In case you have not figured this out yet, many media compete for listeners' time every day. The onslaught of new media might frighten someone entering the industry, but radio continues to compete successfully with these media because, in part, of production people and the radio station's air staff that they support. Radio's success in competing with the Internet and digital satellite radio is threefold—local, local, local. Neither the Internet nor digital satellite radio can provide great local personalities talking to local listeners about local things.

One key to your success as a production person is your understanding of the other stations competing for your listeners and their limitations. The other important aspect of your job is to understand the vital role you play in the sales process and within the overall station operation. As a production person, you have to be aware of the entire radio station, not just your little corner of the world, so to speak.

Finally, you must understand digital technology and use it creatively to solve day-to-day challenges in your work. This will include everything from transferring production from station-to-station, posting production on web sites, and creating interesting uses of digital technology to produce great sounding production.

When it comes to the Internet the key word is broadband. As systems come online and competition between providers continues to develop, prices continue to come down making bandwidth affordable for even the smallest station. It is not unusual for a station group in a larger market to require three T-1 lines to handle their needs. I know of one voice-over talent who has a T-1 line in his home studio!

The next step in broadband is BPL, or Broadband over Power Line. As this text went to press, the FCC approved a plan to use high frequency radio signals transmitted over power lines to deliver broadband Internet service. Users can plug a small converter box into any power outlet in their home to receive the service. In test markets the pricing was less than cable or DSL and there was no installation fee. This new technology could deliver broadband Internet service to virtually any home with electricity. Such a plan could be particularly useful to those in rural areas.

Closely related to the Internet is wireless. The 2004 Presidential race coverage was almost entirely wireless with mobile wireless units set up at each venue where the candidates appeared. This allowed the distribution of the candidates' audio to the media and allowed the media to file stories with imbedded audio clips from their laptops. With the advent of hardware and software that will turn a PDA into a recorder, it is only a matter of time (it may have happened already) before radio news people become shirt-pocket journalists filing stories over a wireless network.

HD Radio is happening and will continue to do so. For FM stations, the transition is not so drastic, but for some older AM stations the transition is going to require an entirely new physical plant to make the move to HD Radio. Higher quality audio for the listener means that the production person must deliver a higher quality product. The other aspect of HD Radio is what to do with that extra bandwidth that is left over. What new nontraditional products can radio develop to sell to consumers and clients alike?

The reason I love radio so much is, just as I am describing to you here, no two days are ever the same. You are either moving forward or you are moving backward. Remaining stationary is not an option.