Re(3): The KIndship of imperfection Posted on March 25, 2026 at 08:41:33 AM by Whassup with radio?
I don't think you know, Jim because you're on the sales side. Radio exists to perform a public service using the public airwaves.
The reality is that someone had to pay the talent to support them. Hence the radio hours had to be sponsored by some company. The Entertainment industry was born and people loved it and listened.
Not because it was a business but because the programming enriched their lives. I think you guys came along later selling spots, rather than programs. Acknowledged that happened before we were around. Did you study the history of it? I didn't. Never took a course in radio or TV history. My major was journalism, totally on the public service side. I think it kinda started in the Murrow days at CBS, then NBC Monitor, and all that. But most of it when I was young in the 50s were dramas and comedy programs. I listened from the back seat of the 56 Buick. Mom ran what we listened to except earlier when on Saturday mornings before they got up, I sat on the kitchen floor and listened to kid shows...again, entertainment. I didn't listen much to Arthur Godfrey when I was in gradeschool. Just Captain Midnight and boystuff. I dont' even remember the commercials much so presume I just thought of them as interruptions, not business ventures.
In my early days IN radio, at KOAM in Pittsburg, I was hired to do weakday afternoon drive news and board op NBC Monitor on weekends. I did some remotes for Pittsburg businesses and played some music but I chased sirens and worked for the ND. Until I was drafted, went overseas doing military data and message communications. When a job opened up at Amer Forces Radio, i volunteered for a nightly record/request show which I did for 2 years before heading back to the world and starting my journalism studies in Wichita while landing morning news and jock straightman. I did try music jocking at KFH but wasn't a funnyman so the PD said I was a much better newsman and I never went back to jocking, tho I learned a lot, was the Music Director which was fun, did some spot production, and afternoon drive news there. I'd done that at KAKE too which as you know was a radio-tv combo back in the 16mm film days. So I supported TV news as well.
Was just never interested in the business side except voicing spots. I'd actually learned how to pitch before I got into radio running the Service Desk at a KMart kinda store, doing the overhead pitches. But again, that wasn't selling spots like you settled into. My dad had an agency so I had been exposed to print and art layout in KC. Wichita was a good market to learn the content side and I did, but again, when radio mostly got deregulated in 1980 with Reagan and they dumped news which was expense I was quick to move to TV when all radio wanted was rip and read. Not fun. Field reporting was way more interesting and toting around a cameraman opened a lot of doors in Wichita to do investigative news, beat reporting, and special projects. Radio news was just pretending until they phased it out altogether. Staff intensive to do it right, so it disappeared. Not surprising to me, CBS finally dumped their radio division this year, now that it's owned by Paramount. It'll be interesting to see which networks drop evening news altogether now that all of em have been bought by entertainment corporations.
What do you read in the trades about the future of radio continuing to be a genre music boxes on limited public airwaves in an internet delivery world? I never listen to OTA stations at all and my kids now pushing 50 don't either. Too many other choices which are interactive.