Minor League Baseball is an American institution. In cities and towns across our country, they are “live and local” as a matter of survival. It is rare for their rosters to be the same in consecutive seasons. So, fans are loyal to the brand, not necessarily the players.
Major League Baseball invests in these operations to provide a steady flow of talent to “the show.” They understand two very important concepts:
- Major league players take time to develop. Yes, they must have the innate talent to succeed, but it usually takes years for the process to bear fruit. Coaching and experience are essential to success.
- The parent club is only as good as its players.
Which brings me to radio. What are we doing to nurture and grow the next generation of radio talent? We have so downsized our minor league system that there are fewer and fewer opportunities for radio talent to grow and develop.
I’m told that the “new” talent can be found on podcasts or TikTok or YouTube. That may be true (I hope it is), but anyone who has ever keyed a mic knows that being on the air on a daily basis is how one hones an act. Nothing beats making stupid mistakes live on the air. That is how you learn and grow.
So, where does the next generation of radio talent get its experience? Small markets are drying up as an opportunity because so many of them are running corporate programming and voice tracking. Maybe there is some magic formula the higher-ups have developed that miraculously pumps out great – or even serviceable – talent. If so, I would love to hear about it.
I was fortunate to work for one of the great radio companies: AM/FM. It purchased, I believe, Capstar, which means we had stations in all sizes of markets. At a company gathering, we proposed the idea of having some of our smaller market stations mirror the programming and presentation of the major markets. Depending on the geography, those small market full-timers could be major market part-timers. We would establish a path for developing and promoting talent.
Alas, the company was sold to Clear Channel a few months later, so the project never got past first base.
The radio industry frequently emphasizes the importance of being “live and local” as a key differentiator. Achieving this requires dedicated and talented individuals. It is important to consider where the next generation of outstanding professionals will come from, and whether we are prepared to invest in their development or instead rely on artificial intelligence as an alternative.
I hope it is the former and not the latter.
I was lucky enough to have honed my skills at a college radio station programming a CHR format, WJPZ-FM in Syracuse. In my Junior year, I got a job as on-air talent on WHEN-AM (hot AC broadcasting in AM stereo!) weekend overnights and moved on from there to WYYY-FM (#1 in the market, mainstream AC back then), also weekend overnights. For years, WJPZ-FM was used as a “minor league team” by the commercial broadcasters in town. Of course, we were all working for minimum wage (or minimum wage + 25 cents) back then. Many of us have gone on to high-level jobs (on-air and off-air) in the industry.
In the 21st century, those opportunities no longer exist and yes, I’ve talked about this issue with my radio colleagues for at least 20 years! If the industry recognizes the dearth of new, young talent (that’s a big IF), then an easy, proven way of fixing the problem is to go back to hiring skilled college “kids” at minimum wage to do overnights. Problem solved!
My suggestion for the ‘magic formula’ (and yes, it has worked for me)… stop caring so much about how talented, professional, polished someone is and instead find people who care about the local little league, food bank, parades and animal shelters. Live and local means ‘LOCAL’.
The last few people I’ve hired had zero on-air experience (except maybe calling the morning announcements at the local high school).
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