The Wolf has undoubtedly spent countless thousands of dollars advertising its brand, endless hours training its jocks to say “The Wolf” as the first thing out of their mouths, hired an Imaging Director to create an aural brand built around the station name, a Promotions Director to build visibility of The Wolf brand, driving home “The Wolf” over and over again. … Just a little piece of advice for all the amateur Program and Promotions Directors out there thinking of trying something like this; you only change the name of your radio station if you’re going to actually change the format of the radio station.

I just spent the last couple of days in San Antonio doing fill-in for afternoon drive. Had a good time working with my old compatriat Karen Kay. No airchecks to post, but here’s a couple of camera-phone picts of the studio and a very bad photo of a roadside taco stand. Why? Hey, it’s Texas. How could I not have a picture of a roadside taco stand.

If I were Rush or Hannity, I would be up nights praying to whichever deity is currently providing the most PAC money to the vast right wing conspiracy to smite the Republican electorate and usher in the brave new world of “change” promised by the HypnoBama . … Better material and an opponent in the White House in diametric opposition to their core values (i.e. something they can rally against on the air to whip the ditto heads into a frenzy) will mean better ratings and of course, more revenue.

The controversy stirred up by Michael Savage and his remarks concerning autism have made the caustic radio host the subject of front-page news across the US. A Yahoo or Goggle news search will show no end to the commentary and backlash Michael Savage has garnered from reporters, broadcasters and yes, even everyday American’s like you.

The Boston Herald is reporting that sports hero and general all around good guy Doug Flutie, the father of an autistic teen, respectfully lambasted Savage in a press release from the Foundation for Autism saying Savage’s on-air remarks were: “inappropriate and lacking of respect for all families affected by autism.”

Radio and Records, the most influential weekly for the radio broadcasting industry notes that Michael Savage’s remarks on autism have lost him at least one outlet for his combative style of talk radio. Telesouth Communications has canceled Savage’s talk show on all of their “Super Talk Mississippi” stations. It’s a defection of a total of seven Michael Savage affiliates, but it’s not likely to effect the talk host’s rating or monetary bottom line, as the stations are mostly broadcasting to smaller radio markets and represent just a fraction of Michael Savage’s audience.

Still, the flak over Savage’s remarks on autism haven’t been completely ignored by some of Savage’s larger talk radio affiliates. Radio and Records also reports that the vice president and general manager of WOR/New York, Jerry Crowley, Savage’s affiliate in the largest radio market in the US felt the controversy was ‘big’ enough to release the following statement: “The views expressed by Michael Savage are his views and are not those of WOR Radio. As Michael Savage is a syndicated show, the content is the responsibility of the syndicator, which is Talk Radio Networks. Unfortunately, it is impossible for WOR Radio to know the subject matter in advance of airing. WOR is in the business of serving the community in which we broadcast. That is our stated goal, and we will continue to do so. We regret any consternation that his remarks may have caused to our listeners.” Wow. With the ability to write politically and corporately neutral press releases like that, Jerry should consider a run for public office.

The smoke has yet to clear or even to thin out over Michael Savage’s on air tirade. The statements about autism, which some would deem as misinformed or even inflammatory, have consciously or unconsciously created an environment that media personalities lust after with all their spin hungry hearts; tons and tons of press. In just a few days following Savage’s remarks, press wires, newspapers, Internet news portals, TV networks and even the workplace water cooler were abuzz with Savage’s comments. To put it lightly, you can’t buy press like that. Savage has made himself a household name, again.

It’s possible we’ll see a few more stations cancel Michael Savage, and there will undoubtedly be a few advertisers that will pull their commercials from the caustic talk host’s show. Although the General Managers and Program Directors of Michael Savages radio affiliates may seem incensed and will release public statements on how they are outraged or at the very least disagree with Michael Savage’s remarks on autism, the ’smart’ media managers will be popping champagne in their corporate media offices and toasting their good fortune at all of the press their stations are receiving indirectly from the Savage debacle. In the end, all of the controversy will only help Michael Savage. He’s made more people aware of his show, he’ll captivate and incense more listeners, garner higher ratings and in turn, have the ability to charge those advertisers even more to run commercials on his radio network. It’s his job to make a buzz for himself and gather more listeners for the Michael Savage show. And like it or not, from all the press Savage has garnered in the last week, he’s doing a fine job.

