The End Of An Era

Radio & Records is no more. As someone who spent seven years at the publication during two different stints, I have mixed emotions.

When I moved to Nashville in 1990 to work for R&R I was certainly familiar with the weekly newspaper from my days in radio. It was the publication for the radio industry and working there was a great entry into Nashville and the music business.

After four years in editorial and sales I moved on to Warner Bros., but R&R was still a daily part of my existence since it was my job to get records up its airplay charts. 

Three years ago R&R once again became part of my life when Nielsen, the company I was working for, bought it and closed Billboard Radio Monitor, the industry magazine I was writing for at the time. In March I was laid off from R&R in what was apparently a pre-cursor to today's news. 

There's a lot of speculation about the "whys" and "wherefores," but my own take is this: the editorial content that R&R offered, particularly on its Web site, was really no different than what could be found elsewhere. For readers and advertisers alike, there are simply more choices these days.

With few exceptions, the news that was on radioandrecords.com was the same news that was on allaccess.com and all the other radio industry-specific Web sites. With slight modifications, the "news" was simply a re-write of a press release. There was no further investigation or insight, which is something competitors Radio-Info.com and Inside Radio do very well.

As for the weekly magazine, the charts that were included were old news by the time they reached subscribers a week after they were first distributed via e-mail. Back in the day, before electronic distribution, I remember grabbing the magazine when it came in to A-B it with the station playlist. We didn't have local research and that was my way of finding out what was happening nationwide.

It's cliche to say that information moves faster these days, but it's the truth. I read more about the demise of R&R on Facebook in the minutes following the announcement than I did on any industry Web site. I'm sure Twitter and plain old texts spread the news quite quickly too. That's a fact that all newspapers and magazines face on a daily basis.

Is there a need for a weekly radio industry trade magazine anymore? My gut tells me there's not. Especially not at a time when information flashes past us in bite-sized morsels and radio programmers are stretched so thin that they don't have time to sit down.

Well, Excuse Me!

My past and present will mix this weekend in an odd, but perhaps interesting way. I'm going to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night to see Steve Martin perform songs from his bluegrass album, "The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo." Mr. Martin will appear with Vince Gill, John McEuen, Amy Grant and Tim O'Brien. (Now that's an Opry debut!)

As someone who grew up during the '70s watching "Saturday Night Live," the comedy stylings of Martin are firmly etched into my gray matter—not just from that show, but also from movies like "The Jerk" ("These cans are defective. They're springing leaks!). Steve Martin was everywhere back then. If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure my friend Marty and I used to do our own version of the famous Martin-Akroyd "Two Wild And Crazy Guys" skits. 

More recently, my daughter and son have discovered Martin—albeit a more subdued Martin than the man of my youth—in the two "Cheaper By The Dozen" movies.

Now he's making his debut appearance on the Opry. And he's doing it with some of Nashville's finest pickers and singers. Wild and crazy stuff. 

If you had told me when I was a teenager growing up in Cleveland that I'd be seeing Steve Martin play banjo at the Grand Ole Opry when I was in my mid-40s and actually looking forward to it, I don't know what I would have said in response. I mean, it probably would have been a smart-ass remark—that's a constant—but beyond that I don't know.

This much I do know: Martin's appearance at the Opry House makes a lot more sense and will be a much more natural fit for him than his appearance on the season finale of "American Idol," which was wrong on so many levels.

And unlike so many other celebrities who dabble in music—don't get me started on Steven Seagal's foray into Nashville via the clunker "Fire Down Below" a few years back and some more recent examples—Martin actually has the chops to hang with Nashville's best.