Dear Radio Executive:

At the start of a new year it is helpful to look back on a year that can only be described as "interesting", "troubling", "revitalizing", "challenging", "competitive" and "misinformed". The misinformed part has more to do with the media reporting on the state of our industry.

I can't count the number of times this year I've been called by companies and managers searching for an answer to the curve balls that have been thrown our way this year. Invariably, what these companies - all of our companies - need is to get back in the box.

In radio's endless rush to embrace whatever is next, too many managers and/or companies have forgotten what they are and what they really do. The fashionable compulsion to break with our past has, bizarrely, come to mean the abandoning the true value radio once offered our clients and customers.

Don't feel like I'm singling you out. This is not just happening to the radio industry. An interesting example of how it's happening outside of our business would be Volkswagen of America, which has over the past few years lost the plot of its own brand story - efficient "people's" cars with minimalist interiors and mechanics. Expanding its offerings to a luxury sedan and an SUV, and filling its most basic models with plastic and padding, VW turned off its core constituency. Meanwhile, BMW rose to fill VW's abandoned niche with its Mini Cooper: simple, solid and small. So after four years of declining market share, what does VW do? It hires Mini Coopers Ad agency!

Doesn't matter what business we look at, it's as if companies can't fathom that the most powerful link they have with their customers is their products themselves. A car company says more to its customers with the placement of its cup holders than it does in any TV ad. A credit card company communicates to its users through the privileges it offers - not some silly online "Seinfeld" webisode.

Radio says more to its customers - both advertisers and listeners by paying attention to what it does best: delivering audience via entertaining audio broadcasts.

It's time for business (radio) to reverse this trend toward fragmentation due to consolidation and integrate its product, communications and marketing. This means identifying the one thing you do best and letting this core competency guide your decision making. Rather than get distracted with the swirl around the industry (satellite, MP3 players, Internet Radio), get re-focused.

Our next big thing should really be a new beginning - a chance to do what we do as an industry and do it incredibly well! Make it fun again.

Unfortunately, getting back in the box fills many managers at the senior levels of our companies with dread. Why? Because we've outsourced, even abandoned our core competencies. Our disconnection from the essence of our business is a sad side effect of the advancements of the media age. We've really lost the connection to both of our audiences - our advertisers and our listeners.

Companies or stations operating inside the box understand the value of this connection. More than any advertising campaign that touts the richness or originality of radio, it's our products (formats, personalities, the whole presentation, employees and users) who promote on our behalf. Remember word-of-mouth?

Most businesses are too confused about the value they actually offer to wrap their heads around the notion that everyone - customers, employees and even shareholders - is just looking for a way to join in an enterprise that someone cares about.

If you have even just a vague memory of what it is you and your company, your station - your business - actually do, this should come as a tremendous relief. Get back in the box. You may find it difficult to remember why you were trying to get out.

Your feedback is vital to our company's on-going success. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Dave Van Dyke

President