This morning I surfed over to the usual web sites to gander for the latest openings and job postings. About once a week I do check out the Clear Channel and CBS sites, you never know what might be lurking. But I have learned from experience over the years that once jobs turn up on internal company job sites, they’re usually filled anyway. At least in theory. As unfortunate as it may seem, job postings in broadcasting are often just the first and last stop to fulfill EOE requirements. I hope I’m not letting the cat out of the bag here. It’s not any big secret is it?!

So I find this rather interesting job opening on the Clear Channel site:

Morning Show Content Censor
Job Description: Clear Channel in Washington, D.C. has an immediate full-time opening for a Morning Show Content Censor. As the Morning Show Content Censor, you will be responsible for providing content protection for the “Elliot in the Morning” radio show on DC101. Content protection entails carefully listening and archiving the radio broadcast. Should show content violate FCC indecency or obscenity rules, you will be responsible for activating the content delay and/or preempting the broadcast with external content until you deem content is safe for returning to the broadcast….

Holy Cow! A show content censor! I guess in this day and age, whatever day and age this will be remembered as being, it’s not a ‘half-bad’ idea. But what’s this gig gonna pay? I’m betting that it’s not a six-figure income. If I had to take a half-baked guess, I’d venture to guess it pays closer to minimum wage than it does 30 grand a year. But, who knows? Still, I am intrigued with the idea that an employee making let’s say, 10 or 15 bucks an hour is the last gatekeeper for keeping everything legal with the FCC. I mean, let’s face it, the Feds don’t even have any clear guidelines as to what is or isn’t indecent. Even the most seasoned broadcasters know that the FCC’s current versions of ‘indecent’ is a shell game, an endlessly shifting and moving target. Hell, a law professor at an Ivy League college that specializes in media law would have a hard time trying to figure out when to or not to hit the dump button. Sheit. And smart money would say that the hire they have in mind is undoubtedly a few letters short of a PHD.

And so it goes….

Today Apple is a darling, a huge success story. A company that has returned from the ashes and reinvented itself more times than The Trixter has. But it wasn’t that long ago that the un-elected computer intelegencia and the everyday end-user was predicting a quick death for the company that has had more lives than the common cat. It wasn’t just the geeks, the alleged bastions of journalistic integrity such as Fortune, Time and Business Week back in ‘95 and ‘96 were writing that Apple was already a dead duck, they just didn’t know it yet.

Hey, I admit it, I’ve been an Apple fanboy for quite a while. Through good times and bad. Having first been introduced to the Mac because of its ease of use as an audio editing workstation. It wasn’t the amazing adds or the slick use of marketing, it was with much resignation and a lot of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, I was dragged kicking and screaming into the Apple cult of computing. But once I did, there was no looking back.

In the ’90s times were tough for Apple, very tough. The stock was in the crapper, The Newton was considered a ‘joke,’ (even though it gave rise to the very successful Palm platform and yes, the iPhone. Not to mention the fact that we’ve yet to see what Apple will finally do with the real holy grail of the Newton, Rosetta) month after month the market share was dwindling for Apple. The eminent death of Apple was expected to happen any day, with rumors of Sony, Adobe and yes even Microsoft picking the last remnants of flesh from the once great upstart company. Enter Steve Jobs…. In 1997 on his first day on the job, with Apple bleeding money to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, Jobs launched the project that would become the iMac. Apple had already spent 400 million dollars for the purchase of NeXT, and bled countless millions to develop the Newton under Scully. After freezing their research spending in 1996 to about 5 percent, and cutting its workforce by 30 percent in ‘97, Apple started to spend again on R&D with Jobs back in charge. Apple was funding more money into Research and Development than any of its competitors, including IBM and Dell. R&D spending reached over 7% in the early years of the new millennium, even though Apple experienced a few quarters with losses in 2003. Prompting CFO Fred Anderson to make a very remarkable quote: “We’re not going to mortgage the future for short-term profit maximization.” And according to Anderson, Apple was spending nearly a half a billion dollars a year on R&D.

