Everyday, in reading the trades, talking with those in radio, talking with those who are now out of radio, the subject always seems to circle around to, what’s missing in radio these days.
We discuss the lack of understanding of the product from the higher ups, the lack of creativity, the lack of time for those who work in radio to do it right.
Some think the fun is missing, some think the personality is missing, some think the competition is missing, some think the new generation of radio is missing.
40 years ago when I walked into a radio station for the first time, my high school station in Centerville, Ohio, it had a smell to it. And every station since that time until the late 90’s had that smell.
I don’t know if it was the paper for the AP machine, the ink on the ribbon of the AP machine, by the way I never have been able to change the ribbon on one of those machines, the vinyl of the records, the old cigarette smoke, the alcohol for cleaning the tape heads, or the carpet with the multiple stains.
The smell had to be something else because as the news wire machines, the records, the smoking, the alcohol for the tape heads, disappeared the smell was still there and it didn’t matter which station in which market
In St. Louis at Q 106.5 on Hampton, old building and we were the only company in the building. It smelled like a radio station.
Z104 in Virginia Beach, on the third floor (it might have been the 4th floor) of a naval building, it smelled like a radiostation.
Z-95 in Milwaukee on Capitol Drive, it smelled like a radio station.
95 SGF in Savannah on Tybee Island, it smelled like a radio station.
The other day I walked into the building that houses the 3 radio stations of a fairly large broadcasting group. It had been a while; almost a year since I had been in a radio station, and after a few minutes I noticed, the smell of radio was not there.