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fred flintstone
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Santa Fe Next?
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Clear Channel Saying Goodbye To Small Markets?
- Thread starter hightowerradio
- Start date
fred flintstone said:
Then maybe they need to learn the trick. It is not impossible. It just takes some work. This is a problem of bad work ethics, not programming.
fred flintstone said:
I don't know what planet you live in, but my experience is simply that local sports coverage (high school or college) is a ticket to win friends and make money. Maybe they don't like local sports where you come from, but they do in most places.
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fred flintstone
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There is not that much interest in play by play sports on the radio to begin with. In some markets, professional sports is brokered; the team has to buy the time to get on. It's ironic that listeners would rather hear sports talk than sports. Why listen to sports on the radio when every game is available on broadcast TV/cable/satellite? The only opportunity for play by play sports coverage left radio is if the team has a really popular announcer and local fans listen to the radio coverage as they watch the game on TV (by-passing the generic, ex-jocks the networks use). Of course, modern technology (satellite and IBOC delays) have pretty much screwed that up since the radio audio and TV video are often not in sync. People who care about the game are going to make a point to watch (unless they run out of beer and listen to 10 minutes of the game in the car on the way to get more suds).
There is little general interest in college sports in large and major markets outside Division I - Single A in areas with major conferences and national power-house teams. And high school, forget it. A major market station may cover a hundred or more school districts and dozens of high school conferences. And even in smaller markets, cable is covering local high school and college games. Again, if a game is on TV; who wants to listen to it on the radio. Besides, in a small town, people who are involved in school athletics will go to the home games (at least).
I say again, play by play local high school and college sports only continue only because local advertisers like to buy them; they are an easy sell in dead time. The merchant can promote his association with the local team and that may outweigh the question of whether anybody really listens to the games, or hears the spots in the game. The other factor is a lot of people who work in small market radio want to do play by play. But ball games on radio are terminal - already dead in many places. But many broadcasters prefer to keep doing what they've always done.
There is little general interest in college sports in large and major markets outside Division I - Single A in areas with major conferences and national power-house teams. And high school, forget it. A major market station may cover a hundred or more school districts and dozens of high school conferences. And even in smaller markets, cable is covering local high school and college games. Again, if a game is on TV; who wants to listen to it on the radio. Besides, in a small town, people who are involved in school athletics will go to the home games (at least).
I say again, play by play local high school and college sports only continue only because local advertisers like to buy them; they are an easy sell in dead time. The merchant can promote his association with the local team and that may outweigh the question of whether anybody really listens to the games, or hears the spots in the game. The other factor is a lot of people who work in small market radio want to do play by play. But ball games on radio are terminal - already dead in many places. But many broadcasters prefer to keep doing what they've always done.
Maybe it varies in different regions of the country, but in the midwest there is plenty of interest in high school play by play in small markets, particularly in towns with only one public high school. There's no problem selling the games as the businesses love to support the kids, the team, the school, keep the games on the air, etc.
Once you get to a town with 2 or more public high schools, it gets harder as school loyalties are divided, but it's still likely possible to find sponsors for the Catholic high school.
We do three high school football games every Friday night... the local public HS on the 6kw FM, then two "games of the week" on the 25kw and 50kw FMs. These are games in smaller area towns. It really gets crazy during basketball with boys and girls games, plus the local Catholic high school (they don't have a football team) and the local NAIA university, both men and women.
Once you get to a town with 2 or more public high schools, it gets harder as school loyalties are divided, but it's still likely possible to find sponsors for the Catholic high school.
We do three high school football games every Friday night... the local public HS on the 6kw FM, then two "games of the week" on the 25kw and 50kw FMs. These are games in smaller area towns. It really gets crazy during basketball with boys and girls games, plus the local Catholic high school (they don't have a football team) and the local NAIA university, both men and women.
Small Market Radio
The bottom line is that mega-corps like Clear Channel can't make enough money in small markets to keep shareholders happy. A successful small market station requires local programming, which is people-intensive. Clear Channel's experiment at bringing "big city" radio to small towns is a failure in many cases because many people live in small towns to escape the big city.
Syndication and voice tracking can destroy the character of small town radio stations. Their forte is local news, sports, and weather. Those are generally people-intensive pursuits, and don't fit the bottom-line projections promised by Clear Channel's bean-counters who anticipated a positive response to the replacement of local programming with "higher quality" radio.
What the bean-counters failed to anticipate is that the "local yokels" preferred radio tailored to its audience, not imported from elsewhere. Now, Clear Channel is quietly selling off small markets. If the locals are lucky, local broadcasters will be able to afford to get involved instead of another mega-corp.
The bottom line is that mega-corps like Clear Channel can't make enough money in small markets to keep shareholders happy. A successful small market station requires local programming, which is people-intensive. Clear Channel's experiment at bringing "big city" radio to small towns is a failure in many cases because many people live in small towns to escape the big city.
Syndication and voice tracking can destroy the character of small town radio stations. Their forte is local news, sports, and weather. Those are generally people-intensive pursuits, and don't fit the bottom-line projections promised by Clear Channel's bean-counters who anticipated a positive response to the replacement of local programming with "higher quality" radio.
