Revealing Consolidation Report due out soon

[SUPERCASTER]

Some points from the report:

•The “localness” of radio ownership -- ownership by individuals living in the community -- has declined between 1975 and 2005 by almost one-third.

•Just fifteen formats make up three-quarters of all commercial programming. Moreover, radio formats with different names can overlap up to 80% in terms of the songs played on them.

•Across 155 markets, radio listenership has declined over the past fourteen years, a 22% drop since its peak in 1989. The consolidation allowed by the Telecom Act has failed to reverse this trend.


http://radioandrecords.com/radiomonitor/news/business/ratings_research/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003494749&imw=Y

 

[DavidEduardo]

Some points from the report:

•Just fifteen formats make up three-quarters of all commercial programming. Moreover, radio formats with different names can overlap up to 80% in terms of the songs played on them.

When the minimum of a dozen Spanish language formats are considered a single "Spanish" fomat... when everything from gold based AC to Jack to Moovin' to hot AC and such are considered "contemporary" and when all kinds of current / recent rock formats are considered to be one "rock" format we can see that this report is whacked from the get-go and very self serving.

 

[kaufcom]

When the minimum of a dozen Spanish language formats are considered a single "Spanish" fomat... when everything from gold based AC to Jack to Moovin' to hot AC and such are considered "contemporary" and when all kinds of current / recent rock formats are considered to be one "rock" format we can see that this report is whacked from the get-go and very self serving.

Give up on the format counting stuff. With the exception of Spanish -- diversity in music programming has decreased markedly since the consolidation moves over the past ten years. DJ's will tell you this. All music has to be tested before airing. Automation and voice tracking have further homogenized the process. The fact that a market like Los Angeles doesn't have a rock station and barely has a country station says it all.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Give up on the format counting stuff. With the exception of Spanish -- diversity in music programming has decreased markedly since the consolidation moves over the past ten years. DJ's will tell you this. All music has to be tested before airing. Automation and voice tracking have further homogenized the process. The fact that a market like Los Angeles doesn't have a rock station and barely has a country station says it all.

Find some editions of Duncan's American Radio from 1975 till it ceased to be issued around 2001 and you will see that there are far more different formats on "viable facilites" in nearly every market.

There were markets like Miami that had 4 beautiful music stations in 1980... and several CHRs... with many other formats missing. Or look at Houston... only one Black FM format, while today there are three different ones (Urban, Utrban AC and Gospel). The same thing can be seen all over the country.

Oh, and a vastly higer percentage of FMs were automated in the 70's than today: syndicators like TM, SRP, Bonneville, IGM, Peters, Kala, Churchill, Musica en Flor, FM 100, Drake-Chenault, RPM and others provided thousands of stations with taped, voice tracked automated formats.

When a format is "missing" it is because it is not sustainable in a market. Nobody can rationally ask a station to lose money, can they?

LA is 75% ethnic and immigrant (42% Hispanic, 8% Black, 12% Asian and about 12% Russian, Persian and of other origin). Country has nearly no appeal to that group, and rock is much more limited in appeal within that 75% than with a native born non-Hispanic white population. In any case, KROQ and KLOS are forms of rock, and KROQ is one of the better performing FMs in the market.

 

[lash]

40 panelists, mostly country music legends and songwriters disagree with you. Another 1,000 people in the room in Nashville during the FCC's public hearing disagree with you. And the 3 million people who wrote the FCC after they tried to pass changes in 2003, disagree with you.

A country station should be in L.A., San Francisco and New York City, along with a variety of other formats.

David? Where do you program now? Cause I'm dying to come there, buy a station and kick your ass! With any format.

 

[DavidEduardo]

40 panelists, mostly country music legends and songwriters disagree with you. Another 1,000 people in the room in Nashville during the FCC's public hearing disagree with you. And the 3 million people who wrote the FCC after they tried to pass changes in 2003, disagree with you.

I see. A bunch of peope who have no clue how a radio station runs are going to determine that there is a way of making country music viable in Los Angeles, where 75% of the people are automatically excluded from the audience, and only a small fraction of the rest would like that kind of music?

Here's the math: 75 share sout of 100 come from ethnic listeners who don't like country, and will never learn to like it. That leaves about 25 shares. In a few Pacific markets, like seattle and Portland, there are about 6 country shares in totally non-ethnic cities. So, let's say that country does as well in LA as Seattle or Portland... a 6 share of the 25 shares that are non-ethnic. That is less than a 1.7 total market share! No full signal FM can survive on that kind of rating.

