MARCONI DREAMS

The heat is on the steel-tower radio business to get more local. Wha? All radio stations are “local”, aren’t they? From the microphone in the studio in that old house in the middle of that former cornfield out on River Road to the tip of the tower, right? Actually, there may not be one body in that studio — with the music and voices pumping out of a hard drive or buzzing down from a satellite from Denver or New York or some other fleshpot. And, well, even if there is a live person talking into a microphone right now, what’s he/she talking about? Be the seventeenth caller? The weather? Hey now, that’s local. But anyway, the FCC had a big hearing in D.C. (where all localism resides) the other day. [See the Radio Trades links in the right column if you want to follow up.] And some of the commissioners have been out in the provinces listening to the pressure groups, er, citizens who care about radio. Radio earned this pressure honestly — by focusing on ratings and research, the quick way to avoid talking to real people, and following internal industry trends, instead of living in their communities and listening to their neighbors and their guts. And, the entire Wall Street feeding frenzy on admittedly fabulously profitable radio stations reinforced the entire bean-counting procedure. Well, this regulatory hassle is only going to pay off for the lawyers, not the listeners. It all just cements the dug-in heels and blinds radio license-holders to the opportunity to change today’s boring radio game. There’s gotta be a better word for it than “local.” “It” being the honest, hard work of opening your eyes and ears to the landscape and sentient life around that little building with the dishes on top, listening for what makes your town sit up and take notice. Creating that unique sound track for your town that makes your station an indispensable companion to the lives we lead. Bond with us. Build the enduring success as a hometown business that no set of consultant tricks or ratings percentiles could ever produce.