It seemed like just another day. True, a war had broken out, a strike ended a two-month walkout in the entertainment industry, and the drummer of one of the most popular rock groups on the planet suffered a sad, untimely death.
The date was September 25, 1980, the war was started by a surprise attack by Iraq against Iran, and the drummer was Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham who died from an overdose of vodka after a day of heavy drinking. Zeppelin was about to embark on the North American leg of their tour, starting with a show in Montreal just days after Bonham’s death.
The tour, of course, was cancelled. And one of the best hard rock bands of all time called it quits in December, unable to continue with the heartbeat of their band. In a statement, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin explained their decision this way:
“We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”
When the news broke, every rock station worth its salt began tributes to Bonham, taking calls, and playing wall-to-wall Zeppelin. The tour had been a much anticipated one in the U.S., and there was much sadness in the world of rock n’ roll.
Fast-forward more than four decades, and history has a way of repeating itself. Over the weekend, we all heard the sad announcement that Foo Fighters’ dynamic drummer, Taylor Hawkins,
passed away in a hotel in Col0mbia. The band was performing at the South American version of the Lollapalooza festival. It is unknown at this time whether the band will resume touring this year.
This is an incredibly sad moment for rock fans everywhere, but especially Foo Fighters’ front man, Dave Grohl. He suffered the loss of Kurt Cobain coming up on 30 years ago. At the time, Nirvana was at the height of their powers, and Grohl was the band’s drummer.
Tributes poured in from all quarters, including from 11 year-old prodigy, Nandi Bushell, who has had quality time with the Foo Fighters, especially fellow drummers Grohl and Hawkins.
Bonham passed away on a Thursday. In 1980, rock radio had everything in place to pull off great tributes. But as has been the pattern these past few years, Hawkins’ death was announced late Friday evening. As I have blogged several times over these past few years, this is an especially inconvenient time for many American radio stations, most of which are voicetracking over the weekend.
I had promised myself and some of you that I wouldn’t write another of these posts about radio looking and sounding bad as a result of being caught by surprise on a Friday night. The good news is that an analysis reveals most stations did something not long after Hawkins’ death was announced. Most stopped the automation to program in some Foo Fighters songs. On Twitter, I saw a good number said they replaced voicetrackss to sound timely and relevant.
My alma mater here in Detroit – WRIF – stepped up with new content to meet the moment. On Saturday, their staff rock maven, Steve Black, came in to produce a one-hour tribute. But there was this tweet posted Friday night that got my attention:
Kudos to @101wrif for being the only station right now playing @foofighters! This is what the people want when they turn the radio on! #RIPTaylorHawkins pic.twitter.com/CA2PRZKNCN
— Roxanne Steele (@RoxanneSteele) March 26, 2022
WRIF wasn’t alone. KLOS, WMMR, and other 50-year rock radio institutions in major markets intuitively know what must be done during these moments. They’ve done it time and time again. It’s their legacy, and they know how much it means to their communities.
But what about at stations where the PD is essentially the only full-time staffer? Check out this Facebook video below from Bryan Shock, PD (and pretty much everything else at) WYBB/98Rock in Charleston, South Carolina.
I also heard from my friend John Lassman a radio veteran who’s been working in rock radio for 4+ decades. He’s now the PD/morning man at Rock 101 in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Here’s his story:
“Here’s what happened to me at 4:30am Saturday. I spent 15 hours, live on air, playing wall to wall Foo Fighters, taking calls and running news updates as they happened.”
Not many small market stations did that Friday night. By Saturday morning, Twitter was lit up with stories from rock and alternative stations that honored Hawkins. It was gratifying to see. But in the hundreds of tweets that bounced through my feed Friday night and all day Saturday, I heard from occasional radio folks who pushed back at the notion of going the extra mile on this dark day in rock and roll.
I got the message loud and clear from @CashOnAir responding directly to one of my tweets about the radio’s responsibilities in times like these:
So, you expect employees who are already overworked and underpaid to drop everything they’re doing on their day off to commute back to the studio to lay down new VTs?
