So there was this very popular morning drive jock in a great big market. He and his show were considered an institution, a franchise. However, his Big Company came along and did the “Investor Thing”—remove anything incurring an expense (or even breathing). To the investors working with a spreadsheet, he was classified as a liability, not an asset. Bam. He’s gone. Outta here.

But an odd thing happened along the way. That jock had gotten hip to the social media scene earlier than most us. For the last couple years he'd been encouraging his fans to join him on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and plain old SMS. Since the Big Company hadn't made social media an imperative (it’s an expense), he collected those names himself. In fact, he collected 25,000 of them. Yes, twenty-five thousand names, e-mails, phone numbers, friends etc.

So now his show doesn’t go out over an antenna anymore. Instead, he has a little-bitty, harmless daily podcast. Very funny, entertaining and timely stuff, and every day he sends those 25,000 a link to highlights of his daily podcast show. Just the best bits and content.

So one day he went to the big auto dealer and said, “Instead of buying that big schedule on a couple stations, spend one-third of that with me. I'll just send a message to my 25,000 fans saying that I'll be there Saturday morning and giving away stuff. If we have a paltry one half of 1% return, that's 125 ups. Hey, I'll even guarantee a minimum amount of traffic—or your money back. We can count the cars coming in.” And that's what happened. In fact, by the end of the day the number was higher than that.

Next, he went to a retailer and said, “Give me a really good deep discount coupon to create X amount of traffic for you. Since we can count the results, I'll refund the money if it doesn't work.” Again, they blew by the numbers and nobody asked for their money back.

He did it without a week of promos, spots, remote vans, a radio station, transmitter, or FCC license. What he did have was a minuscule overhead—just a couple messages to his super-qualified ups. All free. Of course it all started with pure-play radio; that's how he got all those fans to join him on social media sites.

You can draw your own conclusions, but to me this story has several morals. Remember the jocks who thought doing a daily blog was a pain? They’re probably gone now. And to managers who still brag that they don’t have Facebook account or “I don’t get this Twitter BS; show me the money,” please understand that when you make those kinds of comments you’re embarrassing yourself. It’s the beginning of multiple of new business models. Please re-read the story above. Stories just like it are occurring everywhere to people who’ll win the race.

Here are some thoughts to consider, especially regarding radio's response to digital.

• There is a race in progress, and like it or not, we’re all in it.
• The race is to be and stay relevant and necessary in the new economy.
• In order to even be in the race, we must create, invent, or be left behind. At least stay in the pack. Keep up with what’s going on.
• Digital and social media are a virtual tsunami. They’re here to stay and keep coming.
• Yesterday's answer brought us to today—but we'll need new ones tomorrow—or be left behind.
• By left behind, I mean your income, determined by your value and relevance to the marketplace and the industry. That’s the race.

Rather than fighting, ignoring or challenging this new world, it can be the most productive thing you’ve done. We can use radio to bring audiences to digital—and show finite, specific results to an advertiser. That’s what we were supposed to be doing anyhow, right?

Please, please get in the race.

What do you think about that? Email me at taz@tazmedia.com.