The Sauerbraten-Time Continuum

We had dinner in 1938 the other night.

It was our anniversary, we had dinner at the venerable Hollywood institution Musso and Frank Grill, and it's not an exaggeration to say that dining there is almost certainly exactly what it was like in the '30s. The decor is the same, from the red booths to the neon "Cocktails" sign. There's no TV over the bar. The waiters are all dressed in red vests and fill your glass before you even notice you need them to do so. The menu is what I imagine it was back then, too, and with that I'll recommend that if you go on a Wednesday, order the sauerbraten special, which has been the Wednesday special forever. I don't care if you don't like sauerbraten, don't know what sauerbraten is, or a sauerbraten once ripped off your cousin in a real estate deal. Just order it and be transported to Old Hollywood.

But you know this isn't a restaurant review column, so here we go with the tortured analogies about radio.

Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing. We all love remembering things from our youth. The danger comes in becoming one of those people who decries what things have become and pining for the "good old days" when men were men and you could get an entire meal plus dessert and a scalp massage for a nickel. Radio people are all about the "good old days," posting misty-eyed reminiscences on Facebook about when Top 40 was on AM and we had local jocks talking up the records and the Fairness Doctrine made talk radio orderly. It's why, whenever anyone tries something new and different, it gets shot down by friendly fire, people in our own industry at best doubting its chances for success. I've been at stations where holdover staffers after a format change actively bad-mouthed the new format, which did not help. It's ingrained in radio as it is in other businesses.

As much as we loved dining in a real-life approximation of the old days, we would not want to do it all the time. It's great to know it's there, and it's fun for a special occasion, but at some point, you need something different. I don't want to curl up into a ball and wish for the present to go away, as stressful and at times dystopian as today can be. Radio has changed, and not for the better, but the future, if it's going to improve, can't be the past. We remember the past to learn our lessons and build on them, but we don't need to slavishly replicate the past. Besides, Top 40 radio from 1966 doesn't resonate with anyone under the age of, let's be generous, 40. Older folks remember it warmly -- how many of us were over the moon hearing KHJ's Boss Jocks all over "Once Upon a Time In Hollywood"? -- but it's 2021 and time to move on.

All of which is to advocate for trying something different, to which the radio industry has always been allergic. Let the old days be old, to be visited on occasion but not fetishized and kept around long after everyone's moved on. It's okay to retain a love for the way things were, as long as you're open to the idea that, in some ways, the new has the potential to be better. Besides, in 1919, Musso and Frank Grill was itself the new kid on the block. A radio format, a show, a podcast that hasn't even been thought up yet could be -- and probably will be -- something people are nostalgic about in 2069. Visiting the past is fun, but it should make you determined to create the next legend, not a copy of an old one.

And, seriously, go on a Wednesday and order the sauerbraten special.

=============================

Also not wallowing in nostalgia is All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep section, which is constantly updated and therefore qualifies as "new." I get to make that judgment because I said so. Just go there by clicking here, and you can also follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics and find 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.

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.

=============================

Speaking of change, I have a big change coming up soon, and I'll tell you about it... soon enough. I'll leave it at that for now, because if there's a lesson to learn from radio's past, it's that teasing topics works.

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