Why work in radio anymore?

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I'm sure the Commissioners were exhausted from the experience, and nothing ever came from any of the hearings. But it gave them a small taste of what receptionists at radio stations go through every day.

Based on our own personal political views, I know we are all seeing the current landscape a bit differently from one another, but here is my rationale on why we probably will not see effective (but troublesome) local advisory boards.

All my lifetime I have heard people complain about "the fat in government". If we could cut out the waste, our taxes could come down. Who was the congressman who annually presented some obnoxious recognition for the most wasteful program of the year?

During the current economic turmoil, (recession, downturn, depression... whatever you want to call it) governments at all levels are scrambling to find ways to reduce operations and budgets to match the reduced tax income. Furloughs for government workers. School teacher holidays. The Corps of Engineers shut down a campground on the lake down the street from my house. The auditors were to unfocused, too busy, to even spot a big fat, juicy target like Bernie Madoff. The IRS hassles a lot of people (selectively?) but they don't have the manpower to actually enforce and collect Federal taxes properly.

So even if they were to come up with regs about community advisory boards, Who is going to enforce the rules? Reality should be settling in by now. As a nation, as a civilization, we may be on the edge of realizing there are some things we can't afford. A year ago we had trouble coming up with Federal funds for SCHIP to provide medical care for poor children. Are we ready to tell the children they can't have medical care because it is more important to have public advisory boards argue over programming content on some 100 watt, 500 watt or 1,000 watt radio station?

 

[TheBigA]

Who was the congressman who annually presented some obnoxious recognition for the most wasteful program of the year?

I think it was William Proxmire's Golden Fleece award.

 

[Prais]

I spent the weeked in Hart, MI. I preached there at a local church.

I listened all weekend to WEEH, 100.5 a low power station there. The oldies were great. Must be computer delivered. NO ADS all weekewnd. That was sad. I hope thisa guy makes it.

127 ft antenna w/60 watts.

John Denver Rocky Mountain High Buy
Johnny Rivers Memphis Buy
Foundations Build Me Up Buttercup Buy
Del Shannon Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow The Sun) (1964) Buy
Aretha Franklin (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman Buy
Osmonds Down By The Lazy River (1972) Buy
Paul Simon Kodachrome Buy
Tremeloes Silence Is Golden Buy
Marvin Gaye I'll Be Doggone Buy
Beach Boys Dance, Dance, Dance

Groovy!

I'd like to help him.

Tom

 

[firepoint525]

I passed their complaints (when relevant) on to management, but I knew that because of the situation that I spelled out in the paragraph above, that it was extremely unlikely that they could (or would) change anything.

That's also not what I'm talking about. It's vitually impossible for any radio station to please everyone all of the time. Mass media does not provide custom or individual service. And that's frustrating to a lot of people who expect that. But there's really no way to accomodate it.

No, but they can somehow manage to piss off nearly every one nearly all the time. Equal opportunity offenders!

 

[firepoint525]

Yes, particularly in smaller markets, a station is wise to "keep and ear to the ground" and listen for suggestions and input. BUT, formalizing a process of asking for phone in suggestions and putting a place on a web site for submitting suggestions MUST BE DONE with care. The wording carefully chosen. Otherwise the listener is led to believe that if a suggestion is made, IT HAS TO BE IMPLEMENTED.

It would be wiser for stations NOT to have a link on their website for soliciting programming suggestions, because it does, in effect, give listeners the false impression that they are "stockholders" in the station. But on the other hand, some stations whose websites I have looked at don't have any type of contact information whatsoever! No email addresses, nothing! There should at least be a way to contact someone on the staff at the station, if the station has a website.

Referring to the station's phone number as a "studio line" or something to that effect, instead of as a "request line" is also a good idea. It will get you on the line with the on-air dj (if they have one), but it does not imply that they take requests.

 

[firepoint525]

But it gave them a small taste of what receptionists at radio stations go through every day.

Receptionists? Your station had receptionists? I have not worked at a station that had a receptionist in many many years! In fact, one station did not even have heat in the office area, because the owner could not afford to heat it! The only heated area was in the back of the building where everyone worked.

 

[louromshow]

To the youngins' -- I spent two months calling, emailing, stopping by the AM Talker I work for now. I got the job after two months of harassing them like all get out. And you know what, I have media credentials that supercede anyone who has worked there in the last 25 years. I called, emailed, visited until they were ready to call security to get me to leave (well, it felt that way). Now, after 15 years out of the business (all in newspapers), I have my own afternoon drive show -- and got it without an aircheck. I make crap, but I get to hone my skills 10 hours a week with real callers, a real board and real news in a Top 100 market. I have no idea if I'm making a dent -- I'll know when the next book comes out -- but the truth is that a similar opportunity for a guy in his 20s or even 30s would be invaluable. And, truth be told, I really can't afford TO work there, whereas if I were in my 20s, I would have gladly done this for free -- or at least a Big Gulp every show to get me jonesin'.

