A radio insiders guide to radio...

[princessdj]

I am aware that I will be getting a lot of interesting replies to this post. But I feel compelled to set the record straight about people and their views on the relevance of terrestrial radio.

Terrestrial radio as we know it is dead, not dead in the sense nobody listens, but dead as in relevance.

Take the old WLS for instance. At their prime they were the BIG 890! Untouchable, with, on a clear night you could get that signal in freakin China! And the jocks, whooo the jocks were second to none and they even played top 40! That is when radio was radio.

Now, they have fired half the population at the 890. Radio is not relevant anymore. At least not to the local consumer. Let me explain.

Today, there are too many sources for the same thing. With the merger of XM and Sirius drawing near that will bring forth an entirely new perspective on how we deal our cards. You turn on any top 40 station in Chicago like Kiss or B or whatever and you hear the same crap.

There is no talent anymore, the days of the 6 figure jocks are gone, if you look young and can pronounce Hannah Montana correctly and don't have a felony conviction..bAM! Your hired to push buttons for $12 bux an hour.

Now, to make matters worse and I know we need commercials to pay bills, but with the economy being in a slump big advertisers are taking their spots nationally, which means the local guys are paying 3 times more for spots and having them run 20 times per day. Where is the music?

The average top 40 station only plays 10 songs per hour and 2 of those songs are heavy rotation which means you will hear one of the songs played twice in that 1 hour. Mix that in with boring phoners, yap yap yap we are back to the beginning again.

People are not loyal to radio anymore, and why should they be? Radio execs have basically spit in the faces of loyal listens through the years and listeners are fed up. Its all about the bottom line in corporate radio today. Problem is, the advertisers are not falling for that crap anymore. They are taking their ad's national and getting a better reaction. With websites and 800 numbers it is easy to sell your business nationally.

What this all boils down too is that radio as we know it is gone. Oh sure, you will still have your music stations and talk stations but in todays world there are too many outlets for getting entertainment. Ipods, XM, Sirius, Internet, Podcasts you name it and..they are all commercial free and do not have hack jocks talking about stupid crap. People are smarter today and know what they want.

the Sterns and Dahls of the industry will be phased out over the next 5 years, you watch.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Michael from Riverside]

.

I had always advised my son to be sensible and keep his feet on the ground...that's how you'll get ahead I told him. Clear sailing...forever. Good advice I thought.

But look at him now... his droopy tower...his faint holler...his boring voice not even perking a single ear. Nickels and dimes rolling away as fast as their circumference can take them. And that unabated, shrill barking from above...Astro running wild after Elroy unsnapped his leash.

My guy needs help...quick!

Hand me those paddles listeners and crank this thing up to eleven...CLEAR!

 

[captainplanet]

Thanks, chicken little.

The sky is not falling...

If there are two advantages that radio has, and will have for a pretty long time is that it's

1. Free

2. Readily available...the average consumer has at least a few radios in their posession

XM/Sirius will never amount to anything radio needs to be worried about. Why? Years after it launch it's still struggling, and the subscriber base still doesn't top what stations in New York cume in a week. The only reason the two companies merged was to stay afloat. They have massive debt service and something's going to give.

Local TV was supposed to have failed when cable came around. Then satellite TV. Nope...local TV is still around and doing quite well. They've found their place, just like radio has.

So what will radio do? Well, the good news is that the suits have figured out radio doesn't work on Wall Street, and Wall Street doesn't work for radio. Clear Channel is *trying* to go private. Many big companies are selling to smaller regional outfits. The big conglomerate trend is reversing.

Small market radio is actually doing very well, and according to research released recently, growing better than their large market counterparts. Slowly the industry is realizing the way to staying afloat is not by filing quarterly earning reports, but by being creative and relevant and most importantly patient!

Keep your head up. Radio will be just fine.

 

[jmacatak]

Certainly radio will exist and be around. But despite the fact that it is free, the decisions being made today are not being done to try and keep listeners, they are being made to feed the bottom line. I know lots of people under the age of 25 who do not even own a radio, except in their car...and that comes with an attachment for them to plug in their I-Pods and get exactly what they want to hear. Look at the ratings. Audience numbers are slipping constantly and a great book is when you go above a 3 share. Talent isn't being developed, shows are voicetracked all over town. Staffs are cut at every shop in town, except in sales. The sky isn't falling, but anyone who thinks radio is healthy is not paying attention to things outside of their studio.

