970WFLA asleep again ???

[badjef]

I would have to agree that deregulation has been the worse detriment to broadcasting in the past 40 years....especially from an employee and listener's view

But, you're not looking at one of the biggest root causes of the deregulation: regulation. badjef got it right. If Washington had stayed out of the situation to begin with, we wouldn't be where we are today.

The FCC made a decision decades ago that stations would have their "class" status downgraded if they didn't make full use of their licensed class. In those days, a Class A could operate on a Class C allocation. (The following details are pure fiction, used only to illustrate the issue.) Assume a Class A operating on a Class C allocation in Sarasota. Under the FCC's then-newly-implemented regulations, if that station didn't upgrade itself to a C within a given time frame, it would be downgraded to an A allocation and other stations moved in around it. It would forever give up its ability to upgrade. A lot of stations in suburban, or even exurban, towns were forced to upgrad and the result was our famous "move-in" period. Sarasota loses a local service and it's crammed into Tampa.

As if that wasn't bad enough...

In the dying throes of the failed Jimmy Carter administration, the fools came up with Docket 80-90. This was a beautiful piece of social engineering stupidity of the first magnitude. The FCC relaxed some separation requirements so additional stations could be licensed for the sole purpose of putting licenses in the hands of blacks and women. No matter what your feelings regarding that part of 80-90, the real problem arose when the FCC believed its own crap about what it felt was "community service" and programming in the "public interest."

Like all bureaucrats with no experience in how the world operates, the Commission favored people who had no experience in broadcasting and promised all kinds of discussion and interview programs to service the local needs. Does it really take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out what happened?

They went friggin' broke, that's what they did. And, in the end, they got bought out by real broadcasters who knew what they were doing. Now, we have all the move-ins PLUS the 80-90 idiocy that, in some markets, doubled or even tripled the number of viable signals.

It didn't take too many years for everyone, including the morons at the FCC, to figure out that no one could pay their bills anymore. Stations were failing right and left. Something had to be done, especially since the Commission wanted to keep all those signals on the air in order to provide diversification of formats. Again, it didn't take a Rhodes Scholar to see the only solution: one manager running multiple stations, one sales department serving multiple stations, etc.

In the end, deregulation was the only viable solution to previous stupid regulations.

For those who think regulation is the answer to the country's social ills, this caveat: be careful what you ask for. You might get it.

...and did.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[MsMusicRadio]

I'm not a CC fan, but I believe other owners also feature the line-up of Beck/Limbough when they got the big talker. For years this concept always won. Clear Channel does not own WABC in NYC and they got those guys.

 

[dwtpa97]

The effects of deregulation of the radio industry speak for themselves.

 

[SarasotaJim]

The effects of deregulation of the radio industry speak for themselves.

It really isn't deregulation at all, in the dictionary sense of the word. It's just regulation with different rules. Made necessary by bad prior regulation.

 

[LiveLocal]

To appease all of the above posters, let's get some education here.

Back in the day, I had local newscasts at :05 and :30, and inbetween I ran board for either syndication or local talk, and made cop calls when I could

Assuming Bay News 9 has a fully staffed news operation, and can bang out a headline that instantly appears on the screen ticker; What exactly is the workload these days of a local radio news person, say at 970?

Bay News 9 has 110 employees.

 

[flwfg]

BayNews9 also has a larger geographical area to cover... Other than BN9.. NO ONE covers Manatee County on a regular basis.... Other stations USED to, but apparently they forgot that Manatee really IS on the south end of Tampa Bay, thus a part of the actual Tampa Bay area... Now days most only cover the big 4 counties.. Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk... It has also been correctly mentioned that despite their size, BN9 is usually the LAST to post any "Bulletins" or breaking news stories on line... 8,10,13,28 are usually all there b/4 BN9...I think the only do it AFTER they have themselves aired the story as an exclusive...

 

[Studio20]

To appease all of the above posters, let's get some education here.

Back in the day, I had local newscasts at :05 and :30, and inbetween I ran board for either syndication or local talk, and made cop calls when I could

Assuming Bay News 9 has a fully staffed news operation, and can bang out a headline that instantly appears on the screen ticker; What exactly is the workload these days of a local radio news person, say at 970?

