And retrieving it

“…a wise person is made, not born. Wisdom depends on experience, and not just any experience. You need the time to get to know the people that you’re serving. You need permission to be allowed to improvise, try new things, occasionally to fail and to learn from your failures.”

“And you need to be mentored by wise teachers.”

Radio doesn’t lack smart people.

The guys running Cumulus and Clear Channel may be trapped by debt, and greedy when it comes to their own compensation, but they aren’t stupid.

What radio lacks right now is wise leadership at the station level. Well, radio stations in some markets may still have wise leaders but if the guys at the very top won’t let them use their wisdom and experience, we’re still hosed.

I’m remembering Mickey Luckoff who ran KGO for decades. Talk about excellence. I think KGO set a modern record for a Top 5 market with consecutive #1-rated books. And then Cumulus bought it.

Mickey didn’t suddenly become stupid, and in fact, eventually resigned in frustration at what was happening to the great station to which he had devoted all his energy and life. And KGO hasn’t been ranked #1 since.

If you have any power within your organization, if you won’t be fired for bringing in someone outside your group, someone who has the experience and wisdom to mentor your programmers and talent, do it.

Do it.

While you still can.