In Search of ‘Show Biz Radio’

Over the last few weeks, I’ve struggled to accurately characterize a key aspect of the radio I love.

Talking about “hosted, produced radio,” as I sometimes have through the years, is adequate shorthand among many Ross on Radio readers, but can also be reductive and too inside — not conveying the values or excitement I intend.

I got closer last week with “classic radio,” but that also sounds like a call to dust off ancient clichés: the boss sound in the big town. With radio and the people who create it unbearably stretched, and a world in crisis, it might sound like I only want to hear somebody hit the post.

The radio I love sounds big, but those who’ve watched the industry for the last 25 years come honestly by their frustrations with consolidation and its aftermath. So I can’t call it “big radio”; that term sounds like “big oil” and “big pharma,” and for some people it is.

But with each week that I refocus on what makes radio great, I’m circling in on the notion of “Show Biz Radio” as the thing done well by broadcast and satellite radio and not quite grasped, or perhaps just not valued, by purveyors of other types of audio.

“Show Biz” isn’t all radio has to offer. In recent years, the industry has come to realize that full-service radio matters too — particularly when it can still get listeners to “join the conversation.” But TV talk shows are certainly part of show biz as well.

When it’s there, “show biz” on radio manifests itself over the intros, between the records, and through contesting. It also reinforces radio as a community and a “shared experience” — whether it’s Z100 “serving the universe from the top of the Empire State Building” or John Landecker on WLS Chicago parodying that sort of thing by broadcasting “from high atop the downtown Burger King.”

Broadcasters have a complicated relationship with the show-biz aspect of radio. In the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, many programmers were shamed out of it by the rise of Album Rock and Adult Contemporary radio. Z100 and Scott Shannon brought it back. The advent of PPM measurement sent it on hiatus again. But “more music, less talk” radio and show-biz radio never had to be an either/or thing.

Sometimes our show biz takes the form of pretending not to be show biz (think the “police radio” imaging and deliberately deadpan sound of ’90s Alternative radio, which also spread to Top 40). Shannon’s Z100 owed a lot to the “small-town guy conquers the big city through sheer earnestness” of Frank Capra. Those of us eagerly waiting for season 3 of Ted Lasso still like that one.

Metered PPM measurement steered broadcast radio away from both full-service and show biz aspects around the time that our tech rivals began to specialize in that sort of excitement. Pandora came for the “more music, less talk” franchise, but the genome still gave it a show-biz aspect. Since then, the iPhone and smart speakers have been the irresistible toys that radio can’t match. Radio has sought show biz primarily through the station-sponsored concerts that can only really take the stage again now.

What is “show biz” in radio terms is UX to radio’s tech competitors, so I’m surprised that the user experience of their audio offerings hasn’t really captured radio’s show-biz aspects, especially from competitors who out-resource radio. As I write about Amazon’s Amp, I want to be careful to:

• Acknowledge that it is in beta;
• Acknowledge the number of smart industry people who are enthusiastic about it;
• Not sound like a grumpy old guy on the wrong side of history; advocates are taking a 15-year-view, which is another complicated discussion for broadcasters;
• Fulfill my reviewer’s obligation to accurately report to you what the emperor is wearing, at least today.

Last week, I came to the conclusion that Clubhouse and Amp fulfilled other needs. They certainly do offer the ability to “join the conversation.” Also, many competing audio offerings, including Amp, have ventured into show biz in one key way, via celebrity content creators. Usually, it feels to me like their “movie stars” have been cast in a Sundance indie distributed by a major studio’s boutique imprint. We all need another Free Guy-type entertainment, especially now. But how can a multiply challenged radio industry offer that?

I’ve written about radio’s challenges in its own UX, streaming or on-air. One of the talking points of consolidation was that it would give radio more “show biz,” not less, particularly once national contesting took hold. Now radio does indeed have bigger jackpots than individual stations can offer, but it gives them away for a text message and sometimes with no on-air payoff. We are not broadcasting “from the top of the Empire State Building”; instead, we are live (but not really) from the 1-800-GOT-PAIN studios.

Show-biz radio easily defaults to classic radio. My recent example was Mike Joseph doing a 1959-style radio presentation on WCAU-FM Philadelphia in 1981 and revitalizing the Top 40 format. The classics always work, and in music, entertainment, and all things, we’re less tied to a traditional timeline than ever. But as with hearing somebody hit the post, that’s not all I want. I hope broadcasters (or pureplays) will find a way to offer show-biz radio for 2022 and beyond. First, we have to recognize its value. 

(UPDATE, OCT. ’23: It’s a year later, and Amazon has announced that Amp is closing at the end of the month. I interviewed Gene “Bean” Baxter, one of the service’s enthusiastic proponents I alluded to.)