San Francisco is a similar situation... no lifestyle group as a base, and a huge Asian, immigrant, Hispanic and Black population. New York is even more extreme in this respect.

Again, you can not make people who don't like a certain kind of music suddenly flock to it.

As to the 3 million, most were form letters about not letting one owner have more stations, not about formats or music.

A country station should be in L.A., San Francisco and New York City, along with a variety of other formats.

See above for country. There is no way in hell an FM is going to be successful with country in any of those markets.

Now, what other formats are missing? I ask because radio owners are constantlypaying hundreds of thousands of dollars to find new format directions... and most of what comes out does not work, or only works for a while.

David? Where do you program now? Cause I'm dying to come there, buy a station and kick your ass! With any format.

I am involved in programming in LA (#1 and #2 stations), Miami, Chicago, New York, Houston, Austin, Dallas, McAllen, San Antonio, El Paso, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque, San Diego, San Francisco, Fresno, San Juan, Ponce, Mayaguez, Buenos Aires and a few other places.

If you want to compete with us in LA, be prepared to have about $300 to $400 million for a Mt. Wilson FM signal...

Your turn: where do you program?

 

[lash]

The country stars who testified where not speaking on the operations of radio stations. The spoke to the FCC on the lack of airplay their music receives on radio.

So your saying that when the great Ed Salamon went into New York City in the 1970's and 80's and took an AM country and made it #1, that it didn't work?

Since then music has moved to FM, population has grown, and while I'm sure its gotten more ethnic, the demos are there to support a great programmed country radio station.

As Big and Rich quoted today in Nashville. We sell out our shows when we go to L.A., and New York nobody is playing our music on the radio.

But because others like yourself, hide behind all your numbers, and research, you won't really take a chance. And why do you have to be #1 or even #10 to survive in these markets?

Since I can't afford $300 million, lets do this. I'll give you a dark station, and I'll take another dark station, and we'll program head to head in the same market.

Post Katrina left several remaining dark stations in the greater New Orleans market place. So lets set our imaginary sites on what would be done in that market, given the chance.

I programmed in Erie, PA, Pittsburgh, and Tampa. I've built, saved, and owned stations for the last 6 years in Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee. I've been in the business for 30 years. I learned from some of the best programmers of all time.

 

[DavidEduardo]

The country stars who testified where not speaking on the operations of radio stations. The spoke to the FCC on the lack of airplay their music receives on radio.

All recording artists complain about airplay. The problem is generally that the songs are bad, or that listeners do not want to hear them. Radio stations do extensive research to determine what listeners want. Nobody gives a flying fagoozle what the artists want.

So your saying that when the great Ed Salamon went into New York City in the 1970's and 80's and took an AM country and made it #1, that it didn't work?

It was not #1 ever. It did well for a while, and then slowly eroded and was no longer viable. While they managed to be about #6 in one book in 1976 (The station was only country from 1973 (14th ranked) to about 1982 or so) Salomon left for Chicago in 1980.

In any case, that was nearly 30 years ago, and the demos of NY have changed radically.... it is over 60% Black, Hispanic, Asian and immigrant.

Since then music has moved to FM, population has grown, and while I'm sure its gotten more ethnic, the demos are there to support a great programmed country radio station.

Not likely. I know of several groups that have researched this, and the country lifestyle is not alive in NY and the market can not support a country station. And by "research" I mean an extensive quantification of the potential share level of country, based on fairly standard format search methodology.

As Big and Rich quoted today in Nashville. We sell out our shows when we go to L.A., and New York nobody is playing our music on the radio.

Hahahaha. That is funny. You get 3,000 people at the Wiltern and think this means that you can cume the 1,000,000 people needed to be a significant radio station. Hey, a Colombian vallenato singer can fill a venue of the same size... does that mean we need an "all vallenato all the time" station? Of course not.

But because others like yourself, hide behind all your numbers, and research, you won't really take a chance. And why do you have to be #1 or even #10 to survive in these markets?

In LA, you can make good money down to abpout 25th in rank. You make more money at #1, though. And a very good company did country in LA, Emmis. If anyone could make it work, it was them... a radio company run by a radio programmer. It did not work, and they could not justify keeping a station that lost a little bit of its share every book, year after year.

