It’s Time to Rise Up
By Bob Quick
Bob Quick
Labor Day is the celebration of the American worker and unfortunately, I just read about another one of my friends being let loose after decades of service in the same radio market. Much like those workers in the past that had to rise up for better working conditions, it’s time for us to rise up and take our industry back before we’ve lost it forever.
We’re reading more and more that radio is becoming an afterthought in the car entertainment system environment. FM is hard to find and AM is non-existent in many electric vehicles.
Why?
Auto manufacturers are just reacting to what their consumers are demanding. They spend millions on customer research. What are their buyers asking for?
Spotify
Pandora
TuneIn
Podcasts
Alexa and Siri integration
YouTube
Radio, the technology, isn’t cool anymore. We’re losing prime real estate in our last position of strength…the car dashboard.
The car “entertainment center” also plays CDs (Really? Still?), SiriusXM, and has USB and aux connections. But it is the seamless Bluetooth connection to the smartphone that has become so simple that even the most technophobic person in the world can use it. Add in Apple Carplay or Android Auto functionality and your cell phone screen is displayed on an 8 or 10-inch touch screen, so easily navigable while driving.
The screen also displays metadata (title and artist information) from music streams and mp3’s, with space for album art.
Really cool.
With all that information coming at you…the ability to listen to online streams from faraway places and program your own eclectic taste in music…not to mention podcasts…it is no wonder the younger generation doesn’t think radio is cool.
They’ve been brought up with the ESPN crawl. Picture-in-picture. Their entire music library in their pocket. In fact, my son watches YouTube, plays Call of Duty while interacting and strategizing with other players…and all the while having a separate video chat conversation on Discord with his friends playing still other online games…and all at once. He’s 16 and learning to drive. His generation will demand even more of what they think is cool from their car entertainment system.
They multitask. Heck, they’ve been trained to embrace their ADD from the time they were born.
Music coming out of a speaker just isn’t cool anymore.
When I was a kid, like most kids, I wanted to be cool. The coolest person I could imagine was the person behind the voice coming out of my radio. The thought of the power of speaking to thousands of listeners all at one time was like a drug to me.
It is one of the biggest reasons I entered into this crazy business.
So, the real question is, how do we get the younger generation to think radio is cool again?
It really isn’t brain surgery. But we need to take our industry back. Innovate. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY…ENTERTAIN. Get plugged into the local scene. Hone our craft. Let our personalities shine.
The time is NOW. Use your gut. Tell a PD or Sales Manager no….respectfully, of course.
Look, I know you need your job to pay your bills. The older you are, the harder it is to start over.
But one of my most trusted mentors once told me when I was frustrated with management, “There will always be a job for you in this business because you’re good at it.”
I talk to radio station owners every day. They are all complaining that they can’t find people to work. They are hiring! Don’t let the downsizing you are reading about in the trades fool you. There are thousands of stations in this country still independently owned and they are hiring.
Once you let go of the fear of being let go, you will be free to innovate, be irreverent, be creative, and be the personality that listeners seek out and tell their friends about.
Isn’t that what cool people are…innovators, irreverent, creative and fun? The new buzzword is “disruptor.” Think of three. Three of mine are:
David Letterman
Howard Stern
George Carlin
OK, so maybe I’m dating myself. Here are three from more recent decades:
Dave Chappell
Seth McFarlane
Will Ferrell
Who wouldn’t want to have an adult beverage with any one of those guys? But who are yours? Email them to me at bquick@mrn.com.
We all wanted to be friends with the cool kids in school. Everyone wants to belong, it’s a human trait.
The technology we can fix, being considered cool again is much harder work.
Don’t let the Madison Avenue propaganda machine get you down, only talking about the shiny new toys (digital pure plays and podcasts) in the room. Radio should and can be in those conversations again. You are the star in your local market. You provide entertainment and engagement when times are good…and vital, life-saving information when times are bad.
Take your industry back. If your company won’t innovate, find one that will. Be passionate about what you do, be passionate when you do it, and the listeners will be passionate about you.
Listen, last month I went back to the market where I met my wife and was blown away that a random stranger recognized my voice and remembered me from the radio. I haven’t lived in that market for 20 years! I’m not saying that to brag, but it did feel good. That’s the connection we can have as an industry.
In the late 19th century, laborers stood up for fair wages, a standard workday, safe working conditions, and days off. Talk about passion and taking risks. We just celebrated America’s 129th Labor Day. If we’re not careful, our industry will be forgotten like the terrible working conditions those brave men and women faced before they fought back.
It’s time we fight for our livelihoods as well.
Bob Quick, Senior Manager of Radio Partnerships at Motor Racing Network, is so completely fired up right now he will not be able to sleep tonight. When he can’t sleep, he works. When he works, he’s helping radio stations find revenue through the extreme loyalty and purchasing power of the NASCAR fan. Find him at bquick@mrn.com.