 

[CapeRadio]

The thing about new technology is that you can never predict how it is going to go. In the past couple weeks I have read two very interesting news stories: one about BMWs having internet in Europe next model year, and another about a system called the "grid" with download speeds 100 times faster than the internet. these things are coming. This is where the real competition to radio will be, not Sirius/XM, not IPODS, etc.

Scientists are predicting that in 10 years we will store all of our information on the internet and recall it as we need it from anywhere, and there will be no real delays. The days you can get any song you want on any platform you want in 5 seconds or less?

Terrestrial radio will still be here. It was supposed to die with the invention of TV, and network TV was supposed to die with the invention of cable. The major players are doing their best to figure out what the future offers and do their best to get there first. CBS has a deal with last.fm. Google owns YouTube. Fox owns MySpace.

But trust me, whatever you think is going on will be completely different in 10 years.

 

[princessdj]

Oh Capitan.

how wrong you are.

NY radio has slipped so much that they are voice tracking most stations

AM and Sirius will rule the world..and your gonna pay for it $$$$ for real

 

[icycool7227]

Thanks, chicken little.

The sky is not falling...

If there are two advantages that radio has, and will have for a pretty long time is that it's

1. Free

2. Readily available...the average consumer has at least a few radios in their posession

XM/Sirius will never amount to anything radio needs to be worried about. Why? Years after it launch it's still struggling, and the subscriber base still doesn't top what stations in New York cume in a week. The only reason the two companies merged was to stay afloat. They have massive debt service and something's going to give.

Local TV was supposed to have failed when cable came around. Then satellite TV. Nope...local TV is still around and doing quite well. They've found their place, just like radio has.

So what will radio do? Well, the good news is that the suits have figured out radio doesn't work on Wall Street, and Wall Street doesn't work for radio. Clear Channel is *trying* to go private. Many big companies are selling to smaller regional outfits. The big conglomerate trend is reversing.

Small market radio is actually doing very well, and according to research released recently, growing better than their large market counterparts. Slowly the industry is realizing the way to staying afloat is not by filing quarterly earning reports, but by being creative and relevant and most importantly patient!

Keep your head up. Radio will be just fine.

I tend to agree a lot with the original post. But TV stinks these days. Last night I tried finding something to watch and nothing good was on - 8:00 at night! The only interesting thing on was a movie about drug dealers which I did not care for at all. Radio is certainly a lot more interesting than TV that's for sure IMO. I may cancel cable TV altogether!

 

[captainplanet]

XM/Sirius will always have it's place, but it will never be a significant competition to broadcast radio. I think radio has a lot more to be worried about with wi-fi and Internet radio.

Voice tracking has really gotten a bad reputation. There is a big difference in how it's done. There is voice tracking that 1. Is from a talent in another city and there's voice tracking done by 2. The person actually in the building, just doing other things.

In 2008 technology has made voice tracking so simple and has the ability to sound so good, that I can guarantee that you would never know the difference from just listening. Of course, there are exceptions...

Trust me, it's my job to make sure voice tracking sounds good.

Aside from that, while radio listening may be down, it's still doing very well in smaller markets. A lot of small markets are actually growing revenues and listenership. I don't have the article in front of me, but there was a report in Radio Ink to back that up not long ago. A lot of these stations that are doing well are locally or regionally owned businesses with maybe a handful of stations. This is where radio is headed in the long run, returning to more local ownership as Wall Street figures out that radio is not a business to publicly trade. This is a good thing for radio, and gives it a chance to break away from quarterly earnings reports and serving the investors.

It should also be worth noting that public radio has enjoyed significant growth in listenership over the last few years, unlike its television counterpart.

Radio will be just fine.

 

[princessdj]

Ok guy. You keep making that VT sound good.

I was in radio for 20 years. I have never seen it worse!!!

People getting booted after 30 years in the industry and being replaced by 18 year old kids who were not even born when the songs they play were recorded.

Radio as we know it is done, gone O.V.E.R

who cares about smaller markets?!?! Like we really care about Farm Reports or who stole uncle Don's chicken!!

This is Chicago!! We are the flagship for all things media--screw New York..we should be at the top of oour game but we are no

Mark my words..in 5 years XM and Sirius will take most control of radio listenership. People want good music, not hack talent

Radio is gone Forever! It was a good ride

 

[davideduardo]

Look at the ratings. Audience numbers are slipping constantly and a great book is when you go above a 3 share.

Huh? That makes no sense. Whether there are 1000 listeners or 1 million listeners, there will never be more or less than 100 shares in each market.