Sure Apple had a few misses in those early years under Jobs. The Cube failed to take off, but this didn’t stop Jobs from pushing ahead in his belief in form factor, something that would later make the iMac a huge hit and arguably the Cube would later be reincarnated as the Mac Mini. And I have to admit, I originally thought the iPod was a joke. Even though I had one of the first iPods, I couldn’t really see beyond the trees of it being “just another mp3 player.” Only now are we starting to see Mr. Jobs real vision of a digital hub and the evil genius of his viral marketing of OSX through iTunes and the iPhone.

So what does all of this have to do with broadcasters? Plenty. Today we find Radio, TV and of course the Print Media being handed much of the same monikers that Apple had to endure back in the ’90s… “beleaguered” and “antiquated.” Advertising spending on radio is falling just like Apple’s market share did just a few short years ago. So radio tightens its belt, hires more salesman to chase the ever decreasing add dollars and cuts the bottom line from its programing departments across the board. Just a few weeks ago the cuts in programming were happening in markets ranging from NYC and LA to Middletown, Ohio. Our product is shrinking, and lets face it, it’s been happening for quite a while now. It sucks ladies and gentleman, but radio doesn’t hold a death grip on the music biz and audio entertainment anymore. You know it and I know it. It’s been coming down for a long long time.

So what to do chicken little? Let the sky fall? Have a fire sale? Not a chance. Radio is just changing, it’s not dead, dying or on life support, it’s just getting a rectal exam. What we’ve got to do, is do what Apple did. Invest in our “R&D.” Invest in the product. Start ’spending’ money and using our assets to give our users a product to believe in, trust and in turn use more and more. Our customers, the listeners, have to ‘rediscover’ radio again for what it is… a great and compelling product. If your product becomes ‘beleaguered’ you don’t continue to pretend that everything is fine, and just hire a bigger marketing and sales-force and ’sell the hell out of it.’ (Why am I suddenly reminded of the Monty Python “I’m not dead yet skit.“) It’s a lesson the Detroit automobile manufactures learned, or you would think would have learned in the ’70s. I believe in the power of radio. It’s great. It once was absolutely amazing and completely compelling. Damn it, that’s why I got into it. It was not only amazingly powerful and a huge social community that really had a tangible and intangible impact on peoples lives, it was fun as hell to be a part of and to listen to. And it can be again. And it’s not rocket science. It’s time for managers and radio groups to bite the bullet and start investing in our future, or we may not have a very promising future to look forward to. As former Apple CFO Fred Anderson said about his company, We’re not going to mortgage the future for short-term profit maximization. The days of endless double-digit returns every quarter for broadcast investors may be gone and they may never come back. But the long-term forecast is just fine, because we have an amazing product, if we just get back to paying attention to the damn product and nourish and encourage what makes it great… innovative ideas from creative individuals. Radio needs to go back and reinvest in its research bottom line; the product and the talent that is given the environment and encouragement to create and grow a great product.

Oh, and for all the money Apple spent on R&D over the years and all the great products it’s spawned, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the man behind the iPod, iPhone, iTunes, iMac, AirBook and all the other gadgets you and yes Sony lust after, remembers another important lesson as well: Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it. - Fortune, Nov. 9, 1998.

Get it?!

My god NPR is sooooo booring. The sad thing is, its the most interesting thing on the air in Miami. Very sad.

