In our heart of hearts, all of us believe that the kind of radio we grew up with is the way God meant Radio to be.
My parents rued the passing of The Shadow and Inner Sanctum. Older Baby Boomers long for stations that program first & second generation rock ‘n’ roll; younger Boomers wistfully recall their Golden Age of Music: Disco.
I cannot with intellectual honesty state that radio today is worse than “my” kind of radio (lots of personality, lots of fun, lots of music that I like). It is what it is, and it doesn’t need my validation to exist.
Radio has become a “mature” industry. When an industry matures, it consolidates, streamlines, standardizes and economizes. The little hamburger joints run by colorful characters give way to thousands of McDonald’s.
Is McDonald’s “good”? Not to me; I won’t eat there. But to millions of kids, it’s great. Who’s right — the kids, or me?
This is not unique to radio. Hamburger stands, movie theaters (how many readers pine for their local, double-features-on-Saturdays-for-50-cents theaters?), newspapers, carpet cleaners, appliance dealers….The same complaints in today’s radio world resound in those markets, too.
That said, I do have two questions that haunt me:
Is there anyone on this entire planet who has a “favorite” McDonald’s?
And…
Is there anyone on this entire planet who wakes up in the morning thinking, “Oh, boy! I get to go to work at McDonald’s today!”
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Amen, my brother!
Joe Willie Sousa
Wave 104.1/Magic 105.9
Brunswick, Ga.
This is a great post, Dan.
I had a favourite McDonalds. The one in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada that I worked at in High School. It has since been torn down. I somehow have good memories of that place, though not once did I wake up excited to go to work there.
Jeremy Dodge
92.9 The Bull
Saskatoon, SK
An interesting observation, Dan, and one that I mull over regularly. However when I think about it, a question arises in my mind:
Has present-day radio matured, or has it simply been molded into the most efficient business model based upon past success? When you and, only a few year later, I “grew up” with radio it was, admittedly, less “mature”. Like youthful exuberance, radio tried different things.
In its early days, referencing the radio theater, it emulated stage productions. I see early film following the same model. One look at early silent films shows the influence of the procenium stage. Even into the ’30s, the stage elements of set changes that required an interlude to accomplish remained. “The Shadow”, “The Green Hornet”, Mercury Theater of the Air and their ilk capitalized upon the listener’s comfortable relationship with familiar theatrical presentations and, to a lesser extent, good books, and it worked.
I believe Rock ‘n’ Roll became the driving force behind radio’s growth-spurt into its “mature” form. Just as the ’60s presented a dizzying progression of musical styles that were eventually “distilled” by the record industry into just a few proven formulae, radio formats have been “distilled” by the radio industry into a few proven performers.
“Golden” eras all seem to share a common quality: experimentation. And just like the golden days of Rock ‘n’ Roll, the days of radio experimentation are history. I think we’re all waiting for the next “new” thing…but it doesn’t seem wise to hold breath in the process.
I agree with Kevin Zimmermann’s assessment, as well as yours Dan. I just wanted to point out that the “next new thing” is already here – the internet and podcasts. Despite what the so called “experts” say (and how can an industry that’s only a few years old already have that many “experts”?), and music licensing issues be damned, podcasting is now the new radio. And it’s also exiting because podcasting is allowing for all those great old format ideas and experimenting forms to return… without the corporate need to make massive profits.
John: You may be right in the sense that radio is, and always has been, a “conduit” for those things the listener wanted; music, information, entertainment. Radio in and of itself remains a conduit – not content, and the internet is a new form of the same thing.
Maybe now the challenge for radio becomes clearer: Either remain (or become)the better conduit or find content available nowhere else.
Mt favorite McDonald’s is in my home town of Erie, Pa. Nothing to do with the food, just the location. Directly across the street is one of the major cemetaries in town. And facing the restaurant, clearly visible, is an enormous gravestone which reads, in very large letters, “HAMBURGER.”
Try the McSkillet Burrito, Dan (not a paid advertisement)…
BP in the OC