Yuku free message boards

Larry is right. Without doubt, the climate of and "necessity" for radio message boards have indeed changed drastically since I first saw one more than ten years ago.

One of the biggest hindrances to many of the forums' success, I believe, is the flood of illiterate messages latent with misspellings, "text message speak", and most damningly, sheer ignorance of the fact that broadcasting remains an industry. (Though these days I'll usually try to look the other way on the last part if the postor at least demonstrates an ability to assemble a sentence in the English language. Sad, but today that's something impressive because it's fast becoming such a rarity.)

I have no problem with "kids" posting on forums as long as they don't write like "kids" (if you know what I mean). Some of the most insightful posts I've read on forums of late have been from writers in their teens. And as I look back on things I wrote when I first learned to drive, for example, they look eerily-similar to things I scribed just yesterday. So the ages of those participating, to me, isn't an issue.

Another troubling fact is repetitive posts from those unwilling to listen and/or learn. This has nothing to do with age. Some of the worst offenders are adults. By "listen and/or learn", I'm not implying people shouldn't be criticized for disagreeing with others. But when, for example, someone has to be told repeatedly why certain formats aren't on the radio, or why things were done, it brings the overall credibility level of the forums down.

One of the most disturbing things about today's radio boards is overzealous "moderating" by people who seem to get some kind of sick pleasure in deleting posts or banning contributors. Most of these guys act this way, I believe, to compensate for having a lack of people in their lives to bully around. So they become "moderators". Not all, of course. But the bad ones stick out like sore thumbs. I know we here do everything possible before banning a person, including fourth- and fifth-chances sometimes. (Witness Phillips and Marcucci.) And I know Diamond Joe, Nate, and I agonize over the idea of having to kill a post-- and only will if ABSOLUTELY necessary to keep the piece or prevent a suit. This board does not censor based on ideas, but will if they're presented in an unprofessional and/or harassing manner.

Originally, in the era of the late AOL "MusicSpace" forum, the boards were a "who's who" of greats in the radio industry with a few "wannabes" thrown in here and there. Rarely were those wannabes crashing the party; most were there to learn from and interact with folks they admired and respected in the business. Now, most of radio management frowns upon employees' participation in such forums. (In the early days, few GMs even UNDERSTOOD what the boards were-- and failed to realize how many people were actually reading them.) That has hurt like crazy. The professionals have been replaced mostly by guys who have no clue about radio, and as Larry said, most likely have never received a paycheck from a radio station.

Call me old-fashioned, but my definition of "being in" or "having been in radio" is pretty clear.

It wasn't bad when 80 percent of participants were, and the other 20 weren't. As I indicated above, those in the 20 were usually still knowledgeable, respectful, insightful, and willing to learn more (or at least offer unique "outsiders" perspectives). Now, as Larry quoted from the great Joe McCoy, "Everyone's a program director."

I've always thought of the message boards (after the glory days) as Sports radio. The airtalent being discussed/criticized are the ball players, the PDs are the coaches, the GMs of the stations are the GMs of the teams, the owners/companies are the team owners, and the message board postors are-- you guessed it-- the callers to the sports radio shows who likely never played a day of pro ball.

But that cuts both ways.

In other words, it absolutely amazes me when messages are deleted because they're considered "mean spirited" towards an airtalent. I've seen guys in radio cry to moderators because someone dared say "they sucked" or "had no talent". Just imagine an NFL linebacker crying to some sports blog or to WIP because "Jimmy in South Philly" said he sucked. Anyone who cannot take criticism needs to find a way of earning a living that won't expose his work to the general public. In other words, not on the air!

I'd like to think that, in our own way, our little forum here is trying to bridge that gap (between the pros and the enthusiasts) and offer a nice commonplace where everyone can peacefully co-exist. Though from time-to-time, we shall have to "siphon off some of the trash"-- if you know what I mean.

(Edited to correct grammatical mistake in first paragraph.)