"Local TV" was run by a man named Randy Michaels, who made his fame and fortune in radio. He came through on a tour shortly after the purchase, and I thought he was brilliant and absolutely charming. I mentioned that I grew up on and in radio. He knew about the history of my former employer, WARM, down to the signal pattern and other 590's in the east that we had to protect.
Local TV didn't last long. It sold to Tribune. Tribune sold to Tegna, and that is where we stand today. I'm happy.
Randy Michaels is still very active in the radio business, and I still subscribe to radio industry newsletters. You can take the boy out of radio, but you can't take the radio out of the boy.
Michaels recently penned an op ed piece in RadioInk.com. Some auto makers want to drop AM radios in cars. The broadcast industry is fighting that. Michaels reasoned that the industry shouldn't be legislating. It should be improving.
One line in Michaels' piece really hit home. He mentioned that a lot of AM stations sell weekend time slots to quack medical cures and shady financial advice. Michaels closed that paragraph by saying a station you can't trust 24 hours a day is a station you can't trust. I'll expand that to silly overnight shows that expound the existence of Martians and every outlandish and unproven conspiracy theory out there.
The bottom line on Michaels piece was AM's problems will be solved if programmers simple produced a product that consumers find attractive.
Bravo!
