Not how, but why SF radio is messed up
> Definitely! Amen on the rant. I am actually a kid in a white
> t-shirt and shorts (no suit for me) in Boston...I am DYING
> to see a CHR-Top 40 in San Fran. I want to see it so bad,
> you have no idea. It makes no sense for a MAJOR MARKET not
> to have a CHR.
>
> Boston has it. Small markets have AT LEAST one. LA, NY. Cmon
> guys!
>
> Oh, and if anyone flips, lemme know, im gunna send a tape...
>
>
> (Alice...cough cough)
>
> > > > I know that 1 person ranting on some stupid radio
> > > > board won't make changes over nite, but I know that
> some
> >
> > > > people in radio feel the same way as I do, and they
> are
> > > > probably the people who could make changes if they
> > wanted
> > > > too, but don't because a format change could mean they
>
> > are
> > >
> > > > out of a job, making big bucks doing absolutely
> nothing
> > > and
> > > > getting paid for it.
> > >
> > > Ladies and gentlemen, I have identified
> "only1deejayman".
> > >
> > > He is, in actuality, Dennis Miller.
> > >
> >
> > Hahahahaha, that is great!
> >
> > However, I think he's right.
> >
> > only1deejayman I have the answer. The PD in 2005 does not
>
> > program a radio station. Men (and women I'm sure) in
> black
> > suits do it from thousands of miles away.
> >
> > Mystery solved. A+ on the rant. That was Quality!
> >
>
Definition of a Bay Area PD with enough guts to pitch CHR to corporate: A PD who isn't afraid to lose his job.
You know anyone who wants to lose his job in a business with a shrinking job market? Wise up. Crudely put, programmers don't care about the audience, they care about #1, themselves. If not, they could end up in some very deep #2.
Can you blame them? It's very easy to be cavalier about someone else's job but if it were you, would you lobby the idea of a CHR to the suits? Would you convince them to spend millions on talent, marketing and the rest knowing that market history is against you? And if it failed a year later, would you be willing to lose your six-figure PD gig when the suits decide who to blame?
That's a pretty compelling reason why it doesn't happen. The PD at Alice is NOT changing the format. Don't be stupid. Outside of KCBS, it's the most stable station in the cluster. Despite it's unimpressive 12+ numbers (only a fool goes by them), the station continues to bill well. You wanna throw out that revenue and pour money down a black hole with CHR, the most expensive format to operate? And if it tanks, you've not only blown millions on a failure, you've lost all that earning power you had when you were just an aloof sounding Hot AC.
Consider the audience CHR attracts: teens and 20-somethings. With the operating costs of CHR in a major market, that's a lot of money going out, and not alot coming in through generated sales revenue... unless you're big on annuals that everyone fights for: beverage, movies, TV and concerts. Okay, you get the pimple medicine all to yourself. Auto dealers? Major retailers? Not really. The first formats for consideration are almost always the ones that attract money demos. If you're 24, that ain't you.
That's not a prediction, that's a perception. It's the perception corporate has, that many managers and even PDs have: CHR isn't cost effective. You won't change that mindset by arguing your love for top 40 or arguing that the market hasn't had a real CHR since since George Bush was a cokehead. They don't care. In fact, they'll just point to precedent, much like a lawyer does. SF has a colorful history of CHRs that failed --don't even try, they won't care why those stations failed. In fact, this many years later, everyone has their own version of why they failed. They're not interested. They just know what failed.
Add the red flag of a changing demographic from white to brown in much of the 9-county metro along with the success of Spanish radio and your dream gets that much closer to being a pipe dream.
The same logic (or lack thereof) applies to air talent, and by air talent, we're talking morning drive --no offense to DJs but outside of night jocks on CHRs, and stations that have a busier, high content afternoon drive shift, most air talent is interchangable and expendable to corporate, and they've got the voicetracking to prove it. Where are you going to get a morning show? Forget the Doghouse, diehards. Find a morning show anywhere that's worth its salt and see how hard it is to get them to leave. If there's a solid product in Charlotte or Columbus, OH, why would those people with family roots and years of market equity just up and leave just because it's a bigger market? In today's industry climate? That's just as big a risk as going CHR is to corporate. Companies like Clear Channel and Infinity have shown no evidence of backing air talent with money and time, or most important of all, faith and loyalty. Who, in their right mind, would put their trust in those people? C'mon, this board constantly bashes programming decisions in the market. If you had a good gig and a nice life in Tucson, AZ, would you come work for anyone here?
This is an industry that sold out its future for the sake of the dollar. We all know the countless arguments, complaints, predictions and theories about how the industry would soon be without young talent that got groomed doing overnights, or perhaps nights. Drive around and listen to talent in Stockton, Chico or Monterey --adequate at best, but nothing that's been getting polished by a competent programming who knows how to coach talent (and there are fewer such PDs that can coach talent because, like DJs, that job pool has also shrunk considerably in the last 10 years).
A guy from, say, Colorado Springs would gladly make the jump to San Francisco, but he's likely to suck. Oh, he's killer in Colorado Springs, and could probably make the jump to Denver because it's relatively local, but a lot of that has to do with his equity, and the comfort fact the listeners have with him --they've "known him for years," etc. New face, new attitude, new product in a new market? Very tough to do today. Management doesn't have the patience to wait... or the money. Strawberry would NEVER had been hired had he been pitching himself from Colorado Springs. He got hired because he was in the building and was a known quantity. That in itself is a whole other basket of headaches. PDs live in fear of hiring the wrong guy --a prima donna, or a guy with a hot demo, a good line of b.s. but absolutely nothing of a morning show when he finally steps in. THEN what does a programmer do? He does NOT wanna call corporate and say, "Well, that morning show we hired, the one I thought we should hire. Turns out they sucked and we have to hire another one." Now you've got a station on the air and no morning show? Jesus, someone hand me a gun. They'll try a hundred Strawberries before going with an outsider, even if he's far more talented. If you don't think so, imagine how many demos a station gets hit with every week, let alone during an intense period of trying to replace the previous morning show. You can be sure there was some very good talent sent material; in fact, some pretty good talent was probably courted. In the end, what did they do? They went the easy route. That's not a slam on Strawberry, not at all. But that is the reality.
And let's not even get into the mess of trying to hire two guys from one market and a female from another market (a risk Wild is currently taking, albeit it a calculated one). Chemistry is everything on a morning show and it's always a roll of the dice if you've got three complete strangers in a room trying to make it work. In CHR, they need to be off and running right out of the gate. Speedbumps like personality problems are a luxury you just can't afford.
Someone may come along and figure these problems out. People thought AM radio was dead 15 years ago, and they thought CHR was dead 25 years ago. The 80s happened to CHR, the 90s to AM radio. The biggest change since then is the corporate culture, which also happens to be the biggest problem and one much tougher to solve.
Someone on another board wrote that he was glad he's been out of this business, and he'll stick with satellite radio. Satellite may prove to be radio's toughest battle, FM in particular, but frankly, all I can say to that person is, good riddance. Dylan Thomas sends his regards. This thread was started with a post that seemed to me to be just the same guy whining again about his damned CHR, but I'd rather go to bat with him than someone who's decide to just give up. I hope you get your wish.
