Does radio really suffer from a “creative abyss”? Are there a lack of ideas? (hence the tenuous light bulb reference..)
Long time radio commercial producer John Mountford, from commercial production house JMS thinks so.
You can read his blog post here .
In the post he says;
I believe the progressive devaluation of radio creativity is in great part down to the radio industry itself. Whereas it should be actively encouraging creativity, its own systems run directly counter to this.
I have often worked alongside some huge advertising agencies. Some of them “get” radio and some don’t. And their “big ideas” (often TV based to tie in with big TV campaigns) aren’t necessarily always big enough for radio. We normally help them get to a good place – it’s a bit of a collaborative process.
We make great efforts to help these agencies to understand radio, and also the uniqueness of BBC radio. A snall number of the people I meet admit they don’t listen to radio at all. So education in what’s special about radio is often needed.
We bring them in for creative sessions, take them into the radio networks to see how radio is actually created. It’s a two way process, and needs to be collaborative. But with persistence, it can pay off too.
In answer to John; I feel your pain – particularly with some smaller scale local advertising.
Stations are to blame in this – but sometimes it’s down to a lack of understanding by advertisers. There is a need for radio stations to educate their clients, and it seems the RAB are doing a lot to assist in this area.
But it’s down to educating sales teams too. And if they don’t have a love for the medium – we’re stuffed.
JAMES STODD 
James. So true. I think the radio meduim is still a great value to advertisers when used in the right way to get a client “above the din” Everything I hear anymore sounds the same.