2-7-2014
Under the noses of na?ve and/or delusional cheerleaders, radio, I believe, is getting ever closer to its crossroads. What is humiliating, though, is the devil himself is not intrigued enough to appear so that deals can be cut. Station owners could nervously line up at the intersection of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, toting their 300-tune playlist and a depleted staff manifest. Hours later, they would be alone, thirsty, confused and sweating profusely in the Mississippi sun, briefcases full of crippled dreams.
?Desperation sweat? has a very distinctively unpleasant odor about it. How that applies to radio is: There isn?t near enough of that pungency going around. Hence, the supplied ?na?ve/delusional? reference. So far as many are suggesting, everything is just fine and dandy. There are even projections for higher revenues this year. How could that be bad?
Yet, there is nobody pounding on the door with fresh evidence that radio is not losing its luster and appeal with audiences, and desirability as an advertising medium ? at a consistent and, some would say, alarming rate. So, any increases in revenue will only soothe those so dug in to their positions that nothing can be done to improve the impact on audiences and effectiveness for advertisers. False senses of security are well defined [I]and[/I] perilous.
Although not obvious enough to the many who need to understand, music radio could be on the way to becoming the media equivalent of Detroit!
This, as a result of some combination of:
- Siphoning off resources to upper management as a reward for failure and/or incompetence.
- Failure to maintain an employee infrastructure.
- Indifference to the changing media landscape.
- Rejection of, and openly displayed disdain for, the workers in every way possible that doesn?t include regular, physical beatings ? that leave marks.
- Misappropriation of time and funds to less-than-profitable exercises like weak public promotions, anemic Web presentations, dysfunctional social media strategies, blogs, and other online drivel that amount to little more than pages of extra, improperly presented, electronic advertising.
- Refusal to participate in R&D programs including ongoing training for on-air, programming, and creative staff.
- Under-serving the consumers (listeners).
- Over-selling advertisers while providing them with intolerably poor advertising content.
- Failure to note how nothing has changed for the better in over 30 years.
- Failure to attract desirable ?new blood? to the enterprise.
- Making most on-air work utterly unappealing to a functional, educated adult.
- Displaying the arrogance of insisting that everything there is to know about music radio is already known.
- Taking the position that radio is ?just another money game.?
- Insisting to anyone dumb enough, na?ve enough, or trusting enough to listen that the status quo is quite acceptable.
- Inability to service overwhelming, crippling debt.
For so long, this business has been driven by too many, what could be called ?corporate thugs? ? the results of which have been splattered all over the AM and FM dials. If only a few of management?s savage behaviors were designated as ?felonies,? there would be a significant increase of populations out on the farms doing hard time, breaking rocks.
Further, I remain shocked at the number of cheerleaders and apologists remaining out there, campaigning for music radio just as it is! I have to wonder if these folks would also applaud the ?positives? of a multiple car pileup on the boulevard as being made up of the flames and noises and flying body parts and stuff.
As if I have to remind anybody, it is real life out there. This is where careers and lives are ruined, opportunities are frittered away, due diligence goes unpaid, listeners are disregarded, and advertisers are defrauded by being sold shoddy products. That the money, so often, flows to the top and is taken out at the top without consideration for the health of the enterprise is no new revelation. That it makes of radio another crime scene is not news either.
Of course, radio is just one more enterprise among many where corporate and individual morals, ethics, and values are poorly defined, strictly optional and often disregarded anyway. The concepts of personal integrity and a social conscience are hardly ever allowed entrance into the equation or the conversation. Some participants would be described as sociopaths. They are indifferent to the harm they do. Some identify with the accumulation of wealth and place it at the top of their values hierarchy. Any number of values can take precedence before the standard ethics and morals kick in. Others choose ?control? over ?results.? People can justify any behavior. It?s all quite subjective, and anyone who holds these positions would simply call that ?normal.?
Conclusion: It may take more than compelling evidence to get these people to change course. We can, however, take heart. There are remedies available for what ails our medium. We can either apply them during a Phoenix-like rise from the ashes of a music-radio category failure, or, as a fixed-in-the-nick-o?-time event that avoids the crash.
I am encouraged, meanwhile, by the voices of many credible people in the business who already agree that music radio must start attracting, training, and exploiting the talents of a whole new generation of ?personalities,? retraining the remaining, senior on-air talents and taking serious, massive steps into improving our commercial content.
We do have this odiferous element about us that will not be removed by a vigorous dunking in soapy water, better storytelling on the street, more and harder sales calls, or pulling everyone together for further ?sparkle? meetings ? complete with marching band and scantily-clad purveyors of the pom-pom arts. As there have been none in over 30 years, any worthwhile changes would be, indeed, somewhat refreshing.
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
(2/7/2014 5:36:48 AM)
More negative blather from our hippie wannabe!
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