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This story doesn’t need words.

40 years ago creative people had limited access to display their creations to a mass audience.

Radio, by virtue of its ubiquity, and relative affordability, was one of those outlets.

If you were young, and creatively talented, you didn’t need to persuade a publisher to print thousands of copies of your thoughts (which might not sell), or a TV network to spend millions to produce a pilot; you could get a late night, or over-night shift on the local radio station and see what happened, while also honing your act.

Now, though, creativity has no such boundaries between the mass audience and the idea, and while 99% of what’s produced isn’t worth your attention, the 1% remaining is fabulous!

There’s no question that the most gifted young talents today choose video, whether short films like this one, or games as the outlets for their creativity.

It’s still entertainment. It’s still story-telling.

Tell me this doesn’t move you, without one word of dialogue.

(If this video loads slowly, click HERE)

I really believe that Radio has to find a way to attract some of this new, young talent, to offer it our stage, our station’s web sites, and the attention we already get from millions of ears in our towns.

And I just don’t see any radio company doing that now.

Why can’t this be as valuable to your radio group as a morning show, or an afternoon talent? Why can’t this be as valuable to your digital team as a person creating banner adds for your on-air clients?

Why are we still thinking of “radio” as only “talk” or only “music” — as only audio?

The devices our listeners can’t live without are all capable of playing this video.

We want entertainment. We crave emotional connection, shared experience, to know that someone out there feels as we do.

And if radio continues to self-limit by only offering audio in a world where everyone is accustomed to audio and video, we’ll soon be obsolete.

If we rest our future on syndicating Rush Limbaugh and Ryan Seacrest, if we expect to grow by spending less and less on creative, young talent, I think our best days are behind us.

And that’s a bit sad, because it’s not inevitable. It’s a choice.