** INsight!** Dr. Robert Balon on talk radio and the ballot box.

There’s Nothing Wrong with Conservative Talk
By Dr. Robert E. Balon

There was quite a bit of hue and cry last week when our recent poll on the relationship between talk show hosts and voting behavior was released to the press. To summarize, we reported that 84% of respondents from our national sample of news and talk listeners stated that talk hosts did not directly influence their votes during the recent primaries.

Soon after that, some were saying that the fact that John McCain won in the Florida primary in spite of the exhortations of many conservative hosts was an indication that conservative talk radio was loosing its clout. But that’s not really what our research said at all.

Conservative talk radio has never been stronger or more poised for a significant contribution to the national political dialog. What we tried to point out was that that the “bully pulpit” that some hosts feel they have with regard to influencing a vote has never really existed.

People come to talk radio for a variety of reasons: for entertainment, information, confirmation. The fact that most felt that talk hosts don’t directly influence their vote was not a repudiation of any talent on the conservative or liberal side; rather, it was a reflection of just how complex and ego-involved attitudes about voting are. The message here is really quite simple: talk hosts should think about entertaining and informing their audiences, not about exhorting them toward certain political behaviors.

I restate: there’s nothing wrong with conservative talk radio or its audiences. And in the long run, ratings matter much more and are the only arbiter of success. Heavy-handed attempts to influence a victory or defeat are almost always unproductive and as listeners told us, tedious.


--Dr. Robert E. Balon is CEO of Austin-based The Benchmark Company. He can be reached at bmark@flash.net.

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** INsight!** Jeff Haley, CEO of the RAB

A Case for Optimism
By Jeff Haley

As the RAB commences its annual conference in Atlanta this week, I thought it important to reflect on what I believe to be the foundation for success in our business and why I am confident that the best days for radio lie ahead.

For me, two clear and simple facts stand out as guiding principles for all media, but especially radio. These are the central tenets of what we do.

First, radio operates in the public trust. A basis of all democracies is the belief that some things exist for the benefit of all. The airways we broadcast through, and the first amendment rights we exercise daily, are the cornerstones of our business. Our use of those airways is a privilege and a responsibility. Radio succeeds exceedingly well every single day in meeting this responsibility. Radio responds and serves its communities quickly, efficiently, effectively and passionately in times of crisis and joy. Together, we all share in this privilege and shoulder this responsibility, and we should understand and remember the nearly 100 year history of radio and its amazing success in doing so. We serve our listeners and all our constituencies by pursuing profit, but at the same time we act in the fulfillment of our public trust.

Second, radio is a service business. We create no tangible assets. Our capital expenditures are a proudly thin part of our infrastructure. Like any service business our assets are our people. In addition to our responsibility to serve the public trust, we have an equivalent responsibility to serve our customers. Our collective action in serving those customers determines our success and our reputation. The beauty of the service business is that there our no outside limits on how we provide that service, or the degree of effort we put forth in doing so, the potential scope of our success is truly infinite. There are as many ways to affect performance and reputation as there are people in radio. We are the product. Advertisers buy audience and, together, we develop measures that hold us accountable, but what drives those measures and what meets the grade is, in the final analysis, all up to us. We can shape and change our product to meet the needs of our customers and our listeners, or not. It is simply up to us.

Remembering and concentrating on the core focus of our mission, the operation of service businesses in the public trust, is for me a source of great optimism. We serve a public function that is greater than profit alone, and our success and reputation is based solely on the collective output of individual efforts. Radio is not simply a collection of hard assets like land or buildings. If our success is defined by our individual efforts and the scope and degree of that success is up to us, our efforts, our talent and our leadership; I am compelled to be optimistic. I believe that positive attitudes change everything. My response to difficulty is rooted in the strength that comes from an optimistic outlook. This is not naiveté. I do not reject or ignore the pessimistic viewpoint. I do, however, choose to respond to adversity through a positive viewpoint, because I believe doing so creates the power to change things for the better. I propose that our response to those who doubt the great future of radio is to send a bold signal of our success. Let’s embrace digital technology fully. Let’s fight back against the misperceptions about radio that are perpetrated everyday. Let’s declare our leadership in audio entertainment.

Let’s be passionate and enthusiastic. Let’s believe.



-- Jeff Haley is president and CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau. The views expressed are his own. He can be contacted at jhaley@rab.com

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