Reviewing 2021 Because It’s The End Of The Year And That’s What We Do

2021 is ending for this column the same way it began, which is to say that I wrote a column, didn't like how it came out, deleted the whole thing, and ended up staring at a blank page. Some things never change.

Talk radio hasn't changed, either, not in decades, but we knew that already. If we learned anything about talk radio this year, it's that going on the air with anti-vaccine talk or voicing doubts about the vaccines ("just asking questions!") usually doesn't end well. And we learned that the people who own and run talk radio stations really don't care that their hosts sometimes spread falsehoods (okay, lies), because as long as they keep that core audience happy and they can squeeze a few extra dollars of revenue out of their AM signals with as little expenditure as possible, it doesn't matter how they do it.

I didn't say this year wasn't a little depressing.

The biggest news in talk radio in 2021, of course, was Rush Limbaugh's passing in February, and the industry's unfocused approach to replacing him. We already knew that you couldn't replace Rush with another Rush, but some stations and networks tried anyway, and the jury's still out on that. I'd have liked to see more, to use a terribly cliched term, outside-the-box thinking by radio programmers tasked to find new talent, but, predictably, we got a sea of like thinkers, only younger. Nobody's quite broken out of that pack yet, and nobody's really doing anything unique and entertaining. It's strange, because Rush's success came because his act was, at the time, different, unique, instantly identifiable as his own. It would make sense to look for someone similarly singular. Maybe we'll find one next year.

The addition of FM simulcasts for AM all-news stations was another big story, with KNX Los Angeles making it just under the wire this year. It's overdue -- decades overdue -- and for all the people voicing skepticism that younger listeners used to hearing music on FM will adapt, this is not all about that, it's about preserving what successful programming remains on the AM dial for at least another generation. Sure, streaming is another way to do that, but there's still massive value in having an FM signal, both in reaching the audience that's there already and in building the brand you want people to seek out online. It doesn't have to be WTOP-successful to be a success. And FM listeners ARE used to spoken word content, unless you've never strayed towards the public radio part of the dial.

Podcasting is in the same transitional position it was in before the pandemic, still growing, not as fast as one might assume but growing. One interesting development was to see some of the earliest big-money exclusive deals expire and those shows finding new (and free-distribution) homes, indicating that the grass might not always be greener when it comes to big-name podcasts going behind a paywall. Nevertheless, we still got a steady stream of production deal announcements, which, as James Cridland has pointed out, have yet to result in actual productions. At least they made for some nice press releases.

But there's hope, too, as we emerged from the pandemic to find that the pandemic hadn't quite finished with us. The radio industry saw its revenues rebound, not always to 2019 levels but at least heading upwards. Podcasters are still looking for better ways to monetize but gained a lot more flexibility to do so with practically every platform, even Apple, offering the option to sell paid subscriptions.

It's encouraging, too, that we saw some content creators find ways to make things work in non-traditional ways. Draft Kings bought VSiN and did a huge sponsorship deal allowing Dan Le Batard to do his show and podcast without having to deal with either broadcast or satellite radio, and FanDuel just made Pat McAfee very happy with an even bigger sponsorship deal that will allow him to do what he does online and on satellite the way he wants to do it. There may not have been a "Serial"-style breakout hit, but some new podcasts established themselves among the top shows -- "Smartless" comes to mind -- and the usual suspects like "The Daily" did just fine as well. And the possibilities are still wide open. If we didn't see any new trends develop, and old trends just continued to plug away (we haven't gotten enough true crime or daily news updates? Really? Well, okay), podcasting is ending the year still growing, and it's inevitable that someone somewhere will somehow come up with another series that catches the public's ears and brings more people into the tent and advertisers and subscribers into the fold.

And sports radio spawned sports betting radio, which is gonna be interesting. I have no doubt sports gambling will be a massive industry, more massive than it already is, as more states come on board. Will radio networks that talk about nothing but betting be successful? I'm not certain, and if it's relegated to bad AM signals with little or no marketing it's going to be a tough road, but I'm glad someone's trying it, and it'll be interesting to see if that becomes a second, parallel format to traditional sports radio or whether traditional sports radio will end up folding more gambling talk into the mix, and what that'll mean for stations that frequently veer off into non-sports topics. If you're listening for the pure entertainment value and the talk turns to betting advice, will you stay around or hit the Scan button? Guess we're gonna find out soon enough.

That's how we end 2021: both skeptical and optimistic, a strange combination to be sure. Maybe we'll see real change in 2022, and what form that will take is for another column, maybe the first one in the new year. In the meantime, go have yourself a nice holiday. Do something creative and fun. Make that your gift to yourself.

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Just one more reminder this year to check out All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep page, a good resource for your show or podcast. Find it 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.

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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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That, as you may have surmised from the content, is the last column for 2021. I'll be off beginning next Wednesday and I'll be back in January, in case you're keeping track. All Access will continue to offer industry news throughout the holidays, though, and you can follow me on Twitter @pmsimon for random stuff (disclaimer: not All Access' responsibility) and, most likely, updates on my pending cross-country move. May the rest of the year be happy for you and your family, and we'll meet up in just a few weeks, okay? Okay, then.

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