The National Association of Broadcasters’ annual “Radio Show” is on now in Charlotte. It’s the year’s big trade show for commercial radio; not as big as it used to be, since most of the big companies who hold the prime big-market radio stations would rather have their people come to company meetings than schmooze for better jobs with everybody else (Thanks, Tom Taylor). There are signs that U.S. radio people are making an effort to get with the post-digital realities — the theme at NAB this year is “Radio Reignited.” That’s progress: they appear to recognize that a fire is out somewhere. There’s even some talk of more local orientation for programming. Radio’s always talked about being local, but most of its innovation’s involved networked programming over the years. Mostly, to today’s radio stations, “local” means the weather report. Business is actually pretty good, though trends are tilted downhill. Things will have to get much worse before most radio people feel a sense of urgency. But there’s progress. Of course the first efforts are behind a big promotion campaign, not truly revolutionary programming. For more coverage, see my new list of links to the radio trade publications, on the right side of this page.

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « WHERE DO YOU GO FOR NEW MUSIC? WHY, THE NEWSPAPER, OF COURSE.
• » REIGNITING RADIO;
  TRADE ORGS TAKE THE BALL

• BROWSE / IN Radio Biz money
• « A HOLE IN THE MARKET
• » REIGNITING RADIO;
  TRADE ORGS TAKE THE BALL