Last week, the Michigan Association of Broadcasters held their annual conference which features giving radio and television across the state 'Station of the Year' awards. It looks to me like high school, college, and TV stations still pursue awards for both their employees/students and the stations overall. Except for big commercial radio. It looked like the only two radio stations in Detroit that bothered to submit entries this year were WJR and WWJ - basically the only two stations in town with any kind of news staff left. Even though there is a sports play-by-play category, there was no winner - likely meaning that WDFN and WXYT didn't even bother trying to get recognition for guys like Dan Dickerson, Ken Kal, Mark Champion, and George Blaha. And WOMC for Frank Beckmann on U-M football broadcasts.
Although winning these kinds of awards is little more than window dressing in the long run, not even caring enough to compete is a symptom of radio's increasing irrelevance to not only the public, but to itself. Where is the pride?
You can read my March 16th Oakland Press radio column here: WJR, WBFH win Station of Year honors.
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