Isn’t that what we’re selling?

Guess you saw Jack Diamond is out in DC after 25 years. He made a lot of money for his station, and he made a lot for himself. That’s the way it works.

Oops…that’s the way it worked.

Jack was replaced by his former producer, Bert, a successful talent now in his own right, based in Atlanta. Bert’s show will be “piped” into DC, as if listeners in DC won’t notice or care.

Perhaps they won’t. But it’s hard not to be cynical about this move. If Bert was that wonderful, why not make the change years ago? Smells like a money-saver to me.

It’s not that Bert is bad; he’s not. He’s proven that. This isn’t about Bert. It’s about funding and promoting creative artists.

There’s a huge difference between buying a numbered copy of an original work and buying     the original work itself. It’s a completely different value proposition.

If I want art, something unique, that no one else has, and I live in DC, Cumulus just removed one of my choices.

And, in my view, it is only through work by creative artists — selling originals — that radio has a chance of winning big in the coming decades, as it always has won big.

Radio has always found the originals, the people who see the world like no one else but can put that into words we all relate to as if spoken to us individually.

 If every major market becomes a paint-by-number canvas, not because listeners say that’s what they prefer, but because owners are intent on slashing expense, how can we claim to be serving our local communities? How can we increase radio’s slice of the advertising pie? How can we claim to be building a vibrant business for the future?

Boy, am I naive, or what?