DickTaylorBlog

At this moment in time, I would have to say I’m thankful for having the opportunity to fulfill a life-long goal of one day teaching at a college or university. I’m now in my fifth year of teaching broadcasting at the School of Journalism and Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University. I’m grateful for my students that write a note to say how appreciative they are for the effort I put into my classes and how they benefitted from them. And I’m thankful for those students who stay in touch with me after they graduate to let me know how they’re doing in their broadcast careers.

I’m thankful for being able to have the whole family together for Thanksgiving for the first time in five years as each of us have moved to different parts of the country but this year will all return to my hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It will be our first Thanksgiving that will have three grandchildren celebrating this family holiday spanning four generations.

I’m grateful for my two sons that each have distinguished themselves in their chosen careers and are wonderful fathers.

I’m thankful for my two older brothers that always been there for me through ups and downs, thick and thin.

I’m grateful that a career in radio that I started in the 10^th grade in high school would allow me to pay for my college education, graduate school and raise a family. It’s a career that was all I ever wanted to do besides one day pay-it-forward through teaching the next generation of broadcasters.

I’m thankful for all the wonderful people I’ve met on this journey called life, people who were only strangers until we said “hello,” and then became friends for life.

One of my mentors, Zig Ziglar said: “You can get anything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” I’ve tried to live those words every day.

As we approach Thanksgiving Day 2014, remember you may make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.

Today, I’m giving thanks for you.

Growing up, I always thought I was blessed to have been born in the month of October. Why you ask? Because in September the Sears “Christmas Wish Book” would arrive in the mail and I would carefully comb through its pages to make out my Christmas list for Santa.

Doing this in September was a good way to let the members of my family know of my “needs” since my birthday was right around the corner. Sometimes, I’d get an item or two on my birthday from the Wish Book and I’d update my Santa list.

Well Sears ended its catalogs years ago. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Hammacher Schlemmer still publishes theirs and I’m on their mailing list.

So what’s hot for 2014? How about a high definition camera drone. A gravity defying clock (not like I’m planning a trip into space anytime soon). There’s the instant transmitting paper to iPhone pen. The hands free hair rejuvenator (Hmm, I wonder).

There are a lot of different ways to amplify or clarify people’s hearing. Makes me wonder if the Hammacher Schlemmer customers are all going deaf.

There are lots of things to connect with your iPhone or iPad; even a piece of electronics that will transfer your records or cassettes into the digital format for use on those same devices.

But what really got me excited was that my Hammacher Schlemmer “Last Minute Gift 2014” catalog featured not one, not two, but three different radios.

The first was called “The Best Emergency Radio” and Hammacher Schlemmer says it earned their best rating because it had the longest playback time and clearest reception.

The next radio I came across was the Bose Wave Sound Touch Music System. I have one of these radios by my bed. I love it. Paul Harvey sold it to me over the radio during his page two on his news and commentary broadcasts. (Yes, radio sells stuff!)

The third radio featured was the Longwave Shortwave Radio. You can listen to AM/FM and the world using this beast.

If you count the device that converts your cassette tapes and albums to digital, you actually will find four radios in this 2014 edition of Hammacher Schlemmer’s Christmas catalog.

What you don’t find is an HD Radio. You also don’t find a single TV for sale from Hammacher Schlemmer.

HD radio was introduced the same year that Steve Jobs stood up and introduced the world to the iPod; 2003. In 2014, after four hundred million iPods had been sold, Tim Cook quietly announced the iPod was over with the introduction of the iPhone 6 and 6+.

I tried to find the number of HD Radios that had been sold in that same decade of time and the best number I could come up with was maybe seven million.

Is the HD Radio a solution to a problem the customer never said they were having?

The main application of HD Radio technology by the broadcaster has been to feed an FM translator with programming. Did you know that’s how radio broadcasters first used Edwin Howard Armstrong’s FM radio? Only back in those days, when FM was in the 40 MHz band, broadcasters were trying to avoid paying AT&T their high charges for dedicated phone lines. FM radio was an inexpensive way to get audio from one location to another and re-broadcast it over AM radio. The Yankee Network was built on Armstrong’s FM radio technology.

Hammacher Schlemmer is a catalog made up of cool merchandise. What does that say about the future of HD Radio? Just askin’.

Since I got into radio, the thing I’ve probably heard more times than I can count is “radio doesn’t work.” It wasn’t true then and it’s not true now. So why is this question even still around?

Radio stations that program Adult Contemporary, Gospel, Urban, Lite Rock, Classic Rock, Country and Oldies have raised over $250 million over thirty years for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The hospital says their “Radio Cares for St. Jude Kids” is one of the fastest growing radiothon programs. Who wants to be the first person to tell them the sad news “radio doesn’t work?”

In 1986, a budget hotel chain’s ad agency hired a home builder in Homer, Alaska to voice their new radio campaign. Tom Bodett was “discovered” by The Richards Group when a creative director heard Tom on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Tom Bodett would ad lib “We’ll leave the light on for you” as the closing line. He’s been their radio spokesperson ever since. The Blackstone Group paid $1.9 billion for the chain in 2012. Who wants to be the first person to tell them the sad news “radio doesn’t work?”

A single store jeweler in Springfield, Missouri became a major jewelry retailer. It was the advertising strategy and creative copy of Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads that would see his agency’s first client double and then triple in sales volume each year. Roy used radio to build the customer base of Woody Justice’s jewelry store. At the time Roy began working with Justice Jewelers, the gross sales volume of the average jewelry store in America was less than $650,000. I lost track after Woody crossed $11 million in sales. Who wants to be the first person to tell Woody the sad news “radio doesn’t work?”

It’s the fact that radio does work that SiriusXM radio was born. It’s the fact that radio does work that we now see every Internet pureplay call their stream radio. Pandora Radio, Spotify Radio, Rdio, Radio Tunes, iTunes Radio, TuneIn Radio etc.

There are more FCC licensed broadcast radio stations on the air today than at any time since the birth of commercial radio in October 1920 with the sign-on of KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Even more amazing is that radio still reaches over 92% of persons 12-years of age and older every week in America.

Radio works just fine. The difference between using radio to get results and not, depends on the person who creates the message. The skilled writer who knows how to write persuasively and talk to the heart of the listener is worth their weight in gold.