OK, So I’ve been looking for work, for just about six months now. I’m not going to go into great detail about the foibles of who I’ve talked to or what’s transpired. But it has been very interesting. It seems these days, since I’ve been at this radio thing for quite a while now, and worked in mostly large markets, that quite a lot of potential employers in middle-sized markets, or even markets under top 10, won’t even consider me for a gig. I get lot’s of notes that essentially add up to… “what, are you crazy, why would someone with your background even consider this gig?” But, that’s not what I’m gonna talk about. Today, it’s my rant on the ads that potential employers run in the “trades.”

Some of the ads I see in the “help wanted” sections of the radio trades really do perplex and amaze me, and occasionally I’ll see some really moronic postings on the “big” corporate radio job boards as well. God, I wish I would have taken a screen-shot of one I saw just last week. This guy (or gal) posted for a talent for I believe a CHR or maybe it was a streamer. Ahhh, my memory isn’t what it used to be. Anyway, in one sentence this poster broke two EOE laws: “(one guy/ one gal) based in LA between the ages of 25-35.” OK, two prerequisites for EOE are “no age or gender discrimination.” For this gig, you have to be between the ages of 25 and 35 and he/she has already told us that he/she has two gigs, but each one is gender specific. How do these people in these hiring positions get away with this! If I was a programmer and posted this, my head would be served to me on a platter. So Mr. or Ms. employer, remember next time make it something like: “You must be relatable to a 25-35 year-old listener, women and minorities are encouraged to apply.” It’s really not that hard chief!

Next we’ll move on to a few fairly recent ads that I’ve run across. I’ll even include a few screen-shots, with the names changed or blurred to protect the innocent. Here’s one for a really big radio division, and this example is more of a pet-peeve of mine than anything directly “wrong” with the posting. OK, it’s for a Director of Programming for a network, the Hispanic division to be exact. All in all, it’s a pretty good posting. You’re gonna need a lot of experience, seven plus years to be exact, have to know how to develop and implement new programming, good… and of course speak Spanish. Makes sense, it’s for a Hispanic network. And make sure that you know Arbitron and how to handle research. No problem. Now here’s the kicker….. You have to know how to use Microsoft Office! WHAT! Wait a second here. If the guy or gal that they find is a programming whiz, has all the tools necessary to make a great product, make what comes out of the speakers really hum, who gives a damn if they know how to use Microsoft Office! If they’re really that good, hire them a damn secretary. I can see it now, “We have a great candidate for the Hispanic network, they are really great at programming and development and can really make the network sound better and get more ratings than anyone else on the planet, but they don’t know how to calculate on an XL spreadsheet.” Oh brother. Besides, who the hell doesn’t know how to type a letter in Word these days? Maybe I’m assuming too much here, but there is just so much wrong here… on so many levels.

Remember that EOE thing? Sorry, you have to have a vagina for this gig! My God, how do they get away with it. I love the rest of the posting, it’s short and sweet and right to the point. “Strong opinions and handle lot’s of calls.” Right on, my kind of talk programmer! But if I have to get a sex change for the gig, I think that might qualify as an EOE problem. Come on, have some “balls” next time, put in a slug line that says, “vagina’s only need apply.” or “sorry, no penises in this position.”

One of my personal pet-peeves is posting for PD or talent gigs that require some kind of specific computer skills tied to a particular application. Take this ad for example… This is an ad for a medium market PD overseeing a couple of radio stations. It pretty much runs through the entire litany of duties that any PD would be expected to handle, but you have to know Cool Edit and Prophet. All of this sounds very logical, until you start to dig around a little bit under the dirty underbelly of what’s really going on here. What if you’re more familiar with ProTools? What if you’ve only used another automation app? Who really cares! What really matters here is can the individual make the product that emanates from the transmitter more compelling, get more listeners and in return, more ratings! Can they make a good product! As one very, very wise Programmer once told me, and he/she told me many very smart things, but all else pales in comparison to this little piece of advice: “All that matters is what comes out out of the speakers.” The damn audio editor and automation software and all the other crap lying around a radio station are just widgets. Tools that in the right hands, can be used to make what comes out of the speakers worth listening to. To make better radio! Remember, that’s what we do! We make entertaining and compelling radio. Fark the tools, make me an exciting product that people want to listen to. The tools are just…. things. A great programmer with a wire recorder and a crappy mic beats a crappy programmer with an HD Signal and a Neuman any day! I guarantee it! Remember our ‘first love,’ audio entertainment that comes out of the speakers. I suspect, but I could be wrong… it’s been known to happen a time or two, that when you see an add that really gets into the specifics of ‘tools’ and ’stuff,’ they really need an office assistant, not a programmer. Eh. Whatever….