Lower average shares has to do with having more viable and competitive stations, which chop up the 100 share points more ways.

In the 60's when only AM got ratings, the few big AMs got double digit shares... today, add the major FMs and the pieces have to get smaller. There are 84 stations in the MSA... you do the math.

 

[tmac1960]

I am nothing more than a listener and follow Chicago radio happenings in particular and the business of radio in general, as a hobby. I know, get a life right?.

In my opinion, Princess makes great points, but the best counter to her argument is from the Captain. Let em explain.

Princess states that radio is dead. Not quite, but it has never been worse. Why? Wall Street. They are blowing it. Big time. I don't know if you have ever listened to a monthly or quarterly financial report from a public company, but it sure isn't about people. It is about black and red numbers. Nothing else. They have no interest whatsoever in peoples lives. Now don't get me wrong, I like profit as much as anyone, but how much is enough? And when it affects the lives of people who are responsible for you having the black numbers in the first place, well..........

People are running radio who have no clue of what radio means to people. Our institutions with call letters like WLS (since they have been in the news lately) are not given the respect those letters represent and demand. Cut, cut, cut, and cut some more. Tradition? Ha, tradition never made us a dollar. But it did make them a dollar and Wall Street cannot get that thru their heads. Wall Street throws tradition out the door along with talent when profits are a tenth of a point lower than what some analyst who never saw the inside of a radio station says it should be. Wall Street has sucked the life out of radio. But they will not destroy it.

This is where I turn to the Captain. Small market stations are the first to get a clue and start the recovery. Local ownership, local people, RADIO PEOPLE, are getting back in the small markets now, because right now, that is the only place they can afford to compete. They get what radio means to us and I think that is the Captains point. The tide is turning and I think the same thing will happen in large markets in due time. Wall Street and radio do not mix. They are finally figuring it out, thank God.

Naw, radio is not dead, but it is sick and good people are starting to treat it - they know how to bring it to a full recovery.

Hang in there Princess, as the Beatles sang, "It's getting better every day (it can't get much worse)".

 

[Damixah3]

People are running radio who have no clue of what radio means to people. Our institutions with call letters like WLS (since they have been in the news lately) are not given the respect those letters represent and demand. Cut, cut, cut, and cut some more. Tradition? Ha, tradition never made us a dollar. But it did make them a dollar and Wall Street cannot get that thru their heads. Wall Street throws tradition out the door along with talent when profits are a tenth of a point lower than what some analyst who never saw the inside of a radio station says it should be. Wall Street has sucked the life out of radio. But they will not destroy it.

Where most of your post has merit, there are other factors.....Its the programming director and operations manager who make the decisions....If the program director can justify the budget for talent, the Operations Manager will make it possible/keep it on the books.....
Exclusivity: Give people something they CANT get anywhere else...if you can go on XM/Sirrus, Internet, Ipod and get the same thing, why stay with radio?? Sure play hits but put something else between them......

 

[InTIMadate]

There are a number of good thoughts here, but first a little clarification.

WLS was bought by Mel Karmazin's former right-hand hatchet man, Farid Suleman as Citadel Broadcasting. He married the devil (Disney) and paid way too much for some of the biggest AM stations in the USA. It took almost two years for the deal to be be completed and just about anyone with talent and an expiring contract left for other opportunities (Steve Scott, Cisco Cotto, Jay Marvin, etc.). The economy slowed and now Furid is in deep financial striates. Due to pre-deal conditions, he can't fire the managers making big salaries until next year, so he's had to cut talent left and right. It's sad. but this isn't about the radio industry, it's about a stupid deal by a small man that wanted to play in the big time.

As for radio, I'd like to remind you of the weeks after 9/11. Local radio and AM listening dominated as the news and newstalk stations did what they do best. People that didn't know how to find AM were suddenly glued to their AM radios and Headline News. If the Democrats win total control this fall, you can be there will be another deadly attack on US soil and Chicago is at the top of the list. Your IPod can't tell you what just happened, who died and how to protect your family.

As for the music side, the label business is in shambles and they cut everyone that has a ear for good music. Live Nation has found a niche for making money and there are a number of new ideas for distribution popping up (try NIN.com and download the new release with artwork and liner notes for free!). I'd bet we're close to another resurgence in music. It seems to happen every twenty years to so (Punk, Guns & Roses, Grunge, Rap).

