ProductionNinja.com

(I’ll give one of my five remaining Early Spin Slot Machines to the first person who can tell me where I got that title from… you’re on the honor system, but no googling)

While I’m on the subject of a local radio giant like Wally Phillps, I think this also gives a pretty decent opportunity to respond what David said earlier this week about the XM/Sirius merger.

For David I think it’s easy to say that satellite radio will take off… David has lived his entire life in the southeast, and quite literally the closet they get to a “local media giant” is probably Jamie Cooper. So it should come as no surprise that he wouldn’t quite understand the impact that a successful local personality can have on a community.

Sure the internet and satellite radio have taken their toll on stations across the country, but if you look at the stations that are still doing well… places like WGN, WTMJ, KMOX, WLW, WTAM and others, they all have something in common: strong local hosts. No one is quite like WGN, whose only syndicated show is The Twilight Zone… but rather than leaning on syndicated hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity or Boortz, they make their living on hosts like Mark Reardon, Willie Cunningham and Bob Frantz. Those stations won’t be effected at all by satellite or the internets… as a matter of fact, lately they’ve been embracing it more and more.

The stations that would be hurt by new media and satellite radio are the… well, let’s call them “McRadio” stations. In other words, the stations that have little or no local content to offer listeners. I think people will always prefer shows that they can feel like they are a part of. That’s something that a place like WBHP simply can’t claim offer, and if you’re in a market with a station like that, I’d expect you to look into XM… if you’re in Chicago, Cleveland or another market that has a history to it and still takes some pride in what they put on the air, they won’t feel all that many ill effects, as long as they are smart in the way they use the web.