Why Radio is Still Important 

Despite the rise of portable music apps on our smartphones, like Spotify or Apple Music, a certain art is practiced in radio. A dying medium, but one that should be remembered with respect and beauty. 

To work in radio is to produce, perform, and to curate. Two parts to create a live show, with one goal: to please the listener. 

The production is the gears turning behind the sound you hear out of your car, the mall, or whatever waiting room you may be in. It’s the mechanical and technical skills of everyday people, just like you and me, wh feel passionate about the art of radio. It’s the necessary labor behind all the software, the equipment, and the people, and results in the magic that happens between the three. 

The performance is the talent: the hosts and the on-air guests that fill the 5 second, 30 second, or 5-minute gaps between the music. It’s the personalities loved by listeners that put out content relentlessly, who train like athletes and are as emotionally complex as comedians.  It’s their job to make the 5 minutes of dead air into relatable and relevant gold, a station unchangeable and resilient to ads turning people away. It’s the real people behind the music. No robots, no algorithm, just real people with real problems.  Front line workers of entertainment: honest and hard work.

The curation comes from choosing songs in an order that flows while providing the listener with the audio aesthetic expected from the station. It’s essential the songs make sense, are enjoyable and memorable, but also lead people down new avenues for bands or feelings they didn’t have before. It’s not just the curation of a playlist to be played on the radio, it’s the curation of songs that make people intentionally feel, the curation of an emotional experience. 

I’m not telling anyone to live in the past, but let this be a reminder to not let the future come too soon. Tune into evolution 107.9 sometime, we’ll be there for you.