You know, when I come across a great story in another trade, and the only ones I really read are Radio Business Report, Radio Ink and Radio-Info, I, unlike the other pussy trades, will give them credit. There was a GREAT story in RBR yesterday about the lack of new blood in the industry. Something that I have said on many occasions in TheIndustry.biz .
That translates, especially in radio to dates shows and dated syndication too. I’m a middle age man and even I admit, we need new blood in the industry across the board on ALL formats. Here’s the story below courtesy of RBR.
If there was one recurring theme at last week’s NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia, it was that radio leaders are well outside of the most attractive demos – and getting older. But consolidation and the current recession have made it difficult to hire and grow the leaders of tomorrow. Regent Communications CEO Bill Stakelin raised the issue in the Radio Group Heads Super Session, putting himself among those radio executives who are getting “long in the tooth.
”The same concern was expressed over and over by speakers in the session called “Radio Stimulus Package. ”“We are fast becoming an industry of old men,” said Larry Rosin, President, Edison Media Research, excluding the only female and younger panelist, Heidi Raphael, Vice President Corporate Communications, Greater Media. “We have to raise the quality of programming,” declared Bill Figenshu, President, Broadcast Operations and Development, Peak Broadcasting.
He complained that program directors are currently managing too many stations, leaving them with little time for real innovation. He called for efforts to bring in more young people. “It’s time for radio to make stations we are proud of,” he said.
Raphael called on broadcasters to expand their outreach – not just going to colleges for recruiting, but also to high schools and junior high schools to get students interested in radio. “We need to be growing our talent now for the future,”
“Stop nostalgically looking back at the good old days,” said Fred Jacobs, President, Jacobs Media. He lamented the lack of strategic thinking in radio and declared that programming for PPM, because it measures audience minute by minute, is killing innovation. “It’s personalities that people care about,” Jacobs noted.
But who is developing the new personalities that radio needs for the future? John Parikhal, CEO, Joint Communications Corp. , had harsh words for the current leaders of the largest radio groups.
“Stop lying to yourselves,” he said. Parikhal declared that the top people have made mistakes and that none of the new initiatives implemented in recent years have worked. “Kill all czars,” he proclaimed, because rule by czars – top-down management – always fails.
Instead, innovation has to come from the lower ranks and move up in the organization. RBR-TVBR observation: At some point the broadcasting industry (OK, this is a bigger problem in radio, but it also applies to TV) is going to have to spend some money and recruit some of the best and brightest of the new generation. That is obviously hard to do in the current economic climate.
With some of the biggest players dancing as fast as they can to avoid Chapter 11 (and certainly some will end up there), spending more money is not something being talked about at many radio groups. At some point, someone is going to have to actually invest in the product being put out on radio stations or they will just watch the value of their properties decrease. The capital structure of the radio industry is a mess right now, but that mess will be cleaned up – one way or the other.
