Steve Jobs For Radio Leadership

"A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets."
-- Steve Jobs, computer guy

I wonder what a radio company operated by Steve Jobs would be like? If we were to follow Wall Street common wisdom, someone should be suggesting Steve Jobs take over some of radio's mega companies, based on stock pricing alone. Apple has gone from $47.87 a share to $86.40 a share in the past year. Clear Channel has gone from $27.17 to $33.44 in the same time period.

I don't understand it. Apple computers are usually more expensive than PCs, but their owners are usually rabid fans, while everyone loves to poke fun at Microsoft. Yet we can't even remember what rate integrity is, and our share of the advertising dollar keeps shrinking.

What would happen, do you think, if radio decided that putting a great "product" on the air was more important than downsizing? What would happen if radio group owners were as passionate about their stations as Jobs is about his company? What would happen if broadcasters started looking at what the people in the audience really want, as Jobs does with the iPod, instead of trying to force something on them they don't want, such as HD Radio?

HD sounds better, no doubt about it. But boring programming that sounds better isn't going to help us any. Raise your hand if you think Classic AAA is going to revive the industry.

Have we forgotten how to be remarkable? We were pretty good at it once, but somewhere we went from there to trying to trick listeners with Armitron watches, and then on to management by spreadsheet. You know, there's nothing remarkable about a spreadsheet, no matter what it produces.

I think we've forgotten the prime rule of radio: Profit, BCF and shareholder value are what happen as a result of producing remarkable radio, not the end goal itself. As long as the figures themselves drive those in radio, they'll have a hard time recovering.

Disclaimer: This article was written on a MacBook Pro.