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Are we headed toward a new age for network radio?

J

jetfli

Once the dust settles on the Citadel-ABC deal, are we headed toward a new age for network radio? We will see corporate radio re-align their station portfolios with content generated by the networks they own in order to keep dollars in-house? Will we see clusters of branded formats?

Think about how the biggest players are now poised: Citadel with its ABC network, Clear Channel with its Premiere network, CBS Radio with its CBS (Infinity) network, etc. Cumulus, although not identified as having a network per se, is shopping programs by talk hosts at its various stations to other stations in its chain. All of these huge players have both program and format content available.

I can easily see a scenario in which corporate-owned stations start to reel in content to their owned stations as contracts start to run out, ushering in a whole new definition of a radio network. Anyone else see this coming?
 
Hmmmmm... actually I never considered such a thing but you've got me thinking.... it just could be couldn't it? Great post! Thanks.
 
Some of this is already being done. Clear Channel has taken Limbaugh off competitors and moved the show to stations they own.

Salem is also doing some interesting things, with their "Fish" CCM format on FMs they own, plus the "Patriot" lineup of conservative talk shows on several of their AMs. (These shows are also syndicated to stations they don't own.) Salem does operate its own more traditional network, SRN, with hourly newscasts, actuality feeds, sports updates, etc. It seems to be aimed only for religious stations. And Salem has three 24/7 satellite music formats.
 
The New Age Will Come - Right After the Crash

How about CBS/Infinity, with their roll-out of Jack and Free-FM?

Shades of the the old NBC (in the) Red Network, a/k/a "Let's make terrestrial radio sound like satellite - but WITH COMMERCIALS!"

There will be a new age of terrestrial radio - right after some of the big groups crash and burn in the fires of their own excess. Once station prices drop to levels where local operators can afford to get back into the the game, selling local commercials at reasonable rates, radio will be reborn.
 
Been sayin' this for YEARS. Radio stations will eventually be like TV stations. ABC affiliates all have Desperate Housewives, Sunday at 9. Similarly, every CHR that a company owns will carry a certain program at a certain time (I figured this when CC trademarked the name "KISS" - they're the company with the clout to carry out this scheme first). No locality other than news/weather/traffic and of course, commercials. Save a helluva lot on talent. Board ops would be the norm just like master control ops at TV stations. Sure it's coming...maybe farther down the road, but it's coming. When you think of it, that's all satellite radio is - the same channels, available no matter where - they just don't use on-the-ground facilities to rebroadcast.
 
Its happened already. Look at Radio Disney, ESPN Radio, Fox Sports, Sporting News Radio. Disney has purchased stations all over America and made them Radio Disney outlets. The have purchased some for ESPN. Meanwhile the others are working to be full-time format providers. You used to cherry pick an ESPN show or SNR show, but today, its hard to hear one without the host promoting another show. Their business model is for a fulltime format.

I suspect you will see it happen more and more each day.
 
It has happened on a large scale in many countries. When I lived in Spain, the majority of the stations were running national or regional networks with less local content than the typical satellite network here. Where I lived in Seville (pop. 700,000), there were just a couple of low powered FM's that served the city only. Travel 50 miles away to a smaller city, and you could find many of the same networks on different frequencies. Newspapers were much the same, with 3 or 4 national papers that had editions for different parts of the country.
 
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