Career Day

What did you want to be when you decided you wanted to be in radio?

Maybe you saw yourself as a big-time host in New York or Los Angeles. Maybe you imagined yourself as Rush or Howard or Seacrest, syndicated everywhere. Perhaps you were aiming towards dominating a smaller market, putting down roots and being recognized everywhere you went in town. Maybe you thought you'd eventually own stations. Whatever your goal, you had one.

That's what's missing today. Aspiration. There are few if any goals in radio to which a young, creative person can aspire. If radio has a future -- and I recognize that some of you are thinking right now that it doesn't -- it will have to offer creative people a chance at something worth the ladder-climbing. It has to offer a ladder.

Look at it from the perspective of someone wanting to create and produce something, anything, in any medium. Say they go into radio. What can they expect? What are they seeing? A kid in the '60s might have dreamed of being a WABC All American or a WMCA Good Guy or a KHJ Boss Jock. A kid today has so many other options that don't involve formats and program directors and FCC rules, options that have international reach and lay open the possibility of making money as an "influencer" just by taking pictures of yourself or talking into your webcam. What does radio offer?

The magic of being that voice on the radio isn't what it used to be, not when generations are coming up considering podcasting to be the primary spoken word audio format and streaming services to be where they get their music, no jocks needed, nobody talking over the intros. What those of us of a certain age feel for radio isn't part of their lives. You may not think this is your problem if you're not a newbie yourself, but it is, because the survival of your industry needs young people to participate, on the air, behind the scenes, and as listeners. They won't if they don't see themselves having anything desirable to achieve in the business. If an entry-level radio job -- intern, say, or street teamer -- doesn't seem to lead anywhere, or getting a small-market hosting gig leads only to more of the same (if you're lucky, that is) because voice-tracking and syndication ate up all the better jobs you once could have gotten, why would you even think of working in that business?

It's not like there isn't recognition of the need to recruit and develop talent. Years ago, at an early Worldwide Radio Summit, I asked a group executive why a young, creative person would even think of going into radio considering the state of the industry and the lack of support for talent development, and he didn't have an answer. Since then, there have been steps like the National Radio Talent System's programs, and that's encouraging. But it's far from enough, and it doesn't address the larger issue: What's the end game for newcomers? Can they see themselves having a shot at developing a career? And doing what -- reading liner cards and voice tracking dozens of markets for no additional pay? Watching the board while a syndicated talk show airs? Trying to sell ads as the industry pushes programmatic, which would largely eliminate the need for human intervention?

The rush to cut costs and jobs to please investors and stave off another bankruptcy ignores the need for, you know, humans. Radio was built on its ability to connect with listeners, a warm, personal, direct relationship that you don't get from television or newspapers or any other medium. Podcasts do, but they're not live. Radio can still do that, but it needs talent, and talent has other, more potentially fulfilling places to go.

And go they will, if you're telling them there's a low ceiling on what they can achieve in this business. Ask yourself if you'd go into radio today as a newcomer, knowing what you know. Then ask yourself what radio would need to do to convince you that you have a future doing this.

That is what this industry needs to determine. It's not enough to pay lip service to talent development, or to invest in podcasting (where the question becomes "what can you do for me that I can't do myself?" and the answer is "we could run promos for your shows on our stations, but we only do that for a handful of podcasts, sorry"). There has to be something to which people can aspire. Radio was once a dream job. It needs to get people dreaming again.

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Oh, yeah, that. Fancy. It's gonna get a little busier here. But to answer a question I've been asked several times in the last week, yes, I'm intending to keep writing this column despite the new title and responsibilities. You can't get rid of me that easily.

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
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