Can the tiger change its stripes. The answer is, “we’ll see.”

Tuning in to what was advertised as “streaming” from the National Association of Broadcasters convention I caught a pre-recorded conversation with the NAB’s new tech guy, CTO Kevin Gage, talking about the NAB Labs and Innovations initiative he heads within the organization. His main point was that broadcasters have the credibility to be the new nucleus around which internet ventures and audience interconnectedness can coalesce. He said broadcasters are the known quantity which the public relies on, so with continued convergence in cyberspace, who else but your local broadcaster will be there to lead the way into the future.

I guess I would believe this if local broadcasters, especially as we see them entrenched in the NAB, had not been the persistent retrograde force against change and development. Historically, they have been the brakes on change and development, not the new core for development. Station owners like their 20+ percent return each year and are not about to try anything new. The owners — and they are the deciders, let’s be clear — are a Republican bunch. They don’t embrace change. They would like the status quo to go on as long as possible.

They believe what happened to newspapers can’t happen to them. Can they change and adapt? I think, like the tiger, that those stripes are too much a part their DNA. In the end, when reality and desperation faces them, they may grab a bucket of paint and try to cover those stripes, but I think, like the current stalemate in our Congressional political process, the move will only come when their very existence is on the line. And when that happens, they may have already been passed by.

Somebody at the NAB realized that the internet was out there when they saw a lot of the content — that should have been theirs — getting played on it. That’s why they created this CTO position…but only last year. Does that tell you they’re ahead of the curve? I don’t think so, but stay tuned!