Bay News 9 has 110 employees.

Thanks for responding. Now part two, what exactly these days is the workload of your news jock at 970?

 

[exboardop]

Isnt automation and syndication great? (oh, and the hordes of unpaid "interns")

Glad I got out when I did...

 

[badjef]

Isnt automation and syndication great? (oh, and the hordes of unpaid "interns")

Glad I got out when I did...

Your "handle" would suggest otherwise.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[exboardop]

The effects of deregulation of the radio industry speak for themselves.

It really isn't deregulation at all, in the dictionary sense of the word. It's just regulation with different rules. Made necessary by bad prior regulation.

It's absolutely, positively deregulation. The biggest piece being that the limits on the number of radio/tv stations in a market were completely eliminated.

That pretty much killed jobs and local talent, brought on syndication on a large scale, eroded ad revenue, etc.

You cant say anything positive about deregulation unless you are a company line stooge. It's when I saw the writing on the wall and started planning my second career

 

[Mike_Hennessy]

I figured nothing good would come of it when owners started flipping stations like pancakes. The numbers were ridiculous and it was just a matter of time before the flippers ran out of greater fools. I'm no business whiz, but I never could see how buying a station with mortgage payments higher than your monthly billing could be sustainable.

 

[badjef]

Personally, I think you are all becoming the people you are complaining about. 105.9 simulcast should start leading you on the path radio is going, and you don't have to look any farther than your "smart" "phone".

Radio is sales of ads. Like it, love it, live it. If you want to play "radio", you can do that without leaving your house. But radio as we knew it is gone and changing. AM will not be around much longer, it will go the way of analogue TV.

Radio was always a medium of acquiring the largest audience. If still true, how do you explain a 970 simulcast of 250,000,000 micro watts? Hillsborough County - ONLY? That would be counter productive, wouldn't it? Not if you were going to change the business model. Not if you were going to go for a micro market business model instead.

Remember, programming is filler between the commercials. You are complaining about Republican vs. democrat. Big, bad, Bain Capital! Who cares? That is not relevant anymore. Radio News? It is for the convenience of those who want to think they are "hearing about the world."

It is all about me, now. Not the collective us. That is where radio and sales are going.

Just check your spam email every once in awhile. You'll see...

Remember, most of us never experienced the early business model of radio before TV, remember the one BEFORE REGULATION???

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[Mike_Hennessy]

Federal Regulation was what saved the radio industry. It took the (reluctant) intervention of the Hoover Administration to put an end to the anarchy that would have sunk it. The 7 station limit and the three year ownership requirement made a lot of money for a lot of owners, but they also got blamed for getting in the way of REALLY big money.

 

[coolaid213]

I disagree with everything Badjef has to say. ;D

 

[badjef]

I disagree with everything Badjef has to say. ;D

Not surprising. "Progress" rarely takes the same people along.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[coolaid213]

Oh please, I'm 28 years old. I've been working in this business for about 9 years. I'm definitely not some old fuddy-duddy. I know the only thing wrong with this business is the people making programming decisions. There's nothing wrong with the medium.

 

[flwfg]

Hasn't programming always been the crux of the problem ??

 

[badjef]

The dichotomy of programming AGAINST people's lifestyles and FOR their lifestyles at the same time while those habits and tastes are changing.

It doesn't help when the Washington politics is flaky, either.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[coolaid213]

I just want to rip my hair out when people start talking about how terrestrial radio is dead, and there's nothing we can do about it. I agree terrestrial radio sucks now, but that is only because of the programming. The delivery method is ideal. FM sounds fine, and while the sound fidelity on the AM broadcast band is "antiquated" the medium still has it's advantages... if we get hit by an EMP attack, or the internet gets shut off, or whatever other natural or man made disaster occurs... you all are going to wish you had an AM radio. And the nifty part is, I can make an AM transmitter and receiver with parts from a junk yard... Plus, DXing is a blast, and I don't care how advanced the internet gets, I'll never tire of medium wave DXing... whatever, we'll see what happens.

 

[badjef]

Radio is simple. Maybe it is too simple for the next generation of citizens.

Young people like to over complicate life and the Internet fits right in.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!