The Sept. 29 Ross On Radio issued two not-at-all-contradictory calls prompted by the Radio’s Stimulus Package session at the National Assn. of Broadcasters Radio Show.

We called on broadcasters to not only recruit younger broadcasters but to allow them to engage their peers on the radio, given radio’s increasing default to Top 40 as the one-size-fits-all format for anybody under 25. And, given the number of times that broadcasters were encouraged to stop living in yesterday, we pointed out that if radio was mired in the past, it wasn’t exactly the right past – today’s stalest radio dates back to the “great liners, less content” days of the ’80s, not to the more revered programming that preceded it. Here’s how readers responded:

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“Sean, take a look at Arbitron’s study of all format results for 2008. It appears CHR is not the format to choose if you want the younger demos. Seems the Howdy Hits are doing just fine in those demos thank you.

“As for recruiting younger talent, who is going to teach them? As someone who has been on the frontlines in that area for the last 20 years I can tell you some direction is necessary. However, with older (higher priced) PD talent being replaced by younger (cheaper) people charged with more than one station’s product to oversee, and people like me who could help no longer being budgeted for, it makes me wonder how we will be able to compete in a world filled with alternatives to Radio geared to a younger audience.

“While it won’t end Radio immediately, it will only be a matter of time before the generation who grew up with Radio is replaced with the generation who grew up with iPods and Smart Phones.” – Country consultant Bob Glasco, Glasco Media

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“Just a quick observation about young salespeople. The unfortunate fact is that most (19 out of 20) college grads with degrees in Communications are unprepared because of the areas covered in their communications courses.

“For a period of time I allowed my sales managers to interview and hire recent college graduates and all but a couple of these hires failed, not because we were not willing to put in the time and effort to train them, but primarily because they felt entitled and did not want to put in the hard work to become a great salesperson. They also did not want to learn from the successful salespeople on the staff, as they felt that they knew everything.

“Unfortunately, they knew very little about actual sales, and they especially didn’t know how to read their potential client for signs about their personalities which would help the way they made their presentation, preferring instead to spout ‘facts’ about the station instead of listening to the needs of the client. “Sadly, their work ethics were also very bad. “This was not necessarily a trait of only young people—it was also a trait of middle management people from major companies here in Rochester who had been let go. These people were used to delegating work and not doing it themselves, but that’s another story.

“I feel that if young people were taught proper courses in their college ‘communication’ majors, it would help them tremendously. I often felt that finding a good waiter or waitress or clothes salesperson with great people skills was more important than a college education, when it came to selling radio. “Remember the days of communicating in person? “Young people are the future in our wireless world and maybe those with Internet skills just have to be given the room to lead the way and we older people have to stand aside and let it happen!

“Just an observation.” — Dan Guilfoyle

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“[You wrote] ‘a radio station that offers companionship, new music discovery, and a shared experience might be more than a match for a jockless, interactive music widget.’ Congratulations! You just invented WABC [New York], circa 1964: the station that captured my imagination when this ‘dinosaur’ was a 10-year old.” – “Wildebeest 201”

“Once again, you’re right on the money with your comments this morning. I'm suggesting your daily column to several of my colleagues. If we keep preaching the same message, maybe someone in radio will finally get it. Thanks again!” – Ted Zigenbusch, Los Angeles

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“Your comment about Boss Radio finding resonance with twentysomethings was right on target, as were Fig’s observations in Philadelphia. Far from living in the past, I think the best is ahead for media. That said, knowing what happened before is also important, which is why I wrote ‘Turn It Up! American Radio Tales 1946-1996.’ (www.americanradiotales.com) I don’t know whether I’ll find an audience with young broadcasters, but it never hurts to put it out there.” – Bob Shannon, Bainbridge Island, Wash.

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“Something happened in the minds of programmers in the late 80’s and 90’s that wasn’t good. I don’t know where it came from, and I wasn’t paying attention, as my career took me away from the music, conventions, R & R articles, consultants, etc.

“What happened was a movement away from allowing any type of creativity outside of liner cards by anyone on any station other than the morning shows. I don’t know why: maybe because it was safe.

“What happened was a deliberate distillation of what was allowed to be done on the Radio by alleged personalities until there weren’t any personalities left. Just liner cards and overproduced liners between songs.

“There was enough momentum from previous years so the audience didn’t notice the change right away. But as consolidation and voice-tracking took over, they figured it out, and have expressed it as a ‘sameness’ of the sound of radio nationwide.

“Many of today’s Programmers have been put on notice that this has to change by the PPM. But, I believe they’re making a very basic mistake. When they look at the data that shows the audience doesn’t like anything that is said, and decide to cut back jock talk, they've fallen into a trap.

“It isn’t that the audience doesn’t want to hear something between the songs. It is all about giving them something worthwhile to hear.

“When I hear Programmers talk about “content,” and searching for what is good and what isn’t, I suggest they take a trip back in time. Pay the small admittance fee to www.ReelRadio.com and listen to the people who entertained. The people who made Radio fun and unpredictable. What Rick was able to save is all there: years and years of it.

“If you’re a young person in the business, go home to a place you've never been and let them make you smile—maybe even laugh out loud. That’s what the audience is missing today.

“To do it on the Radio you have to take a chance. You have to find people who can do it, and then plan to have them have good days and bad days as they improve. You have to be ready for your PPM numbers to be all over the place, because everyone won’t like everything they do.

“But, I believe if we’re going to bring back the companionship that Radio once provided for our listeners, The ‘did you hear what happened on WXXX last night’ talk in the schools, you have to do it, using Facebook and Twitter and texting as some of your new tools.

