Is "Don Imus is Back" the Best Radio Can Do?
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"Don Imus Is Back" is the biggest news about the radio industry that's come out since the headline "Don Imus Is Fired." I can't recall any other event or action that's happened within radio that's moved the needle of interest within the general public. What's sad is that the only reasons the I Man received press were due to a racial instance that turned to contrition upon his return to the airwaves. The whole episode had nothing to do with sparking curiosity from brilliance or innovation.
The powerful fall, and then you have a news story; that's been a standard since Gutenberg. When the ordinary becomes extraordinary you also have reason to grab a headline or two. But when things remain status quo, or show signs of slow degredation, nary a word is spoken by anyone - and that's the position the radio industry finds itself in today.
Broadcast radio is not powerful enough to grab headlines with its decline. As an "ordinary" media, it has done nothing of extraordinary value in the past decade. Broadcast radio is caught in a slowly developing irrelevancy, where there's little interest in bringing public attention to whatever it's doing.
Since January 1997 I've been writing how the internet affects radio and other more generalized observations about the industry. Don't know how many words have been written, but I do know that practically all of the warnings, the tips about upcoming "competition," and the forecasts on numerous things relative to radio that were changing it and its audience's habits were ignored by anyone with the power to command. In short, radio didn't see the train coming when it, clearly, should have made moves to jump into the future.
When I first started writing these comments, the only other web sites about radio were Inside Radio, Radio Ink, and AllAccess.com. Now there are dozens of sites that do one of two things: 1) report the news as radio executives want the industry portrayed, or 2) report all the obvious blunders in the radio industry.
Just to take a left turn here: While I've been thinking about this topic for a few months, today's short story at Inside Radio kind of pushed me into action. With full credit to InsideRadio.com, the following appears under their headline "Two-thirds of tweens get music from mobile phones."
"If media habits someone develops when they’re young stick with them for life, there’s a worrying statistic in a new in-depth study into tweens’ behavior. The 8–12 demo is increasingly more mobile phone-centric. Despite their young age, more than a third of them already own a cell phone. And the Nielsen study shows 64% download or play music on their phone."
This is a headline that Inside Radio should have run in 1996, when radio abandonded the 12-24 crowd, or in 2002 when music-over-the-cell-phone was first brought up. And, don't mention the iPod.
There is no middle ground for radio. There is nothing left to write about either, except to bitch about it or support the industry.
Maybe it's time to stop talking about radio; not for you, but me.
2008 will be an exciting time as media moves into measurement in ways its been trying to perfect over the past decade.
This train seems to be moving with a momentum that nobody who still thinks about quarter-hour share will comprehend. But I've been on board for quite a few years and it's a great ride, filled with learning new things. That's exciting. Unfortunately, it's too time-consuming to allow for commenting on radio.
So the decision will be either to stop writing altogether (because it doesn't seem that radio is interested in how to step into the future), or to write about these new things I'm learning which are turning the advertising industry on its head (and which have been brought up in this column hundreds of times already and been ignored by the radio industry).
There's not much time to write when trying to absorb all that is out there. Analytics, optimization, search engines, online media players, ad insertion systems, how to prove to the client that their money delivered results... all of these are the future of advertising, and they all need to be learned by anyone wanting to stay relevant over the next decade.
Don Imus is back. Sorry Don, but you cater to a very slim portion of today's audience, and radio just doesn't seem to be doing anything else that warrants a headline anymore.
Come January 9, 2008 I'm taking a vacation (the first since 1997).
If there's a new story on this web site on January 25, I guess my decision will have been to continue to do what those dozens of other professionals who write about radio's demise are doing. (My favorites are "John Gorman's Media Blog," Jerry Del Colliano's "Inside Music Media," and Mark Ramsey's "hear2.0.")
If this story is still here, however, I decided to spend my time learning, and implementing what today's businesses want - i.e.,
the accountability of using the internet in advertising, which is growing more "local" each day. I won't be writing any more articles on radio.
I'm truly not sure which way this will go, yet. If this latter option is the case, though, just read the other fellows' writings. We're all saying the same thing.
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