Making Memories

The tributes to the late, great Dan Ingram this week were well-deserved and moving. Few radio hosts have inspired so many people to pursue careers in this industry; as someone who grew up hearing Dan Ingram cracking one-liners on WABC, I can confirm that he made radio seem like a magical career, much more so than most of the other WABC All-Americans or WMCA Good Guys. The "did he just say that?" factor was huge, the same way Howard Stern later made radio a cooler medium by doing things that felt like he was getting away with something (and I'm not talking about strippers in the studio, I'm talking about trashing his bosses and other stations and generally speaking his mind). Ingram was that, too, condensed into a few seconds of talk-up. We, the listeners, didn't know about formatics or programmers or any of radio's rules; we just heard a guy make us laugh as he played records.

But that was another time. Play airchecks of Top 40 jocks from the glory days for someone who's in his or her twenties or thirties today and they'll... well, let's just say they're less likely to identify with it. They may appreciate the humor and style, but it's more about nostalgia than anything else. To someone who didn't grow up with Boss Jocks or Seven Swingin' Gentlemen or any of the other classic AM Top 40 styles, it's prehistoric. It's for old people. It's dad's (or grandpa's) music. It's not relevant to them.

Yet one thing cuts through the nostalgia, one thing that survives the "old-sounding" curse, one thing that made Dan Ingram special, and Howard Stern, and (put politics aside for a moment, please) Rush Limbaugh successful: personality. Within the confines of radio as it was when they all became popular, these hosts showed individual personalities that cut through the formatics (or obliterated them). They put on a show, and the show was about them. You can't recall too much that other jocks said back in the '60s, but you can recall Dan Ingram (or Joey Reynolds, or Robert W. Morgan) one-liners. Every Howard Stern listener can recall bits that are seared into their memory. We talk about benchmarks today; THOSE were benchmarks.

And we've gotten away from that. Sure, there are morning shows, but if you're not giving people those oh-wow moments around the clock, are they going to perceive that radio's still special, or are they just going to want nothing but music? For talk radio, if stations are just serving up the same angry-guy talking points, why would listeners not seek out something more entertaining, probably on podcasts? Where is the personality? Have we wiped out what we can all agree made radio special in our zeal to shut up and play the music, lest a PPM detect a tune-out moment? Are we developing the next Dan Ingram or Howard Stern... and by that I DON'T mean a Dan Ingram or Howard Stern clone but someone whose individual personality and talent make them must-listen material? Or are we reducing things to voice-tracked juke boxes and predictable political and sports blather, because it's cheaper and because it's less trouble and because the PPM showed a downtick when a jock talked for 13 seconds instead of 10 on Thursday afternoon last week?

Radio isn't, as we've discussed here before, dead. But if there's going to be a future, the industry, which is great at celebrating its past, needs to take the right lessons from the past. Eliminating the human element to counter Spotify will ultimately make radio irrelevant. It's about the people you put on the air, and how they're different and worth listening to. If Dan Ingram just read liner cards, you wouldn't be seeing the reaction to his passing that you're seeing now. If radio wants to be more than a fond memory, it has to be more memorable.

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How can you make your show more memorable? Why, just go to Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, where you will find plenty of material for free, including conversation starters you will not find elsewhere at any price. Find it by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And there's the Podcasting section at AllAccess.com/podcasts, too. Plus, read "10 Questions With..." Rob Parker, the other half of Fox Sports Radio's "The Odd Couple," with great observations from a career of sports opinions on radio, TV, and in print.

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Next week, of course, is a major holiday, so I'm not sure what my schedule is going to be. I might be off celebrating for part of the week, as will everyone else, since it IS my birthday next Thursday. What? What's on the 4th? Inde-what? Huh. That might explain the flags and fireworks. Anyway, if you haven't registered for The Conclave, July 18-20 in Minneapolis-adjacent, where I'll be on a podcasting panel, do it here and do it now. And whether you'll be celebrating the 4th or my birthday (or both), have a happy one.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
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