I have read so many posts and had so many emails re: the Bay Area talent, who now find themselves without jobs...I thought perhaps we could start a new thread. Being from Tampa...having worked this market for many years prior to going overseas in 2000... I don't remember a time, when so many "big names" have been without work. I think it's a sad day for the market (even though it's happening everywhere)... Perhaps it's a legit cost-cutting effort by the broadcasters...but I have seen more than a few surveys, which indicate listeners don't like voice tracking and/or jukeboxed formats. Anyone want to add their comments? If I want a juke box...I'll use an IPOD or play my fav CD's. Sidebar: I wonder how stations like WMNF (which are presumably live most of the time) stand to benefit (if at all) from some of the changes "up the dial"? Or will people keep listening "just for the music"?
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Unemployed Air Talent
- Thread starter David Sharp
- Start date
M
MsMusicRadio
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You know I agree. I have friends who listen to nothing but WMNF and WUSF. They are bored and disgusted by the other stations lackluster deliveries. I was a WMNF volunteer and they have news off the bird, but the music is live by people who like what they play.
WMNF - 88.5 does some locally produced local news; I'm not sure how long they've been doing this, but I discovered it by accident about a month ago, but they have a news block at 6pm that lasts at least 15 minutes and since it isn't riddled with commercials, that equivalent to about 22.5 minutes of local news on a commercial station!
My terrestrial radio listening habits have come to just listening to WUSF 89.7 and sometime to WMNF, but mostly to XM.
Several times a month I'm a little further north than St. Petersburg and there I listen to 640 AM, WVLG, the Villages, which is the best of the 50's, 60's and 70's (their d.j.'s are seem to be in semi-retirement from some the big n.e. radio stations) and WJUF 90.1 (University of Florida).
A restaurant I go to once a week, used to play Oldies 108 (WSRZ), then about a year or so ago, they switched to Q-105, then about a month ago, they switched to the Dove, WDUV 105.5. That's the only commercial radio listening I do when in St. Petersburg, other than dx'ing.
Good luck to the newly unemployed and good luck to those laid off in earlier times; hope everyone that wants to stay in radio can, but it looks bleak; hopefully the upper management in the big radio corporations will realize that by letting many talented and dedicated people go, "they are killing the goose that laid the golden egg".
drt
My terrestrial radio listening habits have come to just listening to WUSF 89.7 and sometime to WMNF, but mostly to XM.
Several times a month I'm a little further north than St. Petersburg and there I listen to 640 AM, WVLG, the Villages, which is the best of the 50's, 60's and 70's (their d.j.'s are seem to be in semi-retirement from some the big n.e. radio stations) and WJUF 90.1 (University of Florida).
A restaurant I go to once a week, used to play Oldies 108 (WSRZ), then about a year or so ago, they switched to Q-105, then about a month ago, they switched to the Dove, WDUV 105.5. That's the only commercial radio listening I do when in St. Petersburg, other than dx'ing.
Good luck to the newly unemployed and good luck to those laid off in earlier times; hope everyone that wants to stay in radio can, but it looks bleak; hopefully the upper management in the big radio corporations will realize that by letting many talented and dedicated people go, "they are killing the goose that laid the golden egg".
drt
way to dig up a nearly 13 year old thread
Quite a few 'necro-threads' have been resurrected, indeed.
Here's what I've learned about air talent: If you're good at what you do, you'll never be unemployed. Because good air talent is always in demand. You just have to be willing to either reinvent yourself or move. Or both.
Here's an example from Tampa: Skip Mahaffey was an award-winning morning host at WQYK. Everyone in town knew him. He ruled the airwaves for many years on WQYK, and then on WFUS. Then things in Tampa dried up. He left town and found work in Tulsa and Dallas. Just like the main character of WKRP, if you ever wonder what ever became of Skip...he's still living on the air. Not in Cincinnati, but at K-Love, still doing mornings but playing Contemporary Christian music. As I said, you have to be willing to either reinvent yourself or move. Or both.
Here's an example from Tampa: Skip Mahaffey was an award-winning morning host at WQYK. Everyone in town knew him. He ruled the airwaves for many years on WQYK, and then on WFUS. Then things in Tampa dried up. He left town and found work in Tulsa and Dallas. Just like the main character of WKRP, if you ever wonder what ever became of Skip...he's still living on the air. Not in Cincinnati, but at K-Love, still doing mornings but playing Contemporary Christian music. As I said, you have to be willing to either reinvent yourself or move. Or both.
I see of/hear of air talent looking in a specific area.. and probably for good reasons, family, life committments.. theres one whos been posting in the allaccess situations wanted section whos like that.. been posting for years.. and i dont think has found a job
Radio as it existed in the 80’s or 90’s is on life support. Sure, a small number of stations are trying to make a go of it, but most have given up on local personalities and are just trying to make a minimal profit. I am not predicting radio will simply go away, but except for some rare larger market examples, most do not have local personalities any more. The medium has become background among all media. Not like this wasn’t predicted decades ago, but reality here in 2021 is pretty shocking.
You would be surprised how many stations outside the Top 100 markets still have local personalities.
And statistically, there are twice as many FM radio stations now than there were in the 80s. There are fewer AMs.
Most of the increase in FMs (other than translators) was due to Docket 80-90 which increased allocations and made stations both portable and allowed a change in class without competitive applications. In some markets, the number of stations was more than tripled, with no increase in market radio advertising dollars.
Hey David Great hearing from you. I recall the good old days with your ddsradio site. You did quite a bit of work documenting Tampa Bay Radio. Are you still in Australia? Tom S.
When the number of jobs decline precipitously, there will be - and are - many good jocks who are unemployed. In the average cluster, there are perhaps 5-6 on-air jobs spread over, say, 4 music stations. 25 years ago, those same four music stations probably had 20 on-air jobs, and that does not even include weekends. As such, this is a numbers thing. There are not enough jobs for all the good jocks out there.
You need to look beyond the conventional. There are fewer jobs on traditional radio but far more jobs in other places, such as Sirius and Apple Music. Everyone is trying to do what radio does. My example was Skip Mahaffey, who is now working at EMF. I'm sure he never thought about that ten years ago.
This, and be prepared to change your mindset of what it means to be a 'personality'. If you aren't social media savvy, able to promote the station and your show in other digital forms, then you won't last long. That may include producing unique digital content after any normal radio shift.
I am thinking only in terms of traditional radio. There are far fewer jobs in traditional radio that 25 years ago and beyond. Are there opportunities in other places and in other "non-traditional" media? Sure. But I also wonder if even accounting for the "far more jobs in other places," there are as many radio-related jobs as there were 25 years ago.
It depends what you consider "radio related." There are no promises or guarantees. There never were.
Very little anywhere is the same as it was 25 years ago.
I wanted to keep my commented limited to on-air traditional radio.
Very little might not be the same as it was 25 years ago. But take television. The latter has not seen the same precipitous loss of on-air jobs as radio.
There are fewer TV stations in every town, and on-air work is limited to local news. The majority of programming is either national network or syndicated. Local TV stations get paid by cable companies for using their content. If the talent market is better in TV, then go work in TV. That's what I mean by thinking beyond the traditional. Radio stations don't need people who know how to cue up records any more. If that's your main skill, that job has gone away.
Respectfully, sir, can't I just make my point without you arguing and constantly telling me that I am wrong? Is it not true that traditional on-air radio jobs have declined more than on-air TV jobs over the last 25 years?
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