Two Dollars And A Dream

At this writing, the Mega Millions jackpot is at something like a zillion dollars, and, naturally, despite the fact that you have practically zero chance at winning, you're thinking about what you'd do with the money. And, equally naturally, I saw some posts on social media with radio people asking each other whether they'd buy a radio station if by some miracle they won. Some fantasized about buying whole major market clusters and changing them to fit their tastes, others figured they'd buy a single small station to play with, and still others said no, they'd pay off their mortgages and go on trips before that.

Me? I wouldn't buy a radio station, but then again I don't think I'd buy ANY media company at the moment. There are other investments far more likely to do better, especially in a rough economy with inflation and a tight advertising market, than radio, or television, or podcasting, or streaming video, or anything involving having to sell ads or ask people to donate. And, make no mistake about it, your lottery winnings can be sucked right out of your bank account in no time if you're the only one paying the bills.

It's not like I wouldn't love to own a station in better times, though. In fact, that was my goal back in the pre-consolidation days. The dream was to own a few stations in some idyllic beach town, mom-and-pop it, and own it until retirement. Even after consolidation, we kicked some tires, but it never worked out. If I won the lottery, would I look for that beachy radio station and finally do what I'd dreamed of doing?

Nah, not now, not anymore. It's not that it wouldn't be fun. It would be fun, for a while, at least. But a lot of people have done exactly that and gone broke in the process, and if that's the case, I'd rather buy a house on the beach and let someone else head down the road to Chapter 11.

But wait. Suppose your goal is to have other people listen to you. And suppose you DO win the zillion dollars (a few million after taxes). Does THAT make buying a radio station a good option?

Right now, probably not. Yet, you can still do "radio" and not lose your shirt. You just have to get over the idea that you need to pay for an FCC license, a transmitter, an antenna, a rack of processing, an office lease, a staff, salaries and benefits, everything that comes with running an actual radio station. It goes back to what I've said before: If your goal is creative, if what you want to do is driven by creative goals rather than financial projections, this is still an amazing time for you. You can podcast. You can do something like Live 365 or Amp and be a DJ. You can make videos, even live videos. And anyone in the world with internet access can hear or see you on practically any device with a speaker or screen. You can publish your own book and sell it without having to sign a contract with, or hand a percentage to, a major publisher. I watch YouTube videos on a big-screen TV, listen to podcasts or streams on my phone, read stuff posted on people's Substack or Medium or personal websites. So can anyone else, and they do. You might not make as much money as a "real" business does, or maybe you'd make more. Either way, hey, you won the Mega Millions, so what's the difference?

I'm not going to win the lottery, but that's okay. I came to the broadcasting business thinking that my goal was to own. Turned out that wasn't really what I wanted. I really just wanted to make cool stuff, talk and write what I wanted to talk and write about.

You don't need a license to do that. You don't need to win the lottery to do that, either.

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If you're working on making your show passion-worthy, it helps to have unique and interesting material, and that's what you'll find at All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep page. 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.

Read "10 Questions With..." Richard Cason, a radio veteran and standup comic who's working on building a weekend show to prominence, starting south of St. Louis at KFMO in Park Hills, MO. It's interesting to see how he's approaching the talk radio medium and drawing attention in a crowded field.

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