The Theory of Radio "Globs"
When we think about listening to Radio, we often think of what we're listening to as one big glob of music/commercials/talking. Turn on the radio it starts - it goes - then it stops when you're done like one continuum of audio. Turn it on tomorrow and it seems to pickup right where you left off.
One of the few times this "glob" seems to be anything less than a "glob" is when you're listening to Talk Radio: you can tell there are shorter "globs" called "shows" that live in 2, 3, and often 4 hour lengths.
Once you get past the shorter 4 hour "globs" of radio, the amount of smaller objects circulating throughout the DNA of radio programming is limited.
What’s shorter than a talk show? Well, newscasts, weather and sports updates, promos, and commercials.
Aside from the latter, you still can find a few smaller "programming events" which have survived over the years known in the business as "short-form programming", "featurettes" or even "vignettes". An example would be "Paul Harvey News" or Harvey's "The Rest of the Story".
But, you probably never stop to think of all the small programming objects that combine to make up the "glob" of radio you listen to. Nor is there much reason for you to. That's the job of someone like me who has way too much time to think about such things.
I bring it up because recently an old radio friend of mine contacted me to say he was not only alive, but thriving on the radio in a form often neglected: the 2 minute radio vignette.
Not Born in a Log Cabin, Just Did Radio in One
Doug Sutherland and I worked together at a now defunct radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, during the mid-1990s where I did a morning show and he followed me on the midday shift. As so often happens in this business, we moved on and lost track of each other.
Almost 10 years later Doug found me to say he is now doing a 2-minute radio vignette called "Rabbit Tracks" for Northern Broadcasting. Doug's daily stories air more than 40 times-a-day.
"My stories ring true," Doug says, "because they are true." Most are humorous but also offer a serious side; Doug says his 1-minute vignettes “are firmly anchored in the northern region--real stories that connect with real listeners in intimate and compelling ways."
Sutherland was born on a cattle ranch in Eastern Montana and began his radio career at 16 at KXLJ, a radio station located in a log cabin in Helena. He later owned KRIZ in Phoenix and has hosted programs in San Diego, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago. He has also done talk shows at KGO in San Francisco and WABC in New York. Now, Doug lives in Billings "with a bicycle and 2 virtual cats, Lunch and Menopaws."
Sometimes Bigger Isn't Better
Doug's "Rabbit Tracks" is one of the reasons I still love Radio and the potential it holds. I know the "globs" are what most folks probably are happy with hearing, but for me it's the smaller pieces which make this medium much more exciting.