— Cash (@CashOnAir) March 27, 2022
I don’t know “Cash,” we don’t follow each other, and this is not about me calling him or her out in this blog. The last thing I want to do is have a Chris Rock/Will Smith moment here.
And I know there are many disgruntled, unhappy, overworked and underpaid radio pros out there. As “Cash” points out, the station experience can be dispiriting and disheartening.
But whether the compensation, benefits, and conditions are adequate are competitive or even fair is not the question. It is about the responsibility of the job. But don’t take it from me. Here’s John Lassman again:
“It’s what we do. Not often, but if there is an event that directly related to our format, and you as the air talent will sound like an out of touch idiot if you don’t, then I would think you’d want to save credibility, and do it.”
But in “Cash’s” defense, systems must be in place to make it clear who’s responsible the next time there’s an untimely death, weather disaster, or another local market emergency. Radio stations need a plan rather than hoping someone will step into the breach and find a way to get it done.
To “Cash’s” question, I responded a simple “yes.”
It’s what you do.
Our friends at Benztown have a special available an Audio Tribute to Taylor Hawkins, produced by Mike Lindsay, written by Bill Royal, and voiced by Greg Simms. Thanks to RAMP for the heads-up.
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Well said Fred…and Rest In Peace Taylor.
Appreciate it, Matt.
Cash is obviously unhappy at his current station, and needs to look for another station, or career for that matter.
But kudos to you, Fred, for somehow finding a way to infuse Will Smith in the post! 😉
I think Will Smith will find his way into every post this week! As for Cash, I genuinely feel bad he feels this way. But like all of us, he has a choice about whether or not he wants to stay in radio.
Great point and well said Fred.
It’s tough. I’ve been out of commercial radio for about 2 1/2 years now, but when I was, I always shared that philosophy of “It’s what we do.” I don’t think that any of us got into radio because we wanted to make millions. We did it because we love it. We got the “bug” and we do everything we can to make the station better. I’m now in public radio and we have community volunteers to help cover evenings and weekends who believe in the mission that you don’t have in the private sector, but even in my current role, I help produce a local music show, because I thought it was programming that we needed on the air. I’m in Development for the station. I’m certainly not expected to “develop” a local music show, I’m expected to raise money, but “it’s just what we do” when we love radio and want to give more to our audience.
As I said at the start. It’s tough. I certainly feel for my commercial radio brethren who are doing one live air shift and then voice tracking for another 2 or 3 stations in the cluster, and in many cases, aren’t getting paid any more.
But if we want the industry not only to survive, but to grow and continue to be relevant, we have to figure out a way to be there when the listeners need us most.
I wish I had the answer of how to best do that.
Don, I appreciate your considered response. You might want to check out Tammie Toren’s comment for an even better hands-on perspective than I was able to give. There’s no easy answer to this one. Thanks for chiming in.
Fred, this one really got me. I had to go do a shift and come back before I responded, because somehow, this upset me, but I think I worked it out in my head. It a bit insulting to me and countless others, in a sideways manner. Please let me explain.
First, you’re right. I want you to know that going in. The answer is yes.
However, I think we need to rethink the question, or maybe go back to when it was asked, THE VERY FIRST TIME, somewhere in the 1920’s. Since consolidation hit us in the late 90’s then hit it’s stride in the early 2k this is a constant heavy burden being put on PD’s from people who think they can CHANGE how radio operates on a daily basis, and get the same results as before the change.
The people who sit behind desks and not boards, find it easy to say, “Yes, blow up your programming and re-do every shift”. It’s easy for them to do it, as they haven’t worked today’s radio, in a practical, day to day manner, for a good 10+ years. The typical small market station is considered lucky to have 2 local shows on it. And it’s absolutely zany if both of those shows are live. The rest are usually vt’d, and more than not, vt’d by someone in the company out of market. So, we run in, redo the weekend logs, import them, and…. have to pull most vt’s because you can’t get a response from your talent. Or, we could just voice the whole entire weekend, because, THAT, sir, is modern radio. You get what you pay for. Not too many jocks who get $20 for doing a 6 hour shift are going to interrupt their probably ONE day off to re-do a weekend shift.