I programmed in Erie, PA, Pittsburgh, and Tampa.

Call letters, please (Mine are on my link, which you have obviously not noticed)

I've built, saved, and owned stations for the last 6 years in Pennsylvania, Florida and Tennessee. I've been in the business for 30 years. I learned from some of the best programmers of all time.

If you were in Erie and the Bay you probably know Chuck Morgan. Call him and ask about me. And I am not the least interested in New Orleans.

 

[lash]

Either I'm blind or your link wasn't there Dave!

I know who Chuck Morgan is, and I'll reach out to him.

I didn't think you'd be up for the challenge of New Orleans. What a shame! Go hide behind all that research you gather. All go and save a few other stations.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Either I'm blind or your link wasn't there Dave!

I know who Chuck Morgan is, and I'll reach out to him.

I didn't think you'd be up for the challenge of New Orleans. What a shame! Go hide behind all that research you gather. All go and save a few other stations.

First, there are no silent FMs in the Big Easy, and it is not a particularly good market, revenue wise and is worse post-storm. When I take on challenges outside my "day job" I try to stay in markets that are over 5,000,000 in population, and N.O. is really way to small for my taste (Although I managed some smaller market stations in No. Fla. about 15 years ago and loved it... but did not live there).

I do not "hide behind" research, but rather use it as a tool to find out what the listener wants. To me, not asking the listeners is arrogant... and stupid.

Chuck is GM of a cluster in Albuquerque, in case you want to say hi. It is a long way from Erie... or Ashtabula.

Click the profile. There is a link.

 

[lash]

FM? Who said FM? I said a challenge, and as I expected you used every excuse under the sun.

The type of research that you use, is not from the hands of your listeners one on one.
Radio is to over researched! One of the reasons that radio was more successful, even 20 years ago, was because there was some creativity, and our present forms of research were in their infant stages.

Sorry, at least on my computer, I can't get to your link. It says this site doesn't permit that.

So continue to stay on your ivory hill. I'll continue to praise or doubt your every post, whichever is appropriate.

 

[DavidEduardo]

FM? Who said FM? I said a challenge, and as I expected you used every excuse under the sun.

I would not trade a cup of coffee for an AM today... even the one viable AM format, news/talk, is moving to FM all over (including a new Clear Channel FM talker in New Orleans). I do not have a great deal of optimisim about the survivability of AM even in the immediate future, save those one or two dominant signals. New Orleans has only one decent AM, and it is not for sale.

The type of research that you use, is not from the hands of your listeners one on one.

You know this how? The fact is that much of the research, and all the perceptual research I deal with is done one on one.

Radio is to over researched! One of the reasons that radio was more successful, even 20 years ago, was because there was some creativity, and our present forms of research were in their infant stages.

Actually, we use the same perceptual techniques that were used in the 60's... we just get better data because of computers, improved demographic data, and vastly better ratings. And I don't see any lack of creativity in the stations I am involved with.

Sorry, at least on my computer, I can't get to your link. It says this site doesn't permit that.

www.davidgleason.com

So continue to stay on your ivory hill. I'll continue to praise or doubt your every post, whichever is appropriate.

My "Ivory Hill" last week was Huntington Park, CA, where we were talking to listeners.

 

[lash]

Well I'm certainly not going to say that your resume isn't impressive. I invite you to continue to do good work with ethnic programming.

I will continue to stick with the basics of strong local programming. It remains by far the most important form of branding in our business.

I believe that we are comparing apples and oranges after looking at your resume.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Well I'm certainly not going to say that your resume isn't impressive. I invite you to continue to do good work with ethnic programming.

I will continue to stick with the basics of strong local programming. It remains by far the most important form of branding in our business.

I believe that we are comparing apples and oranges after looking at your resume.

I do not do "ethnic programming." I do radio programming.

In Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Buenos Aires, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, the Dominican Republic, what I have done is not "ethnic" by any standards.

And even in Miami or Los Angeles or San Antonio and others, Hispanics outnumber non-Hispanic whites. So even in the US, I am working with the majority, doing major market radio. That is why in today's trend, we have the #1, #2 and #4 stations 25-54 in Los Angeles; live and local.

The insinuation that "ethnic radio" is somehow not good radio is offensive.

Just as a point of reference, the station I did for Emmis in Argentina had the largest cume of any station in the Western Hemisphere. It was also 100% live and 100% local.. and its sister AM station had a news department of 35... just for the morning show!

