A former radio colleague of mine sent me this article that was posted at Radio-Info.com, with the subject line: "Well, Duh..."
It is obvious that music radio has changed over the years -- some of the changes have been for the better, but some have actually been for the worse.
A growing number of industry observers and participants alike believe that the ongoing disappearance of the “personality element” in music radio - once considered a means of avoiding tune-outs -- has actually dangerously disarmed over-the-air audio and thus disadvantaged the medium from being able to compete effectively against its growing army of new media competitors.
As RadioInfo publisher Michael Harrison puts it, “By assuming that any verbal component of the musical presentation in radio is an automatic ‘interruption,’ programmers are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
In this new PPM world, PDs are so fixated on eliminating what they perceive to be the ‘tune out’ factor that they have taken their attention away from their primary task - and that is to create compelling ‘tune-in’ factors. It is a huge mistake that sells the potential of this art form short to think that music alone - no matter how popular - can cut it.”
Radio-Info is doing a five part series this week about music disc jockeys, if you're interested. I know I have a bunch of them that read this blog.