 

[rkchgo]

If the Democrats win total control this fall, you can be there will be another deadly attack on US soil and Chicago is at the top of the list. Your IPod can't tell you what just happened, who died and how to protect your family.

What a ridiculous, small-minded, irresponsible claim.

I can't believe some people still drink the Bush kool-aid day in and day out.

 

[tmac1960]

People are running radio who have no clue of what radio means to people. Our institutions with call letters like WLS (since they have been in the news lately) are not given the respect those letters represent and demand. Cut, cut, cut, and cut some more. Tradition? Ha, tradition never made us a dollar. But it did make them a dollar and Wall Street cannot get that thru their heads. Wall Street throws tradition out the door along with talent when profits are a tenth of a point lower than what some analyst who never saw the inside of a radio station says it should be. Wall Street has sucked the life out of radio. But they will not destroy it.

Where most of your post has merit, there are other factors.....Its the programming director and operations manager who make the decisions....If the program director can justify the budget for talent, the Operations Manager will make it possible/keep it on the books.....
Exclusivity: Give people something they CANT get anywhere else...if you can go on XM/Sirrus, Internet, Ipod and get the same thing, why stay with radio?? Sure play hits but put something else between them......

I'm talking about the people that hire the people that hire the Ops Mgr and the PD. The Ops Mgr can only make it possible if the Wall Streeters let him or her and that won't ever (or very, very rarely) happen.

 

[mediamayhem]

I get so frustrated with folks predicting the demise of terrestrial radio because of satellite, internet, ipods, etc. I do see a huge problem with terrestrial radio but it's not due to the new technology, it's the competition from it. Big difference and easily remedied.

Folks are willing to pay for satellite to hear premium channels. Folks are willing to listen on their crappy computer speakers and suffer through blips/outages to hear streaming audio/podcasts because it's what they like to hear. It's safe to assume folks are more interested in the product they are getting then the ease of getting it. So the "it's free and readily available" argument for terrestrial radio doesn't hold a lot of water.

Network TV ran into similar problems with the advent of cable and satellite TV. They have managed to stay afloat by adjusting their programming. Terrestrial radio, on the other hand, not only hasn't adjusted to the new competition they worse yet have let their quality slide. Thanks to consolidation and money-saving ideas they have nearly stripped the originality and fun that was the joyous experience of radio listeners. I certainly am all for making a profit, but it's possible to bring in revenue and listeners with innovation and originality, much more so than with cookie-cutter formats that listeners can get ANYWHERE.

How about hiring programmers to program ONE station at a time. Let them use their judgement in addition to research rather then depending on a consultant to interpret research for them. Nothing wrong with having a consultant, but use them as just that - consult them, don't depend on them.

 

[turkeydance]

wow....religion on broadcast radio.
radio is dead, only to be born again!
3 points:
1. yep. radio and tv and the internet is dead.
all of it will change next year and the next.
2. sat radio is like listening to someone else's iPod.
it will die too with increased Wi-Fi (or it's replacement).
3. Local? how about micro-local?
as in an 8-mile broadcast radius?
the Latinos and Liberals do it now
with talk/news/music (pirate?) stations.

 

[proddude41]

I get so frustrated with folks predicting the demise of terrestrial radio because of satellite, internet, ipods, etc. I do see a huge problem with terrestrial radio but it's not due to the new technology, it's the competition from it. Big difference and easily remedied.

Folks are willing to pay for satellite to hear premium channels. Folks are willing to listen on their crappy computer speakers and suffer through blips/outages to hear streaming audio/podcasts because it's what they like to hear. It's safe to assume folks are more interested in the product they are getting then the ease of getting it. So the "it's free and readily available" argument for terrestrial radio doesn't hold a lot of water.

Network TV ran into similar problems with the advent of cable and satellite TV. They have managed to stay afloat by adjusting their programming. Terrestrial radio, on the other hand, not only hasn't adjusted to the new competition they worse yet have let their quality slide. Thanks to consolidation and money-saving ideas they have nearly stripped the originality and fun that was the joyous experience of radio listeners. I certainly am all for making a profit, but it's possible to bring in revenue and listeners with innovation and originality, much more so than with cookie-cutter formats that listeners can get ANYWHERE.

How about hiring programmers to program ONE station at a time. Let them use their judgement in addition to research rather then depending on a consultant to interpret research for them. Nothing wrong with having a consultant, but use them as just that - consult them, don't depend on them.

This is the one that's right on in this whole debate.

