Tomorrow morning, I am leaving radio by choice, and simply put I could not be happier. I grew up wanting to be like Jim Rome, but now I see that actually becoming a host in this era of radio is futile.

Radio has lost itself and radio refuses to look in the mirror. It’s like watching your best friend become addicted to meth and heroine and refusing to realize that perhaps he has a problem. What has caused radio to lose itself? Was it the large corporations buying the little guys? Was it the over exposure of syndicated talent? Was it the idea that we would always love music? Was it the shrinking of playlists? Was it trying to be everything for everyone? It’s actually all that and more.

TALENT, YOUTH, AND OLD GUYS DINING OUT ON YESTERDAY

Jim Rome, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Opie and Anthony, Dan Patrick, and of course Howard Stern are iconic leaders of the radio medium. These guys were able to parlay their talent in huge contracts, even bigger syndication, and of course millions of die hard fans, but that is where the problem started. Radio used these and other “National” hosts to become the end all-be all of the business. Instead of trying to find the next radio star, radio decided to just keep using the same guys over and over again. Cost cutting started in 2001 and by 2009 the entire industry was on a hiring freeze. Day parts disappeared. Entry level jobs were replaced by eager “marketing” interns, and the result of this cost cutting is evident in 2014, everything sounds the exact same. A radio station in Syracuse, New York sounds just like a radio station in El Paso, Texas. Just let that marinate for a moment. Radio by losing focus on talent also destroyed it’s local appeal. As radio, vultured it’s budget to offset credit crunches and CEO stock options; it also crushed the dreams of eager young radio personalities looking to become the next Limbaugh’s and Sterns. Instead the industry, just recycled the same hacks from the 90's that Rush and Howard dominated in the first place.

The failure to allow young minds to become the young voices has created the problem that young people now just can not take radio seriously. When 50 year old men like Todd Pettingill try and tell a 14 year old girl how cool Demi Lovato is; it shows radio has a severe lack of youth. Radio should have been in position, much like pro sports teams are with a good mix of veterans and prospects, but instead it just has veterans; the prospects have moved on or better yet have found new ways to use their talents. Businesses are also seeing the decline in radio, and have found new ways to generate better results with their advertising budget. Less desirable content, less desirable ratings, less influx of advertising dollars. It’s a recipe for disaster, and radio has been cooking up this dish years before Facebook and Twitter found ways to monetize social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA, WHAT’S THAT?

The entire world is addicted to social media, well except for the radio industry. Radio companies and corporations have no clue what social media is. They know it’s there. They have the research that says they need it, but they don’t understand it, and the quick fix has always been, “let an intern do it.” Radio isn’t looking to spend money to figure out something, and they can’t leverage what they have right at their finger tips. Seriously, radio has all the answers in the palm of their hands, it’s the digital phone, and it starts with SOCIAL MEDIA. Almost every radio station is accessible on a smart phone and the smart phone industry is booming. The app business is booming. The podcast business is booming, and radio isn’t. The most laughable moment of 2014 was when radio giant Clear Channel presented their iheartradio Awards on live TV. Why? iheartradio is an app for smart phones. Why would a radio app try to air an awards show on Televesion? Kids don’t watch live TV anymore. This was the perfect chance for an industry leader to utilize a Hulu, a Netflix, or a Youtube to bring the social world to them, and instead they went right back to ignoring the warning signs that they were out of touch.

One day radio will understand Facebook. One day they will understand Twitter, of course by then the audience they need will be using something else.

CREMATION OR BURIAL

Now we seit back and we wait should we bury our radios or cremate them. Get the will notarized and prepared, make the arrangements now, and go ahead and order the flowers. Me, leaving radio isn’t going to solve the issues, but it is going to give me peace of mind that I don’t have to see what could get worse. A few weeks ago on the TV Show Parks and Recreation, comedian Aziz Ansari, made a joke that ‘radio sucks he only listens to podcasts’ he isn’t the only one. The podcast business is growing and more and more businesses are realizing that radio can not guarantee you an audience for their commercials. Radio was conquered by size queens and kings that looked at the number of stations and not number of listeners, and now the listeners are tuning them out. Radio, as a medium has dined out on car audio systems, and with car manufactures trying to get wifi in the automobiles radios last beacon of hope is fading fast.

I have listened to the radio for my entire life and just this once I hope radio listens to me.