To Panic Or Not To Panic, That Is The Question!

About to go on one of those great American Old Fashioned Car road trips ... In a new Corvette convertible, so that's not the back seat of my dad's car, but it should be educational.

I know I will hear a lot of radio, and I hope equally I will be surprised. For those of us who make some or all of our living in radio, it is a scary time. It's probably been a scary time for a while.

Music Row is somewhat freaking out with retooling to the digital age while acknowledging that the physical world in Country is very much alive.

Who is a new age artist, and who is not? How long does a label stay with an artist and keep throwing good money after bad? In this day of YouTube and Drudge, how do you communicate with your audience? How many secrets can you keep anymore?

Jennifer Nettles got a divorce. Is that anyone's business? When involved fans ask, do you tell the truth or just say nothing? When she gets sick do you put a notice on the label and star website or just let the venues involved handle it? How on top of things do you ride the wave?

With radio, is the future the Net with in-office listening? Is the people meter going to reveal fewer people or more? Does serving the record labels really serve the audience? Radio and labels do not have the same agenda really, do they? The same sales demo?

Did radio screw up 15 years ago when it, for all practical purposes, let the bean counter toss out live jocks 7p to midnight? Muzzle the ones and just played music. In the end, in the history book, I think that was the fatal decision. You short-minded execs did not compete with new technology and let the young audience have NO personal relationship with night radio for the first time in 40 maybe 50 years or more. There was then no tradition, no habit created for the teens when they got to be 20-somethings. They didn't know what they never had.

For Music Row, corporate think never created hit records. Look at almost any act you can think of. From Elvis at Sun to the Beatles on Swan, the landmarks started outside the box. Today that is a little more possible than in the past but still difficult getting past that big label big corporate radio relationship.

HD Radio I still have never heard. Streaming, I do listen to WABC and KNX on occasion. I actually listen to Matt Drudge on WABC Sunday nights on line. TV sucks most of the time then.

Local TV has lost its way and is losing its audience. Young folks don't watch local news and maybe they never did. The grasping for ideas and repeating old bad ideas just makes you go watch HGTV. Fox News or even a reality show on TV Guide. Everyone has the same news, but it's the people who give it you that makes the separation. Did this current crop of execs ever do anything but tell others what to do? Are there any broadcasters left? Any music folks making and selling music?

Dirty laundry on TV, boring songs and grunge country artists ... Can't we just find some George Straits, Alabamas and talents like Barbara Mandrell? People who know how to entertain you or whom you love to hear sing? Get past Chesney and Tim

McGraw, Brad Paisley for sure, who are great fan treats ... Reba, when she works ... and then what have you?

I like Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood, who are bright lights, but what's on the menu after that? Who besides "American Idol" is in artist development?

OK, enough ... Heard a Paul Brandt song today out of Canada. What was wrong with him?

Something in this mix is screwed up, and I am not sure if it's the music business with its corporate accounting think or radio trying to pay off debt and doing too little with too few. You cannot do radio with just computers and three VO guys.

Bring back real radio like Dan Mason is doing in New York at WCBS-FM. It's a step in the right direction. Entertain. Radio was never meant to be an iPod.