Friday morning’s “Radio Stimulus Package” panel gave the National Assn. of Broadcasters Radio Show a string of last-day-firecrackers as panelists urged broadcasters to stop living in the past and to recruit younger talent to what Edison Research president Larry Rosin called “an industry of old men.” Noting that the still-legendary KHJ Los Angeles had dropped Top 40 nearly three decades ago, FigMedia’s Bill Figenshu announced, “KHJ is dead, long live the boss. The boss is the consumer.” And Jacobs Media’s Fred Jacobs said he had decided to no longer go to radio reunions: “We need to move on,” he said.

Parikhal urged the audience to “stop lying to yourselves. [That’s the] beginning of any 12-step program. Things are bad.” He also called for a show of hands for anybody who had registered to win a Zune with HD Radio that was being given away at NAB, and no hands went up. “Please go to some digital events … that are not sponsored by radio. You’ll feel like the Maytag repairman,” said Hear 2.0’s Mark Ramsey. Figenshu warmed of a time of “Pandora Philadelphia” or when “Last FM becomes Local FM,” obliterating one of radio’s last advantages.

Parikhal encouraged attendees to write and present a recruitment speech for the radio industry to a 20-year-old – and then to pay attention to the feedback when it doesn’t work. Rosin joked that the government should give radio a bailout to recruit the Harvard Lampoon writers who instead get snapped up by “The Simpsons” and “30 Rock,” as a change from the industry’s previous HR strategy: “Hope and pray that the best talent walks in the door as a teenager.” Greater Media director of corporate communications Heidi Raphael suggested that NAB come up with programs targeted at the school’s like her Charlotte, N.C., cluster’s Radio Camp For Kids.

Jacobs also felt that broadcasters’ collective response to the advent of PPM ratings measurement “absolutely blands out our programming at the expense of long-term content development.” Similarly, Figenshu felt that “too many stations are not playing to win. They’re playing to not lose.”