These are the type of people who deal with spreadsheets, budgets, and sales goals who probably answer to higher ups who have even darker suits.
12-hours-ago I was sitting at a $100-a-plate dinner in the Austin Convention Center dining on beef, shrimp, and chocolate mousse. Even I succumbed to wearing most of a dark suit which was firmly requested for a dinner that costs a C-note. Jacket and pants, yes. But, I refused to wear the tie and shirt expected and substituted a mock-turtle black-knit shirt under my jacket. I am no more a “tie guy” than the guy in the dark suit next to me is a “baggy pants gangsta”.
We pick and choose our battles.
As the awards were given out, recipients came to the stage and accepted their Marconi in the 37 seconds allotted (true). One winner – a radio personality from the upper Midwest - made an insightful comment which in my mind galvanized the divide between the people who own and run radio stations and the employees they hire.
After thanking a few folks, he noted that during a seminar that afternoon he had been referred to as “content”. And that pretty much says it all: the successful radio personalities who survive from today into tomorrow cannot define themselves based on their means of distribution, such as AM or FM. The idea of “radio personality” would be better expressed as “content personality” because he/she will be leveraged over AM, FM, HD, Satellite, Internet streams, cell phones, podcasts, and whatever technology hasn’t yet been introduced to the marketplace but is inevitable.
The Radio business – and those who run it – knows that traditional Radio like AM and FM are no longer protected by the old monopoly of delivery. The paradigm for audio distribution has changed and will continue to evolve.
For today’s radio personalities the writing is on the wall - and the dark suits are writing it.
As for me, I have been at the NAB and "in country" now for just under 24 hours. The bellman says my airport shuttle is here. I quietly grab my bag and anonymously walk toward the front doors of the hotel in the hopes of not being spotted.
As I enter the turnstile another cell phone rings in back of me and another dark suit reaches for it - and answers.
