Countless times I’m given different names because those within the circle still haven’t seen my true purpose. And yet Marcus Aurelius said, “Without a purpose nothing should be done.”
Myles Monroe believed there is something for you to start that is destined for you to finish.
John Mason writes in his book Believe You Can, “Many people know what they are running from but not what they’re running to.”
From the book of Proverbs: Whatever your plan is, you know that nothing else will satisfy you.
As a writer, reporter, radio talker…I could go on forever. No matter what book you read there’s always a package of seeds. Books are designed to call out to readers; readers in return entertain their resting self without realizing a truer purpose was shared by way of the writing instrument.
If someone told me thirty two years ago that I’d be one day be writing, producing and voicing radio and television commercials presented in boxes all over the world I would’ve chased a college education in search of a different destination. Then one night in the center of a child’s dream dressed up in adult clothes it occurred to me how badly produced commercials are. I claimed to be a fan of broadcasting only to locate my ears racing away from its playing field.
Music critics have shared countless times that 1970’s Disco was born when record producers took over the industry. Left behind were the writers, guitar strokes and folks that woke up in the middle of the night humming notes that were instantly taped to the recorder sitting next to the bed. It didn’t matter what fell from the tips of your fingers and corners of your lips…to make it big in music you needed a producer that was designed to create beats and rhythms that inspired couples to dance.
Radio is no different. Before the Dick Clark influenced payola scandal that crushed radio legend Alan Freed; the Pied Pipers of Rock n Roll crafted their daily performances on stages that drew listeners to their core source of energy. The moment radio station GM’s and Programmers learned the United States government would fine them heavily for accepting money to play music the first step toward making radio a success was to shut down the imagination of the microphone addicted talent that was born to teach your imagination to take mental vacations without spinning out of town.
Liner cards, music formats, micro-managing not video killed the radio star.
Kurt Anthony, Alan Moss and Major Dan Miller at KOOK in Billings, Montana shook me like a California earthquake. Their decisions to take sound and break ground fueled a generation to believe that it couldn’t live a second without those two speakers on the kitchen counter, next to the bed or in the front seat of your car.
Then one night in the center of a child’s dream dressed up in adult clothes it occurred to me how badly produced commercials are. Rather than waste my dream on constantly telling and not sharing with listeners that this is the greatest four in a row mix of music they’ll hear this side of Kansas…the door opened to a different side of the business where creative flow was accepted; the only stick in the mud were sales people that didn’t understand your purpose.
Fred Story, Jon Causby and Charles Holloman replaced Miller, Moss and Anthony. Being on the air to do nothing but rip and read was for interns. The true creative radio flow is in the commercials.
Today, through modern methods of radio gaga imperfectly methodized by computer geeks that work for Clear Channel I’m offered the opportunity to communicate with producers and writers from all over the country every moment offered in a single twenty four hour period. If listeners could touch the mindsets of those behind the scenes they’d realize that not every station sounds the same. The passion to listen might in fact return if the given purpose was given the opportunity to be believed in.
But radio doesn’t work that way. Like Disco, the controlling interest doesn’t rest on the laurels of the artist but instead the moneymaker. 80% of what interrupts your favorite song has been written and voiced by someone that’s never done a day of radio or television. Someone has failed to tell them that inexperience is reason number one why Cable TV DVR’s have four speeds on fast forward. Radio has six buttons and search.
Ouch!
Then one night in the center of a child’s dream dressed up in adult clothes it occurred to me how badly produced commercials are. It’s become my dream to be the nation’s first on-air radio talent that will perform open heart surgery on a patient without having to get an education first.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
The only way to create better radio commercials is to locate the future first. I’ve yet to say no to a broadcasting school, college drama class, high school message center or a medical student named Austin from CPCC who wasn’t bit by the radio bug until after he stepped into a giant pile of my purpose.
Oprah couldn’t have been more correct when she shared the secret…life isn’t about success until you understand the people you are connecting. Through radio commercials I see two people: a listener that wants to better their life and a store that sells the items that will make the listeners life better. Every breath I take is locating the right words, music and seconds offered to get people on the right path. When radio commercials work lives change.
That’s my purpose…what’s yours?
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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