Good Karma To Lease 880; WCBS News Programming To End

[Mediafrog+]

Big Radio is all about shooting for the lowest common denominator, isn't it? Quantity always trumps quality. WINS attracts it with its tabloid headlines and dopey delivery by anchors like Scott Stanford, for instance.

“Lowest Common Denominator” for better or worse, is, well, a common denominator of all sorts of businesses these days, not just broadcasting, because it brings in the most money. Thus the adage “It doesn’t matter if it sucks as long as it makes bucks.”

The WCBS tragedy really says so much about the sad state of radio today, and the depressing decline in quality and creativity it used to stand for that I have loved for my whole life.

Blame that on the audience, not the broadcasters. Like with government, people will get the kind of media they deserve. And when that audience is satisfied with what some consider poor quality (or even demands it) then you have a societal issue, not a business one.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/16/media/news-radio-local-wcbs-wnyc-sign-off-job-cuts-spotify/index.html

Here a quote a source said while responding to news deserts and the lost of WCBS-AM.

"Paradoxically, one of the largest local news deserts in America is New York. That's why The City was started," "The New York Times is not a local newspaper anymore, The [New York] Post is [Rupert] Murdoch's pulpit, The [New York Daily] News tries to be the Daily Mail."

 

[TheBigA]

Here a quote a source said while responding to news deserts and the lost of WCBS-AM.

From that same article:

“The traditional financial models just don’t work anymore,” Southern California Public Radio chief content officer Kristen Muller wrote in an email to listeners. “Most advertising dollars that once supported us are now heading to giant tech platforms like Facebook and Google, resulting in a significant drop in sponsorship revenue — a tough pill to swallow.”

We're not lying to you. Broadcasters are going bankrupt while Google and Facebook are loaded with money. Neither of them advertise on radio. Neither of them are buying radio stations. Neither of them invest in news gathering or news creation. They just take the work done by others and give it away for free to everyone. It's a form of robbery, and they're stealing from the people.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

As I said, all the things you listed in your post are living on borrowed time. There will be a day when the cable news channels go the way of print newspapers. It's not because of corporations. It's because people stopped using them.

Perhaps for a different reason with cable news channels, though. Because the cable TV model is collapsing and some of those channels aren't even live on streaming platforms yet. One of them is owned by Comcast so hey, synergy.

 

[Kelly A]

Maybe there is no place in commercial radio for a station like this anymore, then. Big Radio is all about shooting for the lowest common denominator, isn't it?

Actually, it's about reaching the audience where they are. For news, that isn't radio anymore.

Quantity always trumps quality. WINS attracts it with its tabloid headlines and dopey delivery by anchors like Scott Stanford, for instance.

And you don't think that's what the audience is interested in? Like WINS is just doing whatever programming for their own entertainment?
I mean, come on dude.

The WCBS tragedy really says so much about the sad state of radio today, and the depressing decline in quality and creativity it used to stand for that I have loved for my whole life.

Do you mean the state of radio, or the fact it's been replaced by smartphones/Internet?

 

[K.M. Richards]

We're not lying to you. Broadcasters are going bankrupt while Google and Facebook are loaded with money. Neither of them advertise on radio. Neither of them are buying radio stations. Neither of them invest in news gathering or news creation. They just take the work done by others and give it away for free to everyone. It's a form of robbery, and they're stealing from the people.

Reposting, increasing font size and adding the highlight to the first sentence.

Anyone here who still thinks radio management is to blame for its decline is just plain clueless and should just stop their online babbling. They are wrong, the above is reality, and short of some major upheaval of phones being "everything" nothing is going to change.

It's getting worse and those of us still in the business (and not lying to you) are mostly hanging on for dear life.

 

[tvnut]

No need to yell.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Reposting, increasing font size and adding the highlight to the first sentence

Totally unnecessary. We can all read, you don't need to keep repeating every single thing in every thread let alone scream it.

 

[Kelly A]

Totally unnecessary. We can all read, you don't need to keep repeating every single thing in every thread let alone scream it.

