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I love and respect Pat Sajak for his impeccable talent, his genius finding the best gig in show business for five decades and for his pragmatic cynicism about show business. I recall seeing him interviewed on a documentary about the history of late-night TV in which he pointed out, “show business is full of frightened people, and they’ll worry about things like the color of the host’s socks.”
A very forthright truth and no corner of show biz seems to be more populated with frightened people than radio. Radio once carried a different banner as part stalwart/media cornerstone and part renegade party zone. The fun is largely gone and it’s been replaced with fear and loathing and while they wouldn’t know it specifically nor it’s cause, listeners experience with terrestrial radio is poorer for it.
This past week, a listener (yes, a heavy, passionate radio user I’d never heard from before at my station in New Jersey) urgently reached out to alert me the signature benchmark of my show for the past eight years: “He Said She Said” was being used by a competing station on a competing show granted in pm drive (I host a morning show) and while ours is a topic-driven feature theirs a guessing game contest.
Nonetheless, we sprang into action and my co-host called into the other station and managed to get on the air and call them out as our afternoon host aired these shenanigans live. This competing show immediately dropped the call and tried to ignore it, denying they knew they’d taken the name of a competing station feature and quickly moving on to spots, clearly flustered.
The following morning, we aired it again and spent much of the morning lambasting their content and parodying their show. A good old-fashioned radio war, like a heated sports rivalry or celebrity feud: harmless, silly, and faux dramatic. I welcomed their retaliation, expecting prank phone calls and, of course, that they’d keep using the name as we began calling our feature “the og, original, official, originator, never they imitator, “He Said She Said.”
They’d mention it again (and again we were alerted by a listener) and call us pathetic losers and “cringe” for the “radio war”. They again moved on quickly. Clearly, a personal attack from a place of defense by two hosts desperately afraid of anything that could draw real attention to them, as their ultimate goal is to hang on. I addressed the personal nature of their response on the air and announced I’d drop the issue mostly as they clearly are too frightened to be in on the joke. They, to date, haven’t done the game again.
This is something really missing from radio today, fierce competition, a little smack talk, fearlessness, swashbuckling. And worse, when it’s tried, an opponent crying foul and running to tattle tale to Mommy. Radio used to have an edge, guts grounded in the pride felt by those given the privilege to take to the air. We seem to have forgotten that, as evidenced in my experience, the listeners haven’t. But alas, the business misses opportunity again out of fear of having to hang on.
Robby Bridges works for Press Communications where he serves as the VP of Programming for 99.7 and 107.1 The Boss. He also hosts the morning show ‘Robby and Rochelle’ alongside his wife, Rochelle. He’s been with the company/stations since September, 2021.
Prior to arriving in New Jersey, Robby spent decades working across the country in many top markets for many highly successful brands. Among them include Z100, WPLJ and Q102. He has also worked in Detroit, Boston, Providence, Portsmouth, NH, and served as an exclusive guest host for Scott Shannon on the True Oldies Channel.
To get in touch, reach Robby by email at RobbyBridges@hotmail.com.
