Many of you know that my background is radio broadcasting. I spent years working at some of the greatest radio stations in the country. It's been an incredible ride. I'll never forget the first time I slid behind the microphone at the 50,000 watt flame thrower, WBZ in Boston. My heart was in my throat.
I kept thinking....
"Can I do this? Am I going to choke and destroy this amazing radio station?"
Well...I didn't. I rose to the occasion and the rest is history.
And how about my first night on WCBS-FM...talking to the number one radio market in the country...on the number one oldies station in the world. What a trip.
I love radio. It's been good to me and my family.
The sad thing is that many in today's radio don't seem to have these types of unforgettable memories. The stories that I hear or read in the trades are about people who 'want out'. They've been burned and abused by the industry and they just want to move on.
Radio shouldn't be that way and it doesn't have to be.
Over the past fifteen years or so, the business has cast creativity aside in favor of the quick and easy buck.
Management has invested millions in technology and little in people.
Usually the first thing to go, after stations technically upgraded, were the people and that should never have happened.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all in favor making money and I love technology. Heck...I have three computers in my studio and two in my office. I'd be lost without them.
But, in my opinion, the industry went too far and now it's 'out of whack'... unbalanced and out of sync.
Radio can't achieve it's full potential until it regains that balance.
And when it does, there will be no holding it back.
Industry pundents talk of radio's dim future...
"The internet and ipods are going to kill it."
I disagree.
They said the same thing about the business when television debuted...and after an adjustment, it grew even stronger.
Radio can and will do the same again, once it regains that balance that I was talking about.
Radio can go only so far when it's emphasis is simply technology and dollars. When all is said and done it's still people and their input that make the 'difference'...that make it 'work'.
