Talk Radio As We Know It
By Lynn Woolley

As the glitterati of talk radio gathered in New York City on June 9 and 10
for the big "New Media Seminar," two things virtually screamed out at you:
First, FM radio is on its last legs as a music medium and second, freedom of
speech must be preserved on the airwaves so that talk show hosts can be as
obscene as they want to be.

It may seem strange to the radio outsider that so many hosts are so
protective of their "right" under the First Amendment to utter the F-word
with impunity - but here, at the annual convention put on by TALKERS
Magazine - the general theory is that if the F-word is banned, other speech
may be banned as well.

So the coveted "Freedom of Speech Award" went to a man who has fought a very
public battle against censorship of any type - Howard Stern.  The "King of
All Media" did not show up to claim his prize, but he did send a member of
his on-air ensemble - the actor George Takei who once cruised the galaxy as
Mr. Sulu on the Starship Enterprise.

Mr. Takei's speech was fascinating as he spoke passionately about his days
as a prisoner in an internment camp for Japanese Americans in the wake of
Pearl Harbor and how that ruined his father's business.  Mr. Takei did not
mention that virtually all Americans now believe the round up of Japanese
Americans was wrong, that some payments for property losses were made in
1948, that President Reagan officially apologized in 1988, and that
beginning in 1990 reparations were paid.

More on subject, he discussed the Howard Stern Show, which has now moved to
satellite radio so that Howard can be as vulgar as he wants to be.  Noting
that Stern likes to use certain forbidden words and discuss "bodily
functions" that would make most people blush, he asked "what is really
obscene?"  All Howard is doing is talking the way real people talk in real
life.

And, according to Mr. Sulu - that is, Mr. Takei, the REAL obscenities in
this country are being perpetrated by the Bush Administration.  You know -
that war in Iraq that's all based on lies.

Finally, Mr. Takei had come to a place in his speech where most of us in the
room could agree.  Not that we all disagree with the War in Iraq, but that
we all believe the First Amendment was in the Bill of Rights to protect Mr.
Stern's freedom to disagree with political leaders and to be able to express
that disagreement without fear.

Still, many on the ensuing panels wondered why it takes repeated use of the
F-word to protect political speech.  Some even expressed the opinion that
without some government-imposed taboos, there is no "shock" left in the term
"shock jock."  By moving over to a satellite pay service, Mr. Stern has no
envelope to push and no corporate overseer to spar with.  He still has his
fans, but the entertainment value went down by degrees when he stopped
fighting with the FCC.

Ultimately, as most of the hosts and producers in the audience agreed, the
marketplace will decide.  If talk of body parts and bathroom habits doesn't
appeal to you, you're probably not a Stern listener anyway.

And what about the marketplace?  The nation's number two host, Sean Hannity,
delivered a passionate speech about opportunities in the field of talk
radio. Hannity believes that talk radio has nowhere to go but up.  So what
does that mean for music on your radio?

It was brought out that in many big cities, a top-rated music station can be
much less profitable than a lower rated talk station.  That's due to the
vagaries of demographics and the foreground nature of talk.  But here's the
shocker:  The consensus was that your computer, your iPod, and even your
cell phone will soon provide the songs you want to hear - selected by you
and not by some program director in Atlanta.

AM radio will one day be ethnic programming and infomercials, and talk
programming as we know it will migrate to FM.   The biggest of the big like
WBAP and KLIF may survive for a long while, but the die is cast.

Meanwhile, Howard Stern is doing his thing via satellite as more people are
discovering talk radio over the air, internet streaming, podcasting, and
even cable TV.  Part of the future is already here and the rest is rapidly
approaching.

Lynn Woolley is Texas-based talk show host.  His show can be heard M-F 9
p.m.-midnight CT over the internet at www.BeLogical.com