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Yes, there were exceptions, and I'm not going to get into the debate (which I kind of started last week) about how radio did with the story. It seems like every market had its first responders and its laggards, and there were, to be sure, news reports where the cameras showed a DJ talking up "Thriller" or "Man in the Mirror" or something, but most of what I heard was talk about TMZ.com and Twitter and that kind of stuff. Newspapers were shown as way behind, TV was late, and radio? At least radio wasn't called out much for being late or wrong, but it wasn't brought up much at all, good or bad. Out of sight, out of mind. Yet, as discussed here last week, some stations were on top of things, and, surely, there were radio talk shows that jumped on the story and broke the news to a huge audience and provided listeners with a place to get the information and call in to express themselves. Wasn't that worth a mention?

But it's the same as any other story. If you don't tell people what you're doing, they aren't going to know. I see this happening all the time. Some stations and hosts are great about this -- they pepper trade reporters like myself and TV and newspaper assignment editors with press releases and calls. The stations immediately make sure that the local TV crews know they can get lots of b-roll or interviews or whatever, right away. If there's a promotion, they tell everyone when and where and who and how.

And then there's the rest of you. Something happens, and there's silence. Schedule changes come and go with no acknoledgement. People get hired and fired and it's like pulling teeth to get anyone to admit it. There are entire groups of stations -- you know who you are -- over which descends the Cone of Silence whenever there's news, good or bad. There are hosts who go into witness protection when they've been let go, or their schedules have been changed. And in cases where publicity is cheap and easy -- like, say, a really famous entertainer died and you're talking about it on the air, with VU meters wiggling and all the phone lines blazing -- they don't make the phone call to the local TV news department.

Then they wonder why radio isn't getting its due.

I know that staffs have been pared back to the marrow, and there may not even be a marketing department at your station. But when something big is happening, you have to tell the world what you're doing. That should be part of your station procedures for major events and emergencies: Put someone in charge of calling and e-mailing all the local TV stations, newspapers, major websites, and trade reporters (ahem) to let them know what you're doing and that they can come to the station to get video and pictures and whatever else they need. Maybe you didn't break the story like TMZ, but your goal is to make sure that the public notices the hard work you did. So make those calls.

The same goes for all of you on a personal level; If you're doing something worth bragging about, brag. Filling in for someone? Doing a guest shot on some local TV show? Gotten yourself appointed to a municipal board of some sort? Spread the word. That's how you get noticed. That's how you get more work.

Radio just doesn't do a great job overall of tooting its own horn. Look, radio's problems will not be fixed by a public relations campaign. (The less said about "Radio Heard Here," the better) And getting mentions in the paper, or 30 seconds of your afternoon host on the evening news, or a link from a popular website, well, they won't change public perception of radio overnight. But there's no reason your hard work should be ignored, ever. We're in the communications business. Communicate.

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I'm going to be taking the next week off to decompress, read a few good books, sleep a little later (if my cat will let me), and celebrate my birthday (I can't stand birthdays... what? Cake? Ice cream? Well, then happy birthday to me!). During that time, I won't be updating Talk Topics the way I usually do, but I'll probably drop in from time to time and post some stuff, because I'm not really well-versed on this "time off" thing. The rest of the All Access staff will be on duty, though, and you'll find continuing coverage of all things talk radio in Net News and all the other great resources and information for which you depend on All Access, so keep coming by as usual. It's still free, you know.

But I did get to indulge in something I usually have little time to do, which is read books. I read all day, every day, but reading websites to find items for Talk Topics and reading an Actual Book for Actual Pleasure, well, that's entirely something else. I plowed through four books in four days, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy that. Highly recommended, if you find yourself with nothing else going on.

One of the books I read was a book about traffic. Yes, I voluntarily read a book about traffic on my vacation. In the book, helpfully titled "Traffic" (actually, "Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do (And What It Says About Us)," author Tom Vanderbilt mentions something on page 77 that caught my attention:

"Researchers look at how driving is affected when people do other things, but research also shows that secondary tasks suffer as well. We become worse drivers and worse talkers. This is obvious to anyone who has listened to the wandering, interrupted musings of a driver talking on a phone (journalists know that people calling from their cars give terrible interviews)."

Do you take phone calls on the air? Do you take them from people on their cells? You do, right? Everybody does. But think about it: Research shows that when people are driving and talking on the phone, they do both things less well than when they're concentrating on one thing. So, why put someone who's not at his or her best on the air?