This isn’t like 25 years ago when an artist died. The PD could run in for an hour, pull the list from that artist, and come up with a weekend rotation for the death, with a NOTE IN THE CONTROL ROOM.
As for the listeners EXPECTING this kind of thing from us. They’d LIKE it, but the days when they trusted us to be first out of the gate are long gone, and its. all. our. fault.
It would be AMAZING if there were a map of accountability, but we know that always points straight to the PD. I’m not complaining, just stating a fact. The PD needs resources. By resources, I mean other jocks. I’m not talking about pay or being overworked. I’m talking about a business that is changing DAILY with the same expectations as when it first started over 100 years ago.
As always, thank you for such a thought-provoking article. And thank you for listening with an open mind.
Tammie, I was hoping to hear from you today, and you didn’t let me down.
That description you gave: The people who sit behind desks and not boards, find it easy to say, “Yes, blow up your programming and re-do every shift”. It’s easy for them to do it, as they haven’t worked today’s radio, in a practical, day to day manner, for a good 10+ years.
Guilty as charged.
And I know that “Cash” was speaking for a lot of you – wearing too many hats, barely staying above the surface, and then something like THIS happens.
Problem is, it keeps happening. It is not the fault of the programmers or the on-air staff. Management has come to expect it will somehow all get done (and it does). And they may not even think it makes a whole lot of differennce whether you acknowledge Taylor Hawkins’ death Friday night, Sunday afternoon, or Monday morning.
And you may also be right that many listeners – or better yet, consumers (because they may have stopped listening) have given up on us. And for good reason.
So, if I upset you, and “Cash,” and others doing your damndest to keep radio afloat, I apologize. I was right, but also wrong. Thanks for all you and your colleagues do.
Thanks, Fred. It wasn’t really YOU that was upsetting. It was that this conversation is still here. We’ve said what it takes thousands of times.
I agree with you. I just think that the time has come to sit down and work this out in a practical matter.
I appreciate the frustration. It comes down to being able to simply execute when it matters, but of course it’s never that simple.
In many jobs these days you are asked to do a lot more for the same dollar and that is especially true in radio so I can understand the attitude to balk at taking on added work.
It is management’s job to make sure employees feel a stake in the organization and show appreciation for their efforts so ultimately I would blame them for the attitude of “it’s not my job”.
“If a soul is left in the darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.” – Victor Hugo
But as a professional, if your attitude is such that you will stand by and let the trains collide because of bitterness, you have to reconsider why you are working in that job. If that is the way you feel, it is your fault if you stay. I’m sure Mr. Lassman did what he did as much or more for himself as he did for his employer or the money. He probably felt that as a professional who serves his community of license, it is something he should do. The fact that he did it probably also speaks to the fact that his management will recognize his efforts and applaud them.
“There are two things that people want more than sex and money — recognition and praise.” – Mark Kay Ash
Having the moral high ground is a powerful position. I’ve learned that sometimes, that may the only ground you are standing on but that is better than being bitter.
I agree with you, Mike, that if conditions become untenable, the frustrated among us should walk, rather than “let the trains collide.” Lassman, Shock, and many others were trained to do these things. And as you suggest, their personal pride is on the line. That’s obviously powerful stuff, but ownership needs to recognize that and provide more than “attaa boys” and “atta girls.” Thanks for the comment.
Broke the news little after 11pm on Friday evening. Got a few sources in the 10pm hour about Taylor. But wanted to be sure to confirm. My show is live not tracked. Kept listeners informed with latest info available and played a few foo tunes
Scott, YOU I never worry about. You have a tremendous for your audience and their emotions. With a tragi event like Taylor Hawkins’ sudden death, you have to collect yourself, confirm sources, and then turn it loose. Thanks for the on-air leadership, another reason why WRIF just celebrated its 51st year.