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CLEAR CHANNEL BACK TO THEIR SAME FOUL TRICKS
- Thread starter joshzz
- Start date
I have noticed that your comments althou accurate to a degree seem to have a feeling like they were read from a book (just an observation) and yes mine might be colored by seeing them thru the eyes of people that were really there and of course they each have their own opion to add also which changes things too. On the RCA thing in 1986 RCA was in the process of filing chapter 11 papers on parts of their company when General Electric and them came to a deal for the merger but that is another thread. As I mentioned if my sister could have moved she would have done it right away but the problems that she had to deal with made that impossible and there was simply no other choice, stay and look for another job. My point being was that when a company as large as CC controls the entire market in an area that sometimes hurts the industy in different ways. You really never know who might be a potentially great DJ, reporter, CEO, PD, ect.. when a market is closed due to one company's control that has the resources to pull people from all over the country and never give anybody new a chance then how do you expect an industry to keep going as people age and get older. That may not be a problem right now as so many people are laided off in the broadcast industry right now but as you said in your post things change. Without the mom and pop run stations that were once out there and the ones that remain how do you expect anyone new to get a start at all, how many people reading this got their start in a small mom and pop type station? I am not saying CC is bad they just don't need any bigger stake in any one market and that goes for any of the other companies that have reached their limit.
Gatekeeper007 said:
I think you're missing the point. CC and other bigger companies want to get out of small market radio. That leaves a lot more room for mom & pop radio. Two problems: There are no "mom & pops" with money, resources, or knowledge to run radio. And those small companies that currently exist are running their stations with fewer employees and less imagination than the big companies. Don't try compare things now to how it used to be. Those days are over. Bringing back mom & pop won't bring back the past, or create jobs for people.
If Clear Channel wants to raise ownership limits, and I'm not saying that is a good idea, how about adding the following conditions:
1). If limits are raised, there cannot be an inequity in the amount of stations per band. For example, if the limit is 6 stations per market, a maximum of 3 can be FM and 3 can be AM. No more 4 FMs and 2 AMs. If it's 10 stations, then 5 and 5, etc. This would eliminate the large groups from disregarding the AM band and, possibly revitalize the AM band.
2). AMs should be allowed to reasonably increase power. It's ridiculous that some clear channel (small Caps) stations broadcast to 30 states while local broadcasters cannot cover their own markets. 50kw AMs do not deserve protection.
3). Stations need to have live station personnel at least 4 hours per day exclusively on that station and clusters need to be staffed 24/7.
4). All foreign language broadcasted stations are limited to 4 hours of non-English programming per day (has nothing to do with CC but it's a rule that should be enforced - if Quebec can limit the amount of non-French broadcasting, why can't we limit the amount of non-English broadcasting?).
Just some thoughts.
1). If limits are raised, there cannot be an inequity in the amount of stations per band. For example, if the limit is 6 stations per market, a maximum of 3 can be FM and 3 can be AM. No more 4 FMs and 2 AMs. If it's 10 stations, then 5 and 5, etc. This would eliminate the large groups from disregarding the AM band and, possibly revitalize the AM band.
2). AMs should be allowed to reasonably increase power. It's ridiculous that some clear channel (small Caps) stations broadcast to 30 states while local broadcasters cannot cover their own markets. 50kw AMs do not deserve protection.
3). Stations need to have live station personnel at least 4 hours per day exclusively on that station and clusters need to be staffed 24/7.
4). All foreign language broadcasted stations are limited to 4 hours of non-English programming per day (has nothing to do with CC but it's a rule that should be enforced - if Quebec can limit the amount of non-French broadcasting, why can't we limit the amount of non-English broadcasting?).
Just some thoughts.
So what, the government should mandate that someone be sitting in a control room playing solitaire 24/7? There really is no purpose in that. radio station automation can now be controlled with an iPhone, even to put emergency announcements on the air.
Last I knew, Clear Channel was not the only owner in Lexington.
Last I knew, Clear Channel was not the only owner in Lexington.
nolaradiobuff said:
If big groups are bad, why do you want them to revitalize AM? Why not do more of what CC is doing, and donate AMs to minorities and non-profits? Bring new blood in.
nolaradiobuff said:
The reason this change was made was to allow more localized radio. To reverse this change will mean a lot of smaller, more localized AMs will have to shut down.
nolaradiobuff said:
Government mandated staffing is partly what ended passenger rail service in parts of this country. Owners need a reason to take a risk buying a radio station. More regulations and forced staffing won't help. The companies it hurts the most are the small ones you want to encourage.
nolaradiobuff said:
Because we are the land of the free.
nolaradiobuff said:
I spent most of my broadcasting years in SMALL MARKETS. I recently spent about six years trying to match myself up with a station and a market where I could be the owner operator. You will not find anyone on this discussion forum with more passion to make small market radio vital and thriving than me.
