There was more, of course, but, to me, the radio portion of the convention had one moment of clarity, Phil Hendrie’s “keynote” at the Radio Luncheon. It wasn’t a speech, it was a performance, and as Phil jumped in and out of his character voices, showing the audience how he becomes Margaret Grey and Ted Bell and countless other personalities armed only with a mic and a telephone receiver, I was reminded how the success of all the technology and futurist stuff and spectrum allocations and broadband policy ultimately come down to the people who create the stuff that gets delivered through those methods. You can put it in 3-D, you can send it over WiMax or LTE, you can podcast it, you can turn it into a smartphone app, you can put it on “regular” radio, but real talent can make you listen and pay attention no matter how it’s delivered.
The rest is just noise.