 

[amfmxm]

To the youngins' -- I spent two months calling, emailing, stopping by the AM Talker I work for now. I got the job after two months of harassing them like all get out. And you know what, I have media credentials that supercede anyone who has worked there in the last 25 years. I called, emailed, visited until they were ready to call security to get me to leave (well, it felt that way). Now, after 15 years out of the business (all in newspapers), I have my own afternoon drive show -- and got it without an aircheck. I make crap, but I get to hone my skills 10 hours a week with real callers, a real board and real news in a Top 100 market. I have no idea if I'm making a dent -- I'll know when the next book comes out -- but the truth is that a similar opportunity for a guy in his 20s or even 30s would be invaluable. And, truth be told, I really can't afford TO work there, whereas if I were in my 20s, I would have gladly done this for free -- or at least a Big Gulp every show to get me jonesin'.

Thanks, Lou. That's the way life really works. It's messy. But if you're persistent--and have at least some real ability--you can make things happen.

 

[joshzz]

I own a small radio and believe that after the dust settles radio will be better than it has been in years.

The problem started with deregulation. That's when groups that had no interest in radio but looked at radio as only a "cash cow" got in. They cut staff, gutted local programming and flipped stations quickly - all the while focusing in on the buck.

Now, that radio is not what it use to be in large part due to the fact they destroyed it--- they're bailing out.. excuse my language but, "good riddance".

I believe, there will come a time again when lots of direct owner operated, mom and pop stations will once again flourish. Coupled with the possibility that if something can be done to make health care affordable to all (including those with pre-existing conditions), we would be in an ideal situation for the future.

Our intent is to run a local, personality driven music format all day long..

I think the future is bright--- and I'm looking for the right bargain to grow our reach & be able to offer more employment opportunities for those who love radio. j o e

 

[TheBigA]

The problem started with deregulation. That's when groups that had no interest in radio but looked at radio as only a "cash cow" got in.

I'm curious who exactly you're talking about. Lowry Mays had been in radio for 20 years by the time of deregulation. Farid Suleman was still at CBS, but he had also spent 20 years in radio by 1996. The Dickey family has been in radio for a generation. CBS has been in radio since 1928. If anyone looked at radio as a cash cow, it was Bill Paley. It's why he left his father's cigar business. A lot of people like Paley got into radio during this time.

The one guy who really started the buy-buy deal-making in radio that ended ten years ago was Robert F.X. Sillerman. That's when the problem, as you call it, started. He started buying radio stations in the 70s (originally as a partner with WABC DJ Bruce Morrow), and was in the middle of all the action in the late 80s and early 90s, ultimately leading to the formation of SFX Broadcasting in 1993, and then AMFM a few years later. He did all of his buying through one broker, former WMCA Good Guy Gary Stevens. All this is pre-deregulation. Once de-regulation happened, all the dealmakers like Sillerman, KKR, Bass Brothers, and other huge investment bankers cashed out and left. I think they're all gone now. It was the years after de-regulation where radio was run, for the first time, mainly by radio companies and not by insurance companies, electronics companies or tire companies. Those are the people, most notably Randy Michaels, a former DJ, who cut staff. This didn't happen by people with no interest in radio, but by people who knew radio BETTER than anyone else. Deregulation was not the problem. The problem in radio began 20 years before deregulation. If anything, deregulation stopped it. It preserved AM radio for another 10 years. If deregulation hadn't happened, the FCC was still going to loosen ownership rules. That was already in the works.

The time for mom & pops buying radio stations is passed. The level of regulation, the cost of equipment, and the potential for lawsuit make it too risky for a mom & pop in markets larger than 100,000 people. There are lots of businesses that bring a better return on investment with less trouble. It may be OK in small markets. I don't know anything about that. But not in markets with population. If you're looking at Arbitron rated markets, I hope you have a good source of funding, because buying the property will just be the start of the money drain.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

The time for mom & pops buying radio stations is passed. The level of regulation, the cost of equipment, and the potential for lawsuit make it too risky for a mom & pop in markets larger than 100,000 people. There are lots of businesses that bring a better return on investment with less trouble. It may be OK in small markets. I don't know anything about that. But not in markets with population. If you're looking at Arbitron rated markets, I hope you have a good source of funding, because buying the property will just be the start of the money drain.

