking to grow, is just treading -- or bailing -- water and hoping that they can prolong things until retirement.

It doesn't have to be this way. Radio can still be viable. But there are precious few people in a position of authority with the imagination and foresight to do anything other than pare down their budgets and make random noises about being an "audio" company and investing in podcast producers, so here we are.

Sorry to be a downer right now, but it was a frustrating week, and I've been thinking about how so much of what's happened to radio was self-inflicted. You can't do things like that social media fail, or haphazard card-table-and-tent remotes in car dealer parking lots, or predictable talk shows and show-prep-service by-the-numbers voice tracks, and expect to connect with an audience increasingly used to getting what they want, when they want it.

Yeah, I'm on repeat mode now. It's largely the same thing I was saying when I started this column about 20 years ago. It gets really frustrating to see it happen, because I also happen to share something with most of you: I love radio. I love the medium. I get what the attraction is, because I lived it, the excitement of creating shows and stations, the feeling you get when you open the mic and know that thousands of people are listening to you, the pride you feel when you hear your station coming out of someone else's radio -- hey, that's mine, I did that! -- and knowing that you're following in the footsteps of some incredibly talented and creative people.

Can we still feel that way about radio? Well, look at podcasting. It may still not be generating the revenue we'd like to see, but it has more of the creative spark in it, even if a lot of the unscripted shows could stand some guidance and wisdom from people raised in radio who understand how to connect with listeners and communicate better. (Hey, podcast production companies: You know where to find me.) There are a lot of things that, over a decade into it, podcasting as an industry still needs to work out, not just revenue generation but discovery, measurement and attribution, representation of the sometimes conflicting interests of a business that ranges from massive media companies to some guy with a USB mic and a Chromebook... but that's how all nascent businesses develop.

For spoken word audio, podcasting is still a beacon of hope, and if you're thinking, hey, why is it taking so long?, the very fact that it's still a growing thing should be enough to convince you that it's a viable path forward. Remember how everyone had a blog, and then that boom busted? Everyone had a Tumblr? How long did those periods last? Podcasting is still here and there are new entrants, and new listeners, every day. A few more gotta-listen breakout hits and it'll get really interesting.

Can we get the same enthusiasm going about radio? Maybe we can. There's no reason why there can't be a breakout hit on broadcast radio if someone does something really unusual and different and creative. The main roadblock is at the top; I'm not confident that radio management would recognize a potential breakout if it was handed to them on a platter. They're too busy protecting what they have, and a lot of the more daring and innovative minds in the industry left for greener pastures long ago.

Meanwhile, for those of you still fighting the good fight in radio, I'm glad you're carrying that torch. And maybe because you're trying to do something different, National Radio Day 2022 will be a cause for some real celebration.

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I got nothin' for this postscript this week, so I'll just say go get vaccinated if you haven't yet done so, wear a mask where appropriate, be kind to everyone, adopt a pet from your local shelter or animal adoption group, look both ways before crossing, and I hope to be in a better mood next week. The bar hasn't been set very high.

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