is here.

Also, Tara will be at the Media Circus! on Saturday. Will you?

Live and local is essential for radio. Live personalities, local bands, local news and information 24/7. One station in Seattle during the heydays of radio had dynamic personalities all day long because the PD said that the audience did not decide not to be entertained between 10AM and 2PM. Be funny and engaging! Also, that same station had one of the best reputations for news coverage even though they didn't have a news car and took almost everything over the phone with only TWO news people from 6AM to midnight. The station, for those who care, was KJR.

Radio is show business and the goal of show business is to engage an audience - preferably the largest audience possible. And this is done by investing in the LOCAL community. This will save radio, if, indeed it deserves to be saved.

I know you are passionate about radio and are trying to keep the discussion open. There's a conversation to be had in here somewhere but I doubt this is the right forum for it. The anonymous posters will always sully the conversation.

This site has now just lost all of its credibility....... Sad, sad, sad......

Tara Dublin has lost it. She has lost touch with reality. Just look at how much time she spends on twitter. It is insane!

You hit the nail on the head. Radio is a BUSINESS. TV is a BUSINESS. Bookstores are a BUSINESS. Restaurants are a BUSINESS. Movies are a BUSINESS. Which is why you have endless mind-numbing reality shows, a plethora of McDonald's, Transformers 2 and Barnes & Noble. Lots of people - the majority - LIKE them. You and your more educated, more discerning friends may not (neither do I) but in business it is almost always a numbers game, quantity over quality, commerical appeal versus artistic integrity. It has ALWAYS been thus. While I don't disagree with your passion for the industry you love (I share it), it is time to move on.

"If someone wants music, they can get music nearly anywhere, basically for free, and there is nothing the radio as an entity can do to change this...So what makes people turn on their radios, when they technically don’t need them? Or, asked in another way: how do you make radio the destination medium it once was? I can answer that with another question: What else is missing from Portland radio besides more Portland personalities? Oh, I don’t know…how about LOCAL MUSIC?" Wait I thought with all those neato new gadgets I no longer listen to radio for music, even local music?

Wow, another lesson in totally missing the point.

This was not about ME, this was about PORTLAND needing a great LOCALIZED radio station. We don't have one and we need one.

Debate that. Without getting personal. Can anyone do that?

You are an idiot and don't have a clue what you're talking about. The recent mass layoffs on Portland Airwaves had nothing to do with the quality or audience of those laid off. They were axed because of massive sweeping changes to adhere to a more stereotypical cookie-cutter format that the new ownership wanted.

Second, if you don't want to hear DJs or talk show hosts, why are you listening to the radio? I listen to radio because it's the only place I can hear a Rick Emerson or a Cort and Fatboy. Why in the hell would I turn on the radio to listen to music when I have iTunes with 240gb (that's about 58,000 songs) of music that I can play in any order at any time I like rather than chosen by someone else and interrupted with commercials?

The on-air talent is the only reason to bother tuning in and if your bag of cakes is listening to middle aged men pretending they're frat boys and talking about banging prostitutes and calling each other "bro-ski" every twelve seconds, then you're part of the destructive problem that is reducing all forms of... *everything* in this world to a soft bland paste.

As an objective observer and a former radio person I am amazed at how few of the responders got the point of Tara's post. I was in radio before I retired at a time when management invested in the local community - and had to in order to keep their licenses. I agree with Tara that things have changed in the broadcasting BUSINESS and not for the better.

Corporate investment in radio is about automating stations and going to the bottom line and not investing in the local community with content that is hard or difficult to find anyplace else like: strong, involved personalities that related to the local market and programming that meets the needs of the local community.

While its possible to get music nearly anywhere, there are still things that local radio can provide that can't be found anyplace else (news, information, and community involvement in the music and local culture. ). The perception that the radio station is part of the local community builds an audience and ratings.

It has always been a very simple formula for success, which I've seen used in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco time and time again: Relate to the people who buy your product!

Before corporations got involved broadcasters had to prove that they were serving the needs of the local community before their licenses were renewed. Now its just a cookie cutter arrangement with no real push to make management responsible for their choices. That may change if the FCC decides to tighten up on their renewal requirements - and I honestly hope they do.

Radio has always been a business, but its show business with the goal of building an audience. I don't think Tara is looking for a job, just a way to get management to be more responsible and responsive to the community they serve.

All for passion about local content, but blaming corporate radio is a bit out of line. Please give an example of a station that Tara is describing and let us know how they are financially successful.

None come to mind, but I would like to hear about such stations. If you are passionate, do a podcast and spread your talent and taste. It could be great.

If you would like to face reality, put all your ideas together, write a business plan and visit a banker or investor. Tell them you can make them money in radio...bring plenty of Kleenex.

The whole point of writing this was to air a plea for a localized radio station, on a frequency that will reach as many people in the Portland metro area as possible. I can't even get KBOO where I live. Anyone with the right equipment can make a podcast. I'm still an advocate for terrestrial radio and how vital it is at the local level and I always will be.

Allow me to clarify the local music thing. I'm not talking about playing your brother's band because he's a friend of the DJ's. I'm talking about great local bands who aren't represented on the local airwaves. Here's a few that don't "SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK": The Dimes, Derby, Stars of Track & Field, The Thermals, Blue Giant/Viva Voce, Blind Pilot, The Lonely Forest, Blitzen Trapper, Menomena....and that's just scraping the surface of the talent pool we have here.

I spent an entire day out and about in town today, and every person I talked with agreed that they would love a station that played Pacific NW bands on a regular basis.

Thanks to all the people who posted who actually got the point. Frankly, I don't care if people don't like me or didn't like my radio show. What I don't get is how people can be so apathetic and lazy and would just rather accept mediocrity than try to do something about it.

