Want some easy ink? Declare Radio Dead. No matter how lame and misinformed one’s thoughts are on the subject, they will show up in print. And radio people will read and believe them.
Here’s what professional pundit Mitch (I have a new book) Joel recently said about radio:
I think a lot of people are trying to figure out how to save radio, but I’m not so sure how savable radio is, to be perfectly honest. I do see many opportunities for people within radio to start thinking about transitioning to the more digital-based channels because I think there are many opportunities there.
He added:
I just don’t see young people getting into the traditional form of radio. They are very, very ear-buds-in-ears, highly mobile, pause, forward, rewind, save it for later. “Radio” as a format just does not click, I think, with this next generation, and it’s going to have to reinvigorate itself because there are only so many 60+ year olds who don’t mind making time to listen to some radio.
To put this gibberish in context, we have to first figure out who Mitch (I have a new book) Joel is. A Google search reveals that he is a Quebecer, president of Twist Image, a Digital Marketing agency, and president and founding partner of Distort Entertainment, a Canadian heavy-metal label. He’s a journalist and a publicist. He tells us he is revered in Canada as a speaker on new media. Did I mention he has a new book?
So he’s a new-media hustler. What we call a professional pundit. No experience required.
It isn’t clear what qualifications he has to pass judgment on radio, let alone declare it un-savable. He does admit to listening to some radio, albeit public radio, praising the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and National Public Radio.
So to summarize, he’s a head-banging CBC listening new-media shill. What is the chance he is going to be upbeat about commercial radio or its future? Maybe zero.
The fact that an uninformed out of touch narcissistic hustler would have such a low regard for radio is understandable. The fact that the views of a person like this could possibly be taken seriously is what concerns us.
If reaction to similar tripe is any indication, radio people will earnestly read Mr. Joel’s pithy comments. They will look beyond his assertion that no one under the age of 60 listens to radio and that modern people aren’t into the “traditional form” of radio. They will search to find the wisdom he must obviously have. He wrote a book, didn’t he?
This business has got to get beyond this consuming sense of inferiority to new media. Radio isn’t going to be helped by new-media professional pundits. They don’t get commercial radio. They never have.They can’t believe that people listen to Sean Hannity or the same 200 songs over and over. They can’t believe that 90% of Americans still listen to radio. They can’t believe that Americans spend any time with advertising supported commercial radio, let alone 22 hours a week .
Professional pundits live in an imaginary world where everyone owns an iPhone, watches Hulu, would never listen to commercial radio, and instead listens to podcasts and Pandora. The only pundits that have any chance of helping radio are the ones that understand that the new-media world is a fantasy. The real world listens to commercial radio, and likes it. When we find a pundit that understands this, he or she will be worth listening to.
Mr. Joel’s comments appeared in a forum for radio people not once, but twice. His insights first appeared in Mark Ramsey’s blog, a frequent safe-house for professional pundits. Not only can you read a summary of Mr. Joel’s thoughts there, you can listen to them for full effect. Then Al Peterson’s NTS MediaOneline picked up the story.
Both sources offered the rambling self-serving drivel without critique or criticism. We suspect that our post will be the only negative critique it will elicit. We may even be taken to task for our narrow-mindedness criticizing Mr. Joel’s sweeping indictment. That’s where radio is right now.
Down deep, a great many people within radio believe Mr. Joel. They’ve lost faith in radio and expect it to just sputter out at some point. In the meantime they collect a paycheck.
Until radio shows the will to defend itself against these attacks, until radio sees through the transparent carpetbagging pundits, and until radio gets out of this stupor of a paralyzing sense of inadequacy, we can expect a parade of book peddling pundits to keep telling us we suck, and radio people thanking them for the advice.
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