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Thoughts on CBS-FM Success and Personalities

Stations and personalities can say they "retired" but sometimes the truth is somewhere in the middle. I've had enough DJ friends over the years who publicly stated they were retiring cause they were tired of the rat race and then tell me in private what really happened behind the scenes. [Such as "you will go back to voicing ads or we're cutting your pay by 20%"]. Or the new PD/GM/Owner didn't really like them and wanted them gone and they had no choice but to go quietly [i.e.: Not make a big stink about it in public.] if they wanted that severance pay. Others have told me they were let go because their salary was too high and they could get someone "younger".......although they didn't use the term younger because then you have an age-discrimination lawsuit on their hands, they said "newer", for far less. Or the station PD/GM/Owner had a relative or friend they wanted to put on the air. Or some big-shot advertiser had a personal beef with one of the DJs. I could go on.......but you get the gist of it. Scott probably has the clout to go when he wanted to go regardless of if WCBS wanted him to stay or not.
I do remember a DJ being let go and spouting off about it on a now defunct site, trashing the station big-time and complaining about them firing him by email [which is a classless act in MY book]. But I was thinking "Geez dude, if any other station PD/owner/etc. is on this site reading this you done screwed the pooch in getting hired by them."
 
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Yabadabado1 said:
Scott probably has the clout to go when he wanted to go regardless of if WCBS wanted him to stay or not.
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By the same token, he doesn't need the money, he doesn't need the work, and he has built himself his own free-standing business outside of the daily job. He has done what every person in radio could and probably should do in their spare time, so that when the day inevitably comes, they are prepared. There is no excuse, especially with today's technology and the number of quality people available who can help build these platforms that can act as a landing spot when the regular job goes away.
 
I'm 70 years old, I want to know, do these so called people who target age groups know how many $$$ seniors spend, some of these so called people within the demographics live in their mommy's basement and don't have a pot to p*** in. There are tons of 50-60s stations on the internet, and they will always be there, I have over 40 programmed on my Grace Internet Radio, so if they want to play these games with "terrestrial" radio, so be it.
 
gr8oldies said:
I've said this before, but the idea of a radio station playing the music of my youth mixed with commercials reminding me that I'm old and have parts that don't work like they used to, is a non-starter.
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My favorite is the funeral home commercials on oldies stations. It basically says, "You're going to die soon. Don't be a burden on your family."

JoeLouis said:
do these so called people who target age groups know how many $$$ seniors spend, some of these so called people within the demographics live in their mommy's basement and don't have a pot to p*** in.
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Some seniors may have money but most are brand loyal and reluctant to change. To give you an idea, I operate a YouTube channel aimed at cutting the cord with an antenna. What takes for some seniors to invest a measly $200 in a good antenna setup while they willingly pay thousands of dollars a year for cable shows how reluctant they are to change. They'd partially or completely eliminate their monthly cable bill but they don't like the concept of change so many just stick with cable/satellite to watch the price is right.

Plus, IF an advertiser could convince them to purchase their product, they'd probably only have them as a buyer for a decade before they pass. An advertiser may get 4 or 5 times the business if the target someone younger as they will live longer.
 
tvk5195 said:
My favorite is the funeral home commercials on oldies stations. It basically says, "You're going to die soon. Don't be a burden on your family."
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Some of the "music of my youth" I listen to near every day. (Some of it I don't ever want to hear again. I expect it's that way for most "old people".) But the kinds of ads you refer to (including from funeral homes and such) are about as welcome as having to hear ads for Clearasil or Giacobazzi Wine. (Extra credit if anyone can identify who did the VO's on Giacobazzi when it first started advertising.) OTOH, if Pepsi or Schaefer Beer (for example) resurrected those classic 1960's radio ads to advertise their current products, that would really grab my attention. It's not resistance to ads, it's revulsion at the way the ads are constructed, written, what talent is cast, and clustered together into those damn 10 minute audio brick walls.

Most "old" people are not stupid. They (we) have learned a few things since we were diving for cover during those 1950's air raid drills. And the advertisers and ad industry doesn't win brownie points by insulting our intelligence.

tvk5195 said:
Some seniors may have money but most are brand loyal and reluctant to change. To give you an idea, I operate a YouTube channel aimed at cutting the cord with an antenna. What takes for some seniors to invest a measly $200 in a good antenna setup while they willingly pay thousands of dollars a year for cable shows how reluctant they are to change. They'd partially or completely eliminate their monthly cable bill but they don't like the concept of change so many just stick with cable/satellite to watch the price is right.

