How can we be lovers?

Husband just sent me this news.

German Radios Team Up

Germany’s largest Radio private ownership groups have joined with public radio and numerous smaller, independent private stations in a common effort to increase Radio’s share of total advertising revenue, which is the major concern with the national digital switch-off planned for 2012. To that end, they have created the Radiozentrale organization. This will cooperate with US based RAB to provide marketing support to their member stations.

This is amazing news. BRAVO Germany.
And BRAVO RAB UK, RAB Finland, RAB USA etc.

Two years ago I was fortunate enough to discuss the same idea with one of the founding fathers of RAB USA at the NAB conference in Lisbon and he loved my idea and enthusiasm of setting the Radio Advertising Bureau in Slovenia.
But the strategy we started developing failed when he needed answers about the media laws etc. Namely, I never received an answer from Sandra Bašič Hrvatin, president of the Broadcasting Council of Slovenia to whom I wrote a lengthy letter explaining my idea, uttering my doubts and asking her opinion.

Somewhere deep though I still hope and wonder if Slovenian radio station will ever come to such an agreement? Having in mind the long wars between local radio station I have a sad feeling this will never happen.

Firstly, Slovenia is too small for competing radio stations to work together for one cause. The problem are most radios' managers or owners who are just too self-sufficient and most of them started the business because they had money, not because they had a passion for radio.
Most of these men run their radio stations as a kind of a family firm, tying their employees to themselves by means not appropriate in the business world. In plain English: their radio stations are their little worlds and nothing exists beyond.

The second problem is ignorance. Ignorance towards radio as the medium, its potential strategic roles and last but not least ignorance about radio people's lack of knowledge.
I know from experience.
The most common answer when husband conducted his first radio seminar in Maribor with Dan O'Day in 2002 was: "We don't need to be educated about radio, we know it all."

This reminds me of the last post by Wizard partners, which discusses the value of EDUCATION and MOTIVATION of sales teams.

Any of you radio managers/owners, when was the last time you granted your team a day off?
A day off learning? Learning and (re-)establishing a connection, a passion towards the medium/station you're working in/for?
Sadly, I realize more and more radio people (either DJ's or sales people) don't take the iniciative to learn and explore radio on their own and why should they if their bosses know even less they do?

Not long ago, one of most powerful radio people in Slovenia said: "Lenja, I need you to do this radio promotion for me". And when I asked about the brief, the most important tool I need to build an efficient promotion with he said there is none. He said: "If you're as good as you say you are, you can do it just like a magician and build one from nothing!" To me that smells bad. Really bad.
Can you smell it too? It smells of ignorance for the medium and the advertiser and lack of knowledge about radio.

Fingers on one hand are enough to name people who really care about radio is Slovenia and the worst part is that they are not the ones who have the power to change anything.

Everyday I get so sad because I realize that people with power in Slovenian radio just don't give a **** about radio!

And how is SLO radio to achieve a better share, revenue and status?

Guys, we can't be lovers if we are not friends.