The Good News About The Bad News

Good Morning!

I'll bet many of you spent the better part of Sunday evening and Monday glued to the TV & Internet for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Except if you lived within 1,000 miles of New Orleans. The images of people stocking up on batteries hours before the arrival of a category 5 hurricane WERE NOT TO POWER THEIR I-POD!

Many "radio geeks" that I know (including myself - come on! be honest!) actually wished we were there to cover the story. Crazy? Yes, I would say so. It takes a very special type of person to put oneself in harms way to inform the public during times of "bad news". But most anyone will tell you this is part of a radio persons DNA. It's one of the reasons we chose this career. (How many of you actually looked for a stream or tried to pick up a local radio station from New Orleans over the past 48 hours?)

To the 4+ million people in the southeast US, there was a special lifeline that cannot be duplicated by I-Pods, Satellite radio, or broadband type internet radio. It's "LOCAL RADIO" that kept hundreds of thousands of people informed during the evacuation. All those cars on I-10 heading out of town were NOT listening to TV, or reading the newspaper.

If you are a radio professional, you already "know" the feeling that comes from this type of coverage. It's one of the few times we forget about budgets, format clocks, time sheets, payola, competition, or frankly "what corporate would think?" This is when "more is more". This is when we actually put the LISTENER FIRST!

If you are a radio company leader, I urge you to consider this advantage when branding against the emerging competition. In addition to AM & FM, "WE" can deliver this local content to cell phones, I-Pods, HD, or streams. "WE" can deliver it in the local language, "WE" can speak in a way our listeners will understand. Whether we speak Spanish, Hip-Hop, or with a drawl, WE SPEAK LOCAL! This is the radio we do best. This is the radio that CAN'T be duplicated. Your listeners will NEVER forget, if , YOU provide them with information (good or bad) about their communities on a consistent basis.

As the 2006 budgets are put together, it's important to keep this in mind. Local radio costs money! But in times like this, it's an investment that will have significant returns. (local ADVERTISERS will REMEMBER this too!)

Eventually, most every market will have their own "Cat-5" disaster. So when the newspaper, or TV, or even internet articles mention those "other" alternatives to AM&FM radio, or declare radio "dead", perhaps we can speak in ONE VOICE in defense of this medium.

Ask the politicians, emergency management officials, medical personnel, government workers, and local law enforcement.

Ask the staffs & families of the LOCAL Entercom, Clear Channel, Citadel & other station operators throughout the Southeast. Professionals that kept their head above water, to keep the community informed.

Ask the millions of people in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Texas, & Alabama. They may just agree!

Your response is always welcome!

Fig