That may be one of the best "essays" you have posted on these boards. It's painful to read because many of us don't want to live in the (radio) world that has come to be. Those of us who HAVE worked in smaller markets, those of us who HAVE worked for stations where the staff was like family have this dream, this vision that the end product is better when produce under those circumstances.

To many of us the difference between OUR hoped-for vision of radio and what you see as the current and future condition of radio is the difference between visiting quaint little wineries out in the boonies as compared to driving by a "beer factory" in Milwaukee.

As I read this excellent essay of yours I thought of other businesses also facing this harsh reality that the world may be different that we long for. I remember calling on customers who had quaint little department stores on Main Street in robust little tows or 20,000 people or less. Today we have this sprawling nightmare called Macy's. I remember watching a guy go from service station operator to monster Chevrolet dealer where eventually I joined "the family" to be the computer administrator. Today it has been swallowed up by a national chain. The small town businessman I used to envy was the banker. Today if his grandchildren are bankers it is likely they work for CitiBank or Wells-Fargo. My son flirts with the restaurant business. I can tell that his unspoken dream is to own one of those quaint, family operated one-of-a-kind restaurants we used to enjoy. But chances are he can never move over to the restaurant business unless he is willing to become a cog-in-the-gears at California Pizza Kitchen or Applebies or Cracker Barrel.

I don't know whether to congratulate you or to pity you for not having any experience working in a small market radio station, ever. The good news is that you aren't burdened down with this romanticism about the business many of us carry around like a cedar chest full of old love letters. The bad news is that you can't possibly have a trunk of old love letters that matches what we have.

 

[TheBigA]

The scary part is that this is a point in radio's history when some people who have no interest in radio start buying stations simply because they're cheap, and they give an owner a potential platform to spread agendas. Not to say this isn't already happening, but the high cost used to keep a lot of crazies out. The good part about financial people is it's all they care about. As long as the money is green, the color of the politics doesn't matter. I'm not so sure about that in this next group of new owners. Those interested in using radio as a cash cow are far less diabolical than folks with an agenda.

 

[louromshow]

Rodeo Cowboy -- I hope you have, or do, talk radio. Because your prose is what's missing from today's "Outrage Radio." I suspect I could listen to you for hours.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

The good part about financial people is it's all they care about. As long as the money is green, the color of the politics doesn't matter. I'm not so sure about that in this next group of new owners. Those interested in using radio as a cash cow are far less diabolical than folks with an agenda.

You have addressed an idea that may deserve a thread all of its own. I would kick it off if it were not so likely that the topic would attract some of the "political crazies" that ran rampant on a discussion board where most people are able to hide behind the mask of anonymity.

If people will be honest, what you have stated is not something that I can jump in and say: "Are you out of your mind? That is really stupid!" I'm sitting here as I read your post, thinking back through the people I have known, including the broadcasters that I have worked for, I will simply counter you thoughts by saying: I've known some of each. I know some very aggressive business types, investor types, who indeed are "agnostic" towards politics. And I know some others who have a very fine tuned ability to not let investment dull their political intensity, and not let politics dull their investment intensity. What I will say is: I don't believe it is as cut-and-dried as you have stated it. I agree with you that if economic condition do dump cheap radio stations into the market place is large numbers, ten years from today we could sit down to discuss it and there will indeed be some examples of people who purchased a radio station primarily to drive a political agenda. Some will buy them in hopes of driving a religious agenda. Some will buy stations to drive some other personal interest: sports. classical music. to be the P.A. system for a tourist town. But we have ALWAYS had these tangential motives for ownership... even in radio's so called golden era.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Rodeo Cowboy -- I hope you have, or do, talk radio. Because your prose is what's missing from today's "Outrage Radio." I suspect I could listen to you for hours.

I am certainly flattered by your comment.

No, I don't do talk radio today. I have no concept that I could hope to get hired to do significant talk radio today. IF I got hired, I would have difficulty generating top ratings because I do not suffer graciously the blood, gore, insults and incivility that seem to be necessary for success in that field.

I did talk radio a number of years ago... back before talk radio became cool to quote the country music song... in about as hostile environment as you can imagine. I was on a religious station that catered to Fundamentalists and Evangelicals in the the middle of Vietnam and the Civil Rights turmoil in this country. Compared to today, I was pretty green and naive, but I got in my share of prosaic zingers from a rather centrist view.

I'm a simple old farm boy who grew up a long ways from town. What I know about is carefully selecting seeds to plant for your crops, and managing the husbandry of your livestock. The problem with radio today is that the industry doesn't seem to understand crap about either of those topics.

