RADIO’S FUTURE, AS PREDICTED 35 YEARS AGO BY RON JACOBS

A friend called me up, all excited.

“I took Claude Hall’s book” — THIS BUSINESS OF RADIO PROGRAMMING — “to help pass the time on a flight from L.A. to New York.

“The interview with Ron Jacobs blew my mind — especially when he talked about the ‘future’ role of computers in radio programming.”

I pulled my copy off the shelf and eventually found the pertinent part of the interview.

Jacobs was heavily into computer technology when he programmed KGB/San Diego — mostly for researching his audience.

Hall asked if a computer could be used “for programming, too?”

Jacobs: “It will do ANYTHING, providing the input is there. Right now, the only thing preventing all of the wonderful science fiction stuff from happening in radio is the fact that we do not have the capacity, in a small physical space, to store music.

“On a one-inch by two-inch piece of computer tape, we can store hundreds, thousands of bits of information. But on audio tape, that’s only a 15th of a second of music.

“Whenever we achieve solid state storage of music, so that a tiny chip might be the entire Jefferson Starship album — or, perhaps, their entire catalog, so that a radio station doesn’t have to have a gymnasium-sized room for its music library — then we’ll be able to completely use the computer.

“If you were only programming the playlist of a Top 40 station, you could use the computer 100 percent now.

“But try programming 3,000 songs, try programming 6,000 songs, try putting them all on cartridges and programming by computer. You’d have to have people on roller skates whizzing around the room, going up and down ladders, racing from Instacart unit to Instacart unit. You’d have to have a building full of Instacart units.”

Hall: “So (at KGB) the computer handles everything — not only business aspects, but programming aspects?”

Jacobs: “Sure. Normally, when you mention the word computer, people get uptight. They think a robot will walk in and take over their job. The machine is only a tool for mankind — always has been.

“It’s the wheel helping man, not vice-versa. Sooner or later, the computer will be a way of life in radio, helping the manager, the program director, the sales manager, the music director, the air personality — not replacing them.”

Hall: “But what will be the role of the air personality in the computer world?”

Jacobs: “Communication. The computer has yet to be invented that can truly communicate with people. That’s not to say that technology doesn’t exist to make computers talk. In an airport, you hear a series of tape loops about arrivals and departures that come off computers. That’s information, not communication.

“Communication has to do with emotions. Communicating is a human voice passing on to another human a feeling: I love you. I hate you. The disc jockey’s role is still going to be to communicate.”

Dan’s Postscript: By now most of the radio world (except, of course, for college disc jockeys) has gotten used to the idea of someone other than the jock picking the music for his show.

But whenever the concept is introduced to an emerging international radio market, there’s a loud protest from the air talent: “I know better than anyone else which music to pick for my audience!”

If you’re programming to a well-defined mass appeal audience…No, you don’t know better than anyone else.

Music is easy to research accurately.

Whenever I hear some jock complain about this, I can’t help but think back to my days as an air talent. I used to complain — loudly, to anyone who happened to be in the studio while I was preparing for my show:

“Why do I have to decide which songs to play and then find them? Why can’t a computer do that, and I can concentrate on what I’m going to say between those songs??”

Maybe that’s the difference between a visionary…and just a guy who complains. I whined and cursed and complained about the way things were; Ron predicted the way things would be.