Long-time pseudo-controversial radio DJ Mo Twister is quick to quip "This is ratings' death." whenever a boring caller calls in his early morning show or his co-hosts are taking too long belaboring a point in conversation.
Well I'll tell him what's ratings' death. It's hiring people for radio based on their good looks rather than their DJ skills.
Not to single out his show or anything, but it would be fitting to start out by saying none of them in his show even know their music. I'm not even talking about some indie band's hidden track recorded in a garage off Oregon. They don't know half of the songs their callers request for.
So this brings me to the point: what's a radio DJ all about now? With the emergence of all the radio stations installing webcams in their booths for all of the internet to see via their websites, it appears priorities have shifted. With the newborn accessibility of watching videos anywhere (including live streaming ones), it appears radio, ironically, has to be more visually appealing now.
I've always been against this movement of parading the events inside a radio studio's booth. It takes away the mystery that only radio could (and should) give. Before all these streaming videos, the looks department didn't matter in radio, and DJ's were pretty much forced to know their craft and to deliver well. And deliver well they did. Remember Rick Dee's from the Weekly Top 40?
But I guess now, your stuttering and verbal crutches can be magically overlooked by your good looks and/or physique. No truer words have been said (and sung) before: video killed the radio star.
-Leo Rafael L. Quesada, Entry #13
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