But I find your list of proposals a bit scary. They would do more to prohibit mom-and-pop from thriving than prohibiting major corporate owned groups from thriving.
Think harder. Think smarter.
nolaradiobuff said:
There is no way to revitalize what is increasingly obsolete. Using "coverage with a usable signal of at least 80% of a market day and night" as a definition of being competitively viable, there are less than 200 commercially viable AMs in the top 100 markets.
A few, like NY, CHicago, LA, San Francisco, have three or more. Some, like DC, have none. There's no way to force buyers to take damaged goods, and there is no way to "revitalize" AM when there are so few useful facilities. In any event, two generations of AMericans have grown up with little or no knowledge of AM, and to that group the band is irrelevant.
Nobody believes the 30-state hype any more. The service area for a former 1-A clear channel is a couple of hundred miles, and there are only 25 of those out of 4700 AM stations. And the use for higher power AM is to be able to be heard in today's noisy markets where a 12 to 15 mV/m singal is necessary to even get listened to.
When the FCC granted Class IV stations 1 kw at night, it actually reduced their effective coverage in most cases.
You probably have a buggy whip in your car, just in case.
Why would this help? You know that what would happen is that minimum wagers would be put in to overnight shifts and they would simply sit around and browse the web. As to "live" we probably had more stations, as a percentage, fully automated in the 70's than we do today. Some formats beg to not have announcers...
As Big A said, there are constitutional issues in play here and this could not be done.
In any case, why are millions and millions of recent generation immigrants and their children to be deprived of the music and content they enjoy. Just because a person has lived here for 10, 20 years does not mean they develop a taste for Aerosmith or George Strait. (I've been here 18 years now, and most music in English still sounds like a garbage disposal to my ears, but I delight in hearing a Ruben Blades or Héctor Lavoe song...). Are you saying those that like the music of their heritage and culturally more focused news and sports are not deserving of the same service other large groups of Americans get?
Ok, I guess I'm wrong.
As to the mom & pops, many of them provide local service and are live a portion of the day already. I was refering to large clusters. If someone owns 4-6-10 stations in a market, how can requiring one person to be in the building capable of operating the stations be bad?
1). AM is declining, but it is not obsolete. Many stations are competitive and can be competitive for some time.
2). Here in New Orleans, WWL brags everyday that it reaches 37 states. Why should a station in New Orleans, impede a station in Shelbyville, IL? That's an antiquated rule.
3). I'm against big government but, something is clearly wrong when emergencies occur and there is no one manning a cluster of stations. I'm not talking about a 2am train crash, although that is a viable arguement. What about severe weather on the weekends? Auto accidents tying up the Interstate? Police emergencies? Again, here in New Orleans, Clear Channel owns 5FMs and 2AMs and Citadel owns 4FMs. All are automated on the weekends without any personnel in the building. How is this good for radio and good for listeners? How is this in the public interest or public service?
4). I have no problem with foreign music but, the airwaves are licensed by the government and, I'm sorry, but we are an English-speaking country. If immigrants want to come here, they should assimilate. How can they assimilate if we allow foreign language broadcasts? A station in Texas was leased to a Chinese Broadcasting Company. Their programming is brought in via satellite from Shanghai. They are spreading their propaganada and, yes, one broadcaster is making money from this. But, it's not right.
As to the mom & pops, many of them provide local service and are live a portion of the day already. I was refering to large clusters. If someone owns 4-6-10 stations in a market, how can requiring one person to be in the building capable of operating the stations be bad?
1). AM is declining, but it is not obsolete. Many stations are competitive and can be competitive for some time.
2). Here in New Orleans, WWL brags everyday that it reaches 37 states. Why should a station in New Orleans, impede a station in Shelbyville, IL? That's an antiquated rule.
3). I'm against big government but, something is clearly wrong when emergencies occur and there is no one manning a cluster of stations. I'm not talking about a 2am train crash, although that is a viable arguement. What about severe weather on the weekends? Auto accidents tying up the Interstate? Police emergencies? Again, here in New Orleans, Clear Channel owns 5FMs and 2AMs and Citadel owns 4FMs. All are automated on the weekends without any personnel in the building. How is this good for radio and good for listeners? How is this in the public interest or public service?
4). I have no problem with foreign music but, the airwaves are licensed by the government and, I'm sorry, but we are an English-speaking country. If immigrants want to come here, they should assimilate. How can they assimilate if we allow foreign language broadcasts? A station in Texas was leased to a Chinese Broadcasting Company. Their programming is brought in via satellite from Shanghai. They are spreading their propaganada and, yes, one broadcaster is making money from this. But, it's not right.
nolaradiobuff said:
In following all the chatter about 2A.M. train crases, floods and everything else, it may be that head-in-the-sand LOCAL government may be the biggest contributor to lack of effective catastrophe information on local radio.
