R&R Cheers You Up

Chuck Taylor has written an article for R&R that as enjoyable to read as dragging a serrated blade between your toes this weekend. Its called Career 2.0. I suppose its for people who are considering leaving the radio industry and need to be reassured that their years spent in the business were completely in vain. My favorite:

A recent article on Careerbuilder.com points out how the evolution of technology is profoundly impacting specific careers: "Thanks to the advent of technology like computers, automated machines, voice recognition systems and cell phones, many jobs once deemed essential to the work force are on the decline." Among its top 10 endangered careers is "radio and television announcers" at No. 8: "New technology and advancement of other media sources like satellite radio and syndicated programming means less need for radio and TV announcers."

Leave it to radio trade publications to cite as experts a website that makes its money on job turnover, rather than trusting ourselves in the industry that WE WORK IN. Lets just ignore that satellite radio is on the brink of bankruptcy without ever turning a profit. Lets also ignore the industry secret that syndicated shows are actually more expensive than local talent, and that syndicated shows (outside of political talk) have been dying off after big debuts.

Internet killed the television star, but radio marches on. Study after study shows people watching less and less TV, but daily consumption of radio has never waned. While readers of daily publications have dwindled and network prime time television has fallen off, radio actually increased listeners. The only thing that has ever faltered is the radio industry's own self confidence. iPhones have two media that you can access: internet and RADIO. Why do we feel like we are the dinosaurs rumbling toward a tar pit?