Jerry Del Collianio — the end of radio

by Howard Lapides

“Hello Honey, it’s me. What did you think when you heard me back on the radio? I am the morning DJ, on W*O*L*D, playing all the hits for you, wherever you may be.” (Words and music by Harry Chapin, “W*O*L*D”.)

Once, not long ago, radio, AM stations and FM, was special. Always entertaining, radio found new music and DJs told us about what the new. Always, radio made listeners wonder and it’s hard to accept how far radio has fallen.

Jerry Del Colliano knows the acme and the nadir of radio. He lived the height of radio success and watched its horrific descent into nothingness. When he says the end of radio is now, not tomorrow, you must believe him.

Knowing Jerry Del Colliano, as I do. Reading his blog, “Inside Music Media” and speaking, with him, I sense I’m sitting Shiva for an old, trusted and loyal friend – radio. Radio is not yet dead. Still, we’d be foolish to believe radio wasn’t near the end.

I talk to men and women who love radio, but want to murder the messenger. They say Del Colliano sells doom. “Why doesn’t he focus on the answer to save radio,” they ask, “rather than focusing on failures?”

Del Colliano has answers. His answers speak to the future of radio, not its past. As any unknown or uncertain terrain, the future is sketchy and scary for most of us. Many try to stop his message.

Most important, Del Colliano inspires thought. Inspiring thought is his greatest gift. Converting thought into action is our job, not his.

Del Colliano is a polarizing figure. Many years ago, I learned not to pick a fight, with someone who buys ink by the barrel; that is, the media. By exposing the sins of media consolidators, Del Colliano takes aim at those who buy ink, figuratively, by the barrel.

“You haven’t made it, in Hollywood, until somebody wants you dead,” is an old saying. Radio consolidators and corporate owners want Del Colliano silenced. He must be right.

I spoke with some of his harshest critics, recently. The irony is rich. Off the record, they speak with great respect, even admiration. For the record, they defile him.

Radio is on life-support, slipping into and out of a coma, unlikely to see the light again. Del Colliano beats this drum loudest, but he’s first to beat the drum, most loudly, for a new radio day. Radio, he says, is in the delivery business, using Model-Ts in an age of spaceships.

The big record labels, such as Warner Music Group or EMI, are along for the ride into a void. The labels cling to ways that didn’t work yesterday and won’t tomorrow. Is it a fluke, how radio and labels are crumbling together?

Del Colliano urges we look to the future, not to the past. Listen to the young, mimic what they do. Get a grip, he says, it’s not back to the future, but into the future. Click here to radio the complete Grub Street Interview, with Jerry Del Colliano.

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Tim Byrd, the Byrdman, feature interview

“Byrd is the unknown A-list DJ,” says New York media maven, Leroy Jones. “No, he doesn’t work with a bag on his head, but he’s among the best DJs. He’s missing from top ten lists, too often.”

“Tim Byrd went one-for-one with ‘Cousin Brucie,’ for years,” says Jones, “but when someone thinks of New York City radio, she or he overlooks Byrd. The only radio sin Byrd committed is not working Los Angeles.

“Working LA, with freedom, he’d give The Real Don Steele a run. I know it’s a sacrilege to say any DJ is as good as was Steele,” says Jones. “Yet, Byrd is in that league, with Rich ‘Brother” Robin, Ken ‘Beaver Cleaver’ Levine” and maybe one or two other LARPs.

Comments about the radio work of Tim “Byrdman” Byrd seem deep in hyperbole. As Stan Klees, co-founder of the Juno Awards says, “If you did it and you tell, it isn’t bragging.” Tim Byrd did it and does it.

Early in his career, Byrd had an unheard-of 42 share, for his evening shift, on the renowned WAPE-AM, in Jacksonville. More recently, he took his evening show, on WRMF-FM, in West Palm Beach, from last to second place, in one rating period. The “it,” Tim Byrd does, is the best music radio in America and listeners respond.

Dick Summer worked with Byrd at WPIX-AM, in New York City. He says, “Tim is the complete radio personality.” Batt Johnson worked, with Byrd, at WKHK-FM, also in New York. He says, “Tim became my brother almost the day I met him.

“Byrd is fiercely fun-loving, hard-working and dedicated,” says Johnson. “He’s not afraid of his feelings. He’s not afraid to be kind. He’s not afraid to do right, on or off the air.

“There was an older African-American woman living in his building,” says Johnson. “She became ill and couldn’t work. Tim took it upon himself to pay her rent and give her money for food.”

Matt Seinberg, of Big Apple Air Checks, tells a similar story. “My family and I were stranded, in Florida, near West Palm Beach. All the hotels and motels were full. Yeah, I know, but it was June.

“We had nowhere to go and knew no one, except Tim,” says Seinberg. “I phoned him. In no time, Tim got us into a top hotel. We got much needed rest before the flight back to New York.”

“Such acts define the person,” says Batt Johnson.

Byrd made a career of hard choices. When others opted to take much abuse, to keep a job, Byrd quit. His career mixed small and large radio markets, without pattern.

For twenty years, Byrd worked New York City, the top radio market, in the USA. He also worked VH-1 for four and one-half years; he was the favourite VJ of Phil Collins and Carly Simon. The story of Tim “Byrdman” Byrd confirms talent and principle breed success.

In this exclusive, in-depth interview, Tim Byrd talks about how the only boy, of a preacher man, found success. Click here to read the full interview.

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