Last week, I wrote about why people believe that radio is dying. Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant. I want to talk about a reply I received from a small market morning show who insisted that radio is dead and that we are all now in “the content business.”
I loathe that term. “The content business” – who the hell really talks like that? “The content business” is corporate-approved language for “just don’t say radio.”
Now, I don’t blame these guys. They’ve been hearing people throw around that term for the last decade and a half. “Radio” is only part of an on-air talent’s job these days, and these guys and everyone else in the business need a way to get that across. However “the content business” sounds pathetic.
If you’re in radio, you’re part of the entertainment business. Why not say so? It conveys a level of professionalism that “the content business” does not.
OWN WHO YOU ARE
Think about it. Content is everywhere. Any idiot with a smartphone or a webcam can make content. Entertainment has a beginning, middle and end. It has a goal. It has a point of view.
Plenty of people that call themselves “content creators” put a lot of effort and money into what they make. I do not think being a YouTube or TikTok creator is a joke. Even if accounts like Mr. Beast and First We Feast aren’t making the kinds of videos I enjoy, I can recognize that they are staffed by pros and doing good work.
Content is disposable. Entertainment is memorable. What those previously mentioned accounts do is memorable. That’s why some of the biggest studios and streamers in Hollywood want to be in business with them.
Don’t you want to be an important part of your audience’s day? Whether you are 30 or 60, you got into radio because at least some part of you wanted a little bit of notoriety. It’s okay to admit.
How can you achieve that goal if you’re just content? Content gets swiped past.
Entertainment demands your attention. That is the way I always thought when mapping out a segment. It comes naturally to Howard Stern. Whether we’re talking about his 90s shock jock days or the way he interviews celebrities now, it’s clear why he has attained previously unfathomable levels of success in radio. He makes the people that listen care and come back.
I’ll use Joe Rogan as an example. To me, there has never been a bigger disappointment in the podcast/broadcast world. The guy went from asking questions and not accepting conventional explanations at face value to being a shameless apologist for the richest man in the world.
If he were just just making content, I wouldn’t feel that way. I probably wouldn’t even know what he had to say about anything, because content is just background noise.
Entertainment Is The Goal
The word content is so overused and I don’t think it carries any real weight to anyone that has never looked at a website like this one. When I really want to turn my brain off and not think about anything important, I will listen to The Disney Dish podcast. It’s a show about news from and the history of the Disney theme parks.
One of the things they do regularly, is tell you what surveys Disney and Universal are sending to people that have just returned home from a trip. Host Len Testa will point out every time one of these surveys asks about the number of “activations” a guest encountered in whatever park they went to.
Len says using that word in a survey is a sign that the writer doesn’t have many friends or experiences outside of work. No one other than marketers uses the word “activations” to describe anything. I say the same is true of entertainers and the word “content.”
Content is so ubiquitous. Sure, occasionally, something truly entertaining will happen and happen to be caught on camera – Charlie bites his brother’s finger, a child tells a reporter that he likes turtles, you know the classics!
But do you know how many videos that will make you say “what the hell even is this?” exist for every one of those gems? It’s literally a 9:1 ratio.
Saying you’re in the entertainment business doesn’t instantly elevate everything you do, nor does it make you immune from criticism. Just look at Netflix and their new movie The Electric State. It reportedly cost $320 million to make and it is, by most accounts, an absolute pile of garbage.
Not everyone will like your radio show, your social posts, or your videos and that’s okay just because you call it “entertainment” instead of “content.” But it’s also okay to send the message that you’re a professional and that people can expect you to take what you do seriously.
Maybe the phrase “the content business” isn’t meaningless. It certainly doesn’t mean anything good though. So let’s quit saying it. No matter what platform your work is on, you don’t want the audience to think of it as filler. That’s all content is.
If you host a radio show, you’re an entertainer. If you make videos for TikTok or cool images for Instagram, you’re trying to entertain the audience. What you create is valuable.
Act like it.
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Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
