One More Bad Story Will Be Too Much

Once upon a time … September 1983, Music Row writers wrote a song that would go on to win a Grammy and, before that, became front-page news. Tommy Rocco, Charlie Black and Rory Bourke wrote it, and Anne Murray sang it, “A Little Good News.”

Just once how I’d like to see the headline say
"Not much to print today, can't find nothin' bad to say,” because

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD’ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down
Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today

Just last week, a major research paper floated around the mass media on how people are disengaging from traditional news. The news is depressing. This shrinkage has been going on for years now.

The shrinkage of physical newspapers, and news of any kind on radio, has been reduced to pea size. TV news viewing levels at night are shrinking. The below 30 audience is just not engaged in that way of obtaining information. The older audience is restless too.

On how this involves radio/music creation, sometimes the bad news makes you feel helpless, and it’s overwhelming. It’s a reflection of the world, or should be. Like today, the weather is 111 degrees in Texas, there are Monkeypox and Covid worries, inflation has everyone’s attention, plus wars, forest fires, mass shootings, and crazy politicians! You get the picture.

Somehow, music creators need to come to the rescue. Radio needs to help the audience cope with all this. Yes, free gas cards are nice and that’s a step, but we need content that is like that song: A Little Good News!

Whoa, tell me
Nobody was assassinated in the whole Third World today
And in the streets of Ireland, all the children had to do was play
And everybody loves everybody in the good old USA
We sure could use a little good news today

News people have a job to do. News by nature is bad. The sun came up this morning is not news. But there has to be a way to get the news out without choking the audience to death at the same time. Put out the fertilizer, but spread it around. Let the folks breathe a little. And Music Row songwriters, go research what Murray’s writing trio did to write that song and how it changed their lives afterwards. It’s a message that is still relevant 39 years later!

We need a dose of POSITIVE, a dose of HOPE, a path out of the darkness. Music does that for you daily, right? Radio, when it was your companion, did that too.

How could we have made it without our radio pals, and the music that pointed the way expressed how we were feeling?

Hey, that means you. There ain’t nothing that a beer can’t fix was a good start. You felt better even if you don’t drink beer. We need HOPE. Now, go do your job! You have the keys to the car!