From the Corner Office

Boston is one of Don Imus’s strongest markets, so when his radio show came to a fiery end, Greater Media was involved because Don was on WTKK every morning. For the record, what Imus said was reprehensible and indefensible. As he put it, “I said a bad thing.”  Yes, Don, you did, and there’s no way around that.  But I give him credit for taking responsibility for his comments and offering a sincere apology. Not once did he use the tired argument that everyone else does it.

So, what should we learn from this episode?

First, that radio is a powerful medium of words and ideas, and that those words and ideas have weight and consequence.  I am sure it’s easy for any morning show to rationalize that at 6:15AM, the morning is just getting started, and the audience isn’t that large.  The host may be more interested in downing his or her second cup of coffee, and comments just “slip out.”

But that thinking starts us down the road to minimizing and making excuses for our comments and conversation.  And that’s wrong.  Whether we’re entertaining listeners with topics like Anna Nicole’s baby, informing them about the latest tragedy in Iraq, or discussing a women’s basketball game, we are still talking to and creating the dialogue of that morning for our communities.

At its best, radio creates and reinforces the common ground of the day’s water cooler conversation.  How many times have you heard about listeners arriving at their office only to start out, “Did you hear what [local radio personality] said or did this morning?”  We are part of the consciousness of our communities; our words have impact and influence.  And we are individually and collectively responsible for those words. This responsibility goes beyond the FCC’s current interpretation of indecency; it is our obligation to human decency.

Second, radio is an intimate medium, for listeners and air personalities alike. No one has a formal relationship with their favorite radio personality. What they have is a daily one-on-one bonding session that invites us into the listener’s mind and heart. When we ask for the listeners’ opinions, the phone lines light up.   When we ask people to contribute to a good cause, they are moved and come through.  Conversely, if we use our airtime to belittle, berate and distort people and opinions, we further the polarization and intolerance of ideas different than ours.

The vast majority of folks who tune into our stations in the morning simply want a bit of companionship and a laugh or two on the way to work.  We are the ones who create the atmosphere, choose the content, write the jokes and punch lines, and they laugh along with us.  But they also trust us to set the proper tone, and they often follow our lead.

Third, as creators of radio, we should always remind ourselves that the audience is larger and more diverse than the small, self-selecting sample that calls, e-mails, or writes us.  Being human, it is so easy to focus on the narrow, active audience, because they respond to us.  But we know that P1’s aren’t the only listeners to our stations.  And, as results from the PPM show, we’re becoming aware that the larger, passive audience is much, much more sizeable than we previously thought.  Radio personalities get comfortable with the microphone in a small room, and let down their guard.  We must impress upon them that, no matter how comfortable they become with their primary audience, they still stand in front of a crowd the size of a sellout concert.  What they do every day is, in reality, a public act.

Fourth, as radio professionals, we have a larger obligation.  One that goes beyond our license commitment or the regulations, to be a force not just for heat, but light as well.  The radio marketplace, especially in mornings, is a competitive environment.  Every morning person will show up for their show tomorrow trying to make ratings and break through the electronic clutter.  And we should not be any less aggressive in our pursuit of success than we were before Imus.  Greater Media morning shows have considerable success in their marketplaces, and we will continue to entertain, provoke, inform and make people laugh.  It’s how we do it that matters.

We’re emerging from a period of stone-throwing and mud slinging in the political arena that has seeped into our general conversation. Why it happened is less important than the fact that most Americans now want and demand a return to civility in our public arguments and conversations.  That’s where radio lives.  We can and must offer thoughtful opinions and ideas, but the time for cheap laughs at the expense of another human being is over.  In fact, it never really had a place on the radio to begin with.

Satire, parody, and poking fun at the public figures of our day remain the bread and butter of great morning shows, and should be.  That’s what the audience wants and what makes good radio.  But we need to resist the taunts and catcalls of those who urge us to put morning radio in the gutter because they find it funny.  People’s foibles, mistakes and bad behavior are all fair game for comment and ridicule; the human beings themselves are not.

Please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on the "Ask Peter" icon posted below. I would love to hear your feedback or answer any questions you may have.