Same As It Ever Was

"So."

A friend of mine, working in a related business, was on the line.

"What?"

"So, what's happening in radio right now?"

"What do you mean?," I asked. "Like, what's in the news?"

"No, I mean, what's new? What's different? Is anybody doing anything really creative that I should know about? Not like another version of a regular format. Something NEW."

Hmm. Got nothing for that one.

He wasn't finished. "What was the last really different thing radio's done? Even if you say it's Jack FM, that's been on for years. What's anyone doing NOW? And don't tell me Fresh. That's nothing new. Where's the creativity?"

Uncle. You got me.

Other media have their same-olds, too. The movies aren't the movies without remakes and sequels. TV has its franchises -- CBS wouldn't have a schedule without several "CSI" and "NCIS" spinoffs -- and remakes, to the point where one of the expected new fresh hits of the Fall is "Hawaii Five-O." Anyone over 30 is fond of saying that music today is just rehashing stuff we listened to when WE were the target audience. Even on the Internet, there are plenty of sites that just echo what others are doing.

But for each of these, there are constantly things being introduced that are truly different. For every movie remake, there's an art-house flick. TV has HBO and Showtime and AMC and TNT and FX taking chances. If you don't like Lady Gaga, there's a big world of music where artists are exploring different ideas. And for every typical radio station playing the same music they've always played or talking about the same topics everyone talks about, there's....

See?

Of course, there's a good existing business in playing it safe. And if you're a PD or GM, you're not going to get fired if you put Fresh or Lite on the air, or put on a talk station with the same kind of talk and imaging and target audience as the station down the dial. But you know the line: No Guts, No Glory. Radio could use more, um, guts. And some new thinking and new ideas and new marketing.

I'll talk more about that next week, maybe. But we're entering the long holiday weekend, and you don't care about that. You care about enjoying the unofficial last few days of Summer. So do I. Let's cut this short and go do that.

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The longer I go on, the longer it'll take to get to the weekend, so... just remember that Talk Topics at All Access News-Talk-Sports is where you'll find hundreds of items for your show prep needs. You can also keep up with all the headlines at the Talk Topics Twitter feed (twitter.com/talktopics).

Take some time, too, to read "10 Questions With..." veteran radio personality Mike Bower, who currently hosts a sports podcast called "The Wheelhouse" and has been doing fill-in on stations like WTKK/Boston; he's done "guy talk" and sports talk and talk on more traditional stations, and he has an interesting perspective on talk "as usual." The rest of All Access is still the place to get radio and music industry news first, fastest, and best, plus columns, ratings, job listings, and all the resources you need, all free.

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You still here? Go, enjoy the weekend. I'll talk to you next week.

Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
psimon@allaccess.com
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