Rochester Numbers Winter '12

[Bob1370]

"The gutting of news stations began long before the Internet took hold, before the growth of broadband, and before newspapers got into the on-line game in any meaningful way."

And the Arbitron numbers for the TSL of stations that did that also took a tumble as well, with bad results for both AQH and revenue. As Casey Stengel used to say, you could look it up...

[TheBigA]

I'm just puzzled why you bother to post on all these radio boards when you don't really consume the product, or care about it.

Because I work in the radio business.  I have for a long time.  And I know BS when I hear it, and you're full of it.  I care a lot about the product, and don't see any connection between caring about product and hiring large staffs.  I used to hear the same BS from the union guys who insisted we needed five people in a room to do a 3 minute radio news cast.  What a pile of crap.  We used to have a producer, engineer, writer, director, and reader.  The only real person working was the reader.  Today, you don't even need the reader.

I don't need a large staff to get great work done, and I prove it every day. 

[TheBigA]

And the Arbitron numbers for the TSL of stations that did that also took a tumble as well, with bad results for both AQH and revenue. As Casey Stengel used to say, you could look it up...

First of all, TSL numbers didn't go down by much, in fact it went up at quite a few.  One of the hallmarks of the Howard Stern ratings was he had huge TSL, but average cume.  Most talk shows have the same thing.  Music took a hit because music became more fragmented.  Second of all, anyone who did any amount of research into the numbers will tell you it had nothing to do with the amount of money spent doing local news.  It had more to do with other far more important things competing for the users' attention, like family, work, TV, video games, and local activities.  As I've been saying, you can double or triple the budgets of radio stations, hire more people, but it won't get me to stop spending time with my family.

[JustPastBuffalo]

Brad Riter made a valiant charge on WECK, but the station was miscast and inadequately funded to compete with WGR and/or WBEN. News-talk, as we know, requires manpower, hard resources and promotion, all of which is capital intensive.

So in the end, even with the owners "gutting" stations, cutting budgets and staff, it's still not enough to level the playing field for smaller owners?  How much of a head start do they need?

WECK, a news-talk/sports-talk turnaround with 1kW on 1230 challenged WBEN, a 5 kW heritage on 930. WBEN may have downsized its newsroom but it still had more manpower, cash, cache and cachet than did WECK. (Nowhere did I write the word "gutting." Be careful.) The first two rounds may have been even, but the fight was a mismatch and was called by the fifth. Even a person with your background and experience would have found it a daunting fight.

[TheBigA]

Even a person with your background and experience would have found it a daunting fight.

You have no clue about the battles I have fought and won.  I've taken on greater Golliaths in far larger markets and won.  And did it with a smaller budget.  But I agree that a 1K AM today isn't going to cut it. 

[SirRoxalot]

Actually, TSL has declined steadily since the 80s. You might want to check some actual facts for a change:

http://www.markramseymedia.com/2008/11/radio-tsl-drops-again/

Note that this was long before the impact of the Internet, MP3 players, or other "new" media - and continued as the reliance on consultants and pre-packaged programming were embraced by GMs from the sales side of the house who were looking for ways to work around the need for those pesky talent guys. LMAs and other "creative" solutions rammed through the FCC allowed the consolidators to ramp up their march toward mediocrity from the late 80s onward until the floodgates opened with the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

BTW, please do point us toward this marvelous station that you own/operate/oversee or whatever. We'd like to judge your fabulous product for ourselves, and we're willing to be impressed by your spectacular history of ratings success.

[TheBigA]

Actually, TSL has declined steadily since the 80s. You might want to check some actual facts for a change:
 

Those are national figures.  If radio is really a local medium, then quoting national TSL figures are more useless than 6+ ratings.

Show me TSL on WHAM if you want to impress someone.

But as I've said many times, if TSL was already dropping in the 80s, before all the debt and VT and cutbacks, then obviously those things didn't cause it.  What that TSL drop corresponds with is the over-licensing of the spectrum caused by Docket 80-90.  Too many radio stations diluting the marketplace.  Multiple stations competing in the same format, causing listeners to switch among several stations.  Too much other media, and TV entering the music distribution business.  That's what that graph shows.

[SirRoxalot]

How about if you show us anything - any study, any example - that conclusively proves that you're right?

Obviously, it's illegal to quote Arbitron's protected numbers for any specific station here, but you simply choose not to believe facts presented others anyway. Those of us who lived through the changes in radio over the last 30 years have a pretty good understanding of what happened. We also see on a local basis who bought into the "new" radio concepts, and who maintained quality programming over a longer period of time - and typically benefitted from it. We've seen everything from the Superstars format of the '70s to Jack come and go, maybe make a splash for a few books, then fade into oblivion. 

[TheBigA]

How about if you show us anything - any study, any example - that conclusively proves that you're right?

If you don't want to believe me, you don't have to respond.  Just ignore.  I promise I won't be insulted.

[SirRoxalot]

Not to worry. We'll just value your comments according to your track record and ability to back up your POV.