WSM Radio, Keith Bilbrey, And Our Country

I really am not a curmudgeon, but after reading about the item below it is not
hard to understand why I wince and complain. And I suspect any objective reader
will feel the same.

WSM"s longtime on-air personality Keith Bilbrey had been relieved of his job.

On the air at at Nashville's 650 AM for more than three decades, He's also was
relieved of his role as announcer for the Grand Ole Opry. (Why remove him from
the famed Opry show if they only want to rid him of his mid-day time
slot…grrrr!)

A native of Cookeville, Tenn., Bilbrey's regular afternoon slot on WSM is
weekdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reportedly, his Monday-Friday spot will be delegated
to a cyber jockey, meaning voice tracking will be utilized. The cost-saving
measure involves a DJ, somewhere, prerecording his or her on-air banter, then
merging it with songs, commercials and so forth to create a product that sounds
like a live DJ, but alas, it's only an audio illusion.

This is unconscionable!

The fact that Keith Bilbrey is an institution of country music knowledge, and is
an award winning professional broadcaster seems lost on those at WSM who think
they see a better way to make more of a profit. Ever-looking for the larger pot
of money is a mighty short-sighted way to venture through life. Removing a
voice that is recognizable to radio listeners, and Grand Ole Opry fans around
the globe thanks to the internet, is one of the most soulless acts made by a
business in many a year. It is a sad state of affairs when there is no value
placed on institutional memory, and all corporate eyes are only looking for a
bigger bottom line.

I am under no illusion that my views concerning radio or newspapers (another
huge love and now concern) are being passed by for `bigger and better' ways of
providing news and entertainment. But I will not move from my firm belief that
we are losing far more than we are gaining by making these absurd moves, such as
the removal of Keith Bilbrey. By the continual erosion of our foundations we
are not getting better as a society, only weaker. Too few understand that
concept in this greedy screwed up world, and we all pay the price.