The cliché, of course, is that we all turn into our parents at some point. Progressive Insurance has been using that old saw in its “Dr. Rick” commercials. It’s also true that no matter how hard you fight the evolution, it will, as Abe Simpson insisted, happen to you. But there’s also the contingent that fights the cultural aging process and just comes off as try-hards, being way too obvious about their pandering to youth culture (insert Steve Buscemi “How do you do, fellow kids?” meme here). Radio people are especially illustrative of both.
It’s really evident on Facebook and Instagram. Now, if you primarily use Facebook, you land on the old-fart end of the spectrum anyway, but Facebook is where old radio jocks and crusty talk show curmudgeons trash any music—really, any pop culture since hip-hop took over pop music—while others post pictures of their grinning selves standing next to Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter when the singers visit the studio.
I guarantee that every mid-market radio jock who got a snapshot with Tay-Tay posted it to social media, because nothing says “with it” and “I’m a big shot in this industry” like a photo of yourself grinning broadly while Ms. Swift manages a tortured smile while looking into the distance for her escape route. It will be a highlight of your career and your life, and that’s okay.
She, on the other hand, will not remember that moment—not ever. Promotional tours feel like the Bataan Death March to celebrities.
All of that is to say that if you find yourself posting dismissive comments about current pop culture icons, you’re telegraphing to your audience that your on-air enthusiasm is phony—that you really don’t like what you’re doing for a living, that pop music died in the ’80s, and that there hasn’t been a good album by anyone since David Lee Roth still fronted Van Halen.
It’s a “kids these days” attitude, and you don’t want to show that to the public, even if that’s what you really think—especially when a pop culture story shows up in the news and you have to address it. You’re disconnecting the link between yourself and the listeners when you tell them, in effect, to get off your lawn.
The last few weeks have seen a lot of this. I saw Facebook and Xitter comments from a lot of radio people bemoaning the appointment of Bad Bunny as this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. It mostly came from conservatives livid that Mr. Bunny sings in Spanish and refused to tour the mainland U.S. because of ICE’s heavy-handed tactics targeting anyone with brown skin. That he’s American, and that Puerto Rico is an American territory, seems to have slipped past them, and the comments just made old radio heads look even older and more out of touch—almost as out of touch as Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting that the NFL should have asked Lee Greenwood to perform.
Never mind that Greenwood hasn’t had a hit since “God Bless the USA” rode the post-9/11 national mood to the top 20, and that most non-country fans probably can’t name another of his songs.
But no halftime show will satisfy everyone, and unless we get a wardrobe malfunction or a spectacular performance in a driving rainstorm, it will be forgotten in due order no matter how great Bad Bunny does (and I’m betting he does just fine). You can always watch whatever red, white, and blue nightmare Turning Point USA will be counterprogramming against the game broadcast. Maybe there’ll be another Puppy Bowl. Maybe you’ll take a break and hit the bathroom and the stash of snacks. (Separately.)
But please, please, PLEASE stop trashing the new and extolling the way things used to be. Some things were better; some were not. Some of the music you prefer is 60 or more years old. If that’s what you think radio should be all about rather than reggaeton, you’re just cementing radio as a bunch of old guys pushing the same old tracks down everyone’s throat.
You’re no longer young and well-informed about the culture, but it doesn’t seem like a good strategy to announce that fact when you’re desperately trying to reach listeners under 50 years old. Let the past be the past.
And maybe you should learn Spanish before the game. It might come in handy sometimes.
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Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.