 

[louromshow]

Rodeo -- funny, way back before Al Gore invented the Internet, I worked for KTIL in Tillamook, Ore., and had to navigate a mine field of cow dung to get to the thermometer to give folks a live temperature -- and to the turkey-baster we used to measure rainfall. I kid you not.

 

[TheBigA]

What I know about is carefully selecting seeds to plant for your crops, and managing the husbandry of your livestock. The problem with radio today is that the industry doesn't seem to understand crap about either of those topics.

Oh I don't know...I think I know what it's like to stick my arm up a cow's butt....all the way to my shoulder! Moo.

 

[gr8oldies]

It is interesting, looking back, how many times in "the good old days" I heard, and even said, "Wouldn't it be great if a real radio company with lots of cash bought our station. They'd make us 24/7, get rid of the reel-to-reel automation, put some promotion dollars into the operation". Then the "real radio people" came in and now all we do is complain. Now we want other "real radio people" to buy the ashes from the great bankruptcy, and figure they are going to spend money hand over fist, get rid of voice tracking and syndication and hire jocks by the busload. Ain't gonna happen, folks.

The first LMA I was ever aware of was in Cincinnati, when Jacor and WLW LMAed WKRC, turning it into "550 WLW". Eventually they tried a more female friendly talk format, which bombed. Pretty soon Jacor had, or was LMAin, all the AMs (1360 was the now defunct children's network, Radio Aahs) and at least one more FM.

The more things change?

 

[SirRoxalot]

Money people started investing in radio in the '80s because it was a high-profit business with growth potential - especially in growing markets in the Sun Belt. They weren't radio people, they were spreadsheet wizards. The finance guys were the ones with enough juice to get LMAs and expanded ownership approved. I'm sure that a few dollars were donated to campaign warchests to help make that happened.

Those are the same people who are bailing out of radio now because profits have dropped, and it's no longer a growth industry - even in Sun Belt cities. They've reduced costs by reducing the value of what they own. Programming is no longer as compelling as it once was, and isn't as successful for advertisers as it once was. Yes, there's competition from other media, but most of radio's wounds are self-inflicted.

The next generation of radio owners will expect to live within their means, and know that there are precious few "synergies" that can effectively reduce costs for what's primarily a local medium, selling to local customers. The national TV model espoused by some will yield the same problems that national TV networks face - users who prefer to download content that doesn't need to be timely or local, and who want to watch it either as a podcast or a stream at the time that the viewer chooses. Syndicators will get used to the idea that they don't need many radio stations to distribute their product - they simply need a website.

I'm not sure what the next generation of radio will sound like. There are a lot of variables - from ownership to Sound Exchange to the FCC and redistribution of the electromagnetic spectrum. I do know that the continued use of hyperbole adds nothing of value to the discussion.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm sure that a few dollars were donated to campaign warchests to help make that happened.

BS. The FCC wanted to get out of the police business. They started getting out in the 70s, and when Reagan came in and cut their budget, they went even further.Phone deregulation in the 80s increased the FCC workload. Then satellite and internet took time away from the bureaucrats. They farmed out all the technical work to outside contractors. Radio is very low on their priority list, and has been for 25 years. It had nothing to do with campaign contributions. That is all a big myth.

Those are the same people who are bailing out of radio now because profits have dropped, and it's no longer a growth industry - even in Sun Belt cities.

Get specific. Who are you talking about. I named names. The investment people all left by 2001. There has been no new money since then. And the bottom fell out of radio stocks 4 years ago. So no one is left now to bail out of radio.

They've reduced costs by reducing the value of what they own. Programming is no longer as compelling as it once was, and isn't as successful for advertisers as it once was.

As it once was? It wasn't that compelling before...the audience had fewer choices. Not a problem now. Programming hasn’t really changed in 25 years. We have basically the same formats, using the same techniques. Sure some of the bodies are gone. But other than that, it sounds basically the same. In my view, that’s the problem. It’s time to clean out the dead wood from the 80s and do something new. It’s not as successful because it’s not interactive. Advertisers can get better ROI from the internet. And the metrics are better. None of the hocus pocus from Arbitron.

The next generation of radio owners will expect to live within their means, and know that there are precious few "synergies" that can effectively reduce costs for what's primarily a local medium, selling to local customers.

The next generation of radio owners will live within their means because the hard work has been done already. The ranks of employees will be thinned, so they’ll have far fewer expenses. They can thank the big companies for eating all the severance pay and cutting their costs down closer to what the ad market will handle. Ad rates will continue to fall, so there will be no chance of increasing staff or services.

The only area of growth for radio will be in new media and non-broadcast. But only larger companies will have the ability to provide the content. Small stations will have to rely on outside suppliers.