What the bean-counters failed to anticipate is that the "local yokels" preferred radio tailored to its audience, not imported from elsewhere. Now, Clear Channel is quietly selling off small markets. If the locals are lucky, local broadcasters will be able to afford to get involved instead of another mega-corp.
fred flintstone said:
In most small to mid size towns and cities (the ones CC is selling off) local sports on the radio is a big deal. We run the local college games and the sponsors call us wanting to participate. It is an easy sale, and our sports play-by-play guys are considered local celebrities. There isn't much down side, except some of our music fans get disgruntled about having to listen to a football game to support their listening habits. Even that isn't a big problem, since our music format is unique in the area, so they always come back when the game is over.
Sure the sponsors are all local, but they pay a lot of bills. Local sports broadcasting is one of the things small stations can do well on a relatively low budget. I have quite a few friends at other small stations who have found the same formula works for them too.
I'm not as convinced as some of you that folks in smaller markets don't want to hear well-executed programming. Think about it, do folks in smaller marklets watch the same TV shows as folks in the big cities? Of course they do! Same music, by and large? Check? I don't deny local connnection has its plusses, but to think everyone in small and medium town America is waiting for Tradio each day isn't quite accurate.
What creates a well-produced program? We have a bluegrass program Saturday mornings, the (regular) host is incredibly long-winded, and usually has at least one "oops, wrong song" moment per week.
Imagine we went with a tracker from NYC.
"That's Flatt and Scruggs on the Bluegrass Show.
Now here's Rocky Top. Its 7:46. I'm Jack Owens."
Multiply by 12 to make an hour. It is exactly what I do when I fill-in for the regular host, and we get negative listener phone calls every week that he is off. I don't think I'm that bad, and neither does the regular host. But I'm not talkative. I might plug one community event or give one local news story and try to do one feature on the artists. And I do not usually have the "technical" glitches that he does.
So explain to me why this is one of our most profitable program blocks all week? In the end, no matter how "good" the host is, it is the almighty dollar that counts, not "does he hit the post at least 3 times in the show?"
Imagine we went with a tracker from NYC.
"That's Flatt and Scruggs on the Bluegrass Show.
Now here's Rocky Top. Its 7:46. I'm Jack Owens."
Multiply by 12 to make an hour. It is exactly what I do when I fill-in for the regular host, and we get negative listener phone calls every week that he is off. I don't think I'm that bad, and neither does the regular host. But I'm not talkative. I might plug one community event or give one local news story and try to do one feature on the artists. And I do not usually have the "technical" glitches that he does.
So explain to me why this is one of our most profitable program blocks all week? In the end, no matter how "good" the host is, it is the almighty dollar that counts, not "does he hit the post at least 3 times in the show?"
The "magic" of radio is all about the one-to-one relationship with the listener. For that relationship to happen, the jock needs to talk about shared experiences. Shared local experiences are much more powerful in building that relationship. It's tough to do with a syndicated or voice-tracked show from out of town.
Your long-winded host has created that relationship. The audience will forgive his production "goofs" because they like HIM.
Your long-winded host has created that relationship. The audience will forgive his production "goofs" because they like HIM.
I'm sure the bluegrass guy has his audience and I wouldn't say he shouldn't be there..though I don't know that you'd use him 5 days a week in drive time.
Bear in mind that I worked in radio in a little town called Celina, OH in the mid and late 70s. While there, I worked with people from Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minneapolis, San Diego and wherever else. Was that any more local, really? Seldom if ever was a local person on the air. They'd blow in, cut an aircheck and be gone.
Bear in mind that I worked in radio in a little town called Celina, OH in the mid and late 70s. While there, I worked with people from Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minneapolis, San Diego and wherever else. Was that any more local, really? Seldom if ever was a local person on the air. They'd blow in, cut an aircheck and be gone.
Clear Channel announced in September (I believe) that they were selling off smaller less profitable stations and that does mean in smaller markets. In June, Clear Channel hired a firm to represent its interests in Washington to further loosen ownership rules. At that time Clear Channel claimed that in these dangerous times people depend on radio for information in times of crisis and thus, Clear Channel, should be allowed to own four more stations in MAJOR MARKETS--apparently there is no reason to provide the same service to the hinterlands. And now, it appears that Clear Channel is selling up or going private or in some way changing the way it produces advertising revenue. The short answer is, "Yes they are selling smaller market stations." But I wouldn't hazard a guess about what that means for the future of that large corporation or of radio.hightowerradio said:
C
CentralFloridaEagle
Guest
Here's My Take On CC's Dumping Small Markets
While Clear Channel is getting out of a number of small markets around the country, I'm guessing that they will not necessairly clear out entirely in a number of cases.
In some smaller markets, I predict that CC will keep a couple of it's top performing stations, dumping the AMs and "underperforming" FMs. That would be consistant with it's current practice of putting two or three markets in a region in the hands of one GM/management team.
Keeping it's better stations in an area would allow CC to keep a steady stream of revenue to keep the Mays bunch happy while collecting a huge pile with the sale of the others.
While Clear Channel is getting out of a number of small markets around the country, I'm guessing that they will not necessairly clear out entirely in a number of cases.
In some smaller markets, I predict that CC will keep a couple of it's top performing stations, dumping the AMs and "underperforming" FMs. That would be consistant with it's current practice of putting two or three markets in a region in the hands of one GM/management team.
Keeping it's better stations in an area would allow CC to keep a steady stream of revenue to keep the Mays bunch happy while collecting a huge pile with the sale of the others.
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