I'm Back...I think

I have to say I am surprised at the number of people who are reading this. I only know this because of all of the comments about a previous post, and the fact that I haven't posted much lately. As we get further into the day to day here of running a radio station some of the luster has worn off. Or at least that "new radio smell". Regardless, this has still been a daily joy and I hope it shows in what we do on-air. Business is looking up and community involvement, a real key to our success, has been picking up as well. I want to take a bit of space here to talk about the radio industry in general and what it's up against these days. Over the past 20 years, radio stations have been striving to bring you what are now being matched by CD players and the new satellite companies are doing. Playing lots of music. Now, don't get me wrong, playing music is still important, but what has been lost over the last 20 years has been the connection to community. Bigger companies know this, but it's hard for them to make their shareholders happy when you have to spend so much money in pure man hours to get that particular job done. So, you sponsor big events. You get stadiums named after your company. You do big radiothons raising money for national charities. At the end of the day it still falls considerably short of what the original concept of local radio was.

So now what? Well radio's very survival is directly tied to what it does for and IN a community. We have to provide information that is pertinent to citizens of our community. Satellite can't do that, in fact they know this now and are trying to make that happen. Oh but wait, then the FCC says they can have control over them. Well I guess that's not cool. This localism is what separates us from the other stations AND most certainly from the satellite companies. To that end, in our informal questioning of folks around here I am surprised to learn that we have given them reason to keep their satellite receivers off in their cars, when they are in their hometown. It certainly gives me hope that this formula works.

When you get a chance, try to find some material on HD Radio. It's coming. We were in L.A. this weekend and there are already some stations making a go of it there. It is going to be amazing and will rejuvenate this business like nothing has in the last 50 years.

If you are reading this from another place and you happen across someone that works in radio, ask them about their local commitment. If you live here, don't hesitate to call me out on something. We are absolutely committed to this. It's radio's last lifeline.