A Sense Of Where You Are

One of the remaining things radio does that other media can't do as well is offer a sense of place. Oh, it's not like you can't get local content from a podcast or a TV show or a magazine, but there's something unique about getting into a car and turning on the radio and hearing something that tells you where you are without explicitly telling you where you are. It might be a host's or caller's accent. It might be a talk topic that could only be a point of discussion in one place. It might be a particular reference, or a song that was only a hit in one market. Localism is less about doing programming explicitly about a city or region than it's about the little things. You don't need a sign to tell you you're in New York; the accents, the brownstones and skyscrapers, the pizza joints, the sights and sounds and smells (let's not dwell on that last one) will tell you where you are. And a good local station can do the same.

When we talk about "localism" in media, it tends to involve things like public affairs shows on Sunday morning and PSAs and charity fundraiser events. That's what the NAB trots out to make its point about broadcasters' vital local service, and that's nice, but that isn't really what makes a station feel local. Driving around South Florida since we moved here a few months ago, it occurred to me that Miami used to be one of those radio markets where you knew almost instantly where you were when you tuned into several of the stations on the dial. It SOUNDED like Florida. Freestyle on Power 96, the mellow sound of Love 94 in every office lobby and elevator, Neil Rogers and the unique lineup at WIOD, the exiles on Radio Marti... even today, my mind connects those sounds with this area.

I'm not going to pass judgment on whether the radio dial here today sounds like this area quite yet; in fairness, I haven't listened to enough of it yet to make that call. There's a lot of local sports radio, and if talking a lot about "Heat Culture" and Tua Tagovailoa's perceived shortcomings sounds like Miami, well, that sounds like Miami. I hear plenty of Reggaeton, but that's made its way onto radio playlists pretty much everywhere. One unique feature of South Florida radio is the number of stations serving the Haitian community; you're just not going to hear Haitian KreyÚl on the radio in the rest of the U.S. I'm hoping that the longer I'm here, the more I hear this region reflected in what I hear live on the radio.

That may not be everyone's preference. A lot of people don't care about that; they want the music or talk they want, and where it's from and how they get it don't matter. A Spotify playlist sounds the same in L.A. as it does in New York and Chicago and Guam, and if all you want is that music, that'll do. However, if you want to feel a connection to your surroundings, if you want to get a feel for how things are in your community, the local touch radio can provide is a strategic advantage. There's room for national programming, there's room for generic programming, and there's a wide open opportunity for programming that sounds like its market.

It's something that other media can do but radio does best, and I can't really tell you why, because it's just an IYKYK moment when you're listening to something and it just clicks with everything else around, and it's something I don't feel when I hear a local podcast or watch a local TV show. Maybe it's that you're not looking for it when you find it. You know that when you choose a local podcast, you're going to get something local, but when you find it on the radio, it's by happenstance. Okay, look, I really can't explain it, but I know it when I hear it. When it's authentic, when it's clearly of its time and place, it's like no other medium. I hope the people in charge remember this when they're closing local studios and voice tracking everything; there are some advantages radio has over everyone else, and sounding like home is one of them.

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Next week, maybe I'll explore how you know you're in Florida when you see a Publix on every corner or someone driving 30 miles under the speed limit in the fast lane on I-95 while others are weaving in and out of lanes at 100 mph. Meanwhile, remember, April Fool's jokes aren't funny. Apologies to John McPhee (and Bill Bradley) for borrowing the title of this column. And, go 'Nova.

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