You know the rules. Every medium and every format in radio has its rules. There are specific formatic rules – keep calls short, frequently repeat call letters, keep things moving forward – and general rules, like shut up and play the music, or stick to the party line and give ‘em “more of what they came for.”
The rules are drilled into baby radio personalities from day one, passed down from generation to generation, from consultant to Program Director, from Program Director to host. There are ways to do every format, especially talk radio, and the rules are immutable.
Maybe it’s time to trash the rules. All of them. Okay, maybe not “don’t do anything to jeopardize the license,” but the rest.
I’m not arguing that the rules don’t work. I personally have used and enforced those rules and a) they helped the station and hosts sound better and b) got ratings. If your station is solidly performing and revenue is increasing, hey, stick with what works. The rest of you, however….
Everybody following the same rules has resulted in every station sounding the same. A talk station in one market sounds just like one in another, down to the same syndicated hosts, same topics, same imaging, same clock, same aging demographics. You know the exceptions but can count them on… let’s be generous and say two hands. Stale and stagnant doesn’t even begin to describe the stasis in radio.
Cable television news isn’t much better – the formula has fossilized, news during the day and opinion at night, and changing the talking heads doesn’t make the format fresher. Local TV news is so standardized that at least one major group broadcaster is getting into pre-recorded newscasts, and some have the staff in one market do the news for another market; same format, same script, same features. 2024 is 1994 throughout the media. The rules haven’t changed.
So, let’s try getting rid of them. Take talk radio: Why are shows three hours long? Why do they start and end at the top of the hour? Is there a reason female hosts still get middays or completely shut out? Why are we doing things according to the same playbook we used decades ago? Can creative people be encouraged to color outside the lines, or wherever they want to color?
Of course, this is likely a purely academic argument. You and I know that taking chances is not what media people do. Taking chances could lead to failure, and failure is not an option. But when I turn on local radio, not only does it sound exactly like it did 20 years ago, it’s worse than it was 30 years ago, when rulebreakers like Phil Hendrie, Neil Rogers, and Randi Rhodes were able to do what they did on an actual AM talk radio station in these parts.
And I hate to say it, but a lot of podcasts follow formulas, too. Maybe because the influx of new talent can only look to other, existing, podcasts for instructions on “how to do it.” What radio, podcasts, and every other medium need are people who haven’t been raised on the rules, and who bring fresh ideas that sound and look and read like nothing else.
I mean, you’ve got nothing to lose. Maybe you’ll hit on something great. And then what you do will become the new rules, because if imitation, as Oscar Wilde said, is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness, anything that succeeds will spawn a lot of flattery. It’s what the media does best.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