Way, way back in the early days of cell phones, I remember having a no-cell-phone rule. Later, we allowed the calls, but instructed the screeners to tell the callers to pull over before putting them on the air. Do you do that? I hope so. If you're putting on distracted callers, it hurts your show. If you're programming a music station, you don't play bad songs. If you're programming your talk show, you don't play bad calls. By all means, take calls from cell phones -- you have to, because that's how most people make calls in 2009. But don't put someone on the air who's trying to pay attention to the road while talking to you. We know that those calls aren't hits. Play the hits.

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On a totally unrelated note, you've seen the report at All Access that there's finally a portable Walkman-like HD Radio avalable, and I won't go into the HD Radio argument here because you know how I feel and I'm tired of complaining about it. But there's something striking about the Best Buy pocket HD Radio, even more notable than the $50-for-just-a-radio price or the fact that my local Best Buy stores appear to be totally unaware of the item's existence and are not stocking it (or, for that matter, any other HD Radio). That striking thing about this radio, trumpeted as a major breakthrough for HD Radio in the consumer marketplace, is:

No AM.

This comes after the NAB made a big deal about putting FM radios in cell phones -- no AM.

Do you see a trend here?

Most talk stations are still on AM. Many are now doing HD. Shouldn't the industry be pushing to put AM HD in all HD Radio receivers?

I'd be even more concerned if I thought people would even figure out what HD Radio is, let alone pay fifty bucks to buy one that does nothing but radio. But if the industry leaders behind HD aren't concerned that this highly touted item doesn't do AM, and the upcoming Zune HD with HD Radio built in doesn't do AM, that's a stonger sign than ever that talk and sports and news stations belong on FM, and not just on the HD "multicast" channels. It's a good thing that the migration's picking up steam.

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I've been away, but I did, true to my word, throw up a few news items at Talk Topics while I was relaxing on the couch all week, and I've been hard at work since last weekend compiling the usual stock of stuff to talk about at Talk Topics, the show prep column from All Access News-Talk-Sports. Among the items this week are disturbing goings-on in someone's backyard gazebo, the great Crocs dilemma, famous powerful people saying questionable things, famous powerful people doing questionable things, not-so-famous people doing very, very questionable things, why some people are giving up the dieting thing (and loving it), why people in Atlanta are smiling, why you might want to look before reaching under the ferns at the Wal-Mart garden center, the great "is my team selling or buying before the trade deadline" conundrum, what to do when your co-worker gets laid off, the latest foreclosure figures (not so good), the new availablilty of Amy Winehouse, what that petition on the 7-Eleven counter's all about, a particularly gross Foreign Object In Food story, some unusual (and successful) defenses, bad moms, bad dads, very early memories, very weird ice cream, and why Sudoku and heavy machinery don't mix, plus so much more your brain will melt. At least, that's the effect it has on me. After that, enjoy "10 Questions With..." Fox News Radio anchor/reporter and noted author Todd Starnes, and do check the archives, too, because while I was out we had an updated and interesting "10 Questions With..." Salem Radio Network VP Tom Tradup which you shouldn't miss, either. And the rest of All Access has been humming along with all the news, columns, ratings, job listings, music charts, and other resources you've come to rely upon, all free.

Let's start with Walter Cronkite. We know today that there will never be another Walter Cronkite, not because of his journalistic credentials or his trustworthiness or his communication skills, but because we will never be in the position of having just two viable TV news sources again, as there were in the early 60's. We have lots of ways to get the news, not just CBS, NBC, a few radio stations, and the local paper. The chances that the nation will turn to a single source are nil. There's no one PLACE to turn, let alone one most-trusted anchor.

Nor is there much chance that the entire nation will even pay attention to the news. The moon landing 40 years ago drew an audience of almost everyone, but it takes something like that or 9/11 to bring everyone to the TV set or the radio, and even so, there are far more outlets for the coverage and someone somewhere among your hundreds of channels and radio stations and streams will be plowing ahead with regular programming. Whatever might be happening, someone will choose to sit there and watch "Phineas and Ferb" or listen to The Best Mix Of Today's Hits And Yesterday's Favorites instead of the news. In fact, the majority of people, except for the most major, overwhelming, massive stories, just doesn't care as much as you might assume. They have other things on their mind. Even if they care, they go ahead with other things, figuring that they'll deal with the news later.

