It’s a start…

It doesn’t really matter what you and I think of Pandora or Spotify or IHEARTRADIO. Our opinions won’t change their balance sheets.

I’m on record as saying Clear Channel has too much debt to lead our industry forward. They’re too busy chopping people every quarter to have time for innovation.

So I wasn’t surprised when I found out about Radio Search Engine.

It starts in your local market, but will search for the artist or song you request on broadcast radio stations around the country, even around the world.

That’s significant because as broadcast radio tries to figure out how to thrive in the digital age, giving away in a commercial-free stream what is cluttered with far too many spots on the air is certainly NOT the answer.

Neither is conceding that Pandora or Spotify are superior merely because they don’t rely on 15 minutes of spots every hour.

I know. This is still streamed, and radio stations still have to figure out a way to make that profitable.

But, it places a value on broadcast radio, on human interaction between air personality and listener, that the passive algorithm muzaks of the 21st century do not.

And that’s a start.