Radio's best era could be now

How does today's radio stack up to the radio world of decades ago?

Veteran broadcaster Mark Van Wagoner e-mailed some thoughts on the subject recently, recalling a party in the 1980s at KSL radio, where he worked at the time. "Every single one of the older announcers told us how 'rotten radio is these days' and indicated radio was so much better when (they) were announcers, and 'we had to speak English,' and on and on."

That is, every single one of them except Francis Urry.

According to Van Wagoner, Urry walked up to the griping radio hosts and told them how he wished he could be in radio at that time, how much better the equipment was versus yesterday, and the freedom that announcers had versus yesterday, and so on.

Van Wagoner writes that he and Doug Wright looked at each other and swore they would never be "old DJs" with a superior chip on their shoulder; they wanted to be like Urry.

"Today is an exciting time to be in radio!" Van Wagoner said. "The equipment, the ability to broadcast anywhere at any time without much expense, the relaxed laws and so forth. Today should be the greatest days of radio!"

And he added, "I truly believe that radio's best days are still ahead of us." Van Wagoner wishes more stations would try a "full-service" kind of radio.

He hasn't lost his love for the industry and sounds as excited on the air as he was back in 1971 when he started his Utah radio career. Van Wagoner and his wife, Gayle, do a morning show each weekday on KDYL (AM-1060), 6-10 a.m.

Excited too, is Wright, the KSL (AM-1160/FM-102.7) talk-show host from 9 a.m.-noon weekdays, plus the "Movie Show" on Fridays, from 10 a.m.-noon.

Ironically, these two veteran radio hosts — with some 75 years of combined broadcasting experience — are probably as close as it comes these days to the style of the old "full-service radio" format.

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