Take this week, when the President held his Please Support My Healthcare Bill press conference. The bill affects everyone. Healthcare, whatever your stance on the merits of the plan, is a major issue for the entire population of America. And we had to run errands at the time -- we found ourselves in sudden need of window treatments, and, yes, it was a necessity and no, it's too complicated to explain here -- but we put the radio on and, yes, it was there, live, and we listened as we headed down the road, pulled into the Costco parking lot, and saw dozens, hundreds of Americans... not listening. Not paying attention. They were pushing shopping carts, eating discount pizza, chatting and playing and dragging massive packages of toilet paper and pita chips to their cars. The president's talk didn't matter to them at that moment. Healthcare matters to them, they're impacted by what the president was saying, but, well, there's that 42 inch plasma at a really good price and you can get a hot dog AND a soda for a buck fifty on the way out. The president can wait.

And that's something to remember when you're talking about, well, any issue. You have a core of people who will be riveted to your show no matter what. You have some others who might be really into your topic. And you have the vast majority who can take or leave that topic. To grow an audience, you have to appeal to that third group, the folks who aren't actively seeking out that topic. You have to make it interesting, you have to make it entertaining, you have to sell it to them, and if you don't, they'll move on and listen to something else. It comes down to this: You have to convince them why they need to care, right now. Even the president has to do that, and I'm not sure he did such a great job this time, at least in advance. If he wants to get the public to back him on this, he needs to reach the folks who were prowling the aisles of Costco while he was trying to convince them to call their Congressmen. And when they get back into their cars with the trunk loaded with frozen burgers and cases of Gatorade, you have to get them to stay with you. You only have a short time to do it. Make sure you're always selling the story with passion. Make them sense that they NEED to stick around to hear what you're all worked up about, and they will.

Okay, there it is, all those subjects tied together in one big package. How'd I do?

(And the judges say... oh, come ON, the Russian judge ripped me off. It wasn't THAT bad)

For help in finding topics to sell to your audience (the crowd is booing, they can tell that we're seguing into the All Access promo), feel free to hit up All Access News-Talk-Sports and the Talk Topics show prep page (they're throwing things now). This week, you'll find items about Smokey Bear reaching retirement age, nose candy in the Skittles box, a great gathering of nerds, a bad week or two for the Wienermobile, a modest counterproposal for the car pool lanes, new Wheaties, more NFL Draft agony in store, another desperation move in the job hunt, the New Jersey corruption scandal (featuring rabbis!), the return of the World's Worst Neighbor, the Upper Midwest Manure Handling Expo, the condom-in-the-soup controversy, the warning-labels-for-hot-dogs suit (just in time for Hebrew Nationals to be on a 2-for-1 sale at Ralphs... mmm...), and, oh, a lot more, including items about all the "real news" stories you'd want to talk about. (The crowd's whistling... is that good or like booing? I can never remember) Oh, yeah, don't miss "10 Questions With..." someone who's never at a loss for words, Premiere Radio Networks' Randi Rhodes, and the rest of All Access with the most complete, up-to-the-minute, and reliable news coverage, columns, ratings, job listings, and other great resources, all free. (Applause!)

That isn't new, of course. For the last few years, I've heard and seen things going on in radio, some of which I've chronicled here, that made me feel that nobody was paying attention. This week, though, that feeling is just intensifying with each new head-scratchingly puzzling thing I hear. (And this is going to devolve into a rant about HD Radio, among other things, so if you're sick of that, you can skip ahead to the Talk Topics plug)

Some of it is just sloppiness. The jock on a country station who stepped all over about 20 seconds of the vocals of some Taylor Swift song, well, either the guy had no idea how long he had, or something happened with the voice tracking... but since the song had a short intro, even a voice track should have hit the post. And, yes, I heard my share of dead air, weak and underdeveloped talk topics, unprepared personalities, and stop sets filled with PSAs and those painful "Radio Heard Here" things (I know, business is bad, but... wow, that sounds dire) that made me wonder if the PD or GM or Regional VP or anyone with a title was tuning in.

But the worst of it came from my experience playing with one of those Best Buy portable HD Radios. Yeah, yeah, I know. But it's the cheapest and easiest way to get HD in my car, and since I can't get L.A. FMs at my house, that's the only way I can hear what they're doing on those HD subchannel things. And, despite the limited appeal of an FM-only radio in an age when even your keychain can play MP3s, store photos, and cook dinner, it's not a bad little device. In fact, I kinda like it. So when the local Best Buy finally started to sell them, I fought through the mobs of excited HD Radio purchasers and....