Plus, IF an advertiser could convince them to purchase their product, they'd probably only have them as a buyer for a decade before they pass. An advertiser may get 4 or 5 times the business if the target someone younger as they will live longer.
Click to expand...
I might not be the best person to respond to this -- I have an engineering degree, a computing/IT specialty and a First Phone (which, if I also have $3, will get me on the subway next time I'm back in NY), and four TV's in my house with four discrete OTA antennas -- but you are misidentifying your problem. It is not only "reluctance to change". OTA TV is largely garbage these days, programming-wise. A lot of sports is on the cable. Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC are on the cable. As is most business news (CNBC, Bloomberg, FBC, etc.), women's lifestyle (the Food Network, HGTV, Lifetime and a number of other "women-leaning" programming services), and children's channels for the grandkids, Comedy Central isn't available OTA. I could probably go on for another 200 words.

OTA reception is free, but you get what you pay for. Plus, you're on the hook to support it (or pay someone else to). With cable or satellite, the support is bundled into your monthly payment. And for some older adults who have retired to 55+ communities, the cable is bundled into their monthly/quarterly common fees, so there's no financial incentive to cutting the cord since you'll still be paying for it. The only actual incentive is having an OTA antenna an a backup for the [/sarcasm on] very rare outages of the increasingly reliable cable system [/off].

One other thing: add up the costs of subscribing to a few streaming services: Netflix $15.50/mo, HBOMax $15, Amazon Prime $139/yr, Hulu, Paramount, Disney, Peacock, etc. It doesn't take too many of those for the monthly tab to add up. Plus, the more that a household streams, the more bandwidth they need in their internet connection to avoid repeated buffering. So there is no free lunch, and unless you're willing to settle for the lowest common denominator of crappy network game/competition/talent shows, ancient reruns on secondary subchannels, syndicated dreck and local Stupid News, there's not a ton of quality programming for cord cutters. (Though PBS is there, as are Stephen/JimmyF/JimmyK/Seth/James. Their shows are often interesting, if you can tolerate 20 minutes a night of ads and 12 weeks a year of reruns. So it's not a complete vast wasteland. [hat tip to Newton Minnow])

I think I might have wandered a bit off topic. Sorry.
 
JoeLouis said:
I'm 70 years old, I want to know, do these so called people who target age groups know how many $$$ seniors spend, some of these so called people within the demographics live in their mommy's basement and don't have a pot to p*** in. There are tons of 50-60s stations on the internet, and they will always be there, I have over 40 programmed on my Grace Internet Radio, so if they want to play these games with "terrestrial" radio, so be it.
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The issue here is that the older people get, the more set in brand and product preferences they become, making it harder and harder to get them to change to a new product or service. At some point, the cost in making a sale is greater than the profit from the sale.

So, in general, mass appeal product advertising ceases to be profitable over a specific age.

The fact is that music formats appealing exclusively to seniors can not make a profit. Formats like news and talk can be profitable with audiences up to about 65, but after that there is no money to be made unless your station is in The Villages, Florida!
 
DavidEduardo said:
The fact is that music formats appealing exclusively to seniors can not make a profit.
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Which is why a lot of them end up on non-commercial radio. Or various subscription-based services.

Seniors have a lot of discretionary income, which means they can spend it on radio.
 
TheBigA said:
Which is why a lot of them end up on non-commercial radio. Or various subscription-based services.

Seniors have a lot of discretionary income, which means they can spend it on radio.
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A huge percentage of seniors live only on Social Security or equivalent parallel plans. They have little or no discretionary income.

Age of HouseholdMedian IncomeMean Income
Households Aged 55-59$73,711$102,203
Households Aged 60-64$64,846$91,543
Households Aged 65-69$53,951$79,661
Households Aged 70-74$50,840$73,028
Households Aged 75 and Over$34,925$54,416

Note that the median retirement income for households aged 60-64 is nearly twice as much as the median retirement income for households aged 75 and over. The difference is even more stark for single retirees: According to the Pension Rights Center, half of all single Americans who are 65 years of age or over have an average retirement income of less than $24,224 per year.

www.personalcapital.com

The Average Retirement Income in 2021 | Personal Capital

If saving for retirement is your primary financial goal, you may be wondering how much income you'll need to live comfortably after you retire. Learn more here.
www.personalcapital.com www.personalcapital.com

The average Social Security benefit for those not doing the early retirement option is less than $2,500. That leaves no discretionary income at all.
 
DavidEduardo said:
A huge percentage of seniors live only on Social Security or equivalent parallel plans. They have little or no discretionary income.
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It depends who you ask. I was responding to this post, so he apparently is not affected by the situation you describe:

JoeLouis said:
I'm 70 years old, I want to know, do these so called people who target age groups know how many $$$ seniors spend
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People in that age group don't all listen to the same music either. We see that demographic come up for the AAA format, as exemplified by WFUV or WXPN.
 
I live in Connecticut, I believe WFUV is the Fordham station, don't know WXPN, most of the old folks like myself like the Old CBS-FM, WLNG on the Island, besides the year music exists shouldn't necessarily go by age , I like some 40s music, I like some 80s also, and I'm sure some younger folks like 50s and 60s, (I know quite a few)
 
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