These Old Shoes

I have a pair of cloth Reebok tennis shoes. You know the kind. They have canvas tops with rubber soles. I bought them more than twenty years ago, 1984, during the first year of operation of McVay Media. The shoes were purchased because Doris McVay (my bride) and I were in Orlando for a radio station promotion sponsored by Delta Airlines. The shoes I had weren’t appropriate for hoofing it around the park. I bought this pair of tennis shoes in the Grand Floridian gift shop. Little did I know that 20+ years later the shoes would still be holding up. They are still a part of my daily workout regime.

Oh, they’re beat up. The canvas has some wear and tear and small holes in it, the rubber is cracked and torn around the soles of the shoes and you can see where I’ve used Super Glue to hold the heels together. I’ve even looked for other canvas shoes and upon occasion I have found some, that might be good replacements, but I’m having a difficult time of getting rid of my old shoes because of where they’ve been and what they’ve seen me go through.

These old shoes have walked the streets of New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Paris, Monaco, Amsterdam, Nice, Cannes, Portofino, Madrid, Mexico, Puerto Rico, The British West Indies, all over Hawaii and in almost every state of the USA, in every major city in Canada, every major city of Australia, (except for Perth) and in some very small provincial Australian towns. They’ve seen the streets of every major metropolitan area in New Zealand, Tahiti, Korea and Alaska. I wish that they gave frequent flyer miles for articles of clothing.

These shoes are stained from the walnuts and berries that lay on the ground in a park in Melbourne, Australia. There are black rubber marks on the back of the heels from the straps that hold my feet in place while I take my daily rides on the exercise bike. In some cities they’ve been joined by the shoes of a General Manager or Program Director who is also into fitness, in other cities they have served as my casual “kick around” shoes when at the last minute someone sprung something unexpected on me that required something other than my dress footwear.

During the time that I’ve had these shoes I lost my mother-in-law and father-in-law, my own mother and father, a brother and a sister as well as my only aunt. Our youngest daughter was born, and I wore them when my wife and I walked our oldest daughter to the bus to catch her first day of kindergarten. They are the shoes I wore most recently when I had to have something casual on for my journey to the hospital, where surgery took me out of circulation for nearly eight weeks.

I can’t get rid of these shoes. I have an emotional attachment to them. They are a part of my life. Many of you probably have the same type of attachment to some inanimate object in your life. You probably aren’t going to write about it as I have done here, but you can certainly relate. Maybe it’s an old car or a favorite golf club.

There was a time when I had the same attachment to radio. I remember the white plastic and enamel Emerson radio I had in my bedroom as a child. It was a hand me down from my parents. I wish I knew where that radio was today. It gave me many hours of listening enjoyment as I grew up 50 miles southwest of Pittsburgh in the foothills of Pennsylvania’s mountains.

A black magic marker noted where on the dial I could find KQV, WIXZ, KDKA, and WHJB. There were nights that I listened to Ed & Wendy King on KDKA (a talk show that never aired the telephone caller’s voice) Pittsburgh Pirate baseball (Bob Prince), Jim Quinn (who was my hero and idol on nights at KQV), Jeff Christie (who is actually Rush Limbaugh) when he was on in the morning on WIXZ radio or the late Jay Davis on WHJB. I loved that radio and I loved those radio stations. I started my career at WHJB in Greensburg, Pa (Pittsburgh suburbs) as did one of our former consultants (and a dear friend), Dave Popovich.

The same relationship I have with my shoes was once had with my radio. That brings to the surface an important question. Will the generations who followed us in the 70s, 80s and 90s have the same relationship with new radios that we children of the 40s, 50s, and 60s had? Will today’s new generation have a relationship like we had with radio. I’m guessing that the answer is NO.

It is clearly due to the increased level of competition in the world today. That competition comes from more than radio. There is a lot of “noise” in our everyday lives. My listening of the 60s and most of the 70s was done on an AM-Only radio. Today the many choices available are for more than for entertainment. They’re also for education. Maybe it’s just that brand loyalty isn’t what it used to be. Although there is brand loyalty for many new media venues i.e. You Tube, My Space and Yahoo! The question remains unanswered as to whether their loyalty is lasting.

We must continue to strive to create compelling radio for our listeners. Especially if we’re to slow the erosion away from radio. We need to create real and true entertainment so that day in and day out someone, somewhere, will feel the “need” to use radio. I am hopeful that every day an individual air talent somewhere creates a relationship with a listener. Your radio station needs to become such a part of the audience lives that they become attached to the station. Attached as closely as my shoes are attached to me, and as closely as I was once attached to radio as a listener.

I joke that when these shoes totally wear out, I’ll retire. Wouldn’t that be fun? I mean, you never know when that day will be. “Does the hole in the sole become unbearable today?” Well, as these shoes grow closer and closer to wearing out, I’m less and less likely to retire. I’m only in my early 50s, and much too young to stop working. I’m not the type of person who will ever retire. Working in media and music is my “golf game.” I love radio. I enjoy learning about new media. I embrace change. It’d be boring if we didn’t following the river that is evolution and change.

More than that, the passion for radio and new media burns hotly in my stomach. My focus has moved to building something for the future for our family, but also for others families. We’re in a period of media whereby we can affect the future. Mass media enables us to make the world better. We have a responsibility that goes beyond “shock” and “disposable.” We have purpose. I’ve changed my personal and professional goals … and I intend to have fun changing our world.

It seems to me that the same goal changes that I’ve undergone are worthy of comparison to a radio station reassessing their goals. Is it time to reconsider your goals and adjust your strategy accordingly? Time marches on. Things change. How do your goals, that you may have first set many years ago, apply to today?