Feder adds that great hosts once drove the medium’s appeal to listeners. “Radio, particularly radio in Chicago, used to be defined by personalities, and that was a large part of what made radio such an attractive and vibrant part of people’s lives. But those personalities are gone.” And the remaining hosts are muzzled by PDs, whom he says have more control of what goes over the air than ever before. “Program directors are now calling all the shots. They control, to a dangerous degree, what a personality can do on the air. It’s no longer a performance the way it was.”
Just the sort of thing I want to read a month before my first column in the Illinois Entertainer. :) Mr. Feder's right, of course. But we've gone through lulls before. Here's hoping this lull is temporary.
