RADIO IS NOT DEAD... UNLESS WE WANT IT TO BE.

[BlackiesHotDogs]

Good post Adam.  CC made the cuts to service the HUGE debt Bain took on when it bought CC.  I've heard rumors that another company may declare bankruptcy.

Until consolidation, radio was run by broadcasters; now it's run by bankers and accountants.  During economic downturns broadcasters knew you NEVER sacrificed your product.  The people running radio today don't even know what that product is.  That is what is killing radio.

[bernzee]

Sigh.....another battle about what's wrong with radio today.  Granted, there's plenty, but the blame needs to be squarely shouldered by all parties. Broadcasters ran the business until the FCC opened up hundreds, if not thousands, of additional frequency licenses back in the 80's. It was a great opportunity for expansion but what really happened was that investor groups started buying up blocks of stations and then consolidating.  We were our own worst enemy; by providing local, original programming and making loads of cash for our owners, we became bait for these acquisition oriented companies. After all, if one station is posting profits, imagine collecting the profits from 10 or 100 stations!
        The bitter pill is that many if not most on-air personalities cobbled our shows together as we were on air. Some of us spent time writing, researching and producing bits, etc, but I'd venture a guess that more than 90 % of jocks came to work with no prep and no real plan.  "Local" became a negative rather than a positive in many cases.  Minions of consultants pounced of this frailty to gain the ear of ownership and preach the gospel of syndication, VT, etc.  If we, as entertainers, had expanded our horizons instead of stubbornly holding on to our self centered often arrogant little worlds, things might have turned out differently. Truth is, not every one of us who has worked on the air is a great talent nor great personality.  Putting someone on the air just to have anyone on the air is not a great programming move, then or now.
The difference is;Then you could get away with it; Now, Ownership does NOT want to gamble on you.
          I know this is a gross oversimplification but every so often I just have to jump in and comment when the fingers start pointing at the accountants and bankers as owners.  Friends, they have always been a part of our business. Making money has ALWAYS been the prime directive of a radio station, like it or not.
Back in "the day", making money was pretty much a given so what management put on the air made little difference in cash flow. Today, making money is a challenge (as it is in just about every business) and I don't know any bankers or accountants who are successful gamblers but are not in jail.  As for the lawyers.....that's gonna take another post someday.

[SallysPizza]

bernzee, no one is saying put someone on the air for the sake of a live body.  There used to be a "farm system" that started with a building your part-timers into personalities that could be full timers.  Then they'd become the overnight person or the night person and so on and so forth.  Many stations now don't even have live weekenders or even anyone live 7p-5a.  What kind of personality radio is that?  Because the companies are so in debt that they cannot make their payments, they have cut their staffs to the bone.  There is no where for anyone to learn and grow.  You've got already be a person in the business who's great, good or kind of good.  There were a lot of great people let go the other day...and over the last several years...and even these people have NO WHERE to go anymore.  Yes, there have always been accountants, bean counters, etc., BUT, there were broadcasters who said no because, like Blackies said, you don't sacrifice your product.  You look for other ways to cut costs.  But these people sold to the big companies and these big companies over paid so much for the properties that they cannot always make their payments.  Also, these companies have been low balling each other to get the sales, as was said earlier on this thread.  Instead of working for the buy and showing results to a prospective client, everyone wanted the quick sale and took what they can get.  Instead of charging more for a last minute buy, like the airlines do to book a flight, they coddled the agencies and took the easy buy instead of turning away some of the business to show they had some spine.  In the end, the agencies always win by getting the cheapest price and the stations take a loss on that end.  Good lord, we have people selling radio who have never sold radio, or anything else, before and no one is training these people how to sell radio.  That's as bad as putting people on the air who barely know the way to sell radio on the air as a talent.   Yes, there are a lot of people to fault in this, but don't put it on all air personalities and assume that many of them didn't do show prep and that's why the business is in a tizzy.  There are a lot of talented people out of jobs who are still doing show prep while out of work who would love the opportunity to use that on the air somewhere.

[Adam Rivers]

bernzee, no one is saying put someone on the air for the sake of a live body.  There used to be a "farm system" that started with a building your part-timers into personalities that could be full timers.  Then they'd become the overnight person or the night person and so on and so forth.  Many stations now don't even have live weekenders or even anyone live 7p-5a.  What kind of personality radio is that?  Because the companies are so in debt that they cannot make their payments, they have cut their staffs to the bone.  There is no where for anyone to learn and grow.  You've got already be a person in the business who's great, good or kind of good.  There were a lot of great people let go the other day...and over the last several years...and even these people have NO WHERE to go anymore.  Yes, there have always been accountants, bean counters, etc., BUT, there were broadcasters who said no because, like Blackies said, you don't sacrifice your product.  You look for other ways to cut costs.  But these people sold to the big companies and these big companies over paid so much for the properties that they cannot always make their payments.  Also, these companies have been low balling each other to get the sales, as was said earlier on this thread.  Instead of working for the buy and showing results to a prospective client, everyone wanted the quick sale and took what they can get.  Instead of charging more for a last minute buy, like the airlines do to book a flight, they coddled the agencies and took the easy buy instead of turning away some of the business to show they had some spine.  In the end, the agencies always win by getting the cheapest price and the stations take a loss on that end.  Good lord, we have people selling radio who have never sold radio, or anything else, before and no one is training these people how to sell radio.  That's as bad as putting people on the air who barely know the way to sell radio on the air as a talent.   Yes, there are a lot of people to fault in this, but don't put it on all air personalities and assume that many of them didn't do show prep and that's why the business is in a tizzy.  There are a lot of talented people out of jobs who are still doing show prep while out of work who would love the opportunity to use that on the air somewhere.

Excellent post.

[videokilledtheradiostar]

Good lord, we have people selling radio who have never sold radio, or anything else, before and no one is training these people how to sell radio.  That's as bad as putting people on the air who barely know the way to sell radio on the air as a talent.
[/quote]
How about sending Acct Execs (who by the way wouldn't know which end of the microphone to talk into) to cover local elections because the News Director is the one man show of the News Department. In the end the show always goes on no matter how lame the production. Thanks to corporations gobbling up the local stations and making them bird feeders

[bernzee]

Don't misunderstand me; there's no way I would place the blame for the sad state of our business on talent. I'd be shooting myself in the foot. Those of us who have been blessed with very long successful careers in broadcasting abhor the devaluation of "personalities" in the marketplace.  On the other hand, a bucket full of "used to be's" doesn't change the way things are now.  It is what it is.  It may not be like it used to be and it certainly isn't the way we'd WANT it to be but, at the end of the day, that's just the way it is.  Nobody has to like it; everybody has to deal with it. Sad.

[videokilledtheradiostar]

Radio should be progressing in many ways. Yet it seems to be regressing with corporate suits calling all the shots.