Radio & Records: Over & Out

[JustPastBuffalo]

Radio & Records today announced that it will cease publication and shut down its website. The announcement came around less than 30 minutes ago, around 2:15 p.m.   For those who've been in the business for any length or time, R&R was the industry newspaper.  Back in the day, you waited for it to arrive in the mail and read it cover to cover to check the adds, the openings and the latest industry hype.

Unfortunately, the demise of R&R points to bigger issues and unanswered challenges in publishing and journalism.  Such irony.  Apparently, reporting on the broadcasting business has become as risky as the broadcasting business itself.  I wish the staff and those who will be out of work Godspeed and good luck.  Your hard work and efforts were appreciated by many and you will be missed.

[aaronread]

FWIW, the website is already dead and gone for me here at HWS's network.  I get a error page that says: Connection Interrupted : The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

Bummer.  But, with hindsight, not unexpected.  The entire broadcasting industry is flushed and swirling at the moment, and about the only good thing that can be said is that maybe we're not quite as doomed as newspapers are.     So why are we surprised that the ancillary businesses to radio/media are starting to go under as well?

[therealjm12]

I remember the days when the management/P. D. would hide R&R from us low lives so we couldn't check the help wanted ads.  By the time the issues got to us they were weeks old and the jobs had been long filled.  Still it is a sad passing for what was once the Bible of the industry.

[Mike Saffran]

It’s definitely a shame, but not all that surprising considering that Billboard parent VNU/Nielsen purchased R&R in 2006. Similar to GM’s jettisoning of the Pontiac line (also a shame), it would seem the company is discontinuing a somewhat duplicative product.

In addition, don't forget that Web sites such as this one, along with the related Taylor on Radio-Info e-newsletter—both of which didn't exist a decade ago—compete for much the same audience. So, there remains industry coverage, albeit by different media.

Plus, I believe radio-info.com has been, in general, a far superior Web site in recent years compared with radioandrecords.com. The latter improved somewhat following a recent redesign, but it still lacked the interactive “social media” component of this site‘s discussion boards—and that, in part, is also likely to blame for R&R’s overall demise.

Still, as one who shelled out the hefty $300+ for a personal one-year R&R subscription on a couple occasions—for the jobs back in the ’80s and for the news more recently—the former “bible” will, indeed, be missed. Hopefully some of its staff will be absorbed by Billboard.

[Steven21]

What a great place to go and dream about the big stations you'd one day like to work at.

"Street Talk" was my favorite section. I think R&R invented the word "crosstown".

Why doesn't somebody close down this internet so we can all get back to normal?

[Coldfinger]

The R&R website now re-directs visitors to the Billboard website. Visit the Billboard site and it's easy to understand why and how R&R was shut down by the parent company. Mike Saffran's post offers the essential reasons for R&R's demise and it's not hard to see a parallel to radio. For example: Two stations in a cluster have an overlap in formats even though the formats are not similar? Change formats on one of the stations. Slash the air staff. Curiously enough, one of the stories in the Billboard menu is titled Album Sales Down Nearly 30% in May. The music business is in upheaval, as are print and electronic media. Pick up the Buffalo news lately? It's suffering from advertising anemia.

Radio is substantially weaker today than it was a mere five years ago. Consider the fulltime personalities who no longer are on the air in fulltime capacities (or at all): Harv Moor, Tom Tiberi, Dan Neaverth, Mike McQueen, Paul Brenon, Jim Pastrick, Jay Moran, Gail Ann Huber, Cindy Chan, Anita West and many others. Traffic directors, promotion directors and out-of-market voice track artists cover airshifts for jocks who've been downsized. Without being nasty, most often these replacements are not as good as the people they've replaced. A year ago, vacations might have been covered by weekenders who are bonafide radio professionals. Budgets for part time employees have been slashed to save a mere $50 per weekend per station. 

Today just about anybody can do his own commercials and a pparently, just about anybody can be a jock. We see and hear it daily with clients shouting at us on radio and TV. The commercials are inferior, but what does it matter. The sale is made, the client is on the air, the sales person is happy and so is the sales manager. Not much is made of the product being degraded or the listeners who may be driven away as a result. Down-sizing, budget cuts and position eliminations have taken their toll across the board in print and electronic media. In many cases, bloggers have taken the place of journalists because anybody with a keyboard (like the posters here) or a website is considered *credible* or newsworthy.  It makes you wonder if anybody is paying attention and whether they care at all.

[Silkie]

a pparently, just about anybody can be a jock. We see and hear it daily with clients shouting at us on radio and TV.

In some cases it would seem to be so that just about anybody can be a jock, and those who should not be in the business also scream at their microphones.  Nobody cares about the station.

It makes you wonder if anybody is paying attention and whether they care at all.

We pay attention, and we care about our music; so we go where we like the music without the gamesmanship.

[t.j.]

WOW~~  I did not see that coming!! Sad state radio has become. What is next?? I used Radio and records to keep an eye on the ratings in all the markets. Does anybody know if Billboard will have a site on the web so we can still see the ratings? I know Billboard magazine used to print up the rating for the top 100 markets and print them in the magazine but they have not done that in years. I used to cut them out and save them. I have ratings numbers for the top 100 markets from 1984 to 1999.

T.J.

[yugoidar]

T.J. - you can find ratings under "Programming" on the home page of this site.  Also, at allaccess.com.

[SirRoxalot]

The best ratings presentation might be the "top line ratings" at the Arbitron website, arbitron.com.