When Steve Hafen (Dec. 3 letters, page 45) says he wants suggestions except the one that will work (“Go back to live radio”), it makes me think of an article in which the writer said that the more “consultants” pan an idea, the more likely the idea is worth giving some serious thought to.
And just what is wrong with live radio? Yes, it costs more. But it is worth much more. It’s called value. Listeners are looking for it.
Look at the major-market Arbitron numbers. Embarrassing, aren’t they? No value. They achieve this wondrous result by following the management practice of cutting your way to profitability.
If your business plan is to make money, you will make neither money nor product. It’s that simple. You can see this in any line of business where a company has lost sight of its original mission statement.
As Billy Joel sang, it’s a matter of trust. Management needs to (but doesn’t) hire people who understand and believe in the mission, then trust them to use their brains and creativity to make the station unique and good.
Dorothy ran across a lion in search of courage, a scarecrow in search of a brain and a tin man in search of a heart. They all discovered that those characteristics had been within themselves all along. Oh, if that were only true in radio. The holding companies are about as smart as those holding Chrysler. If they just had the “Courage” to use their “Brain” to put some “Heart” into radio, we would fly faster than Dorothy did clicking her ruby red slippers.
We would find there is no place like home — home being live radio.
Jim Jenkins
Owner/GM
WAGS Radio
Bishopville, S.C.
