When life needs a “reality check”, SiriusXM host David Webb has forged his own path by committing to the responsibility of presenting the facts.

“You actually have a responsibility. To not just yourself, not just your boss, not just your company, but your real responsibilities to the people that listen to you.” It’s hard to sum up 37 years in the making, which spans the likes of music radio, politics, and talk radio. However, the soon-to-be author sat down with Barrett News Media over a Zoom saying he’s not done yet.

Born in Jamaica (the country, not Jamaica, Queens) Webb was raised in New Jersey and planned on going into the military after college. “I was on my way to being a marine. I went to the Naval Academy Prep — the academy system — and transferred to Holy Cross. I was in ROTC as a marine option and got into radio by accident. That’s the short version of it.”

From Boston to New York, Houston, and Dallas, (in that order) Webb has stayed in the top 10 market his whole career before becoming syndicated and hitting the satellite airwaves.

Over the years, he’s seen the industry change from cutting tape and wax pencils to being digitalized. With his experience in both music and talk radio he believes the two have diverged on a few key issues. Music becoming a little too homogenized and talk evolving more creatively. “ When [music] became really homogenized [there was a lot of voice tracking] and I refused, I absolutely refused to voice track anything. I felt like it was lying to my listeners that I’m pretending to be on air live when I’m not.”

Webb — who hosts on SiriusXM Patriot from 9 AM-Noon ET and also works as a Fox News contributor — believes talk radio has benefited from the technology change. “Talk radio evolved for the better because it got more competitive, even though a lot the groups owned a lot of the stations, talk radio competed.”

The radio veteran likes the added competition, “because of those of us in it, not just myself, but all the people that were competing with ideas, competing just because of who we are. We have our different angles on an issue.”

Competition is something Webb welcomes both on and off the mic. “I don’t fear it, I want it. I want people to hear the perspectives so that they can decide for themselves. I don’t need to convince you. I need to present the facts. Present the argument. You need to decide [for yourself] the same way I’ve decided who I am over the years.”

Webb spoke about how there are missing voices in talk radio like, “a little more of the libertarian, a little more of the center-left, center right.” However, there are still issues David Webb feels aren’t being tackled in the modern media landscape.

These are the same key issues he talks about and advocates for on his show. “The economy, that’s a key one. It’s the foundation of any nation. If your economy is good, you can afford everything else. So the type of policies that keep your economy flowing and the elements of that that are necessary. You’ve got to have that.”

A second issue David Webb feels doesn’t get enough attention in the media? Foreign policy. “I built foreign policy out as a platform here at SiriusXM with ‘National Security Tuesdays’ because people need to pay attention. We’re in a global community in many ways. So in economics, foreign policy needs more attention.”

On his show currently, Webb is doing a series on the DIME — Diplomatic, Informational, Military, and Economic — strategy. “One of the reasons I don’t fear competition is I believe people should also be given the adult conversation, whether it’s the callers or the experts or the hosts.”

David Webb believes it’s possible these two topics don’t get a lot of attention because, “it was seen as this thing that only experts did. And you didn’t need to know.”

While these topics typically come in a cycle, Webb notes both economics and foreign policy never really go away. “It just keeps evolving in different ways around the world. We have our friends, our enemies, our frenemies, our competitors, It has to be part of it.

“Also, as part of our economic foundation, it’s part of our military and our projection of force, especially with the Navy. The Navy’s in the Constitution to protect commerce on the high seas, but also to be part of foreign policy, engagement, conflict, or deconfliction. And this comes right back home to us. It’s to put it in the terms that people are used to. It’s our sons and daughters that go out and deal with conflict. So foreign policy’s important that they’re either in the right conflict or not in conflict.”

David Webb believes one of the best parts of radio is meeting with his listeners. “Whether you’re broadcasting the next Rockets playoff game from the largest sports bar in Texas, having a good time doing a bar remote, or going to CPAC, you’re connecting with people. I love being out there and meeting people.”

You don’t have to agree with him either, connection with people is what its all about.

