AS TOLD BY MEL “TOXIC” TAYLOR: In the 80’s and 90’s, I was a Philly Radio DJ at stations like WYSP, WDRE, WPST, WKDU, and WIFI. As a native Philadelphian, being on the air here was a dream come true. Working on the same team as Stern & Debella at WYSP, or being a part of the exploding alternative scene with the folks at WDRE, were some of many incredible experiences I had in Radio.

Why did I leave Radio and move into web? Mainly, because the industry was mostly ignoring the Internet, or saw it as a toy. Radio was raking in the cash by selling commercials, and most managment types saw no need for understanding and leveraging the massive change that the Web would eventually bring.

So, I convince Radio giant Clear Channel to give me my first Internet gig; Regional Sales Manager for their Interactive division. I helped their stations with a variety of web initiatives. The year was 1999 and our Radio websites had a rule…..”no links to outside sites” We were told “once somebody arrives on our site, don’t let em out! Geez. Another fun fact about Radio websites in the year 2000: we were trying to be local portals; where we would provide everything that someone would need while on the web. Radio was pretty cocky about the web back then.

And so was everybody else. At right is Mel’s “after” picture. More of Mel’s atypical leaving-old-media tale and his “before” picture after the jump.

Um, that’s Mel… on the left.

In 2004, I moved into the newspaper business. I took a sales management role at phillyburbs.com, the online version of the >Bucks County Courier Times and other local papers. Like most of the newspaper industry at that time, many print folks saw the web as direct competition, and actually tried to derail many promising efforts.

In 2006, I was offered the Internet Sales Director position for Fox 29. Yes, I was well paid, and it was a bonus to be working next to Kerri Lee and Dorothy Krusyiuk. But I really wanted to see if the TV industry understood that video, as well as a plethora of local independent bloggers and websites, would likely distrupt their traditional business. Back then, many TV types saw web as a low value distraction. Surprisingly, they had no idea that in the web space, their competition was NOT just the other TV station websites in town; rather, it was the local newspapers, google, and bloggers as well.

Today, Mel Taylor runs an Internet consultancy that specializes in helping local media properties increase revenue via the web. Current clients include Philly.com and the Tribune Company. He can be found at www.MelTaylorMedia.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm.