by Ron Robinson
This was a clear, quiet, warm and sunny day in November ? a welcome and calm Toronto, Sunday morning to step out on the stoop for a smoke and a coffee while the rest of the family continued their zonk-fest. I had already turned on the radio to hear the locals doing their part in V/T?ing their audience into a drowsy, low-volume, background state of indifference. A couple stations were running with Junior Jocks? leaving a distinct impression that, as a listener, I was worth less on a Sunday than I was on a Monday.
During my morning meditations out on the porch, ?Barry?, our resident squirrel-buddy, came by for a brief moment of eye contact and a quick and wary scoot up the huge pine in the front yard. My neighbor?s crab apple tree (the one with the overhanging branches above the sidewalk) had just fruit-conked another strolling pedestrian - one of the inmates of the local Fort Fogie at the end of our block. Managing quite well, he was too, even as he was struggling somewhat to navigate the apple-infested intersection with a crippled gate and a necessary cane - determined to give ?his? apple a relatively hefty penalty kick for the offense of obeying The Law of Gravity.
On the other side of the avenue, one of our familiar, feral cats, also named ?Barry?, was crouched in some taller grass, waiting to ambush any temporarily negligent bird that might touch down. And one did ? along with 15 or 20 more of his kind ? all independently bobbing and pecking for whatever morsels might be on the sidewalk or lawn.
The cat launched a mighty and impressive pounce? and came up with nothing but sidewalk. (I?m thinking he went far too high and suffered from the extra hang-time.) Yet, in that same instant, every last one of those birds lifted off - as one squadron - and booked it back across the street, expertly dodging the collection of tangled sneakers on the phone lines as well as avoiding the cable and power lines, to perch in the crab apple tree.
Now, I didn?t know if these were sparrows, wrens or starlings as my ornithological education does have severe limitations. Even so, they definitely weren?t chickens. Still, the speed, precision and what seemed like a unilateral spontaneity with which the maneuver was executed struck me, once again, as an insurmountably complex, exquisite and stunning piece of Nature.
This entire episode was all transpiring as I was ruminating on the state of Corporate, Music Radio.
Although we don?t talk about the entire gaggle of Music Radio stations across the country as being a ?flock?, we could. They certainly behave as one. When one station implements a strategy-of-some-kind, they all do! When one builds a ghetto into which to shuffle a block of spots, they all do. When one starts lopping off the heads of Talent, they all do. There is little point continuing as insiders can complete this list when they have some free time.
Meanwhile, I do appreciate the spectacular, unfathomable behaviors of flocks, schools, herds and other animal-groups to, somehow, instantaneously communicate to each other when the time to get out of Dodge is now. That these maneuvers? execution happens so quickly and that they evolved as finely tuned strategies for survival is incomprehensible. I am also more confused, as to the seeming necessity of a whole genre of human-constructed organizations, most notably here ? Music Radio - to emulate the same practices. My rationale is that, as survival tactics, they might have some value. But as strategies for gaining ground and developing beyond the industry?s status quo, they are highly questionable.
?I am not an animal!? said the Elephant Man. Indeed, as humans, we expect we can think beyond and/or outside our biology and our environments. Or, so the story goes. I mean, the concept of Freedom of Choice is in all the psychology books. Although and it must be said: a number of pshrinks are not completely sold on the concept. ?Freedom of Choice?, they will say, is a learned and only occasionally applied concept. (In my other life as a personal counsellor and trainer, my experience suggests that too many folks are operating out of an Either/Or, binary position where ?choice? hardly ever factors in or from a pre-programmed, reactive state where ?choice? isn?t even a consideration..)
I?m a little deeper into the morning now, as so many local Music Radio outlets are rolling out the next set of voice-tracks across the city. They are presenting them with equally boring, mechanical precision and uninvolved banality. Seems to me to be the reasonable behaviors of a group that has been operating for a very long time in an environment where there have been no other competitors or predators and where the apples are hanging low and are there for the easy pickin?.
Note, then, to Radio: There are other meat-a-sauruses encroaching on the territory. Fast ones, too - with teeth and sharp feet. Some can also fly, follow and attack! Oh, and one other thing: Our own traditional prey-species of audiences and advertisers ? the ones that used to be so easy to pick off - are also getting smarter, more flexible and harder to catch!
The knowledge that Music Radio is no longer the only predator in the territory along with the fact that Radio has also been moved to be included on the ?Prey Species? list of those other predators can sure break up a broadcaster?s Sunday morning reveries.
Meanwhile, I am still deeply concerned about Radio?s penchant for emulating the birds in its habit of flocking off as an integrated, single-minded group. While this capacity has, in past, been a viable survival strategy, it has some serious contextual disadvantages. I?m reminded of those flocks that take off and fly directly into the whirling blades spread across a farm of wind turbines.
I?m sure Music Radio has no conscious desire to be offered on the menu as a fricasseed specialty. We might want to consider whether accepting Group Thinking and Group Responses are still viable attributes for avoiding becoming Blue Plate Specials.
I?m also obliged to mention another group of animals that behave in a similar fashion ? lemmings.
Ronald T. Robinson has been involved in Canadian Radio since the '60s as a performer, writer and coach and has trained and certified as a personal counsellor. Ron makes the assertion that the most important communicative aspects of broadcasting, as they relate to Talent and Creative, have yet to be addressed. Check out his website www.voicetalentguy.com
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