Dead Air
If you are a radio DJ — or at least if you once were a radio DJ, these days I swear at least half the stations run tape instead of a live broadcast, and the other half run 50 stations all playing the same thing off of a satellite feed — anyway, if you were a radio DJ the only cardinal sin you could commit is to stop talking.
There were things that would get you fired, or fined by the FCC (Carlin’s 7 words, for example — but if that’s your schtick you have an engineer with fast reflexes to beep you). You HAD to play ads, so many each hour, and at designated times, ‘cause that kept the lights on and the broadcast tower humming, and of course, paid your paycheck. Depending on the format and on management, there are no doubt other rules — but only one sin: Dead Air.
If you stop broadcasting entirely, your listeners are going to change the channel. You can play music (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida buys you 17 whole minutes) or turn an hour over to the interns, or get the janitor to tell knock-knock jokes — doesn’t matter so long as you’re still on the air.
As bloggers, some of us shy away from filler posts, or look a bit askance at blogs with too many image posts or embedded videos, especially if that’s all that’s on a blog (there’s a tumblr for that). I like to write longer essays, myself: gives me room to think and expand (and ramble and digress) and I feel posts like those are my best work for the blog, and one of my contributions to the internet, culture, and society.
But one can’t always muster up a long essay, on demand, week after week (at least, I can’t)
Only one sin: dead air. Keep writing — but more importantly, keep posting.
