Happy New Year 1995

1/6/1995

Happy New Year! The countdown has begun. Only five years until the biggest party in the history of the world. And for once, that’s no hype.

No matter what Prince says, we can’t party like it’s 1999 until it gets here. And we’re down to the short strokes. Not that any of us are absolutely assured of making it. But with each passing day, our chances do get a little bit better.

The first week of the New Year…it is the best of times…it is the worst of times. It is the first week of the rest of our lives…a time full of hope and joy…a time of great expectations…a time filled with the determination to change your life for the better…a time to alter your ways and become the person you always knew you could be…a bright and happy time that will make the beginning of the new you…no more wasted days and nights, but positive productive hours culminating in dramatic results of gargantuan proportions…this is the year you’re gonna be a contender…this is the time.

The first week of this year is also only one broken promise away from being alike all the others. So, what are you going to do?

Many negative thinkers believe that human beings cannot change their ways…that habits entrenched from years of repetition will remain. This is so much bullshit. Of course, we can change. It happens all the time. People stop smoking. People stop drinking. People stop using drugs.

People can change. People do.

Change is mostly difficult. People, for the most part, don’t want to change. How many people work unhappily in the same job for years without seeking change, then, when fired, exclaim that it was the best thing that happened to them? It only points out the important process of altering one’s lifestyle for the best. For change to occur, first one must want to change.

But wanting it isn’t good enough. There isn’t one person in the world who doesn’t want things to be different. But to become a force in making a difference, you have to add two additional elements: risk and hard work.

I promise that you cannot effect change, even small changes in your own life, without an element of risk and some hard work. Take New Year’s Resolutions, for example. Most everyone makes them…most everyone breaks them. It is a statistical fact that over 97% of all New Year’s Resolutions are broken…usually within the first month of the new year. So why do we make them? Because we want to change. But wanting change just isn’t enough.

After you determine that you want to change something, you have to take a risk. A risk, you ask? What’s the risk? The risk is that you won’t make it…that you’ll fail. Not much risk. Not like your life…or your savings…but fear of failure is risk enough to make many people not even attempt a lifestyle change.

Psychiatrists will tell you that the majority of people are more motivated by the fear of failure than the desire for success. It’s strange…and it’s sad. Failure isn’t something we should be ashamed of. Failure, except in maybe skydiving and bomb handling, isn’t fatal. And failure certainly isn’t forever.

History is full of inventors who failed many times before their ultimate conquest. The early failures meant only that they were attempting to push the envelopes that were confining their thoughts and patterns.

You also must be dedicated to the proposition of success. You must be willing to work…and work hard to succeed. Too often those who don’t succeed point to those who do and say it’s because of luck. More often than not, luck is getting up earlier, working longer and harder and sleeping less. It don’t come easy. “If you wanta sing the blues, you gotta pay your dues.”

Our industry if full of those who want change. We can (and do) fill convention halls with people who put down the status quo, call for new and dramatic changes, then return to their jobs and continue to follow the other sheep. Not only does the majority seldom attempt to effect change, but they are quick to criticize others who introduce innovative ideas. In no other industry is there more bluster and less follow-through. In both radio and records, we have few walls t stifle our creativity, yet we manage daily to stifle ourselves. With some of the brightest minds working in our industry, it is mind-boggling that we manage to cling tightest to the expected ways of doing business rather than exploring the possibilities of new and startling ideas.

The radio and record industries are changing dramatically. And the ways these industries interact are also changing. Programmers know this. Promotion people know this. The sooner the changes are recognized by those higher up who set policy, the sooner the industries will work smoother together for common goals. Too many of those policy-makers are installing marketing adjustments for the wrong reasons. PDs and promotion teams…those soldiers on the front lines…must be involved in the discussions and implementation if these are to be positive and not simply cosmetic changes.

One of 1995’s resolutions for Network 40 is to create a conference that will enable our indstries to explore innovative ways of accomplishing our goals and interests. There are too many conventions now that discuss “How To Produce A Morning Show” or “How To Promote Specific Records To Non-Specific Formats.” What our industry needs is a forum that will allow unfettered ideas to be floated on the winds of openness and excitement without the fear of ridicule. In 1995, Network 40 resolves to provide that forum.

Network 40 is all about positive changes. Our resolutions for the New Year are to continue to explore all possibilities and to stimulate your thoughts and actions toward the same aim. In our exciting industry, we are in control of our own destiny. We have the ability to find the new act…to invent the new format…that will alter the lives of listeners and change the world. It is for this higher purpose that Network 40 exists.

It is in this spirit, along with the quest for knowledge, that we also resolve to print no more naked pictures on Page 6.

Of course, some of these resolutions will be broken sooner than others.