Hall of Fame Material?

By Frank Absher

Several years ago I established a local radio hall of fame on line. I’ve learned a lot about radio people in the ensuing years, but some of my most interesting lessons have come from the voters rather than the inductees.

The voters are all hand-picked people who know the industry and the market, and their opinions are valued for that reason. A board of directors nominates potential members whose names are then placed on the ballots. When a person is nominated, it gives me the opportunity to research what that person contributed to the radio business during his or her career.

Make no mistake – there are many nominees and elected members who would not be in my personal radio hall of fame, but this isn’t about me or my tastes. It’s when the voters take time to write comments on ballots that I get my eyes opened.

Aside one woman’s name a voter wrote “Never!” Beside one man’s name, another voter asked “Why hasn’t he been elected yet?

The more I thought about this, the more I realized how limited our view of the business and its people is.

The woman whose nomination aroused the ire of one voter may have fired the voter, or her brash personality may have been offensive. I would not have nominated her, but I have seen a side of her many never saw. She was brought in by management at several stations to increase the bottom line, no matter what the cost. She always succeeded. In turn, people at the station weren’t downsized.

The man whose contribution was enough to prompt a voter to ask why he hadn’t been elected yet made several huge contributions to the industry in its infancy. My research has shown that some of his tactics were questionable but the average voter would not know that. My guess is he was in the business and passed away long before today’s radio folks arrived on the scene and they know little of his work.

Let’s face it. We are human. Personality traits and professional accomplishments found in some people mean nothing to others. Since my goal with the hall of fame is to keep alive memories of these accomplishments, I can’t let it bother me if someone is offended by another person’s election.

The passage of time can mellow our memories. During a reunion of rock jocks from a local station, one of the guys on the panel pointed out the station’s former program director in the audience and announced to the crowd, “That man right there fired me from the station – from the best job I ever had. It was the best thing he could have ever done for me and my career.”

So I’m not advocating that people change their standards or get into lockstep with all the other voters. I’m simply saying that in our mature years, it helps to understand and accept the fact that different opinions are borne of different experiences and values, and no one is wrong in such a case.

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