I generally don't defend K.M., but I'm guessing the emphasis comes from a similar frustration that I feel when I read comments that blame radio for the way consumers consume media today. The point is; that any such fingerpointing is completely misplaced and uninformed. BigA and several of us from inside the industry try to explain what's going on from an inside baseball perspective, but it seems like several folks here don't want to hear it.
It appears K.M.'s textually loud emphasis seems to have at least made you pay attention. Seems to me like a mission accomplished!

 

[Theater of My Mind]

BigA and several of us from inside the industry try to explain what's going on from an inside baseball perspective, but it seems like several folks here don't want to hear it.

You guys don't have a monopoly on opinions from "inside the industry" and your collective attempts to mansplain everything in defense of corporate radio get tiresome and irritating.

The fact is there are many people from "inside the industry" who post thoughtful comments on other platforms who are supportive of the talent that makes radio work. Who are compassionate about what happened to the humans affected by this incident and so many others like it. People who are putting in the hard work to make radio worth listening to in spite of their companies sinking under mountains of debt. The bankruptcies that were not caused by anything they are doing wrong but by the greed-driven Wall Street gambling addictions of the corporate boards.

This place is notable for being out of step with the sentiments seen everywhere else.

 

[Kelly A]

You guys don't have a monopoly on opinions from "inside the industry" and your collective attempts to mansplain everything in defense of corporate radio get tiresome and irritating.

Only because you don't want to hear it? Because you want to believe what you want, does that make it true? The term 'alternate reality' comes to mind.

The fact is there are many people from "inside the industry" who post thoughtful comments on other platforms who are supportive of the talent that makes radio work. Who are compassionate about what happened to the humans affected by this incident and so many others like it. People who are putting in the hard work to make radio worth listening to in spite of their companies sinking under mountains of debt.

We agree on some of that, but the reality is the business is changing. They can work hard all they want doing the same thing as thirty years ago until they get RIF'ed too. You can't stop time.

The bankruptcies that were not caused by anything they are doing wrong but by the greed-driven Wall Street gambling addictions of the corporate boards.

That's a cliche, inaccurate excuse for not knowing the history of how we got to this point. The wrong information makes you feel better, so that must be why you keep saying it.

This place is notable for being out of step with the sentiments seen everywhere else.

Really? Like where?

 

[K.M. Richards]

Totally unnecessary. We can all read, you don't need to keep repeating every single thing in every thread let alone scream it.

But the posting history here proves that unless these things are figuratively shoved in your collective faces, you will continue to ignore the facts and keep putting forward absurd theories and scenarios.

I'm just making sure that BigA's post gets a little more notice than usual. "Unnecessary"? I think not.

 

[K.M. Richards]

This place is notable for being out of step with the sentiments seen everywhere else.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Really? Like where?

You can start by reading the Radio World article posted on the previous page. Beyond that I'm not listing the groups I enjoy following because I'd like to keep them that way.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Beyond that I'm not listing the groups I enjoy following because I'd like to keep them that way.

If you enjoy those groups so much more than RD ... well, I think most here know what I am thinking ...

 

[Kelly A]

You can start by reading the Radio World article posted on the previous page. Beyond that I'm not listing the groups I enjoy following because I'd like to keep them that way.

So, you prefer hanging only with groups that agree with you? That makes sense.
There are a lot of sites and forums on the Internet that subscribe to forms of alternate reality. Come to this one and start with the revisionist history and expect correction.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

So, you prefer hanging only with groups that agree with you?

I'm here, aren't I? And I haven't even put you and K.M. on my ignore list so don't try to imply that I do.
I'm stepping out of this. Go ahead and have the last word if it makes you feel big.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I haven't even put you and K.M. on my ignore list so don't try to imply that I do.

I would make no such implication, and I don't care either way.

 

[Kelly A]

I'm here, aren't I? And I haven't even put you and K.M. on my ignore list so don't try to imply that I do.

As K.M said, I never saw where that was implied, nor did I intend to. That's ultimately your decision, not ours.

I'm stepping out of this. Go ahead and have the last word if it makes you feel big.

I've said my piece. If you can't defend your prior position that (to paraphrase) 'greedy fat cats' are the ones that ruined radio, then I respect you for giving up on the discussion.

 

[fybush]

Your moderators are happy to indulge all kinds of conversation about radio here.

We are not going to be as indulgent about conversations about conversations about radio, however.