No more calls!

In 1967 there was an announcers’ strike at ABC radio. My father was an account executive at KABC in Los Angeles, a talk station. Since management had to fill the air slots my dad got assigned the 6-9 pm shift. Thus “On the line with Cliff Levine” was born.

Back in those days talk show hosts didn’t have guests. They opened the phone lines and would field a steady stream of calls all day long. Just getting through to go on the air was a big accomplishment. The phone banks were always lit up. Dad couldn’t believe that so many strangers cared about his opinions. Who was he? he wondered.  I said, “You’re a person on THE RADIO.”

A recent study has revealed that very few people call radio stations today… for any reason.

Top 40 stations always had multiple request lines and many had interns answering the phones. Listeners were invited to call in requests. But today listeners are savvy to the fact that hardly any shows are live. They’re either syndicated (do you really think Ryan Seacrest is there in Kalamazoo?) or automated with voice tracks. Plus, who needs to request music these days? You have every song you want at your fingertips with Spotify or your personal playlists or any other online music streaming service. You’re going to call a radio station, make a request, and sit for an hour hoping you’ll hear your song? Even the nimrod who thinks Ryan Seacrest does broadcast every morning from Kalamazoo knows that’s stupid.

And folks aren’t calling talk radio hosts as much either. I can tell you this firsthand. When I would fill in at KABC a few years ago, it was usually the evening shift. I would follow Mark Levin, who is this obnoxious right-wing crackpot who sounds like Gilbert Gottfried but louder and more shrill. (How ANYONE ever let this guy in front of a microphone I will never know.) When I got on the air at 7:00 pm the phones were dead. And they would stay dead for at least a half an hour. I could have Jesus Christ as my guest in the studio and no one would call. Why? NO ONE WAS LISTENING.

Gone are the days when the host would just give out the numbers, say “what’s on your mind?” and the phone bank would light up like a Christmas tree. Now you often have to beg for calls. Many talk show hosts are not even taking calls anymore. They’re filling their show with guests.

It’s not as bad on sports talk radio. Those hosts, especially if they’re abrasive still get a fair amount of calls. Forget the state of the world, what are the Lakers going to do at power forward?

But even then – I hosted Dodger Talk for years and took listener calls after games. If the team was  losing I got a bunch of calls. But if they were playing well I often got zilch. And among the callers I did receive, at least half were regulars who called every night with the same nonsense.

None of this is surprising to me. Once upon a time the radio was the only way you could express your opinion to a wide audience. Now you have social media. Now you have Twitter and Facebook and any Cliff Clavin (or president) can broadcast his idiotic ill-informed opinions to the world. And unlike radio, there’s no screener. Or waiting time. Who needs radio?

And that’s the problem. Who needs radio indeed? The industry keeps putting out these studies that show that radio is stronger than ever. But anyone with a brain or ears knows that’s bullshit. Nero is just playing his fiddle. The lack of calls is just one sign. People are fleeing to their devices, internet stations, satellite radio, or just not bothering.

And instead of reacting to that and taking steps to stem the tide – like feature more local programming, spend money and hire personalities, not run 30 minutes of commercials an hour, not load up weekend programming with infomercials like “colon blow” – they’re clinging to these bogus surveys. And someday, maybe soon, their phones will stop ringing permanently.