I used to be a Radio DJ and Program Director.  Spent 26 years in the industry.  That industry is, like many others, in turmoil right now.  But it's not just the economy that's wreaking havoc on Radio.  People just aren't responding to Radio they way they used to.  The publisher of a Radio trade newsletter wrote an editorial on the so-called "death" of Radio.  You can read that here:

http://www.radioink.com/listingsEntry.asp?ID=553494&PT=publishersnote

I responded directly to him with this:

Eric,

Loved your piece on Radio's challenges.  I'm not in Radio anymore, having left two years ago this month.  But I still do have an opinion on what's going on.  And I think you have to give opinions like mine some "airtime" because we have perspective from both inside the industry and out.

If Radio is dying (or sick and limping along), it's because Radio shot itself in the foot.  Numerous times.  My mid-sized market of Honolulu is a unique one compared to the mainland.  But the effects of the last 12 to 15 years are no different than any city on the mainland.

Here's what it looks like for me.  Radio groups paid too much for stations they shouldn't have been able to buy in the first place.  Ok, so there's some biased editorializing here. But I think you might agree that the consolidation efforts in the late '90s inflated prices of Radio stations and those groups (and consequently the local Radio stations) are suffering because of that.  We had one owner in this market acknowledge that he paid too much when he paid more than $500,000 for an FM CP (construction permit) in the mid 1990's.  Crazy prices!

That's what's happening at the lofty levels of Radio.  What about down in the trenches?  We took away Radio's personality.  Well, most of it anyway.  All the good stuff was on in the morning and the rest of the day was liner card Radio.  I still hear it today at one of the leading A/Cs in this market.  Boring.  And because DJs are just reading liner cards, where was the personality development coming from?  Nowhere.  We all know how to read a card really well, though. 

Having been out of Radio for these two years, I'm noticing that there's nothing to listen for on the Radio.  Oh, the music is fine.  Most of it is researched.  Some of it comes off a satellite.  But by and large, there's nothing to listen to.  There's no "must hear Radio."  No magnet.  No "if I don't tune in, I'm gonna miss something entertaining."  Because no one is doing that save for a couple of morning shows.  In this market, Perry & Price are the morning show dominators.  They have been at the top for just about all the 25 years they've been together.  Everyone else is trying, but they all sound alike.  Again, there's no magnetic personality to pull anyone away from Perry & Price.  I'm sure it's like that in many mainland cities.  Regardless, the point is, up and down the dial, Radio sounds like a juke box.  No, it sounds like someone else's iPod.  Not my iPod.  Someone else's.

You ask a great question.  If you were starting Radio today from scratch, what would you do?  We'd look at the competitive landscape and do something the other guys are not doing, right?  Or we'd do what they do and do it better.   Well, let me tell you, you can't program your Radio station better than I program my iPod.  It's never gonna happen.  But you can create differentiation by putting a personallity on the Radio that I cannot get on my iPod.  So one solution that I would offer to Radio would be to turn the jocks loose.  Do a show.  Entertain people.  Play the researched music-nothing wrong with that.  But be a magnet for that audience.  Light it up.  Be creative.  That's what Radio can give its audience.  It's inherently different.  It's unique to the station.  And unduplicatable by an iPod.

I'll let you Sales gurus figure out how to sell it.  In my book, Sales is #2 to Programming.  Always will be.  Look at Apple.  They designed a great product in the iPod (Programming) and now are reaping the benefits of that great design (Sales).  Look at Google.  The founders brought in a "business guy" to run the company (Eric Schmidt) and even he said in Time Magazine (Feb. 12, 2006) "The company isn't run for the long-term value of our shareholders but for the long-term value of our end users."  They maximize the product (Programming) and then reap the benefits of that design (Sales).

Radio is so boring nowadays that blurry, shaky, amateurish YouTube video is more popular.  Radio is so boring that audio and video podcasts viewed on a miniature 2-inch iPod screen and mediocre earbud headphones is more popular.  Radio is so boring especially for the 12-24 demo that they don't get their music from the Radio anymore-they get it from iTunes.

It's not how you sell it.  It's the product. 

Let's go back to that quote from Google's Schmidt.  They know that if they build a great product, the financials will take care of themselves.  The shareholders reap the benefits of the people who create, update and manage Google.  Also in that article is a reference to Google's snubbing of Wall Street analysts.  How many publicly owned Radio companies can boast about that?  How many Radio companies have chased the almighty dollar and forgotten the DJs and Production Directors and Promotion Directors and Program Directors on the front lines?  Their Product?  Maybe not all of them, but they're out there.  I don't know who the good Radio companies are-I haven't had the fortune to work for one.  And if I did, they didn't hold onto the station I was at for very long. 

Guy Kawasaki runs a venture capital firm called Garage Technology Ventures (Garage.com).  He and Garage dole out big bucks hoping to seed the next Yahoo or Google or Apple.  Guy said in one of his presentations, that if you come to Garage with your business plan and you've laid out how you're going to make a gazillion dollars and your argument is all about the money, their reaction is not one of glee but disappointment.  They're looking for people and companies with a vision and a passion for what they do.  He says "The companies that are successful are the ones that are there to make meaning, not to make money.  The theory goes, 'If you make meaning you will make money.'  But if you start out to solely make money you will attract the wrong kind of employees."  (You can find this video at: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/06/the_art_of_the_.html )

Clearly, then, assuming Guy is "on the money," a "re-start" of Radio would begin with the product.  What would Radio do if it had to do it all over again, but in this competitive atmosphere?  You'd set the money aside and concentrate on making the product the best that it can be.  You'd have DJs on the air as much as possible.  Live, interacting with the audience.  You'd have people on the air who are at once funny and committed to their communities.  Entertainers who can also guide and console in times of disaster and emergency.  And these would be people who are on the air around the clock, not just the morning show guys or the seasoned afternoon drive guy/girl.  Around the clock.

I love your Best Buy example.  I can't tell you how many jocks are out there.  But I can guess how many are dissatisfied with the way things are going.  It would be slightly less than the total number of jocks.  The average Radio listener is not listening to a Clear Channel station.  They're not listening to a Cox Radio station.  They're not listening to Univision Radio.  They are tuned to their favorite local station and they don't care who owns it.  So why does that McDonald's approach have to be applied to local Radio.  Why does there need to be a cookie cutter approach to local Radio, dictated by a corporate suit who's thousands of miles away?  That makes no sense at all for a product that works best when it is entrenched at the local level. 

I love it that Best Buy is implementing ideas that local employees have offered.  What if Radio stations around the nation actually asked the air staff for creative input and actually implemented some of it?  You'd have a vibrant, organic, unique product on the air in every daypart.  What a concept!  How many advertisers would be interested in that?  And how easy it would be to market that!

That's a lot to chew on from someone who is no longer in the Radio industry.  Sadly, I'm in a pool of people who've been burned by Radio, bad Radio management or both.  And I don't have any compelling reason to go back.  In my market alone, I lost count of all the good Radio people who have left the market or left the business.  You could probably re-populate the Radio market with everyone who's exited the airwaves (and sales cubicles).

Please don't misunderstand.  I'm not being critical of you.  I think you're doing an incredible job of trying to lift up this Radio industry.  I've seen you do it time and again.  No doubt you love Radio.  So for me, this is a cathartic exercise as well as a response to your early obit for this industry that reaches so many every day and can reach so many more.  Thank you for taking the time to read this.