A Hypothetical....or maybe it's not so hypothetical...

[Wabbit_Season]

As a radio pro, you are looking for your next gig - either you're on the beach or ready to move on from your current job. Do you avoid altogether positions offered by the so-called "evil giants"- Clear Channel, Cumulus and the like - because of their recent history of treating their employees like so many numbers on a ledger? Or do you go for their gigs thinking the worst is over and some stability is likely? OR do you just go for the job with the thought that "jobs come and go - it's the nature of the beast"?

Thoughts?

 

[MarkSC]

Stability is not likely. There's talk it will get even worse at Clear Channel after the first of the year.

 

[Gatekeeper007]

Money and stability no longer go hand in hand in the radio business and in more cases than not in the last few years they go in opposite directions. If you make a good salary at a big radio group then chances are your on their list of cut backs but if you make a salary that is not so great or work at a small station that is doing ok not a cluster then your pay may not be great but your job is probability pretty secure. It is the way times are right now. Some people argue that that is not true until they get let go with no advance notice.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I am hesitant to wee-wee on this pity party, and I am not fond of what is happening in radio, but.....

I got out a number of years ago because I didn't like the career paths available...

and guess what! Tell me what other business you are going to work for as an employee today and find that employees are treated that much better than what radio is doing.

This isn't just a RADIO problem... this is a 21st Century business trend.

 

[Scooter Lesley]

The business was quite Shitty, when I left it (full-time) in April of 1994. I had a new spousal unit, and my plans were to grow my hair down to my ass, and open a record store. Yep,...I did just as I planned...for six years. I really had no intention of ever closing it, but I had made several foolish business boo-boos, and it became redeemingly smart to shut. A friend of mine had five stores, and during a short fat chewin' session, he disclosed to me that he was getting out. Selling CD's has been very profitable, he continued, but when the download gets way cheaper than the shrunk wrapped product, I don't want to have even one store. He also had a plan...to get out, and once he was out, I followed. As for Radio, I'm gettting a certain sense of either bravery or bolderdash that the stability is/will get better. Some of the groups are starting to view the obvious:
We own it. If we could sell it, we can't ever get our money back...So, what does it really take to be profitable?
This sounds odd,...but I see them hiring people...people that know how. Now, if they fail, they will be fired to rehire and try again. Yeah, I could be easily wrong,...but I just gotta funny feeling that they are tired of loosing!

 

[Preacherdude]

This has been on my mind for a while, so I'm just going to say it. Scooter, no doubt you know more about radio than I ever did know or ever will know. And you are a witty, talented communicator with valid, if not always accurate opinions. But please, would you consider leaving off the nasty language? I'm not a prude, and Lord knows I have been known to say somethings I shouldn't myself. But sir, you are too smart and too good a writer to need to fill every post with junk language. On this part of the forum, you are the only one who sees the need to be nasty on every post. Please don't try to be the upstate's Howard Stern. You're smarter than that!