You, on the other hand, have not even given the location of the little AM you supposedly own. I am beginning to think that you have constructed a straw man.

 

[grantchester]

Oh, David.
Lash gave the calls and city of license of his TWO stations in a previous post.
If the majority of your programming is in a foreign language, I would call that ETHNIC. And if you had a station targeting an African American psychegraphic, I would call that ETHNIC also.
Hispanic broadcasters have shown us the basic formula of successful broadcasting: Identify a like-minded group, and serve them.
Your point of view shows the disconnect between Programmers and Broadcasters. The programmer can achieve a quick blip in the ratings with marketing and selecting the music to be presented. Those successes always fade with time. On the other hand, Broadcasters like Lash build a station for the long run, and realise there is a lot more to it than just the on-air presentation.
I've got a cup of coffee for you, now hand over the license to an AM station, howsabout?

 

[grantchester]

Oops... my bad. I was thinking of someone else who listed his stations in a previos post. I don't know where lash's is.

 

[lash]

Wasn't mean't as an insult. But its the truth.

Left the big companies 7 years ago and started saving AM's across the country. Proving daily that AM is viable, and that music programming still works.

I'll give you two things to look at.

From legendary programmer Bill Drake www.top40timeclock.com

And my station website www.am930.net

Sincerely,

The Straw Man

 

[DavidEduardo]

Wasn't mean't as an insult. But its the truth.

Calling general market radio "ethnic" is hardly the truth.

Left the big companies 7 years ago and started saving AM's across the country. Proving daily that AM is viable, and that music programming still works.

And I simply believe that this concept will not last long, as AM is being killed by:

1. Ageing demos... AM lisateners average over 50.
2. Interference. From BPL to computers to noisy LED stoplight controllers, it is hard to listen to.
3. No new listeners. Under-35 listeners barely know AM exists.
4. No useful digital solution.
5. In most metros, there are only a couple, at best, of stations that cover the market well.
6. Buyer resistence. "We don't buy AM."
7. Moving of the only major AM format to FM, starting with markets like Washington, DC, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Phoenix, Salt Lake, Tallahassee, etc. This will decrease the sampling of AM.

I'll give you two things to look at.

From legendary programmer Bill Drake www.top40timeclock.com

The tremendous interest in this is demonstrated by the fact that I was visitor 310 to the site. Ouch.

An oldies format in the year when a huge percentage of oldies stations have died is certainly a bad idea. And with 1800 cuts, who would listen to that?

And my station website www.am930.net

Nice site and pretty attractive, too. I love the scroll of the local scores and the community stuff.

How much can you cover with the night power in an area of notoriously low ground conductivity? Is it enough to cover the COL well?

Are you Brittany Garner.

 

[lash]

No, She is my daughter.

In our small market, all we can get is county by county ratings. Proud to say we have a 23 share. We're closest to the Florence, Alabama market.

Mr. Drake's website just went up a few days ago. As one of the greatest programmers of all time, I trust his judgement.

And no buyer resistence. Everyone buys our station! And we cover the market place just fine at night.

As I said apples and oranges. Call what you program whatever makes you feel happy. In this country, we call it ethnic.

 

[DavidEduardo]

As I said apples and oranges. Call what you program whatever makes you feel happy. In this country, we call it ethnic.

A general market station in Puerto Rico is not ethnic, nor is one in Quito or Buenos Aires. The only difference in the programming and radio in general is the langauge, but 100% of the people in those places speak Spanish (except Quito, where "ethnic" would be indigenous programming, like a station I had that broadcast in Quechua part of the day), so there is a language difference, but it is general market radio. By the same token, I was involved with a new FM in Karachi, and nobody would call such a station "ethnic" in that market, either.

Nobody in LA has called Spanish language stations "ethnic" for a long time as they are majority, not minority players. Several of ours cume over 1 million, and we frequently have 3 of the top 5 25-54 stations in the market.

Oh, Bill Drake has not had a successful station since the 70's. Radio moves so fast that one's history is only valid if it is relevant to today. As morning teams learn, you are only as good as your last show... your last trend and maybe your last book. I have great respect for what Drake did in the 60's, and have worked with one of his first PDs myself for about 12 years on a separate syndication project, and even worked with ron Jacobs a while... so I know all the little stories. It's a piece of radio well worth honoring but as history, not reality.

I just do not think there is a market for oldies that Drake can monetize.