“If you hate me, call me. If you’re not sure about me, call me. And if you love me, call me. Who doesn’t love that?”

For those looking to take the mic and follow in Webb’s footsteps, he says don’t. “Make your own footsteps, make your own path. Decide who you’re going to be. Work at it. Build your format, substantiate, learn, and keep growing. I’m still doing that today. I learned something new on the air today. I actually had a great conversation with a listener over something wonky and we got into it. So whatever it is you do, do that.”

David Webb added that some advice he has is something taught to him by his parents. “Can you look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m happy with the guy I’m looking at? Did you do the best you could?’

“In other words, live up to the integrity you put on yourself, right? None of us are perfect. And by the way, if you make a mistake, admit it. Own it and issue the correction. That’s really how you build your own path.”

While the media missed out on a historic opportunity last Thursday, 11 million people tuned into X — the social media platform owned by Elon Musk — to watch Robert F. Kennedy Jr. debate… himself.

Streamed from Los Angeles in front of a live studio audience, Kennedy & Company watched the debate live occasionally pausing the actual debate to give the Independent candidate a chance to speak.

While the innovative X debate allowed Kennedy to explain why Americans shouldn’t vote for Trump or Biden, he failed to bring up how his policies are better. What he did do at the very beginning of the debate was allege CNN colluded with the Republican and Democratic parties, which is why he was not on stage.

Thursday’s debate between President Biden and former President Donald Trump was the first not put together by an independent non-profit. Meaning CNN owned the debate. They commercialized the debate.

Perhaps this is why CNN threatened X owner Elon Musk with a lawsuit if the Kennedy “debate” took place. As of this writing, it’s yet to happen. However, there are several ethical concerns if the 24-hour news network should be allowed to. Though televised debates have been around since the 1960s the opportunity to transition these debates to a streaming or digital service could provide better options for the viewers’ freedoms.

Modern Presidential debates haven’t been around for very long but they have proven important for candidates to grasp hold of undecided voters. The first radio debate was aired in 1948 when Republicans Thomas E. Dewey and Harold Stassen went head-to-head in the presidential primary.

Eight years later, Democrats one-upped the GOP by televising their 1956 presidential primary debate. However, it wasn’t until the famous Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960 when we saw two confirmed presidential nominees hit the airwaves, with 66 million viewers. Compare it to CNN’s 48 Million [rounding up] plus an additional 11 million from Kennedy’s debate, that’s only 59 million viewers. Our population has grown, yet fewer Americans are watching our potential Presidents debate.

After 1960, Americans waited 16 years (four election cycles) before we saw another televised presidential debate for the general election. It was 1976 Ford vs Carter. While the 1960 debate was sponsored by the news outlets, from 1976 through 1984 debates were sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

In 1987, the group dropped out of sponsoring presidential debates, releasing a statement that said in part, “because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity, and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

The Commission on Presidential Debates was formed and took over for the League of Women voters. Since then we’ve seen not one but two independent candidates hit the debate stage.

Before Ross Perot in 1992, John B. Anderson hit the debate stage in 1980, but only against Ronald Regan. President Carter’s campaign declined to debate the Independent, even though Anderson was polling at 22%. Ross Perot was polling at 18.9% when he ran. Kennedy is not far behind, with three different pollsters having him at 15%. (Yes, Ralph Nader tried to crash a debate but he never made it in and was only polling at 5%, hardly enough to make a dent into his contemporaries.)

The businessman with a famous last name has a large social media following largely comprised of Latino and young voters. In theory, he will have an easier time gaining traction with voters through social media, provided the algorithms allow exposure.

Modern media outlets have a unique opportunity, one the League of Women Voters  (and our founding fathers) would’ve loved to use. Give voice to other parties and candidates along with Republicans and Democrats. More substantive debates could be held on platforms like X, Facebook Live, and YouTube with live questions from actual voters across the country (instead of carefully curated questions in years past). No networks or commercials needed.

