Times change. I understand that. I also understand that change effects other people and not just me.
But this is about me.
I feel, what I imagine, Mr. Blacksmith felt the day after they invented the car. Hey, Newlie, come look at this new contraption-it's called an aww-toe-moe-beel. It never needs shoein, isn't that great!
Radio is (has been) in the same transition. I remember when we could boast a softball team and still have a live staff keeping us on the air. Now, with computers, there are two employees-the owner and me. The computer does the rest.
What I used to do was an art. Keeping two turntables cued up and ready to go. Having my carts (think 8 tracks that held 1 thirty-second commercial and took 10 seconds to cue up) lined up for the next hour. Mixing a four hour shift that flowed and was flawless. Not everyone could do that and it was an art. I was paid well to do that art. Now it's not needed.
Howard Stern, Don Imus or Ryan Seecrest can be piped in when the computer isn't mixing the show.
Joe Schmoe is sitting at a computer in Omaha voicing a show in Tampa.
I've committed my 35 year professional life to something that pays today 1/4 less than it did in 1984.
Oh, I still have a voice. "Man, you sure have a voice for radio". But so do alot of other people, and they all have computers. Local means shit, and by shit I mean 1/4 less than in '84.
I'm fifty and wondering what am I going to do for a living.
I don't mean survive. I will always survive. I've been working since I was 12. I will always survive. I'm talking about a living. Something that will afford me the luxury of insurance (which I haven't had since '95), a savings account, a vacation, a steak.
Technology aside, it all started with Reagan. The free market and all. Let One Person own as many radio stations as he wants. It's the free market. This is America.
What was left out of the movement was the thinking up to that point-DO NOT LET ONE PERSON CONTROL THE OUT FLOW OF INFORMATION. Letting a few be in control of what the masses heard was a fear. And a darn good one.
It used to be the 7-7-7 rule. No one person could own more than 7 FM's, 7 AM's and 7TV stations combined. In the whole country. Pick any city in the U.S., I would have 12 doors to knock on to get a job. Today, thanks to consolidation, I have 2 (and they are ran by computer).
Paying my bills was never a question. I lived within my means. Now my means live outside me. That weighs heavy on my shoulders. But that is my problem.
Excuse me while I stoke the fire and bang on my anvil.
Dan R
