Another radio station departs

I find it ironic that somebody who's spent 25 years in a field that promoted the demise of the human element in radio, is lamenting the consultant's success. Here's a quote from her article in the Boston Globe:

A farewell message to WJDA - The Boston Globe: "It's all part of a process that starts when the station is sold. The old owner departs, and the new owner takes over. People who worked there for years lose their jobs. Perhaps a small group of fans who liked the old station will try to save it. They'll write letters and sign petitions. But the FCC won't step in, and the changes will proceed, whether the public approves or not. And for those who loved the old station and can't understand why it's gone, there is a genuine feeling of loss."
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Donna L. Halper is a radio consultant and media historian. She teaches at Emerson College and is the author of three books and many articles about broadcasting.

While I can't speak for Donna Halper or her method, consultants spent a generation pandering to radio station owners and managers who were alarmed at the popularity of disc jockeys. While they were happy that these local personalities accounted for strong ratings, the consultants convinced them that it was possible to achieve ratings success while downplaying the prominence of the disc jockeys. More music and less talk became the consultant's mantra and it fell on receptive ears. Radio station management and owners muzzled their disc jockeys and told them what to say, how to say it and when to say it. They did research and focus studies that confirmed that listeners wanted to hear more music and less talk and they didn't want disc jockeys talking over their favorite songs. Eureka!! Success!! Stations could have their cake and eat it too. If they could attract more listeners without having to pay for seasoned pros, then that was the route for them. And for a while, the concept worked. Every new format or change will attract new listeners for a period of time, but the listeners quickly grew tired of the boring repetition of the same "proven" songs. But the concept was an easy sell. After all, the consultant's goal was to produce a radio station that played the most and best music, and in their business plan, that would be the formula for success. While they pushed the more music and less talk formula, they discovered, oddly enough, that the stations that still talked over your favorite songs, were the ones doing well, at least for the time being. Now that anybody with an MP3 player and a connection to the internet can be their own more music station, with NO interruptions, the purpose of the consultant crafted radio station has been all but eliminated. What happened when the only reason for listening to a station became just the music? It's like when your new car gets dinged in the parking lot of Target by the person in the next space. Your reaction is going to be a lot different to the careless driver if he's a stranger than if he were a friend or neighbor. When consultants convinced radio stations that the disc jockey was a necessary evil, instead of a companion, a friend or just a human being, they set the stage for what's turned into today's dull and stale radio. And even if they wanted to go back to the old formula for success, where are they going to find the right people, at any price? All the good ones are either dead or selling real estate.