The more things change, the more they stay the same. The coming of television killed off network radio in a way that’s startlingly reminiscent of the effect that the digital revolution is currently having on network TV, the print media, and the music business.
Are there any useful lessons to be learned from what happened to old-time network radio in the quarter-century that preceded its final demise in 1962? I think so, and I’ve tried to sum them up in my latest “Sightings” column for tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal. Here’s an excerpt:
Americans of all ages embraced TV unhesitatingly. They felt no loyalty to network radio, the medium that had entertained and informed them for a quarter-century. When something came along that they deemed superior, they switched off their radios without a second thought. That’s the biggest lesson taught by the new-media crisis of 1949. Nostalgia, like guilt, is a rope that wears thin….
Can the old media shore up their questionable future by looking to the not-quite-so-distant past? To find out, pick up a copy of Saturday’s Journal and see what I have to say.
UPDATE: Read the whole thing here.