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Alice's Restaurant?

Bill from White Plains said:
I just love the ignorant posts about a company that none of you have probably ever worked for, if any of you have even ever been in the business. Do you really think Entercom would have left everything the same if they had bought it? Did you hear what David Field said about CBS? How they pretty much neglected these stations for the last decade because they knew they were selling them? He said they've been "flying blind" with no research for years. You can bash I-Heart all you want I guess, but Entercom wouldn't have just let it continue as it was, either. I guess we'll never know will we?
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Bill,

There are more than a few of us on these message boards who have never "been in the business", much less worked for iHeart or Entercom or CBS, who are disappointed that you feel our posts are, shall we say, less than fully informed. But as a boomer in his upper 60s, I've had a love for radio broadcasting which has not wavered since I was a young pup back in the late 1950s. Which is to say I've heard a lot of what's been on the air here and in other markets - Providence, Chicago, NYC - to know when a station is properly cared for by its management or not. After all, we're LISTENERS, not insiders, and we are a bit less constricted in who/what/how we analyze and criticize from our vantage points of several arms-lengths away. As I posted earlier, we regard these message boards as a place where all of us who care about and love radio can exchange ideas. Yes, some may be lame, others may be spot on. If the moderators want to restrict board participation to insiders only, well, let that be stated. But try to understand that in the Boston area, save for some scanty coverage in one local newspaper, radio gets no coverage. So if we outsiders want to know more about what we're hearing, we come here to question and offer our comments.

Now, would you kindly share with us where you read David Field's critique of CBS Radio? I, for one, was not aware of this, and I'm sure quite a few of us would love to hear more on this.

To be clear: you are very likely correct that either Entercom or iHeart was going to make changes at those CBS Radio stations to which some of us have become regular listeners. If anything, and I get bashed for saying this, I have to fault CBS for disposing of its Radio assets as they did. I was hoping they would've found a way to spin off CBS Radio as an IPO; obviously, that didn't happen. Perhaps it would've been easier to digest if all the former CBS Radio news/talk AMs that were associated with a TV outlet in their respective markets could have gone with the same owner. And, for the most part, that did happen, though not in Boston. One poster said it could not happen even if Entercom disposed of WRKO and tried to keep WBZ, due to revenue caps. Maybe so.

We're just concerned that a heritage AM like WBZ is going to get the shaft. Ditto KYW, KDKA, WCBS, KCBS, KNX, WBBM, KMOX. If what you're saying is, whether it be Entercom or iHeart, the former CBS news/talkers cannot be sustained as they are in the long run, well, you may be right. But let some of us hope that these new owners will find a way to tweak things just a bit, and not throw these babies out with the bath water.
 
Just FYI, I previously worked at a PR Firm with a few former well known people that worked in radio. They were blown away about my vast knowledge of the industry!
 
And this is paragraph 4:

“CBS Radio is not broken. CBS is a wonderful company with wonderful leadership, but the radio division has suffered from a certain amount of neglect and a certain amount of lack of investment and cultural and leadership issues that go with being a division in a company which has essentially been on the block for some time,” Field said at the conference.
 
nowradioguy said:
But as a boomer in his upper 60s, I've had a love for radio broadcasting which has not wavered since I was a young pup back in the late 1950s. Which is to say I've heard a lot of what's been on the air here and in other markets - Providence, Chicago, NYC - to know when a station is properly cared for by its management or not.
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As someone who's been on the inside of a lot of radio stations and companies, there are several things I'd like to suggest: First of all, lots of things are changing. The concept of community is changing. Local businesses are changing. Familiar relationships are changing. The way people get information is changing. The way people interact with their employer is changing. I could go on. Radio companies are in the middle of all that. Radio stations aren't museums. They're private businesses. I just heard the local family owned bakery in my hometown just closed down. Wow. Big change. But that's a business that used to advertise on local radio. Not any more. So everything is changing. If the local radio station changes, it's not necessarily because it was sold, or because it was sold to iHeart. Sooner or later, that radio station was going to HAVE to change. Just to continue to stay in business. As I said in another thread, just take a look at the department stores downtown. How many of the stores you remember as a kid are still in business? Those big department stores were advertisers. Not any more. Where will the money come from to keep these radio stations sounding the way they used to sound, employing the number of staff they used to employee? Just trying to put your eloquent post in content.
 
