The Infinite Dial

I drove from New York to Boston this weekend and heard a lot of those "Radio Heard Here" house ads -- particularly the ones that try to invoke the old-style DJ who talks to people in specific places or situations (or a series of them). Like New York legend Alison Steele or Detroit's Electrifyin' Mojo, who definitely specialized in "everybody on the Lodge Freeway turn on your headlights"-style radio. Besides highlighting just how slow radio sales must be these days, all the institutional spots were also remarkable because the industry is trying to remind people what they like about radio by invoking the very radio that has effectively been quashed in recent years.

I thought of that again this morning when CBS Radio made the announcement that "live read" spots would now be available on its streams. That made a lot of sense. Live read spots sell at a premium, and should. What's ironic is that in so many quarters -- and no owner is being singled out here -- personality is more diminished than ever, either by jocklessness or post-PPM scrutiny. We now believe that there is very little we would want to hear anybody expound on for 60 seconds when they could be playing music. But a testimonial spot is OK?

One also has to wonder: with fewer hosted shifts, who will be around to do a live read? Sales always manages to find somebody, of course -- in the same way that even the jockless radio station finds somebody to do the live remote callback from the sponsor location. But if we diminish the listener/personality bond elsewhere, will the live read spot continue to have the same impact? How can a trusted friend sell you something if there's no other opportunity to build that trust?