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Can Clear Channel Sink Any Lower?

Front page says $400 million will be cut, discussion says 1000 employees. Can somebody donate a working calculator? Mine must be busted. No matter how many times I try to divide 400 million by 1000, it keeps coming up 400,000...and I know there isn't a lot of rank and file bringing home that kind of cash.

Giving everyone here the benefit of the doubt, I blame my device.
 
OK, here, apparently, is the real 411 on this story...and it isn't pretty.

"The company is also likely to move toward a "national programming" model that would require less local-level staffing...Sources said an initial round of layoffs is expected to commence next Tuesday - not coincidentally the same day President-elect Barack Obama is to be sworn into office."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01162009/business/clear_channel_plans_revamp_150374.htm

The article also states that: "A precise headcount for the layoffs could not be obtained." So we really don't know how many staff will be involved.

C5
 
I'm really wondering if the NY Post has any new info on the cuts or if they're pretty much regurgitating what's already been circulating on the radio boards?
 
gr8oldies said:
As far as doing the layoffs in order to "give the finger" to Obama, me thinks we're reading way more into it than neccesary.
Click to expand...

+1

End of thread. Some of you look way too much into the tiniest things.
 
CC has to get moving on sounding like Sirius before Sirius sinks. By cutting everything and everybody and going
national with six formats, will give them the edge they deserve. CC's 2009 is to kill all the radio stars. They "cost"
to much.
 
Long before deregulation, long before Rush, and long before Clear Channel, the Larry King Show was on 600 radio stations 7 hours a day, 7 days a week.
 
Dale Jackson said:
oaktree said:
The Wall Street Journal reported last night that cuts are to affect 1,500 employees, many in sales. Plus, the "nationalization" of programming ala Seacrest & Limbaugh, plus other Premiere programming. About a7% cut. Read the surly comments at the bottom of the story from CC.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB123214134302591501-lMyQjAxMDI5MzEyNjExNDYxWj.html
Click to expand...
Limbaugh is on 600 stations... that ship has sailed.
Click to expand...
Pre-Limbaugh you would have had roughly 600 people employed. Where is all the money that has been saved over the last 20 years for each of these individuals? I tend to think the industry would have been better off employing the 600 people, who then in turn would have spent their earned income back into the local economies. More than likely these kings of radio will keep the huge sums of money they make hidden away in some undisclosed bank. If a dollar doesn't circulate, its worthless. Ironically it seems the same thing is happening to the "bailout money" that we've been giving these super banks. Most seem to be hording this cash in their bank vaults. This will not help the economy either!
 
So, if everything is programmed from the iPod in the sky, what's the point of local stations at all?
Just listen to satrad, or your own ipod?

Maybe the FCC could soon consider the AM and FM bands to be "White Spaces".
 
kirkiefan said:
gr8oldies said:
It isn't the "stars" who are going to get cut.
Click to expand...


...of course not gr8...THEY have an agenda


HEIL LIMBAUGH!!!!!!
Click to expand...
What a reasonable and intelligent statement.

And what is their "agenda?"

Making money?

So Rush is the problem?
 
KyDXIn said:
Pre-Limbaugh you would have had roughly 600 people employed.
Click to expand...

The problem with this point of view is it assumes that any warm body in front of the microphone can do the same job. Interchangable parts. Lets just put a live & local body in front of a microphone, and he'll be able to deliver a ten share.

That is simply not the case. We know that it takes a special person with a unique approach to connect with an audience. Not everyone can do that, and for radio to survive, it needs to focus on the handful of people who have the ability to connect. I don't know exactly what the CC plan is, but I doubt they will eliminate ALL local talent. If it follows their past approach, it will be market by market, where certain people on certain stations are delivering a unique approach that is working. Not just plopping a warm live body in front of a mic and expecting magic to happen.
 
kenglish said:
So, if everything is programmed from the iPod in the sky, what's the point of local stations at all?
Just listen to satrad, or your own ipod?
Click to expand...

