“LIVE LOCAL PERSONALITY—KEY TO RADIO’S SURVIVAL”
As we move into the future with the massive changes that are going on in our industry and the amazing advances we’re seeing in technology we often feel that what was done in the past, has little relevance in today’s entertainment world. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Learning From the Past
At one time AM/FM Radio was the only completely portable way for people to take music anywhere. Then Radio began to compete with tapes, CD’s, and most recently Mini-Disc and MP3 players and Satellite radio. What can local radio still provide that these other music and entertainment sources don’t? The answer is “live local personalities, your friends on the radio.”
All of us have our favorite radio moments from when we grew up, something that our favorite DJ did, that thrilled us down to our bones. Most of mine are KHJ, Los Angeles Moments—The Real Don Steele doing his Fractious Friday “Rap” or Humble Harve talking to the Rolling Stones and crossovers between air-shifts of the great KHJ air personalities that made me feel connected to a big radio family. Before I moved to L.A, I lived in Connecticut and remember listening to Cousin Brucie’s show on WABC, New York, which as a teen made me feel like I was plugged into something special. I still get chills when I remember Broadway Bill Lee doing his rhyming thing on the ramp of a song on WKTU. These personalities gave life to music, production and promotions. They made me want to get into this business!
Future’s Last Hope
As we hard drive the world of radio and replace live local personalities with regional and national cyber-jocks we remove the local radio station’s last hope for the future. Local AM/FM radio stations that are still surviving ten years from now are those that will feature live local radio personalities who can interact with local listeners and talk about what’s happening in their city, personalities that can be the listener’s friend sharing music, information and humor. These “survivor’s” will take advantage of the fact that live radio has the ability to react to events as they are happening now just as it did in radio’s glory years. I asked legendary programmer, Detroit’s Paul Christy, recently what the biggest difference between today’s radio stations and the great ones of the past. He said it’s definitely the “lack of great personalities” in all air shifts. Paul reminded me of the times when a “personality” treated the content on his show as his own, as the host for the radio station in that time slot. He would present the music, promotions and entertainment on the radio station like a friend gave you at a 3 hour “party”.
The DJ, My Friend
These great personalities became the listener’s friend. Over time this bond was so strong it was nearly impossible to break, because these DJ’s became part of the listener’s family and more music alone couldn’t get them to switch to another radio station. I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, well maybe they aren’t great but we do feature some pretty good personalities in all dayparts. Yes there are still lots of talent with the potential to be good personalities. But we are our own worst enemy.