THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

We've all heard the old line - be careful that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train bearing down on you. Sometimes the very thing you think is coming to the rescue is what do

Does HD Radio have the potential to be that sort of locomotive, bearing down on a desperate medium that so needs a knight in shining armor? I fear it does, but it doesn't have to.

HD Radio gives us the technology to keep up, audio-wise, with digital satellite radio. It gives us a cutting edge technology on par, potentially, with HD TV. It opens the door for us to add multiple side channels, to give the listener more options and give our companies more outlets to monetize.

But it's a technology no one is asking for. There's no listener demand. In a world of IPods, digital satellite radio, social networking, the Internet, hundreds of digital television channels and so on and so forth, no one is complaining there aren't enough radio stations.

No, as our listening declines both in time spent listening and raw numbers of listeners, the driving complaint has been that we've become boring and irrelevant. We've allowed our brands to become commodities - merely the rock station, or the top 40 station, or the at-work station, or the country station (so on and so forth) in a given market; pretty much the same as all the other rock stations, or top 40 stations, or at-work stations, or country stations. We've homogenized our stations and playlists, defanged our personalities, and become so adept at imitating one another that we all use the same positioning statements, promotions, ad campaigns, features and, increasingly, even the same morning shows (Hello, Bob & Tom, or John Boy, or Mark & Brian, or Howard!)

Meanwhile, we've cut our manpower. Our Program Directors are overseeing multiple stations and doing airshifts, with no time or creative juice left to devote to their most important task, the long-term strategic planning and brand-management that makes great radio stations. They're too tied up doing their own airshifts and handling day-to-day tactical duties like scheduling music and executing the current on-air promotions to do the stuff that will really make their stations unique and compelling.

Our airstaffs are voicetracking shows on multiple stations in multiple markets or, worse yet, in the same market. Hard to have any credibility with your listener when you're on another station in town playing other music with just as much "passion" as you show on their favorite station. Impossible to be the face of one radio station at the same time you're on two others in the same metro. And show prep is out the window when you're doing that many shows. Just stick to the liners.

If HD Radio means these same strapped programmers are going to be charged with even more formats to oversee, and if these same worn-out disc jockeys (dont' even pretend their personalities at this point) have yet another show to do each day, do you really think we're going to be putting on new stations that anyone will want to hear?

If we're going to limit the creative, strategic process to a board meeting (death by committee) where we make sure we're doing the same variations that all the other stations are doing - the deep cuts format, the continuous morning show loop, etc. - well, who cares?

Hey, if we free up our best people to give us their best. If we arm them with realistic budgets and talented teams, if we quit smothering the passion with endless committees committed to playing it safe (nothing's more dangerous than playing it safe) we could start creating fresh, compelling radio again - thinks like Gordon McClendon & Todd Storz's top 40 format, Tom Donaghue's progressive rock, Bill Drake's Boss Radio, or Lee Abrams' Superstars stations. We could develop the next generation of Howard Sterns and Rick Dees' and Greasemans. We could quit being interchangeable commodities and build great brands, like the old WABC, WMMR, WLS, KFOG, WBCN, Q105 or WCMS of yesterday. And, if we can do that on the FM dial, we can do it on our respective HD channels as well.

We can create titillating radio and passionate followings, and play to our strengths. Then the superior sound quality and multiple frequencies of HD Radio can really be the light at the end of the tunnel. But if we're going to pretend like the technological breakthrough alone is the savoir, and we're going to let it even further strap our already overworked programming and marketing talent, then it's not a locomotive headed our way, it's a bullet train at top speed!