Okay, there were no mobs. In fact, that's "Nobody Cares," Chapter 1: If you don't go searching for them, you will never find an HD Radio in the store. These were hanging on a forlorn pegboard all the way in the back of the store, next to the cassette and CD portables, which, sadly, is appropriate company. There were no signs. There were no other models. There was no attempt to educate consumers about the technology. They were just hanging there in the Ghosts of Technology Past department, without even a price sticker on the peg. I don't think the staff even knew they were there. All that stuff from the NAB and the Grand Exalted HD Radio Alliance about major marketing to get people to adopt, embrace, LOVE HD Radio? That's happening in another universe. I think they bought ads on the sides of unicorns. The first portable is out there, in the wild, and there's no marketing for it at all. Nobody cares.

I hooked the thing up to my car radio, and I tried it out. That leads me to "Nobody Cares," Chapter 2: You can't hold an HD signal very long, and that leads to two critical problems. One, you know how the primary HD channel is supposed to cut back to analog when you lose the HD, and cut back to HD when it's available? On several stations in L.A. and San Diego, the analog and digital are not in sync. You're listening to a show and it... stutters. The switch from analog (underwater, bassy) to digital (bright, trebly) is hard enough on the ears; if the two streams are a couple of seconds off, it's impossible. You would think that the people at these stations would notice the problem, but there it was. Nobody cares.

A bigger "Nobody Cares" problem, and one especially acute for talk radio, involves those "multicast" channels. Here's what the HD Radio marketing doesn't tell you: Those channels cut out all the time. You can't listen for very long. And it happens under all conditions. Try this: Clear day, driving along the freeway with line-of-sight to the Los Angeles antenna farm. We had one of the HD-2 channels on, and it would drop out not only while driving under bridges, but every few minutes without any apparent reason. It turns out that HD-2 and HD-3 channels disappear behind any obstruction -- hills, buildings, trees, other cars, Andrew Bynum -- and become unlistenable. They also disappear when there's no obstruction. And the next time I get a press release trumpeting how an AM station is now available on an FM HD-2 channel, I'll know the truth -- you're not adding a thing. The "multicast" channels are unlistenable. Nobody cares.

While we're at it, a couple more multicast complaints -- I heard at least one talk station on an HD3 channel with volume levels that fluctuated so widely that it was impossible to listen for very long (the very lowest, hardest to hear levels were during the actual talk programming; the commercials were louder). Nobody at the station seems to notice. And another HD-2 music channel played the same song every time I checked in, a couple of hours apart; I was unaware of the existence of the All-Ting TIngs channel, and even a fan of "That's Not My Name" could tell you that you probably should throw in another song or two. Just sayin'. Someone should be spending some time making sure that the rotations work, but, after all, nobody's making any money on those channels, because nobody's listening, which is because nobody's being given a compelling reason to buy into the medium, which doesn't always work anyway. This could be fixed, but, well, nobody cares.

Oh, and here's another "Nobody Cares": Proponents always promote the ability of stations to show title and artist information on the receiver's screen, a selling point against satellite radio. But when there's a syndicated show on, I've seen the screen display something like "NWN_2009_07_26_SEG1" for 20 minutes. I've seen one station stuck on "NEW_LEGAL_ID_OCT2008" with the name of the voice guy. Isn't someone at the station supposed to be checking that? I guess nobody is. Nobody cares.

Look, maybe HD Radio isn't fixable, maybe radio has its problems, maybe you're not being paid what you want or you're in fear for your job, but that shouldn't mean the people who run and work in radio shouldn't take some pride in what they're producing. I think a lot of you do take pride, and there's still a lot of excellent information and entertainment being produced and distributed by radio people every moment of every day. But when I hear stations out of sync, dropping signal, changing volume levels, playing the same song over and over, screwing up the song display... clearly, somebody in charge is not listening to their own station. Someone should, because someone else cares: the listeners. Listeners care. I listen, and I care. And if you don't give me what I want, you're telling me to find another station, or another medium.

Please... care.

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For those of you who DO care about your shows, there's a lot of material for your perusal at All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep column. This week so far, you'll find items about dissolving bikinis, special toys for dogs (yes, THOSE kinds of dogs), weaponized toilet cleaners, how to sell your stuff, a very, very long golf course, how perfume cleared out an office building, why some folks would like you to paint your roof white, a guy's inappropriate (and repeated) relationship with a horse, how shopaholism killed a woman, why banks aren't rushing to help people avoid foreclosure, the Great Beer Summit, a bad attemot at viral marketing, what not to wear to work, a sportswriter's unusual side business, the latest UCLA slang dictionary, why one guy might end up in prison for going to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, and much more, plus the rest of All Access with news, columns, ratings, job listings, the Industry Directory, and all the resources you need, all free.