A while back, Drew and Mike played a cut from the new Bob Seger album. It was a slower song, much like "Turn the Page" or some of the other mellow pieces he's put out. They wondered which station would pick up the song; whether it would be on the Adult Contemporary stations or would show up on their rock roster. They then lamented about the lack of product out there. Lack of product? Dudes, there's TONS of product out there. There's artists out there that would make the current crop of playlist favorites run and hide. Ask any radio listener what their favorite artists are, and I'll guarantee there's at least one or two of them that are their favorites that haven't even been played on the radio. So, there's no lack of product. out there, there's only lack of balls in the programming department. On Saturday I listened to the radio while changing the water on the fishtank (I didn't feel like grabbing some CDs to listen to in the living room). While I was cleaning the tank, WRIF was in the midst of their "On-Demand Weekend" (gee, when I was younger, we called them "All request weekends". How time flies.). Throughout their boring rock set (am I the only person on the planet to is bored to tears by Hinder?), they played something that made me take notice: Disturbed covering "Land of Confusion" by Genesis. Now, I love the original song, but ir was interesting to me that even in a harder form, the song still kicks ass. Even the original cold-war-era song (which no hard rock station would EVER play nowadays) would compare favorably with the boring rock from today.

Radio needs to stop trying to be everything to all people and start taking risks. If you try to guarantee success by strangling your choices, you end up strangling yourself of the opportunity to make something people want to listen to. Why do you think podcasts have taken off so quickly? It's all about choice.