if you spent any time in radio during the 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s, you probably have a few radio remote stories. Some were legendary. Others felt like punishment.
There was the Saturday night bar remote where the owner slipped you a little cash at the end of the night and everyone had a great time. There were concert broadcasts, charity events, and county fairs where listeners actually wanted to meet the personalities they heard every day.
Then there were the remotes that made you question your career choices.
The Remotes Nobody Misses
The four-hour cell phone store remote on a Saturday afternoon. The furniture store grand opening. The car dealership remote where management convinced itself that a dozen people were going to buy a vehicle because the station vehicle was parked out front. Most of us knew how those played out.
The same prize pigs showed up every weekend. They grabbed a T-shirt, entered a contest, ate a hot dog, and disappeared. The odds of somebody buying a phone because a radio station was there were slim. The odds of somebody purchasing a new truck because the afternoon jock was broadcasting live were probably even slimmer.
Eventually, radio figured that out.
When the Calculation Changed
Sales departments became less interested in selling remotes. Clients became harder to convince. As a result, stations looked at the labor, equipment, staffing, and logistics involved and decided there were more efficient ways to make money.
In many cases, they weren’t wrong. But I think the industry made a mistake.
Because when radio stopped selling remotes, it also stopped showing up.
The remote wasn’t just a sales tool. It was, in fact, one of the primary ways radio physically existed in the community. Every weekend, station vehicles were parked somewhere. Personalities were shaking hands. Promotions teams were talking to listeners. The station logo was visible. The brand was moving around town.
Listeners didn’t just hear the station. They saw it.
What Got Lost in the Math
At some point, the industry started evaluating remotes solely through a sales lens. If the remote didn’t generate enough revenue, it wasn’t worth doing. What got lost in that calculation was the programming value.
Programming has always been about building relationships. Great radio stations aren’t just frequencies and playlists — they’re brands, personalities, and part of the community. That requires visibility.
For decades, radio stations understood that. Whether it was a county fair, a local festival, a charity fundraiser, or a Friday night football game, stations showed up. Sometimes the event generated revenue. Sometimes it didn’t. But every appearance reinforced something important.
The station was local, cared, and present.
Then COVID Made It Permanent
Somewhere along the way, we lost sight of that. Programming worried about ratings. Sales worried about revenue. Promotions worried about budgets. Corporate worried about efficiency. The result was fewer reasons to leave the building.
To be fair, the decline of the remote started before the pandemic. Staffing cuts, consolidation, voice tracking, and budget pressure had already reduced the number of stations actively working the streets. COVID simply accelerated the trend.
Events disappeared. Gatherings stopped. Personal appearances became difficult, and radio stations learned how to function without leaving the studio. When communities reopened, however, many stations never fully returned. What started as a temporary adjustment became a permanent operating model.
Social Media Is Not the Same as Community
At the same time, radio became increasingly dependent on social media. Again, the logic made sense. Social media was cheap, measurable, and didn’t require fuel, vehicles, remote equipment, or overtime pay. Best of all, it was essentially free.
But social media and community presence are not the same thing. A social media post generally reaches people who already know your station exists. A community appearance, by contrast, reaches people who may not. One maintains relationships. The other creates new ones. That’s a critical difference.
It’s also where the industry’s thinking may have drifted off course.
The Contradiction We Need to Confront
Radio stations spend every day telling advertisers they need visibility. They need awareness and to be seen. They need to engage with consumers where consumers live, work, and play. Yet many stations have largely stopped doing those things themselves.
It’s a strange contradiction. We’re in the advertising business, but somewhere along the way we stopped marketing ourselves.
The irony is that radio often wonders why listener engagement isn’t what it once was. We debate streaming and podcasts. We also debate changing media habits and audience fragmentation. Those are all real factors. But it’s also fair to ask what happens when a medium stops physically showing up.
Relationships are built through familiarity. Familiarity is built through presence. And presence requires getting out of the building.
There Has to Be a Middle Ground
I’m not suggesting we bring back every four-hour remote from a strip mall parking lot. Nobody is nostalgic for standing outside a cell phone store in August heat hoping someone signs up for a family plan.
But there has to be a middle ground. Sales and programming should be working together to identify events that accomplish both goals — events that generate revenue while strengthening the station’s connection to the community, and events that put faces on personalities and personalities on brands.
Because there is still tremendous value in being seen. There is still value in a station vehicle parked at a local event. There is still value in listeners meeting the people they hear every day. Ultimately, there is still value in showing up.
The remote may not have been a perfect business model. In many cases, it probably wasn’t. But it served a purpose beyond revenue. It reminded listeners that radio was part of the community, not just a signal coming from a tower. And in an era when every media company is fighting for attention, that’s something worth remembering.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
David Hill serves as a Music Radio Editor, Columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. A radio lifer with more than 30 years behind the mic, in the control room, and in the program director’s chair, David’s career spans influential stops at brands such as WIYY 98 Rock, WBAL-AM, and 99X. He has worked across multiple formats and ownership groups, including iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media, developing talent, breaking music, and navigating every major industry shift from diary to PPM and terrestrial dominance to streaming disruption. When he’s not writing or analyzing the industry, Dave runs The Tune Farm, a marketing firm built to help artists and brands grow audience the same way great radio always has—by creating connection, not just impressions. He can be reached at David@BarrettMedia.com.
