The Importance of Free Speech

I had the honor this past week to attend the 71^st Annual New Jersey Broadcasters Association (NJBA) Conference and Gala held at the Tropicana Resort and Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City.

I plan to share more information about this East Coast NAB style event in a future blog, but today I want to focus on something Tom Taylor said that I feel is critically important for all broadcasters to hear.

Tom Taylor Receives Lifetime Achievement Award by NJBA

I’m sure, like me, you are still experiencing some “Tom Taylor Now” withdrawal since the time Tom announced his retirement in December of 2018 and his daily coverage of the radio industry ceased publication. For anyone who’s lived around the Philadelphia area, Tom’s style was akin to that of Channel 6’s Action News. You got all the news you needed to know, delivered in an easy to digest style, sometimes accompanied by a sense of humor.

NJBA President/CEO Paul Rotella and his Board of Directors’ selection of Tom Taylor for his 31-year run as a radio trade journalist was well deserved.

How It All Began

Tom was the son of a radio broadcaster. He was born in North Carolina and started at a radio station where his dad once worked.

Tom moved to New Jersey over 40 years ago to program the heritage WPST in Princeton, New Jersey and he has lived in the Garden State ever since.

Tom left WPST after 12 years with the title of Station Manager and Vice President of Programming for Nassau Broadcasting to begin a career in radio trade journalism. First for Kal Rudman’s Friday Morning Quarterback (FMQB) and then to Jerry Del Colliano’s Inside Radio, both based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

For the last six years of Tom’s radio trade journalism career, he rejoined Robert Unmacht and Kristy Scott to form RTK Media and publish Tom Taylor NOW – Radio’s Daily Management Newsletter. That publication ended on Friday, December 28, 2018 with Tom writing his “Final sign-off for the daily Tom Taylor NOW Newsletter.”

Tom’s “One Quick Word About Journalism”

In his acceptance speech, Tom said something I believe all broadcasters should hear about the importance of journalism in today’s world and the role of radio/TV operators in carrying out our responsibility to the communities we are licensed to serve. Here’s what Tom said:

“I spent 31 years as a New Jersey-based trade journalist. During that time, no boss or business partner ever said ‘Don’t do that story, because it will make somebody mad.’ Or, ‘be nice to so-and-so.’ More than ever, we need to support good journalism. And as local broadcasters, the responsibility is especially on us, because people look up to us – or down to us – as ‘the media.’ We’re really in the crucible.

This is something I said at the opening session of the recent NAB Show in Las Vegas – Regardless of your politics, does anyone in this room really believe that journalists are the enemy of the people?

Mark Twain said this – ‘Free speech is the cornerstone of every right we have.’

Let’s not forget that – or why we became broadcasters in the first place.

There’s an old joke, where the guy says ‘I wanted to be on the radio when I grew up. But then, I was told I couldn’t do both.’ On the inside, part of us is still a little kid, and that’s probably a good thing. But the rest of who we are is… (are) grownups who have a responsibility to the community. As long as we remember that, we should have listeners (and podcast users, and video consumers, and social media fans).

Here’s the other thing I said at the NAB Show – Plan well. Try new things. And adopt some extra confidence and pass that along to the folks who work for you. It’s contagious. And as you go home from Atlantic City – keep having fun with broadcasting. Because I believe, and I’ll bet you believe, that it’s still magic.”

Thank You Tom

Tom Taylor is still an inspiration to broadcasters everywhere and I’m grateful for this friendship that has spanned over 35 years since moving to Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1984 and becoming a member of the NJBA.

You and your lovely wife Sharan, have earned your retirement.

Live well. Live long. And be happy.

P.S. Scott Fybush produced a podcast with Tom Taylor and you can hear that HERE 

The part with Tom begins in 11:16 minutes into the podcast.