I had some head-to-head contact with a local sheriff three years ago who would not let his people give out any information until he personally reviewed it. If it was a weekend and something happened and he chose not to come into the office, you could not get SQUAT until sometime Monday when he cleared his in-box.
nolaradiobuff said:
There has to be 193 variations of opinions on this politically hot topic. Following your line of thought we should all be speaking the language of the Choctaw, the Cherokee, the the Apache, etc, etc.
Down in your part of the country I believe there are stations broadcasting in some bent version of English as spoken by the Cajun people. What department of big government (which you have indicated you don't like) will be the language police deciding how much liberty a broadcaster can take with English before it fails to meet the standards of the English language?
I remember hearing a rumor that our Constitution provides for free speech. That rumor did not indicate that we were only free to exercise that right in English.
There are ways to get severe weather and emergency info on the air other than having a kid babysit and play video games all night. As for the language thing, both parties are scared crapless about illegal immigration with those against open borders being branded racist. First politician who proposes a limit on Spanish programming will be declared a bigot in 2 seconds
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
I agree. What people don't seem to understand is that 9/11 changed everything with regards to disaster coverage. Specifically, the federal government created the Homeland Security Department that took change in all matters regarding emergencies. Broadcasters were simply to provide assistance if called upon. But broadcasters CANNOT go on the air and formulate emergency plans or tell the public anything that hasn't been approved by local disaster officials. So putting radio employees in a building for the pupose of providing emergency information is not part of the procedure. Certainly charging a board op with that responsibility is not a good idea. The fact is we all carry phones today, and we're all easily accessable if an emergency occurs to go into the station. The government doesn't staff 24/7 for emergencies, and neither should private businesses.
Goat - Cajun is a deriviative of French and it is extremely limited and non-existent in media markets. There are no Cajun/French stations in New Orleans and only a couple of remote stations even play Cajun music and some only for a few hours on the weekend.
There was a station about 10-15 years in a suburb of Lafayette that played Cajun music and had bilingual news casts. As that generation has died off, there's no market.
Hispanics have not assimilated and will not assimilate. It makes no sense to me why we continue to placate them. And, yes, if the Choctaws were the majority, I probably would be speaking Choctaw.
I also strongly object to a station in America receiving satellite feeds from Radio China.
The FCC has always regulated the airwaves. They tell broadcasters how much programming aimed at children they can air and what hours to do it.
In New Orleans, we have 14 AMs licensed in the 8 Parish Metro Area. 3 are Spanish, 3 are Religious, 3 are Urban. In Texas, it's even more concentrated.
I understand the 9/11 analogy and other emergency issues. But, there needs to be a way that radio serves the public or it will go extinct.
I'll give you one more example of an issue where local radio would serve the public in a non-emergency situation: here we have a 26-mile bridge linking New Orleans to the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. When there is a strong thunderstorm or high winds, the bridge is closed, causing mass confusion and huge traffic jams. You can guess that the bridge is closed by the backup, but you don't know why or when it will reopen. TV stations run crawls alerting the public. The 3 cluster here (Citadel, Clear Channel, Entercom) ignore the situation on weekends. If the News/Talk stations are running "best ofs" off a computer without anyone in the building, there's no one to get the word out to the people stranded in their cars.
Like I said, just some thoughts. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
There was a station about 10-15 years in a suburb of Lafayette that played Cajun music and had bilingual news casts. As that generation has died off, there's no market.
Hispanics have not assimilated and will not assimilate. It makes no sense to me why we continue to placate them. And, yes, if the Choctaws were the majority, I probably would be speaking Choctaw.
I also strongly object to a station in America receiving satellite feeds from Radio China.
The FCC has always regulated the airwaves. They tell broadcasters how much programming aimed at children they can air and what hours to do it.
In New Orleans, we have 14 AMs licensed in the 8 Parish Metro Area. 3 are Spanish, 3 are Religious, 3 are Urban. In Texas, it's even more concentrated.
I understand the 9/11 analogy and other emergency issues. But, there needs to be a way that radio serves the public or it will go extinct.
I'll give you one more example of an issue where local radio would serve the public in a non-emergency situation: here we have a 26-mile bridge linking New Orleans to the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. When there is a strong thunderstorm or high winds, the bridge is closed, causing mass confusion and huge traffic jams. You can guess that the bridge is closed by the backup, but you don't know why or when it will reopen. TV stations run crawls alerting the public. The 3 cluster here (Citadel, Clear Channel, Entercom) ignore the situation on weekends. If the News/Talk stations are running "best ofs" off a computer without anyone in the building, there's no one to get the word out to the people stranded in their cars.