This election cycle, X (along with vigilante owner Elon Musk) is taking advantage of this by giving Kennedy extra exposure/airtime after being left out of Thursday’s debate. If other modern media outlets will follow suit remains to be seen. However, instead of bowing to our two-party system, social media has the opportunity to give the country more options, like George Washington wanted.

“[Political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

Recently, I read a note in The Free Press (the online one, not the Detroit newspaper) that mentioned one can now earn a master’s degree in “degrowth.” Outside of being voluntary, degrowth sounds similar to the US radio industry in the 2020s. After getting past the initial incredulity that a university would actually offer such a degree, I looked it up. It’s real.

The degree is offered by UAB. No, not the University of Alabama-Birmingham, but the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. And yes, there is a master’s degree program in Political Ecology Degrowth and Environmental Justice. If you’re interested, it’s taught in English, takes a year of your time, and will set you back just under 4,000 euros. I’ve not been to Barcelona, but I’ve heard it’s a nice city.

The university suggests that while this degree will not lead to doctoral studies (heaven forbid!), you might be able to obtain work in areas such as public administration, environmental justice organizations, or cooperatives, among other potential employers. 

The program is run in cooperation with an organization known as Research and Degrowth International. The group defines “degrowth” as “a multi-level voluntary path towards reduction of production and consumption…”. RDI is also a big fan of Palestine and Gaza, the latter of which is certainly well into the process of degrowth.

That’s why this struck me as a useful degree for entering radio management. Certainly, the industry has not been growing for some time, in other words, radio is “degrowing”. Why not hire some people that specialize in the field? 

To support my assertion, I was working on a presentation for my current class at Western Kentucky University and came across this chart.

You can see that radio revenue was essentially flat from 2013 through 2019. COVID did a number on the business in 2020, but the rebound in 2021 did not return the industry to the revenue levels of the 2010s. S&P Global and Kagan, the sources of the data, suggest that revenues will decline slowly through the rest of the decade, and this includes digital.

We’ve seen all the layoffs, RIFs, cutbacks, and in a few cases, licenses being turned back to the FCC. It’s not just commercial radio as some of the biggest public radio operators have reduced headcount, canceled programming, and taken other steps to get their financial houses in order as well.

When I’ve been chatting recently with friends in the business, I’ve said that I should write a column with the headline “All of These People Can’t Be Stupid”, in other words, if everyone is hurting, it’s highly unlikely that all of the radio CEOs are all clueless idiots. Any industry that can still generate around $15 billion of annual revenue is not dead but is not headed in the right direction. It’s degrowth.

What to do? Last week, Fred Jacobs offered some concrete ideas in his blog. Fred’s not the only one with ideas that might steer us in the right direction, but it strikes me that our lack of promotion is hurting us. 

My summer class at WKU is Emerging Technologies. While I was a dope to take a graduate class that crams 15 weeks into five, it’s been interesting. The subject of my paper and presentation for the class (which is web-based, by the way) is AI in radio and I’ve had to learn more about how AI is being used in the business.

Last year, there was a lot of ruckus about “AI Ashley”, a cloned version of a jock in Michigan doing middays in Portland, Oregon. When you look up AI Ashley on Google, you’ll find all sorts of stories about her and the use of an AI jock. How much publicity did KBFF receive (oddly, KBFF is known as Live 95.5, but AI Ashley is a real live person)? How many people around the country saw or read a story about a radio station? 

Do we have any other stories to tell that will bring broadcast radio to a top-of-mind position as one more choice in a world with so many media choices? What can we do to promote our medium more, regardless of how individuals access it? And while we want to promote it to the people who control advertising spend, wouldn’t a greater profile locally and nationally wake some of them up? As I noted in a recent column, we have all the studies, we know that audio advertising works, but that doesn’t seem to be changing the chart above.

If we can’t change the story, perhaps we should have UAB’s website add that holders of a masters in degrowth may have options in traditional media (without the left-wing baggage that comes with the degree although Uri Berliner might suggest a public radio gig). All of print is in degrowth, linear TV is headed that way, and if we don’t come up with new ideas and act on them, radio won’t be far behind. 

Let’s meet again next week.