MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

When I was in the Radio Business the majority effort, the concentration of most of the work for our clients, was in Black/Urban Radio. Today is a great day for Black radio. Stations across the country are playing Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday, Dr. King" tune. Many will air the famous I Have A Dream speech [1].

With great fondness I recall the pride, the joy, the ambience around the stations on this holiday. It was a special day. This is one of the things about the Radio Business that I miss.

The consulting firm had all sorts of clients, all sorts of stations, in markets large and small. Toward the latter years of the radio consulting firm most of the business was in Black Radio.

Year after year we enjoyed some wonderful successes with some great radio stations. It makes me proud to see so many of the members of the stations we worked with having gone on to bigger and better positions in the business. You can't go to too many of the radio markets in North and South Carolina, Virginia, even Philly, New York, and parts of Georgia and Florida and not hear a station we either worked with, or which is programmed and/or managed by one of the alums from one of our client stations.

A friend sent a link recently. Click it I did, and it took me to an article in one of the radio trade papers. The article cited me as an architect of modern-day programming of Urban radio. I took it as a compliment that I am still even discussed in those quarters. It has been a good few years, now.

Although I am pretty much removed from most of that activity, I did develop some very strong friendships in my radio years. My children live in North Carolina, and one of my best friends from the radio business programs the Number 1 station in their market.
He continues to do a great job. And, to his credit, my daughter put his station on her mother's car radio as a preset button.

She wants to work with him at the station before she graduates from High School. I hope he can find a place for her. Part of me thinks it would be great for her to get into the broadcast biz. Another part of me thinks it is a frightful idea.

I'd be very comfortable knowing she'd be working for my buddy, who would look out for her, and show her how the business works. He always made my work seem better, and is capable of motivating and bringing the best out of people.

Sooner or later the whole thrust of what we think of as a "broadcast" product will be a webcast and satellite digicast effort. Wireless streaming and little decals on cars which act as satellite antennae will change the character of broadcasting as we know it.

The NAB hates this concept, and will fight it tooth and nail. But the sea change is coming. Maybe my daughter will be a part of it.

That would be nice.

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

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