Recently those of us who for the most part tuned out long ago were reminded of the reason we left; that is, the pathetic state of traditional, terrestrial radio. The sad event that provided the reminder was the January 12 water-intoxication death of Jennifer Strange, who made the mistake of getting mixed up with the collection of idiots who ran and broadcasted from KDND, FM 107.9 Sacramento.

Should Ms. Strange bear some responsibility for her own tragic death? Of course she did. No one forced her to enter the contest, although legalities aside, moral considerations would prevent most decent people from taking advantage of a simple-minded person, and I would call someone who risks her life to win a toy worth a couple of hundred bucks very simple-minded. Now that her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, the courts will sort out the respective liability of the parties involved. That’s how it should be as a legal matter. I’m more interested in what this case says about a medium that I know and love, radio.

Despite the shock and horror expressed by John Geary, vice president and marketing manager of Entercom Sacramento, ownerof KDND, I suspect that he must realize that the lack of common sense, the recklessness, and the ability to effortlessly impersonate a horse’s hind end on the air were the very things that KDND’s program director, direct supervisor of these “J’s,” loved about them, that is, until the whole thing broke bad on them. This crew was wacky, out of their minds, out of control, a true morning zoo—fantastic! Just what we’re looking for! They weren’t hired for their intelligence, their talent, their cleverness or their good judgment. They had none. They were hired for their ability to get attention without any of those things.

I have had the privilege to work with some terrific radio program directors and general managers, people who were not only interested in helping air talent develop, but in enhancing the listening experience for the listener. It was all about the listener. Managers of that ilk seem to be an endangered species. Today most of the suits running traditional, terrestrial radio aren’t creative, don’t care about the audience, and may as well be running a string of Burger King franchises. The fast-food guys measure success by how many artery-clogging burgers they sling out the drive-thru window. The radio suits measure success by how much pre-fab, dumbed-down, brain rotting programming hosted by semi-informed, semi (at best)-talented ex-DJs, many of whom were challenged to think of something half-way intelligent when they were talking up records, they can try to shove down the throats of a helpless public. As I mentioned, there are notable exceptions, great general managers and program directors who care about quality programming (like the ones who run the network affiliates for Right Talk with Teri O’Brien), but what I described is generally the unfortunate state of affairs in traditional radio today.

The good news is that whether the discussion is about foreign policy or health insurance “cherry-picking” is a very popular word these days. It even applies to radio. The public is no longer helpless. Just as the networks have discovered when it comes to their nightly news casts, smart people who don’t want to waste their time having their intelligence insulted now have a choice. Because of the ability we now have to choose very specifically what we want to hear (by listening to a podcast, satellite or internet radio) over the air radio has effectively become a ghetto of lowest common denominator crap, something that only people who have no choice will endure. Most discriminating listeners have abandoned it, limiting their usage to only the good shows that they really like (think Rush Limbaugh), or to those times when they are relegated to listening to it because they end up in the car without their iPods or don’t want to listen to a decent music station like WXRT, 93.1 FM, Chicago’s finest rock.

Because of all this competition, traditional radio is a transitional state. In the past, imbeciles like this KDND crew would find that this stunt was a resume enhancer, and their firing would be the first step in moving up to a larger market and bigger paycheck. So far that hasn’t happened, and we can only hope that that’s a sign that the room-temperature IQ school of radio programming is on its way to the same fate as the compact disc.

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