Well, instead of wasting time flaming strangers and complaining, I'm trying to do something about it. I don't want the medium to die out, and I want it to be the best it possibly can. I'm volunteering (read: not being paid) for KZME because I believe in what they're doing. Their signal may not reach as far as any of the stations Alpha owns, but no corporate spreadsheet is going to dictate how they run their (100% REAL live and local) radio.

There truly is no hiding it now; radio is in absolute decline as a popular medium. Right along side the antiquated Newspapers, radio suffers from a glaring problem, something that I have never heard addressed - User Interface and Expectations! Before I start that thought I would like to say that I am a DJ at KPSU, I have worked at KBOO, I am involved with several radio stations here in Portland and I have good friends in this traditional format. That said, there is something almost nostalgic about radio for me, something that beckons me to a simpler, less interactive time in the world of information.

This brings me to my main point, radio is an analog broadcasting tool which, due to the innovations of customization, will ultimately be laid at the feet of amateur broadcasters and government run emergency signals. I say this for reasons that I assume are obvious to everyone, you simply cannot achieve the same level of interface with your radio as you can with newer formats, the Internet and MP3 Players being examples. As the audience or consumers began to migrate more and more into the world of digital customization, radio began and ever-increasingly serves as a source for traditional viewing and a sense of nostalgia.

One of the reasons, Tara, why music dating back to the 1990's is still played on the radio is simply becuase of the acute association people have with the radio, its heyday or it's last hurrah, was during this time period. I again come back to expectations, a sense of nostalgia and tradition. People who listen to the radio, an ever decreasing number, want to hear the same Garbage and the same No Doubt that they were listenign to 15 years ago. There truly is nothing you can do to change this. New music and engaging talk is now accessible 24/7 on iTunes or through websites such as www.pdx.fm.

It is a shame to see people trying to hold onto this outmoded medium, it really is. Is there a deeply rooted collective need to be talked at instead of engaging your content in a way that allows you to address your needs? Also, new music and life stories should be part of the radio, but they should, for the issue of profit, be reruns of the Morning Zoo and Howard Stern. And yes, Nelson's career went downhill after he left that program, poor Nelson.

So if I say one thing I will say it like this, "Radio is doomed to become the bedfellow of aging tycoons, amateur broadcasters and the government's emergency response system." The airwaves will become silent except to the few who sit in their 2nd story adult son's room, who has left the nest, as they nurse a glass of Scotch and think to themselves, "Where has all laughter gone?"

I would love to see some discussion around this comment as I feel this is the glaring truth of a medium that only recently was accepted as being deathly ill.

Don't ya just love how people hide behind "anonymous"? Come on people! Grow some and stop hiding.

I've heard of and listened to every single one of those bands listed. Just because some people don't doesn't mean they're not well known, because most of them are. (Thermals, Blitzen Trapper and Menomena especially...Derby and The Dimes, not so much, though they are great bands.)

Some of us actually have good taste and seek out good music. Not our fault that so many of you are lemmings.

"Some of us actually have good taste and seek out good music. Not our fault that so many of you are lemmings."

LOL ELITISM

Elitism isn't going to win the radio war. I like Red Hot Chili Peppers, I like Shinedown, I like Metallica. Does that make me a less-important media consumer? Doesn't my opinion about radio and music count, too?

No one who matters gives a crap about local bands, because the cream always rises to the top, and most will wait for that. I have no need to gloat about liking Band X before Band X was cool.

Seriously, Tara, do a podcast, or put your all into KZME, or something. Portland radio is just fine without you and your self-righteous stance on obscure music.

From a business standpoint, the first principle of almost all businesses, or in this case most radio stations, is to make money. With that, you have to program accordingly, whether I like what's being programmed or not. It's purely a business decision.

I personally love the idea of more local flavor. But I’m skeptical that a station could make any money using a programming model which emphasized music that skews to a very limited audience, regardless if the company that owns it is local or based outside the region.

Unless it were funded by contributions from the public or a wealthy benefactor with no interest in the costs or both, I don’t see how it could work.

Altruism is nice, but you can't always pay the bills with it.

Tara's never ever airchecked herself. It's obvious. Every break is exactly the same. Every day, every "show", every time she opens the mic...no variation, no creativity, no originality, no personality. Trust me, I know firsthand, because I've yelled at my radio countless times for Hamilton to pull his head out of his ass so he can help her pull hers out. Here's Tara's signature break...and it sing-songs to a crescendo with "I'm Tara" EVERY TIME:

"94/7 with (insert artist) and (insert song); (read liner card); I'm Tara, coming up next (insert artist/song)."

That's it. Without fail.

Sure, we can all agree that we need to bring back live local radio, it's what every town needs...but if that's the case, let's bring back all the TALENTED, engaging, and creative displaced jocks.

Getting a lucky break because you're cute and being on the airwaves for however long for God knows what reason does not amount to entitlement. It's fun to play radio and have all the boys think you're neat, but it doesn't mean you deserve a job. Especially in Market #23!! You're lucky if you should be cracking the Top 200. Case in point, when you're good you don't have to tell everyone...why must we know that "up until earlier this year" you were the midday host at NRK? Should we also draw a correlation that NRK's numbers have increased significantly in the past two books?

Squawking like an injured goose because you've suffered the same fate as some truly great broadcasters is like William Hung being angry because he doesn't have a recording contract. Be thankful for what you had, now go take some classes and get your degree from Apollo College so you can be a medical assistant like your talent level warrants.

You cannot condemn the radio business for the fact that you and local music are not getting the exposure you feel is deserved. The corporate radio model is far from perfect, but great talent and content are still heard every day. If you fault the current state of radio, beat them with a podcast or another distribution channel. If you are truly talented and can uncover great music, you will win. If have have niether, you will get buried and will, hopefully, face reality.