Like I said, just some thoughts. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
nolaradiobuff said:
The proper way, the practical way to report traffic is a real challenge for broadcasters today. Once a metro market gets to a certain size, the traditional broadcast methods of reporting traffic seem to come unglued. We have heard a lot of talk about 'corporations and banks TOO BIG to fail'..... some cities are too big to cover the traffic. In Atlanta the best reporter of traffic in town talks faster than a tobacco auctioneer, and the reports seem designed to pass some kind of test to prove they know what it going on. When they finish, it leaves me asking.... "Whu'd he say?"
If I am in downtown New Orleans and I plan to cross Lake Pontchartrain, that one route is all I care about. I really don't want to sit through a long, exhaustive catalog of all streets in other directions.
I looked at a station in a small town maybe 65 miles from downtown Atlanta. I put some brain cells to work trying to imagine a traffic reporting plan for such a station. It could not be heard up and down the expressway into Atlanta. I kept coming back to this concept where the station needed to become the ultimate reporter for the one expressway connecting the little town to Atlanta. From there each driver would need this Rube Goldberg system where kids or spouse would listen to the local station and then call Dad (or Mom in some cases) on the cell phone and share what the station had just reported about serious disruption and detours. How do you monetize that kind of reporting? What do single people do who have no spouse or significant-other to give them the phone call?
Some of the in-car GPS systems may make radio reporting of traffic obsolete. But GPS has the problem radio sometimes has: By the time they get the report that the expressway is blocked and get it out to the audience, the expressway has been cleared making the whole exercise useless.
Somewhere there is a whiz kid who will develop a system and a mechanism that works.
nolaradiobuff said:
All the statistics go against you. Second generation Hispanics are bilingual, third generation generally uses Spanish very little. As a group, nationally, half of Hispanic radio listening is to English language stations.
All manner of studies have been done on the increasing difficulty of language aquisition after a person enters adolesence; many foreign born adults have no hope of learning anything more than the ability to communicate on a basic level in English but they don't think in English and find it tedious to use the language.
But beyond that, the music a person likes represents, similarly, something learned in early adolesence and that will not change... is it fair to consider legislating those people's taste? If stations can make an income programming in Spanish, and at the same time serve an underserved audience, why attempt to silence that?
nolaradiobuff said:
More and more successful AM formats are moving to FM or simulcasting there because the AM business model is very close to its expiration date. Even WWL is now simulcast on FM because an FM only talk station was poised to beat it in 25-54.
Similar cases have occured all over the US and more will happen as the major AMs lose their salable demos; the remaining stations are not commercially comeptitive and will do niche ethnic programming or religion or brokered programming.
They don't reach reliably much beyond a hundred or so miles daytime, when most radio listening takes place. And at night, stations like WWL are only protected out to 650 miles... WWL does not reach 37 states reliably any more, as there are lots of other stations on 870, including some high powered ones in Latin America. You need to distinguish between puffery and reality.
Blame the FCC for licencing too many stations, the economy, and the alternative options for information.
Going back to Minot, under local owners, none of the stations would even have been on the air at 2 AM.
There is no official language in the USA. And since the time of Ben Franklin, media in other languages have flourished in the area that is now the US.
New York City had two Italian langauge stations in the 40's and 50's... WHOM and WOV. As the Italian community became mostly second and third generation, they changed format... both ending in Spanish. Similarly, the first two profitable FMs in Cleveland, OH, were entirely in languages other than English due to the large first generation communities from Greece, Poland, Hungary, Italy, etc., etc.
So a person can't be bilingual?
Common Latin American joke...
Q. What do you call someone who speaks three or four languages.
A. A polyglot
Q. And what do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A. A bilingual.
Q. And what do you call someone who only speaks one language?
A. An American!
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. " - Madison et. al. 1789.
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
Goat, there's a simple answer here. You listen to the station 65 miles out for the traffic situation on the one expressway connecting to Atlanta. When you get closer to Atlanta, you simply change the station. The one 65 miles away is gonna be pretty sketchy on the tuner by then anyway. Traffic should be inherently local. When you're an hour outside the city, the traffic situation is likely to be different when you get there anyway.
nolaradiobuff said:
70 or 80 years ago, you could tune across the upper part of the AM dial in New York City and find entire stations broadcasting for much of the day in Yiddish. My great-grandparents were no doubt regular listeners to stations such as WVFW and WEVD.
A century ago, several of the most prominent daily newspapers in my own hometown of Rochester were published exclusively in German.
We are no more or less an "English-speaking country" now than we were then. Only the languages have changed.
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