One other thing I’ve been seeing a lot of is Programmers who ask that you only snail-mail your demo. OK, I get it, you’re getting scores of emails with huge attachments and the IT guys are after you cause you’re clogging up the corporate Exchange Server. Ya, it’s a hassle. But think of the alternatives… Tons of little padded envelopes with discs and hard copy resumes. Now that seems like a hassle. Gawd, that was one of my least favorite jobs as a programmer. Give me the mp3’s any day! Besides, that is one big ass market over there to the left. Seems somebody there might have some basic computer skills and someone in charge of IT might know how to filter out monster files or something. Of course, there is always some idiot who will send you a link to a password-protected Myspace page, a 50 meg audio file or worse. This one gets to the point:

Just for the record, I’ve seen other ads, much much worse, I just never really took the time to make a screen-shot or two and bitch about it. I guess this kinda’ gets it out of my system, for a while. Here’s an idea! Why not make your resume as a pdf file and embed a quick mp3 demo into the page! The potential employer just gets one file, with your resume, cover letter and demo all in one shebang! Here’s one genius looking for a gig who did just that! (Warning: Gratuitous self-promotion up ahead)

—>> john ford resume and aircheck pdf file

A short history… of the site, not necessarily me.

Johnford.net started quite a few years ago as the now defunct radiosurfer.com. Radiosurfer was a radio news portal patterned after the macsurfer.com site. But, instead of the news being geared towards the Apple fan-boy’s, it was radio intensive. Essentially a links and commentary site highlighting the latest news in the world of corporate and not so corporate radio broadcasting. Radiosurfer lasted a few years, but in the end, it was all just too much damn work for very little return. Other sites have popped up to take it’s place, including the excellent radio news and industry site allaccess.com. Unfortunately, the niche wasn’t completely filled, and there really isn’t a ‘one stop’ radio news portal supplying links to the other radio news sites. Radiosurfer was pretty handy, but sorry, it’s gone.

About this time I got the bright idea of using my personal domain as a blog. Over the years, johnford.net swung from a site primarily about radio and media, to a singer-songwriter/americana music links and commentary site, and eventually becoming just my personal blog, with commentary, inane and often insane ramblings on whatever strikes my mind. The archives could go back quite a bit further than are currently listed, and there are thousands more postings on my old movable type blog. However, importing them all is just more damn trouble than it’s worth.

So what do you get here? Basically me. My thoughts, songs, poetry, photography, etc… It’s a continuing work in progress to get things up and running again after almost a couple of years of letting the site flounder in the wings. Where will the site go next? God only knows. But thanks for stopping by and visiting. I do promise to be more vigilant in the future about keeping the site more up to date. Feel free to contact me by shooting me an email using the form below if you have any questions or just want to say hi!

Here’s some other places you can find me on the Net:

• Suite 101
• Associated Content
• Bright Hub
• FaceBook
• MySpace

You can contact me using the form below:

Traditional terrestrial radio has reached a eucatastrophy , and it’s time to drink the koolaid.

