The Straight Skinny

 

 

The Single Most Important Thing

 

 

By Carol Archer

What, Then, Must We Do?                                          

 

Thank you to All Access founder Joel Denver for permission to reprint the following timely observations from radio consultant Steve Erickson, which appeared on AllAccess.com on Dec 8, 2009:

 

It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. It's not failure, but low aim, which is a sin. Those are not my words. They were spoken by Benjamin Elijah Mays. (I don't think he's related to the Clear Channel Mays'. But I hope those Mays,' and all others at their level of control and power, will read this.) It will reveal the single most important thing you can do today for those inside your company. 

 

We are in a business that has lost its way. There's enough blame to share with just about everyone in radio: Consolidation; greed; a short-term horizon fixed on Wall Street payoffs; too much reliance on music research -- "safe" playlists; too little investment in perceptual research and marketing; virtually no investment in training and development of talent; constant cost-cutting that has decimated and disheartened our ranks; a "CYA" mentality where internal company politics is more important than listeners; even consultants....Yes, I blame us, too.

 

I'm linked by classification to a group who have made most radio bland and boring, who took the easy way out with "talent" that wasn't all that talented, by having everyone read inane liners about unbelievable claims touting quality and quantity, which added verbal clutter and zero relevance to listeners' lives, thereby proving that listeners really didn't want to hear "talent" talk; who taught a generation of programmers that you're not hurt by what you don't play, rather than reminding them of the brilliance and joy of hearing a great new song for the very first time and linking that emotion to a specific radio station; who gave the local PD one more reason to worry, to play it safe, to have data to back up every decision so they couldn't be second-guessed and back-stabbed. There is plenty of blame to spread around.