Welcome to Boom!, a look at this area’s popular culture and its lasting effect on our generation. I’m Mike Olszewski, and my wife, Janice, and I have been documenting this part of our history in a series of books aimed at preserving that part of our lives and bringing back plenty of memories.
I’m teaching college now, but before that I spent a long time in radio, most notably at WMMS when it was “The Buzzard.” People often ask me, “Whatever happened to radio?” Well, the programming is there and is growing, but the way it gets to us is changing rapidly.
RADIO DAYS
It wasn’t that long ago that radio was lifestyle. We lived and died with radio, but that was before a lot of other options such as cable TV, video games, computers and the internet. Ah, the internet. Video didn’t kill the radio star. Your laptop and cellphone might be to blame.
Sure, radio is still popular, but mostly for an aging generation.
The internet quickly changed the way we access information and music, and it’s not slowing down. Author Tim Murphy disagrees to a point in a recent article, “Millennials Love Radio. Wait, What?” Portability seems to be the advantage.
“Radio is mobile friendly for the ear bud generation, and it connects with those that want to be part of their community,” Murphy writes.
True, people listen primarily in their cars, and Wi-Fi is now being installed in some upper-end models.
NOW WHAT?
John Gorman has seen both sides of the coin. The well-respected programmer of WMMS and WMJI now heads oWOW Cleveland, a locally focused internet radio station.
A handful of huge corporations today control stations, and they paid big cash to get them. Investors want a return on their money, which has led to major cuts in staff, types of programming promotion and competition.
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