I do remember the days when mom and pop radio stations were the norm. When there were exceptionally run radio stations that had compelling programming run by motivated and involved community entrepreneurs. I was even lucky enough to work at a couple of them. Still consolidation was bound to happen. Radio was and is a great way to make money. Centralize, consolidate, downsize and join the ranks of wall-street darlings and the seemingly endless double digit returns. Well, today radio finds itself in a similar, but not quite as drastic predicament as the newspaper industry. Those ever increasing returns for investors are starting to show a downward trend from the impact of a new entry into the advertising dollar feeding frenzy: the Internet.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a FUD flinger when it comes to the net. After all I did read Silicone Snake Oil. I don’t believe that the net is gonna “take over the world” and we all better run for the hills screaming and wailing in panic. I am a believer however in the fact that as traditional broadcasters we do need to start looking at what we do a little closer. Notice I said at what ‘we’ do, not so much at what ‘they’ are doing.

OK, here’s the meat of the matter. Consolidation will not go away, but it’s going to diminish. Why? Simple economics. The rate of return is slowing in radio. If the forecast for return doesn’t continue to climb, investors and analysts will shy away from mega radio companies and the stock prices will fall. We will probably end up seeing these consolidated companies still thriving and making money, but my bet is that they will diversify. In fact, we’re already seeing this. As they diversify, individual investors and entrepreneurs that are more than happy to make, let’s say, a 10 percent or even a 5 percent return, will start buying up more properties. And I see this as a very good thing for radio.

With the possibility of new ownership blood and hopefully even local ownership, programming could, and should, diversify and hopefully some really creative people will start throwing up some new and interesting programming. We’ll still see the consolidators rolling heavy with syndication, both network and centralized. That’s not bad. We need it. But local markets should gain new and much needed local programming. Programming that has a history of winning and is really the backbone of traditional radio. Here’s what I would like to see:

Imagine a local ‘rock’ station that still follows the trades and still plays music that’s testing well and is very solid formatically, but really pushes the local angle. A station that’s actually involved in the local music scene. Adds local artists and actually plays and promotes them and their shows. Is passionate about how cool their local music scene. Hire a bunch of ‘kids’ that would really get excited about this kind of stuff, people that have the passion. Then, take that local angle and push it over to the web. Have interns running around with cheap video cameras recording local ‘fans’ at the clubs and the bands, all pushed virally to a youtube and the video flavor site of the week. Take your local angle and push it ‘globally’ to the web.

Imagine a local talk station that deals with almost entirely local things. Where to get a good parking space. The best place to get a chili dog. The local judge that just got caught smoking weed. Take your man on the street audio to the next level and push it to your web site as video. Hire local people as talk hosts, train em’ to do it right. Not just some local politician. Find somebody that ‘home-grown,’ really understands the place they live. It might be some ‘funny guy’ that works at a convenience store or a housewife that’s ‘gone crazy.’ Local and real. Oh, and for the record, this isn’t anything new. NJ101 has been printing money doing this for years.

Neither of these two ideas are wildly exotic in any way. They’re just simple observations on solid programming with a slant to the web. And I believe that’s the direction we have to take. Good solid local programing with a push to the web, the global web. Solid local programing always beats syndication. It always has and always will. Being local is the bedrock of terrestrial radio and now is the time to get back to our roots. The global network onslaught is coming from all sides: Satellite, ipod, streaming, GSM and WiFi. How do we compete? That’s the rallying cry. The simple truth is we just need to get back to the roots of what makes radio great. Being a part of the community. And the next step, taking that killer local programing globally on the net. We can’t keep doing it the way we used to. But we can go back to what we know works best, with a web twist. Think locally, reach globally..

So I had insomnia last night and had one of those odd TV accidents. For some reason, while I was surfing for naked pics of the planet Pluto, my TiVo suddenly decided to record the Charlie Rose Show. I haven’t got the foggiest idea who the first guest was. Some feminist with bad hair and unflattering attire I think. But the second guest caught my attention. It was Steve Wozniak. The lesser known of the duo who founded Apple Computer and started the personal PC revolution. Wozniak, or as he’s known among this planets uber-geeks “The Woz,” has long been an icon for plastic pencil pocketed nerds, long before they became hipsters and the ruling class of the world.

