Gordon Hastings is president of ghhMANAGEMENT. He is the founder of the Broadcasters Foundation of America and the former president of Katz Radio and Katz Television. He is a founder of the Radio Mercury Awards and the Broadcasters Foundation of America Celebrity Golf Tournament.
Hastings Responds To WSJ Article On Radio And Change
August 26, 2009: Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout said in an August 22 feature that once-dominant network radio declined sharply after the arrival of television in the late 1940s because it failed to come to terms with the challenges posed by the new medium. He wrote, “Americans of all ages embraced TV unhesitatingly. They felt no loyalty to network radio, the medium that had entertained and informed them for a quarter-century. When something came along that they deemed superior, they switched off their radios without a second thought. That’s the biggest lesson taught by the new-media crisis of 1949.”
ghhManagement chief and Broadcasters Foundation founder Gordon Hastings responds by saying that “for those on the scene, television did not evolve, it exploded into the American home. However, it did not result in radio’s demise. In fact, once radio adjusted, all through the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties it enjoyed the most prosperous years in the medium’s history.”
Here’s his letter to Teachout:
I enjoyed reading your August 22 article. I was part of the generation that transitioned radio during the onslaught of television in the 1950’s and 1960’s
Having entered the radio business in 1955, I remember all too well the great audience transition from audio to visual. In fact, for those on the scene, television did not evolve, it exploded into the American home. However, it did not result in radio’s demise. In fact, once radio adjusted, all through the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, it enjoyed the most prosperous years in the medium’s history.
This happened in great part because a whole new generation of radio broadcasters (the establishment had already abandoned the ship for TV) got hold of programming, married the evolution of rock music and its superstars, and the medium soared in both listeners and revenues. The fact is, the old guard, with little forethought, left radio in the hands of a very young and extraordinarily creative group of broadcasters willing to take huge risks. They, in fact, had little to lose. This generation of radio broadcasters turned the industry around in relatively short order by rapidly adjusting to change as they went along. They also had a huge demographic advantage because they related to how the audience wanted to use the radio medium. This same dynamic, the marriage of music and young innovative programmers made the migration of radio listening from the AM band to the FM band in the 1970s, expanding radio audience levels to the highest in history.
Today, another generation of the radio establishment is faced with an even greater threat, the Internet. If this causes a generational leadership change in the radio industry, it will again be good news. There is without a doubt a new generation that understands that the future of radio, like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and the Internet as a whole, is about including the audience in the design and creation of the content.
Crowdsourcing will become the method by which stations are in fact programmed by the audience, and the software is already available to accomplish that goal. Many of today’s cutting-edge companies are taking giant creative steps to make their product most relatable to the customer through crowdsourcing. Radio will do the same with stations programmed a day, hours, or even minutes in advance by the audience. The distribution system will be over multiple simultaneous platforms, with AM-FM broadcasting signals eventually only supplementing total audience participation. Home-grown video will be part of the content mix.
By understanding that the Internet is radio’s future, the next radio renaissance will come from a generation that is already in that space.
ghh
