Category: Opinions

Radio’s Hot New (Old) Format: ‘The Puddle’

By Howard B. Price
ABC Television Network
Director, Business Continuity

NEW YORK — What do we learn from the nearly 20,000 people worldwide who’ve been watching a puddle on Periscope?

Well, if we’re historically conscious and observationally astute – we should be saying, “they have rediscovered the magic of radio.”

Say what? These are people watching a PUDDLE. In the UK. Visually. On social media. What does that have to do with radio?

Think about it. If you really believe all radio is local – and GREAT local radio is all about making compelling content out of the everyday events and observations in the communities it serves — then “the puddle” can be seen as a metaphor for what radio’s core mission has always been, and which it used to execute better than any other medium.

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A Laptop and a Mic Don’t Make You a Broadcaster

By Fred Lundgren
KCAA, Loma Linda
Founder and CEO

LOMA LINDA, CA — Since the advent of Internet streaming and podcasting, an increasing number of fact-free individuals are populating cyberspace with so called “Internet radio stations.”

Earth to podcasters… HELLO… You are not on the radio so stop referring to your internet stream as a “radio station.”  Calling yourselves “radio broadcasters” is a misnomer of the nth degree.

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FAQ: PD?

By Holland Cooke
Radio Consultant

BLOCK ISLAND, RI — A client (station group owner) asks: “What does it take to be a great PD for 2015 to 2020?”

1972: I was a DJ and Budd Clain was my PD at WSPR, Springfield, MA, a stand-alone AM.  His wife told me that, one Saturday afternoon, he dozed-off on the living room sofa.  She tip-toed-in and turned off the radio…and he woke up.

Fast-forward to present day: Post-consolidation scale dictates that general managers become market managers.  And GSM to DOS was logical, especially with NTR and digital.  But the biggest casualty of the way consolidation re-packed middle management was when program directors disappeared.  Stations are now “managed” rather than “programmed,” because:

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Price: Now, It’s Personal

By Howard B. Price
ABC Television Network
Director, Business Continuity

NEW YORK — The assassination – yes, it was an assassination — of WDBJ-TV, Roanoke, Virginia reporter Alison Parker and her videographer, Adam Ward, on live morning television, should be a wake-up call, not only for the media business, but also for every business.

The shootings themselves were horrific enough. That they took place on live television – on a program being line-produced by the fiancée of one of the victims – compounded the tragedy.  That it was also captured and posted online by the gunman himself is simply unspeakable.

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The Importance of Talk Radio

By Chris Stigall
WPHT, Philadelphia
Talk Show Host