I don't really expect that to happen on all stations. Last time I checked, CC owned about 850 stations out of 14,000. And I don't expect all 850 to program by satellite.

Keep in mind that there are thousands of radio stations in this country that have been programmed by satellite from companies like Dial-Global (before that, Jones), ABC (the old satellite Music Network), and all the talk radio networks. This has been going on since network radio began in 1926.

I'm reading a lot of hand-wringing going on, as though radio was, at one time, all live and local, 24/7, and these corporations are ruining it. The truth is very different. The concept of national programming is one that goes back to the Golden Age of radio. When people think to the best radio ever created, it's the national programming from the big radio networks. This concept works today in cable and broadcast TV. It works in satellite radio. It works in the internet. There's no reason not to expand it on broadcast radio. It's not going to destroy the world. The cream will rise to the top, as it always does, and we'll see what happens.
 
KyDXIn said:
Pre-Limbaugh you would have had roughly 600 people employed. Where is all the money that has been saved over the last 20 years for each of these individuals?
Click to expand...

Uh, Rush is one of the few syndicated shows that is barter plus casth. The station pays money and gives up inventory. The decision, back when AM was looking for a saviour, was easy... today, there is a real cost involved and likely not that great a savings. In general, Rush has allowed many talk stations to prosper, and that prosperity has sustained many jobs.
 
KyDXIn said:
Pre-Limbaugh you would have had roughly 600 people employed. Where is all the money that has been saved over the last 20 years for each of these individuals? I tend to think the industry would have been better off employing the 600 people, who then in turn would have spent their earned income back into the local economies.
Click to expand...

I don't know how many people were put out of work by Rush being aired, but probably a lot less than 600. There are five stations I can get running Rush... four of them played music prior to Rush, the djs became board ops. The fifth substituted Rush for some other syndicated talk show. Later, some of those stations automated, but that was due to changes in technology, not Rush.
 
TheBigA said:
Long before deregulation, long before Rush, and long before Clear Channel, the Larry King Show was on 600 radio stations 7 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Click to expand...

And long before Larry King, hundreds upon hundreds of stations played music from automation tapes, shipped in from Bonneville, TM, BPI, etc.
Plus all the stations airing from disc Casey Kasem and Bob Kingsley on weekends. NBC Monitor filled up a big chunk of weekends on some stations.

From the 20s into the 50s, the bulk of many station's schedules came down the network line from CBS, NBC Red & Blue, MBS.
 
DavidEduardo said:
KyDXIn said:
Pre-Limbaugh you would have had roughly 600 people employed. Where is all the money that has been saved over the last 20 years for each of these individuals?
Click to expand...

Uh, Rush is one of the few syndicated shows that is barter plus casth. The station pays money and gives up inventory. The decision, back when AM was looking for a saviour, was easy... today, there is a real cost involved and likely not that great a savings. In general, Rush has allowed many talk stations to prosper, and that prosperity has sustained many jobs.
Click to expand...
THIS!

And not only in the talk format. We all know every cluster has dogs, rarely is it the talk station with Rush in middays, and Rush's success supports those dogs as well.
 
I remember when the Clear Channel folks bought one of the stations that I had worked for. It was an AM/FM combo with a long history of news and local involvement. The first thing that they did was fire anyone on the staff who had been there for more than a year or so. The second thing was remove the 50 or so years of awards and citations for service from the walls and throw them in the dumpster. It was obvious to me then that they were just buying sticks, not stations.

While there have always been syndicated and network programming services available to stations, there was always the requirement for "local" programming. I believe what will happen is that local programming such as Morning Drive and News will be replaced with a networked regional or national morning show with "local" dropins as supplied by some regional "news center" and delivered to the automation. This will happen in all but the largest markets and even to 2nd tier stations in large markets.

There may be one or two fill-in people per cluster in case of local emergency. But, true local programming will be gone in all but the largest markets. I can only hope that I am wrong, otherwise this will be the future of radio. Just one more step toward irrelevance.
 
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