I am amazed at how people think that companies operate under the premise of not giving customers (listeners) what they want or will not serve a group that supposedly, by claim of that person, is so viable. I'm not a business guru but I do understand these big corporations are stock owned and when you are stock owned, you have to maintain the value of the stock or you simply crash and burn.
I do know the way you stay in business to give people what they want. It might not be the ideal venue for a certain person, but the product is designed to appeal to as many as possible so that your product is successful. I have never heard of one company that intentionally do not do this. If there is, I'd like to know.
As a side note, in programming my philosophy was always to be the station loved by my target audience and the better choice for as many radio listeners as possible. By this I mean you might have some complaints about the programming if outside the target demo but when all is said and done, on the radio dial we are the better choice not the ideal station. I recall trying to explain to a listener why we weren't rock but top 40. I said the percentage of people that want only rock was too small in our city of 150,000 to make a rock format economically viable but there were enough people to create a successful rock station in the city he came from with 3 million people. I asked him the best station on the dial and he said we were the best of all the choices. So, I concluded, "While we are top 40 and you'd rather us be rock, you will still listen because we toss in a rocker here and there, right?" He agreed. I said that was why we were doing what we were doing because we could reach the greatest number of listeners, even the folks wanting only rock.
Radio is a business. It has to make money like any other business. This is a fact for every radio station, LPFM to the biggest station, public or private...just as true as if you are living in the USA you need money for food, shelter, transportation and such. I'm not saying radio is perfect, but that it is a business and functions like any other business. If it can sustain itself financially, great and show growth in revenue in some manner, even better. To produce revenue it must provide a product people want. Sure the older demographics are losing stations but this is due to the dollars coming to radio being dictated to reach listeners where businesses can economically recruit new customers economically. If the advertisers would buy older demos in quantity enough to make it viable in a market, it would be done but if the money is not there to operate it, well, it is as simple as a gas engine car: it is not going to operate without the money to buy the gas to fill the tank.
In short, radio still puts up the good fight, still makes money and likely is better in tune now with listeners than ever before. It has to be. Radio struggles with high debt in many instances and it could be that debt once thought manageable at the time is not quite as manageable today in a softer market. Lots of industries and services are fairly soft right now. There's always lean years no matter your business choice. It's not that radio is failing but that things are rather soft at the moment. Yes, competition is stiff for the ad dollar and we are seeing ad buying trends changing just like many other lines of business, but these are hurdles companies face every day and learn to navigate. I'm far from the thinking that radio is going the way of the horse and buggy, at least from my vantage point.
Blame your opinion of radio on whatever you choose but the real reason the way things are being done as they are is because the current situation is producing the income, bringing in the listeners to earn that income and appeasing the stockholders. If that wasn't the case, they'd be gone.
As for CBS, I suspect the stations will remain pretty much the same, a shuffle as it were, to maximize a portfolio here and bolster a portfolio there. Overall, CBS has good product and is nicely invested in its stations, not always taking many of the fat-trimming tactics that others have. Time will tell if my foot is firmly entrenched in my mouth.
