Always be consistent.

Always be consistent.

I was drafted and went to Korea where I had an opportunity to create a production team that did dramatic and comedy shows. I had also done a little disc jockeying.

I started radio in 1950 on the Lone Ranger radio program, a dramatic show that emanated from Detroit when I was 18 years old and just beginning college. I did that for a couple of years.

Songs used to be short, then they became longer, and now they’re getting shorter. But otherwise, music is about a beat and a message. If the beat gets to the audience, and the message touches them, you’ve got a hit.

For the most part, that message hasn’t changed a lot over the years – love is still love, and heartbreak is still heartbreak.

For years everyone looked toward the demise of radio when television came along. Before that, they thought talking movies might eliminate radio as well. But radio just keeps getting stronger.

I’d like to feel that an advertiser gets something extra when they advertise with us – a certain humanity that comes from upbeat and positive human interest letters and success stories.

The first syndicating I tried was when two partners and I created a production company in 1952. We wanted to syndicate famous Bible stories and sell them for $25 a show.

We gave the show away and in return, we received a certain number of minutes per hour for the three-hour show that we could sell to Madison Avenue. One of the first sponsors was MGM Records.

I like the storytelling and reading the letters, the long-distance dedications. Anytime in radio that you can reach somebody on an emotional level, you’re really connecting.

Basically, radio hasn’t changed over the years. Despite all the technical improvements, it still boils down to a man or a woman and a microphone, playing music, sharing stories, talking about issues – communicating with an audience.

It’s been amazing, the number of commercials that I’ve done, starting back in 1968. It must be 8,000.