“I hope you find the people and the guts to do it because it’s damn boring out there right now and it could be so good.” – Hal Widsten, GM, KWED/The Seguin Daily News, Seguin, Texas

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“Ageism indeed runs rampant not just in radio, but in a variety of industries these days. Much of it, I believe, is fueled by the negative portrayal of seniors in many of today’s television programs.
“Often, a given series will portray the central characters as successful, good looking, articulate, intelligent and invariably in their late 20s or early 30s. And when a veteran actor is called upon to fulfill what must be an obligatory role for an older person in the script, said actor is almost always portayed as some sort of doddering buffoon who either indulges in crass behavior or is dismissed as “not having their marbles”. “I concur. Ageism is discriminatory, yet it runs unchecked in the industry. It needs to stop. “Keep up the great work.” – Michael McDowell, Editor/Publisher, Blitz Magazine

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“ Nice work with issue #32: “Vets and new talent”. Clear writing and good information about both sides of the issue.

“I believe radio’s future is combined with social media. The world seems no longer interested in a one-way, straight-line AM/FM broadcasting. The audience wants to be engaged on their time, their interest, their way, and have options to put back. Broadcast radio still works with umbrella coverage over a community. By engaging Twitter, Facebook, podcasting, video, digital pictures, and mobile apps, a bigger audience comes forward: a more engaged audience, a more valuable paid message environment.

“My take:

1. Old white men want the past to save their net worth. Too bad both are gone. The market has shown the decreasing value of commercial jams. The market tells us increasing value is with Twitter ($1B!); Facebook; most all things video; and certainly any mobile “app”. The old white men will either invest back into the business and attract younger talent or let the banks take it all away from them. Then the next generation will take over for pennies on the dollar.

2. Mid-level radio talent and station managers need to invest in themselves. One station caught the Twitter fever and the morning show got new life. Except for the near-forty male lead that decided he didn’t have to “tweet”. Somehow a tweet-challenge got on air and three days later the #3 producer had more audience tweets than the male-lead. Turns out the male-lead is a great voice but doesn’t know how to type. This guy is aging faster than a past due bank note. Engage or parish.

Ross … content is king but engagement is golden. Add more interactive insights for you audience … they need it.” – Steve Poley, CELLit Media Services, Houston

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“ Funny about the reactions over the past few years to the 30 Under 30. What the negatives from us vets should have been was “Hey! You left out the guy/gal that I brought into and mentored in the Biz.”

“That’s a lot of the trouble right there. We are not dinosaurs; an extinct species, but are the simply the older generation who should be charged with and happy to bring in and develop the next generation. Those should be our people, not our competition. I have brought more than my share into the Biz and am very proud of them.“ – Sean Lisle, KLIV Silicon Valley News, San Jose

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“When I first saw that story recommending young talent, my first thought was, ‘Is that legal?’ That’s a shame isn’t it? My first thought should have been: Is it a good idea?

“But that’s the world we live in. Yeah, it IS a good idea. I'm in my fifties and when I was in radio I used to look around the room at conventions and be bothered by the fact that it was a bunch of old guys. Nothing against being old. I can and do outwork anybody, but there’s no way I can identify the tastes and desires of a 20 year old.

“As to the response from the guy who said “Who will train them?” That would be pointless, What somebody should do is take a station with nothing to lose … and turn some rookies loose on it. That happened once in the late ’80s or early ’90s in Savannah. It was a lesser station (Hot something… can’t recall the frequency) and it had a helluva book. Then the corporate guys came in, ‘cleaned it up,’ toned it down and pretty much killed it.

“I had the pleasure of working for Qantum in Fort Walton Beach right AFTER they launched Fly 92.1 “The Party Station”. I'd never heard anything like it and it was launched and run by kids in their 20’s and it was something to behold. It was out of control and not very smooth but the ratings were awesome. They may still be. I'm just no longer there so I don’t know.)

“They say stations like that are hard to sell but I'm a sales guy and I say, get listeners and then find advertisers. Don’t program a station because you think advertisers will like it.” – Jerry Stevens, Simpsonville, S.C.

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“You can’t go home again! As a ’60s and ’70s listener/DJ, I have to admit that the listening audience has changed drastically. As we grew up listening to the WABCs, WFILs and KHJs, we grew accustomed to also listening to the creative talent of the DJ’s as well. Then came the FM take over. With the better audio came the call for less DJ interaction. Listeners didn’t want the blabbering: ‘Just play the music!’ Formats became nothing more than music lists, with pre- programed separators running on a PC in the studio. “Consultants took over programming the four station pods, and all the local PDs do is take what the consultant dishes out to the GM, and make it so. Gone is the local record research, or listener polls. It’s all done from Atlanta now.

“Basically, all the listener wants to hear is the new music, so they can spend 99 cents to download it. Now they don’t have to listen again for a while, until more new music shows up.

“Radio is no longer listened to for hours on end while you do your housework, homework or work on your car. The iPod has taken over the distraction factor. We don’t need the talented air personalities bloating our payrolls. We need the college kids with decent enough diction and reading skills to read the cards, and have some knowledge of the music they play. (Wikipedia and other web sites supplies a lot of info). We don’t have to pay the college kids what we've paid our top talent of old.

“I've stopped listening to the radio a long time ago. Formats (all of them) sound the same. You name it. Country, AC, Hot AC, Hot Hits, Classic Hits and even the Oldies. All have the same formatics, just different music.

“Oldies, of all of them, should be the one that’s different by nature. We 50-plus listeners still remember the way radio sounded when we hit the preset of our favorite stations. And it’s the Oldies format that should be the vehicle that brings it back. Let’s put WABC, WFIL, KCBQ and KHJ on the FM side with great DJ’s and their spirited banter, classic jingles, contests and surveys. I loved every minute of it back then, and I'd listen to every minute of it now. Oldies radio is missing the point!” – Robert Heiney, KTRK-TV, Houston