This from yesterdays All Access:

---------------Paul Harvey Tells Radio To Hang In There----------------

Legendary radio commentator PAUL HARVEY has sent out an open letter to the economically embattled industry, basically telling everyone to chill out ... or in his words, "keep your seats."

"I'm not sure what percentage of today's disenchanted and/or dismissed lost their footing or lost their faith,"he wrote. "But broadcasting has demonstrated to me a near magical resiliency. I am satisfied that broadcasters, aboard for the ride, will prosper as cyclically."

Here is the entire letter:
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---------------------------Keep Your Seats---------------------------

When looking for the best fishing pole on the lake, I want an old-timer who knows fishing, the fish, and who knows the lake.

It's still flattering when an old-timer is asked for his counsel.

Your publisher asked for a few thoughts on our presently unstable industry. Ok. The past is easy; I have been there.

Once upon a time Paul Harvey enlisted at KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma, announcing Bob Wills an his Texas Playboys, and reading rip-off news at midnight, at $29 a week. KFBI in Salina, Kansas then offered Paul Harvey the same, but there he would be allowed to call himself Program Director.

I can't remember that Angel and I ate much better or lived more comfortably or shared a more overcrowded commute. Neither of us thought ourselves less secure than now. But we loved our industry with a righteous fervor, overwhelmed by repetitious home-cooking. But we learned to like homemade soup, and we learned to love reaching for the stars in our personal and professional relationships.

Now, suddenly, it is so soon 2009 -- from KVOO to KFBI to KXOK to WGN, to ABC. It's been a roller-coaster ride but we kept our seats.

This is the first time I've ever admitted to what I'm about to say: Angel and I startled ourselves one day to realize that our dedication and love affair with a microphone and our careful, confident ride on the Dow roller-coaster had harvested an estate of very much money. So what was the secret of our profitable ride, with the often fluctuating media market?

We kept our seats.

On any roller-coaster ride, the most likely casualties are the jumpers.

We tried to be good to our industry - to our own ultimate benefit.

Now we come to now. I'm not sure what percentage of today's disenchanted and/or dismissed lost their footing or lost their faith. But broadcasting has demonstrated to me a near magical resiliency. I am satisfied that broadcasters, aboard for the long ride, will prosper as cyclically. They always have.

In electronic journalism, we ain't seen nothin' yet.

Happy New Years.

Happpppy New Year...

...gooood day!

Man, I'd REALLY like to ask a follow-up question or two of Mr. Harvey on this!

I wish I shared his enthusiasm, but the way my little brother and several friends have been shown the door over the last couple of years of budget cuts leaves me jaded... There aren't that many left to run the station! (At least not many who actually know HOW it's really done...)

Nonetheless, I'm copying and printing this out to post at my desk for a couple of months... And waiting for Page Two...

I'm extremely fortunate that, as badly as the situation I was hired on for this summer(A hockey broadcasting job that never actually materialized) turned out, that I have a job waiting for me at a station run by an honest, decent, intelligent man, who has, despite some very difficult times, has "kept his seat." His attitude gives me the encouragement to go into what is, at the moment, a slightly less than perfect situation, to see it through and to help turn the station into an upward trend.

It's very understandable that some have a jaded view of radio at the moment. I have shared that viewpoint in the past as well. While I don't think there'll likely be the number of on air jobs in the future as there ever were in the past, radio will not die. There will be opportunities for those who persevere and "keep their seats."

outsider....good day!

I'm a Paul Harvey fan, but it's very easy to have a positive outlook when you sign a 10 year contract in your eighties.
Often the grass is browner on the other side, but more often than not, there isn't any pasture to go to when shown the door in the current state of radio.