Rose was his usual ponderous self, reading his questions and not really paying any attention to the answers of his guest. But at one point Woz said something truly amazing. When asked why he though Steve Jobs has always been able and had the vision to create truly innovative and lusted after products, Woz said: “I think it’s because he’s always had an ability to see into the future. He’s been able to anticipate products that people want to use. He creates things that people use. Things for people.”

I think it’s really that simple. The iPod delivers the goods. It’s easy to use, it’s designed for people. And it delivers on its promise, it allows you to put little plugs in your ears and listen to the music you want. It’s easy to buy music, you click on iTunes, the song is downloaded to to your computer and transfered to your iPod. No geeky jumping though hoops. It just works, and it’s easy to use. It’s designed for people. It’s not designed by a bunch of geeks or engineers or some corporate honcho’s to outdo a rival. It’s designed for people. It is that simple.

Radio has the advantage of being one of the easiest devices to use on the planet. It’s designed for people. A 5-year-old and your Great Grand Mother can figure out how to use a radio. We have that advantage. But as programmers, we can be the ones making it difficult for the listeners. We’re not designing our formats for people. We’re not making it easy for them. We spend too much time paying attention to what each other are doing, programing our stations and networks for the staff and/or investors, our special interests and likes, and we’ve forgotten, or abandoned the idea that we’re creating a product for people. It’s for them. We have to make it easy for them.

In the last few years we’ve seen quite a few stations and networks in the talk arena that have decided to forge into areas of talk that unfortunately been ignored, like Liberal politics, talk for women, talk for younger men on FM. Some of theme have had amazing success, some haven’t and the jury is still out for some. Why haven’t all of these new and perfectly valid and sometimes obvious radio format ideas panned out the way we have planned or hoped? Truthfully, it is easier to fail at this game than it is to succeed. Sometimes the chips just don’t fall into place. But I’ve gotta believe that Steve Wozniak, without even giving a thought to our little biz, has hit the nail on the head. Most of us are not creating a product for people.

We’ve got to stop thinking about innovation, being clever, the competition, our agenda and all of the minutia that keeps us from the most important goal. We’re creating a product for people. We’ve got to make it easy for them to use. We need to create radio for people. I hate to admit it sometimes, coming out of the extremely cool and self-righteous AOR world, tightly formatted personality driven music radio got this right for years. It was a product that was for people. It gave them what they wanted and reached them at a gut level. They know what they’re gonna’ get, and it delivers. It’s a product for people.

In talk we have a tendency to get wrapped up in our agenda, be it politics or our pet version of the world. It may make you feel like an evangelist or special, but it may not be what the listeners really want. We gotta’ remember, we’re doing this for them, it’s not for us. Sure, it’s our business, but our business is creating a product that people will use, that’s easy for them to use and becomes a part of their life. So what do they want? Let’s make it easy. Go to 50.lycos.com. Here’s the top 50 internet searches for the week. On 1/1/07, it looks something like this: Rosie O’Donnell, The New Year, Auld Lang Syne, Britney Spears, Pam Anderson, Paris Hilton, The kid who got into fisticuffs with Tigger at Disney, YouTube, Pokemon, Lindsay Lohan, NFL, the War in Iraq, PS2, High Stakes Poker, The Sadam execution video. Is it really that easy. Sort of. Let’s face it, you still need a communicator, and that’s another bag of worms. But damn it, it’s all right there. No big research project involved. It’s as simple as listening to what real people are talking about wherever they may be. This is what they want. It’s really that easy. No one gives a damn about that book author or what Charlie Rose said last night.

This radio thing is for people. Give them what they want and make it easy for them to use. Make radio for people. It’s actually really simple. Thank you Steve Wozniak.

The coffee machine at Air America.

Originally uploaded by spoot.