The Rise and Fall of Female Air Talent

Seems like the first time I noticed a lot of exceptional female air talents was back in the '80s. In Houston, where I was, we had Sheila Mayhew, who "wowed" us by landing a national Budweiser spot as a voice actor. She did a fine midday show, too, and was a lot more than just a girl disc jockey. She was vibrant, interesting and style-conscious.

There were many others, of course. Women came along as listener profiles grew, and the old rules about avoiding having too many female voices on the air (and those chauvinistic guidelines like not playing two female artists back-to-back) were set aside, as we got smarter about women liking hearing other women on the radio.

Then, inevitably, the male-dominated, testosterone-driven radio hierarchy kicked in. All of a sudden, women either did nights, middays or were attached like a sidecar to a morning guy. The girl was always the "and...." part of the name. Bob and Jenny, Jack and Melinda, Scott and Donna, etc. Or even worse, they were demoted to being part of an "umbrella" name that started with the male. Phillips and Company, Jon Rivers and the Morning Gang, etc.

We made them into designated laughers, newswomen (whether they had any training for it or not), weather forecast-givers, traffic women. Some performed brilliantly. (Kelly Raspberry and Gail Lightfoot here in Dallas, for instance.) Others failed miserably. Few were allowed to have real personality. There was always this unspoken deference to the male "leader" in a team show, and a notable lack of women in afternoon-drive shifts.

Let's change that. Surely Oprah, "The View" and Bonnie Hunt have shown us that the quickest way to a woman is through talented women. So if you have a female-targeted station, look first for talented women instead of automatically thinking that the next opening needs to be filled by a guy with 10 years of experience. Consider a two-girl morning show, with a guy as the newsman or traffic reporter.

The two best GMs I ever worked for were women, and I don't think that's an accident. To me, most women seem to understand something about the human dynamic that men don't get. It seems like men are always busy measuring their ... Time Spent Listening.