Being Real Is the Currency: Why Execs Keep Missing the Point of Podcasting

 

In both radio and podcasting, being a real person on air is what sells. Listeners don’t stay tuned because of your microphone or your intro music—they stay because they feel you. They hear the passion, the humor, the truth. That’s the bond.

But corporate execs have spent the last 20 years proving they don’t get it.

In my genre of urban radio. The powers that be decided the best way to represent Black America’s voice was to handpick a few comedians and syndicate them across the nation. Steve Harvey. DL Hughley. Rickey Smiley. Others. Now, this isn’t about disrespecting those brothers—they’re talented and they carved out their lanes. But let’s be clear: this was a business decision, not a cultural one.

Corporate execs told legacy Black radio talent, the people who carried our stories for decades, to take a seat. They decided for us who gets to speak for our communities—and apparently, they think it should be comedians.

Now ask yourself: Have you ever seen this model applied to white America?
Are there five or six comedians syndicated across the country as the “voices” of white radio? Of course not. White radio still allows space for political commentators, storytellers, cultural critics, even everyday personalities to rise. But when it comes to Black America, execs boiled our voices down to comic relief.

That’s not authenticity. That’s a business model.

And if you think it can’t get worse, here comes the next wave: AI-generated radio. Imagine waking up to The Fred Sanford Morning Show, complete with Esther’s voice as the sidekick and Lamont and Grady chiming in—every joke programmed by a machine. Funny? Maybe. Authentic? Not at all. That’s the future corporate America is cooking up.

But here’s the good news: you don’t have to play that game.

Podcasting is the long game. It’s the antidote.
Because podcasting isn’t about who corporate America picks. It’s about you choosing to share your voice, your journey, your perspective with the world. Nobody can tell you to sit down. Nobody can silence your story. Nobody can AI-generate your soul.

And that’s why execs keep missing the point: the very thing they undervalue—authentic human connection—is the one thing AI and big-box business will never be able to fake.

So, the question is:
Are you going to wait for corporate radio to replace you with an algorithm?
Or are you going to claim your own mic, your own lane, and build your own audience—one authentic conversation at a time?

Because in this game, BEING REAL
is the only real currency.