They once were, but spun off the concert promotion business as Live Nation.
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2019 Radio Predictions
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
They once were, but spun off the concert promotion business as Live Nation.
1) Lew Dickey will buy or invest in a major radio company.
2) The company he is rumored to be acquiring is generally considered well-run. It will be considered a lot less well-run as soon as Lewcifer walks through the doors.
3) Regardless of what the FCC decides, no one company will own all commercial stations in any rated market.
4) Soft AC will continue making its comeback.
2) The company he is rumored to be acquiring is generally considered well-run. It will be considered a lot less well-run as soon as Lewcifer walks through the doors.
3) Regardless of what the FCC decides, no one company will own all commercial stations in any rated market.
4) Soft AC will continue making its comeback.
The rumor is that Cox will be announcing a deal with Lou Dickey, who has to move very quickly while he still has dry powder.
AM revitalization is about revitalizing the STATIONS, not the band.
This is what I have heard as well. Having worked for the old Cumulus and interned at the old New City, I feel sorry for the people at Cox. I still know a handful at the same stations where I interned over a quarter century ago. I almost cried when I heard that rumor. Cumulus was one of the two worst employment experiences I've ever had (the other was a major telecom company headquartered in Kansas City), and I hate to think some old friends might be entering a similarly toxic environment.
I will say that the one time I met Lew, he came across as a good guy. He just also come across as a very lousy businessman and didn’t seem to relate well enough to people to know how bad some of what he said sounded.
You echo everything I have heard. There was just not a good business sense and market sensitivity at Cumulus, despite Lou's background with an actual research company. Their crystal ball was actually as clear as an 8-ball.
Actually it's more convoluted than that. The initiative began at the FCC with all kinds of options for AM being analyzed, including things as ridiculous as allowing the old Class IV stations to go up to 5 kw and a number of idea that defy the laws of physics. Out of all of that, the only workable idea was to allow AM stations to build or buy translators.
But originally the idea was how to improve AM station technical facilities.
At least you know he won't move the headquarters from Atlanta. The one thing they have in common is they both still think it's the 1970s.
He hired Cumulus' digital guru, Lori Lewis away and moved her to Atlanta, so yes anything he does will be headquartered there. Cox got away from the top down management that was prevelant for so long, I imagine it would be re-instated pretty quickly once Lew was in charge.
At least Cox has allowed some innovation and has stuck with the development process. Witness WFEZ, initially a failure and then worked out via research and some creativity; they inadvertently started a whole industry trend.
What trend has Lou started? (Yeah, rhetorical question!)
Not in their ill-fated investment in online content known as Rare.com Total flop. Badly marketed. Money down the drain.
Only HD radio countries.
DAB countries have more bandwidth than they know what to do with,
plus a lot more features, and they WILL transition while everyone on these boards continues to debate the least objectionable, possible things to do.
That would be my guess, too. Cox, in some ways, continues to be pretty top-down. Pretty sure Cox still mandates no more than 10 minutes of commercials an hour outside of drive times and no more than two breaks an hour outside of morning drive. The clocks are predictable across most of the music stations across the company. It doesn’t, however, feel like the stranglehold Cumulus did.
I’m hoping Lew has learned from his past mistakes, but I'm not encouraged. He couldn’t seem to adapt well during his roughly 15 years helming Cumulus. As I said before, despite sometimes calling him “Lewcifer,” I actually liked Lew the one time I met him. That doesn’t mean I'd want to work for him, though. I do appreciate that Cumulus realized the OM the previous regime hired who was making everyone miserable months before my previous employer was sold was a putz and pushed him out after less than a year. However, for that one example, there were many more of Cumulus squeezing good people out by micromanaging the programming and sales staffs and “promoting” people to management positions that came with pay cuts.
Things seemed to go fine (at least from the outside) until he bought Citadel. So maybe as long as he keeps Cox Radio as it is, with its existing 70 some stations, and doesn't attempt to use that as leverage to buy something else, things shouldn't be too bad. Looking around the country, they don't really have to micromanage the programming or sales. But that doesn't mean they won't.
The real story to me however is yet another heritage radio owner is cashing out.
It's down to 56 stations since the sale of several markets to Summit.
But "AM Revitalization" is strictly a USA concept. Most countries, like our neighbors Canada and Mexico, have allowed most AMs to migrate to FM and the remaining stations are "on their own" or the frequencies have been given to ethnic groups.
About the only places where HD is "successful" and anywhere near dominant is where the government controls much of the industry (and in many cases has a "radio tax" that finances these things).
To that point, it's too bad that Eureka 147 (DAB) never really caught on. One could literally take one single VHF TV channel and stack enough digital audio streams to cover the entire AM station lineup in a market. In much better quality and consistent market coverage too. One transmitter, one antenna, 20 audio streams.
That's the problem with this whole assumption about expanding the FM band, or whatever that requires listeners to actively go out and purchase a new radio. The majority of consumers just won't bother.
Radio folks are confusing these personal speakers such as Alexa as home radios. They aren't. They are music delivery services. Radio is one option, but the goal is to listen to music. I was at a New Year's party where there was a Google Home device playing music, and it wasn't coming from a radio station. If people want to listen to a radio station, they can do that with Alexa or Google, but it will be the streaming signal, not over the air. There is no radio antenna is any home speaker.
Now that I'm employed I bought a new smart phone. I have Verizon Prepaid. $50/month + Tax and Fees I get unlimited talk and text and 8GB of data. I used that now instead of my Walkman when I walk. Since December 7th I have used just 1.89 GB Data and that's because a couple times I forgot to switch the WiFi back on. I have the Tune-In App, Radio.Com App, and the iHeart Radio app. I can listen to all my favorite local stations with no interference. Plus when I'm in the mood for Throwback Hip-Hop I can go on the Radio.Com app and listen to 104.3 JAMS out of Chicago.
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