Jim Ladd, the Last DJ is gone from KLOS. Stuck And Crosby gone from X103/Indy. Most mid-day talent gone. Production Directors. Imagers. Morning Producers. Gone. Trimmed. RIF’ed from Clear Channel, Cumulus and others. And when Clear Channel takes a crap, the other broadcasters sniff that crap and get the idea to take the same crap. Radio doesn’t own radio anymore. Hasn’t since the mid-90’s. But did you think it would get this strange?
Certainly, a sad time. But will the listener really care? Will they literally stop listening to their favorite station? Probably not. They may listen less, but the hits will keep on spinning ad nauseum. The ticket giveaways will continue. The who really cares flyaways will continue.
The sparkle and magic will be gone. The mistakes, humanity and blemishes gone. Localism in markets smaller than, say, market 20-25 is gone (I read that a VT’d station in St. Louis wished the Cardinals good luck in game 6 AFTER the game had been postponed!). Programming innovation has stopped. And that is what the final net-net will be. An industry that literally has stopped innovating. No bold new formats, outlandish personalities, rock star programmers. We are left with banal, antiseptic, researched to death radio. Give me big cume or nothing!
I get it. Technology and post Cold War worldwide competition has shaken every industry to its core. Restructuring is a requirement. Companies do more with less and profit more than ever. Radio is no different. If you think it is, read the book “That Used To Be Us” by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum (www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=that+used+to+be+us&sprefix=that+used).
Bank Of America announced monthly $5 debit card fees. Will they go out of business? No. Just like radio, they will go on. Scorned, hated and
disrespected. But they will go on trying to figure out how to squeeze more money from the same customer base that is beginning to dwindle.
2012 is going to be just as ugly. I can’t wait for the day that the major broadcasters have to sell off stations at a loss. Hopefully then the small guy will get another chance and just be happy doing local radio. Isn’t there a higher calling for doing radio than gaming PPM, squeezing more out of
less and achieving bottom line revenue by cutting expenses? Remember, PPM is a zero sum game, so there will still be 100 shares distributed, but TSL’s may continue to trend downward. And that is something the radio industry does not want to talk about (notice all the big Arbitron RADAR press releases are about cume, cume, cume?)
Most Alternative programmers know better and program better than what’s going on out there. I am seeing new bands breaking at the format
more often than in years past. Grouplove, Foster The People, Young The Giant, Joy Formidable with Florence + The Machine being cued up for core artistry potential. Something tells me, however, that’s not enough. It takes too long to break a record—30+ weeks sometimes. 35/65 Current to Gold ratios leads this P1 to listen less and seek new music discovery elsewhere. I continue to question the validity of playing “Sex & Candy” 10X a week still. It’s like top 40 radio continuing to spin “Return Of The Mack” that often. Top 40 is current and getting 25-54 numbers. Let’s move on!
I’m getting off topic here. With the recent horriblle news, the opportunity is to prove your local-ty: your local loyalty. Innovate beyond PPM’s vagaries and weaknesses. Be strong in your convictions and constantly let your team know where you are, where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.
Know that the biggest broadcasters are downsizing it in. Use it to your advantage.
Make the listener care.