BigA, I am stealing your line. "Radio stations aren't museums. They're private businesses."

That is the greatest response to people who think radio stations should never change. Or people who shake their head or think "it's a shame" when they don't like necessary changes. They want things to stay the same just for the sake of staying the same.
 
Bill from White Plains said:
And this is paragraph 4:

“CBS Radio is not broken. CBS is a wonderful company with wonderful leadership, but the radio division has suffered from a certain amount of neglect and a certain amount of lack of investment and cultural and leadership issues that go with being a division in a company which has essentially been on the block for some time,” Field said at the conference.
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Thanks, Bill; appreciated.
 
TheBigA said:
As someone who's been on the inside of a lot of radio stations and companies, there are several things I'd like to suggest: First of all, lots of things are changing. The concept of community is changing. Local businesses are changing. Familiar relationships are changing. The way people get information is changing. The way people interact with their employer is changing. I could go on. Radio companies are in the middle of all that. Radio stations aren't museums. They're private businesses. I just heard the local family owned bakery in my hometown just closed down. Wow. Big change. But that's a business that used to advertise on local radio. Not any more. So everything is changing. If the local radio station changes, it's not necessarily because it was sold, or because it was sold to iHeart. Sooner or later, that radio station was going to HAVE to change. Just to continue to stay in business. As I said in another thread, just take a look at the department stores downtown. How many of the stores you remember as a kid are still in business? Those big department stores were advertisers. Not any more. Where will the money come from to keep these radio stations sounding the way they used to sound, employing the number of staff they used to employee? Just trying to put your eloquent post in content.
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Fair enough, BigA; thanks for your insight.
 
Bill from White Plains said:
I just love the ignorant posts about a company that none of you have probably ever worked for, if any of you have even ever been in the business.

And since they decided to censor me....
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While I agree with the comments....I decry your high and mighty attitude.

This is an internet message board that attracts both pros working in the business, and listener/fans...who's only job is to relate as a listener.

That being said, part of the allure of internet message boards is rumors and speculation.....and the many "what if's".

(If you only want certain opinions, then maybe you should join some kind of professional association.)
 
Not being high & mighty. It's just frustration from years of reading posts from uninformed posters with no idea what they're talking about. I couldn't take it anymore. All of these corporations are trying to create great radio, whether you believe it or not. And from what I've heard and read, CBS was idling. Just waiting for the right buyer to come along. These CBS stations need work.
 
I know what I am talking about when it comes to radio history. What I see on these boards is somebody speculates or asks a question and other posters are quick to knock it down! Take WBOS for instance: someone noticed that Alt 92.9 had been registered and asked if 'BOS was gonna stop using Radio 92.9 in favor of Alt. A few posters were snarky about it saying that it wouldn't happen, but did! Therefore no matter how ridiculous a speculation sounds, it can't be ruled out. Stranger things have happened!
 
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I know that Lightning 100 (AAA station) used to play it at noon on Thanksgiving Day, and the sequel at 10:00 that evening. Not sure if they still do or not, as I have not listened to them in several years. I sort of "aged out" of listening to them, especially after they dropped Retro Lightning.

105.9 The Rock used to also play it at noon on Thanksgiving, but again, not sure if they did again this year or not.
 
Wimmmex said:
Maybe you should find another message board that filters out comments from those who are simply listeners.
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On behalf of all of us who are “simply listeners”, allow me to thank you for this stand, Wimmmex.

And let me add we listeners don’t have to like everything you pros blow out over the air at us. Problem is there’s no longer a whole lot for us to choose from.
 
Just know that pros and listeners alike are welcome here.
Most of the pros want to know what their listeners think about their on-air products.
That being said (or written), nobody likes nasty, snarky comments and name-calling.
We ask is that your posts remain civil.
 
When you say, "You pros" I'm afraid you missed. I have nothing to do with any programming on any radio station. But I've been in the business and know how these things work. The old I-Heart=Bad is getting a little old. They're accused of being stale and cookie cutter and homogenized, yet they have the number one stations in New York and LA, #2 in Chicago, and highly rated in the other Top 15 markets, including Boston when KISS is #1. If they're so awful, why are they so successful?

The same can be said for Entercom, Beasely, and even Cumulus. These are not stupid people.
 
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