There was an interesting discussion of the current state of radio and the past earlier this week on KGO. The host was Jim Gabbert (started KIOI in San Francisco). His guest was author & San Francisco Chronicle radio writer Ben Fong-Torres. He was editor of Rolling Stone for many years and has a wide background, including being the last person to interview Jim Morrison. He also wrote a book on the history of Rock and Roll. Rather than my trying to list his accomplishments, you can read the lengthy list here:
http://www.broadcastlegends.com/fongtorres.html

You can still hear the show from the KGO archives for last Wednesday, the 2PM hour:
http://www.kgoam810.com/Article.asp?id=49920

It will be there until next Wednesday @2PM.

Jim Gabbert had a profound influence on KJIB owner Bernie Seitz.

Rolling Stone's editor is and has always been Jann Wenner. Ben was the news editor of the magazine during the 70's. He's one of the best rock writers around... but he was not the editor of Rolling Stone.

You are correct, Tdanner. Sorry for the confusion. I had heard "editor" and thought the editor. Hew was not. He was an early writer and news editor, not THE editor. Sorry for the confusion.

I listened to this program a few days ago. It was an interesting discussion, though I don't think that I heard anything that I didn't know before. The discussion was mainly focused on music formats, and I got the impression that the host and his guest both had a fairly high level of optimism that even in today's fragmented media climate, radio as a musical delivery service for young people, could still work if the radio station owners were willing to make the investment in creating a quality product.

Alfredo_t wrote:
could still work if the radio station owners were willing to make the investment in creating a quality product.

They will just let it go until they're on the brink of bankruptcy and ask the government for a handout like the overgrown auto and banking industries.

It is interesting to contrast what is being discussed right now with what was being said in 1973.

Thanks for posting the link to the Programmer's Digest from 1973, Littlesongs!! This is really cool to listen to. The sad thing is that back then, they were warning that program directors that personalities were important, and that they shouldn't be swept aside or be reduced to liner card readers. Unfortunately, that is exactly what was done, and look what has happened!!