Phil In today’s All Access:
A talent panel — termed by moderator ANDREW PHILLIPS, Group PD at 105.7 ABC/DARWIN, AUSTRALIA (and former XFM/LONDON PD) as “Royalty Radio” — included PHIL HENDRIE, BIG BOY, a merchandise-tossing RICK DEES, and DR. DREW PINSKY along with RYAN SEACREST PRODUCTIONS’ TONY NOVIA, consultant RANDY LANE and agent GLENN GOLDSTEIN. While it was billed as being about talent development, the panel started in more of a light-hearted interview with the panelists talking about their starts in radio, their getting-fired stories, and whether they would run for president, before turning to how radio will develop the next wave of talent.
HENDRIE asked whether talk radio needs to be “OBAMA-bashing morning, noon or night”; PINSKY said of talk radio that “it’s not just creating what the listener needs and wants … it’s about creating an event.” LANE added that “personalities are the lifeblood of Talk radio and … (for music stations) push the radio stations over the top.”
NOVIA’s urging that radio people be “rewired” into online, two-way communication with listeners drew HENDRIE’s rejoinder that management often prevents talent from doing that. DEES sympathized with management for having to deal with talent that goes over the edge, but HENDRIE noted that the radio business’ falling stock prices weren’t the fault of talent. BIG BOY criticized how the PPM has affected talent, with pressure being placed on them to “go bam-bam-bam-get off.” GOLDSTEIN called for radio to make an effort to recruit new talent, but NOVIA said that the problem started years ago and that the industry “needs to look in other places, the same places everyone else is looking”; GOLDSTEIN noted NOVIA’s role in giving then-high schooler RYAN SEACREST his break at WSTR/ATLANTA but asked whether whoever is managing the station today would let a new talent like SEACREST in the door. But PINSKY said that “radio’s not going anywhere. Radio is here to stay.”
