What is it about this holiday that always reminds me of just how fast time is moving? Memorial Day Weekend means the first five months of the year have somehow slipped by. A little math will tell you 40% of 2025 is already in the books, as hard as that may be to get our heads around.
Every year on this day I write a (thankfully) short greeting around Memorial Day and what it means to us Americans. It goes back a lot of years. Celebrating this day was first established after the Civil War to honor Union soldiers. Originally known as Decoration Day because Americans observed the day decorating gravesites to honor the fallen, Congress officially made what has become known as Memorial Day a three-day weekend in 1968. Ironically, today’s Congress might be hard-pressed to agree on this legislation today, much less pass it into law.
That’s because more than most of us living in the 50 states can remember—regardless of your generation—it feels like we are ringing in Memorial Day Weekend while standing on the shakiest of ground. Today, I actually woke up with an “ear worm” that made sense. It is standing on “Shaky Ground,” originally recorded by the Motor City’s own Temptations. (The full song is at the end of this post.)
Doesn’t “standing on shaky ground” sum up the state of the union at this chaotic moment in time to you? It does to me. I don’t remember a time when the common beliefs that held us together, regardless of geography, age, gender, skin color, religion, or how we felt about baseball’s Designated Hitter rule were all pretty tacit. We implicitly knew what America stood for, so much so that it was taught in every classroom and reinforced at most every dinner table.
But not anymore. Whether it’s education—at Harvard or your neighborhood elementary school—the military, our allies around the world, the economy, civil rights, citizenship, and so many other fundamental issues, we are most certainly standing on shaky ground.
That’s certainly the case in the radio industry—and throughout the media ecosphere—where nothing is for certain when it comes to both content creation and monetization. The old axioms—like “Get the ratings and the revenue will follow” aren’t just questionable in this environment. They’re being upended.
Pretty much every piece of research we see contradicts the study that came out last week. The data in front of us is often being manipulated and packaged to fit an agenda or a point of view, which explains why each study seemingly challenges what we were being told last Monday. (As someone who regularly generates and publishes media research, I am especially sensitive to how it can warp accepted beliefs and support questionable agendas.)
That goes to the heart of why political polling seems less reliable than ever. Besides the agendas of those commissioning these studies, you wonder how many respondents are purposely answering questions falsely in order to confuse the issue and continue the chaos.
Meantime, we remain on even shakier ground.
And maybe our tenuous status these days is tethered to the reality we cannot agree on what is a fact and what is a lie, what is true and what is bullshit, what is a law and what is a rule waiting to be broken.
Ultimately, all of you reading this post—and me writing it—aren’t in a position to do much about any of it. And that’s likely part of the frustration many of us share. In the big scheme of things, we are mere extras in the cast. We have no lines in this play, we are powerless to change courses or directions. We’re just along for the ride.
Except we do have an important mission amidst the uncertainty, the finger-pointing, the anger, the vitriol, and the shaming.
We are charged to entertain, to inform, and to inspire.
Each of our brands has this important task, depending on the mission and the moment. Whether it’s walking the populace through the selection of a new Pope, helping people navigate another round of killer tornadoes and freakish weather, or counting down the classics from 500 all the way down to #1 this weekend, we’ve got a job to do. We’re open 24/7/365, whether it’s Memorial Day Monday or a random Tuesday the day after. We’re serving our communities because a commission in Washington, D.C. has mandated we do so—for more than 90 years. At least, before they change their minds…and the rules.
Actually, I suspect we’re providing this service to our cities and towns of license not just because we are licensed to do so, but because we’re honored to provide this service. It’s why many of us chose this profession in the first place. And as crazy as it sounds, the more difficult it’s become to fulfill that mission due to staff and budget cutbacks, spreadsheet strategies, and Wall Street chicanery, the more most of us want to make good on the promise—and keep doing it.
Shaky ground or not.
Enjoy your weekend with family, friends, and those near and dear to you. Don’t think about tariffs or three-minutes. They’ll all be waiting for you on Tuesday.
Onward.
Originally published by Jacobs Media
