Fight The Good Fight

20 August 2022

It’s been wonderful seeing my radio brothers and sisters posting today, National Radio Day, about all of the different stations that they’ve called home over the years. I realize that I’m kind of a radio anomaly in that I’ve been on the radio for over 33 years – in one market (Monmouth/Ocean NJ)…at only 2 stations. 1988-2001 at WHTG-FM (FM106.3/G106.3) and 2001-today at WBJB-FM (90.5 The Night/Brookdale Public Radio). If you include 1984-1988 at my college station WRHU-FM (Radio Hofstra University) I’m approaching 38 years of being on the radio. Except for about 3 months in 2001 and 1 month post Super Storm Sandy I have been on the air. To make me even more of a radio “outlier,” I’ve never smoked or survived on coffee.

Simultaneously today, I’ve been seeing a lot of comments from listeners about how they “don’t listen to the radio anymore” (terrestrial or satellite) in favor of other things like streaming services or the ability to carry your entire music collection in your pocket (mp3 player or phone). And, sure, technology has sent many listeners away from their radios. Do I think radio will die? No, not at all. There are always things that real, human, local, knowledgeable radio can do that other things can’t. But we (and by “we” I mean radio as a whole, in general. There are, of course, exceptions.) have done very little over the last few decades to keep listeners around. I speak of music radio specifically, since that’s where I’ve been all these years.

Deregulation. Consolidation. Syndication. Consultants. Playlists got shorter. Libraries got smaller. Currents rotations got faster. New music adds had to be “safe” or the same adds that everyone else did. Stations got rid of local DJs/hosts in favor of nationally syndicated “personalities” or no hosts at all. Hosts are instructed to not even mention the artists or songs “they’ve” played and instead mention some kind of inane pop culture reference. These are all things you’d put on a list of “Things We Can Do To Drive Away All Of Our Fans.”

Most of us got into this because we were music fans. Real music fans. Voracious music fans. Knowledgeable music fans. And we LOVE to spread the gospel. There are still a few of us lucky enough to be employed (on the radio side and on the records side) and allowed to share our enthusiasm, expertise, experience, and excitement with fellow music fans – our listeners. The data miners and stream counters will eliminate all of us – If we let them.

High fives to those of us that are still “fighting the good fight.” And you can help us out. Find a local radio station that actually talks to you like a friend. A radio station that talks about the artists and venues and places you like and go to. If that station happens to be a non-commercial, listener supported station (odds are it is) – Donate! Support the artists you like by purchasing their records, concert tickets, t-shirts, downloads, whatever. Hell, even streaming helps them out…at $0.003 per stream. We all need to “fight the good fight” or there won’t be anything worth fighting for.