It Was Fun While It Lasted
Time to acknowledge the obvious. Terrestrial radio is, as my young friends like to say, “ov-ah.”
I know..there are some survivors. But the trend is clear. London’s Financial Times observes that terrestrial radio listening is down by a quarter since the pandemic. People have migrated to digital listening.
I’m actually somewhat grateful that I lived to see an industry I worked in disrupted. Why? It provides a clarifying take on the world. Sometimes I think of the fellow in the early 1800s who was a blacksmith. He could have been trained by his father, who did the same thing. And he could have reasonably expected his son (maybe his daughter?) to be a blacksmith as well. But the world is increasingly impermanent.
When I was a kid my aging relatives would talk about hearing FDR’s reassuring voice over the radio and how his speeches and talks were sustaining as they endured the Great Depression and the Second World War.
I chuckle a little when my friends say to me, “You still read newspapers?” That’s been a habit since childhood and I find that quotidian morning ritual to be a source of comfort.
I’ll continue (for a while) to co-host the radio show a friend and I do that’s carried on 3 Indiana community radio stations. It’s fun and I get a kick out of doing it. Once in a while I encounter a listener who mentions the show. My initial reaction is one of shock and I look around to see if paddles are readily available to (if needed) restart my heart.
But I’ve reached the stage of acceptance, to borrow from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. It’s done and it’s not coming back. Back in the 70s a Washington DC radio exec told me that a radio station in decline was like a freight train that goes on for a long while after the engine stops working. That’s what’s happening now to the entire industry. Fun while it lasted.