I've worked in both radio and TV, and can tell you TV is budgetarily much healthier, largely. More people, more activity, more focus on one station at a time, as opposed to radio clusterdom.

If radio is going to die, radio will kill itself by not keeping up. By not re-investing in its own product, rather than sending the profits year after year (when there are profits) to stockholders and execs. By developing talent. By research. One station at a time. By programming. One station at a time.

That's how radio will die -- not with a bang, but a whimper.

And radio started doing it to itself long before the days of the internet and satellite radio. Remember the post-dereg spotloads of fifteen, twenty minutes an hour? Radio had its own golden goose 1996-1998, when the internet was just starting to catch on but streaming was largely not yet possible.

Radio killed its own golden goose.

Solution? Somehow convince Wall Street that the profit margin WILL BE LOWER while stations re-tool and find their audience. Solve the PPM issue and get AND DEMAND better ratings methodology from Arbitron, or get a whole new company to do quality ratings, like Nielsens, which are ironclad in TV. And INVEST.

Will it happen?

This is where I agree with Princess DJ. It won't.

Radio is also missing, largely, what could be its core audience, and that's also sort of not its fault. The Baby Boomer and Gen X-er grew up with radio, and still rely on it. Instead, because of ad agency mandate and dictate, radio is trying to chase demographics with 1) the attention span of a fruit fly, and 2) NO BUYING POWER. And I'm just tired of catering to the average no-income, no-knowledge twentysomething who will just as soon be on his or her IPod .. instead.

Well, gotta go. Hunting for a TV job again.

 

[chcgoradio]

Proddude: I was agreeing with your post until this point:

"Radio is also missing, largely, what could be its core audience, and that's also sort of not its fault. The Baby Boomer and Gen X-er grew up with radio, and still rely on it. Instead, because of ad agency mandate and dictate, radio is trying to chase demographics with 1) the attention span of a fruit fly, and 2) NO BUYING POWER. And I'm just tired of catering to the average no-income, no-knowledge twentysomething who will just as soon be on his or her IPod .. instead."

I'm in my twenties working in sales for a great Chicago radio station. How many radio stations really reach people under the age of 25, versus those consumers over 25? Let's take a quick look....

WKSC 12-34
WBBM-F 12-34
WRDZ-A through 14
WPWX 18-34
WKQX 18-34

25 and up:
WBBM-AM
WGN-AM
WLUP
WUSN
WJMK
WTMX
WDRV
WCFS
WXRT
WSCR
WMVP
WGCI
WLIT
WZZN
WILV

Which stations top the billing charts every year? Certainly not Radio Disney... so I don't know why you feel that AdAgencies "cater" to these "no-income no-knowledge twenty somethings." If they did, Kiss and B96 would be Chicago's greatest billers. My fear is that with the Baby Boomer generation getting older, that the AdAgencies are going to shift from their 25-54 default demo/ranker/schedule buying to a 35-64 demo on everything. That is when radio will start to fail - when the stations start to ignore their newest listeners, and whether they know it or not, listeners with spending power.

Also, it is a researched fact that your "no-income no-knowledge twenty somethings" certainly has buying power. The Media Audit conducted a research study about a year ago with 23.2 million adults in the 87 metropolitan markets all with household incomes of $100K or greater. 6.2 million of the respondents with HHI of 100K+ were between the ages of 18 and 34 (nearly 27% of respondants). By percentage and actual number, there are more adults with six figure incomes under the age of 35 than there are over the age of 54. Only 19% are over the age of 54.

For the "young with money" group (18-35), 46% of women have a home with a value of $300K+, 42% of the men have a home with a value of $300K+, 80% of the women under 35 surveyed own their own home, and 74% of the men. Clearly, the "no-income no-knowledge twenty somethings" have the money to spend, and they're spending it. The question now, is who are they giving it to?

I think THAT is the problem with radio. People assuming that anyone with an iPod hates radio, and people that have out grown Top40 radio now assume it's for stupid/dumb/ignorant/directionless individuals. I'm sure when Elvis was jirating his hips on late night television, plenty of educated people with direction in life were watching... and loved it. I'm sure when the rebelious Brits known as The Beatles came to America, plenty of educated people with direction in life were listening.

Radio can't ignore young listeners just because they aren't "in that demo" anymore. Radio needs to constantly grow and change.

One last note: If you happen to find a powerhouse AdAgency that spits out more avails for 18-34s than it does 25-54s, please let me know... I would love to put together some great programs that reach a group of people with cash in their pockets.