Clear Channel Freeze

[djdan]

What do the cuts in spending by Clear Channel mean for radio here?  Will other companies follow suit as first quarter shapes up to be pretty bleak?  I was struck by the depth of the Clear Channel cuts: promotion, marketing, advertising, research, people and pay.   We have heard rumors of two other major chains looking at the same cuts and freeze.   Seems ironic that Clear Channel cuts advertising first.  How can radio expect to convince businesses in recession to keep advertising when it is the first thing cut by our own business?

[spectacle]

Seems ironic that Clear Channel cuts advertising first.  How can radio expect to convince businesses in recession to keep advertising when it is the first thing cut by our own business?

Very GOOD point!

But the conditions we have today we have only 1996 to thank. A year where the FCC made the most socialist decision in it's history ruining radio forever and allowing artificial life support to save the apparently "imperiled" radio industry.

Which resulted in weak stations staying alive to clutter the band, validate the idea of cost cutting to make profits, and destroy creative innovation through free market competition. So like any 5th rate socialist country we have a mediocre and failing radio broadcast industry with virtually no growth according to a statement published by Inside Radio just weeks ago.

Viva la FCC! Now get out there and make that IBOC AM work!

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

But the conditions we have today we have only 1996 to thank. A year where the FCC made the most socialist decision in it's history ruining radio forever and allowing artificial life support to save the apparently "imperiled" radio industry.

I'd point the finger first at lobbying organizations ... which would have, as first in line, NAB.

In those days some guy from Texas with a few radio stations got WAYYYY involved with the NAB and they loved him.  Lowry Mays by name.  He went to DC with NAB and convinced all them leg-is-la-----tors that all this change was absolutely necessary for Telecom, and oh yeah, they also need a few changes to radio as long as "adjustments" were in the works.  After all that went down, Mr. Mays from Texas had very little to do with NAB any more ... he had other issues on his plate with lots and lots of quick acquisitions.

A few years ago Bill Clinton addressed R&R convention and told the audience that had people explained to him the impact the Telecom Bill would have had on Radio industry he never would have let it go all the way through.

And now this week ... the little ol' boy from Texas is going to be getting his payoff; and all the people in his organization are dealing with all them there "cuts".

[Old Yeller]

....and what will the reaction be if the numbers go UP after this latest initiative?

[cranky1]

Dan's got a point, "We're cutting advertising and promotions here but go to the Ford dealer (who just had the worst year in their history) and convince him he needs to spend an extra 10 percent with us so he doesn't lose market share." Most local advertisers these days will see right thru that and now expect a 15 percent decrease in their rate.

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

I'm with you guys on the mixed messages from radio....

so maybe it's time to take the "convergence" issues SERIOUSLY (instead of just making panels at conventions and using them for money-generating seminars, etc.) and actually DO things that channel the audience toward an advertiser through whatever means/approach is most appropriate for that particular relationship?  Gotta cut rate??  Then make a creative online campaign ... and maybe use the lower on-air to solidify the big fish relationships so they stay with you in better times; or use the low rate to cultivate new relationships that have a shot at paying off down the road.

But, we just seem dead-focused on the avail sheet, the quarterly reports, etc. and in the BIG picture the game piece never advances.  We have incredible audience relationships and communities that can deliver awareness to businesses who want it.  It's not JUST about the 30's and 60's as a means of reaching that community.

[18andlife]

"When times are good you should advertise.  When times are bad you MUST advertise." 

That's the stock answer every sales rep uses when a client says times are tough and they ain't got the cash to spend.  I've been doing this for a long time and like you other folks have always gotten way beyond aggravated when stations cut promotions budgets.  Because if they really believed that saying...

But it's the way it's been since time and memorial.