And the Downward Trend continues

[SirRoxalot]

Arbitron brought out new market rankings. Between population shifts, and some market voodoo in expanding & combining markets, the Buffalo metro has dropped to #55. Rochester metro drops to #57. Syracuse slips to 85.

As a TV market, Buffalo remains at #51. Rochester's TV ranking is #79.

Another note, New Orleans - which dropped below Buffalo after Katrina - climbed to #47 on the radio side.

Check out the rankings at here.

 

[jas2525]

Crap.

I guess if I'm ever gonna live/work in a large/major market, I'll have to learn some Spanish and move to Puerto Rico (#14) *cough* bull%$%@ *cough*

 

[SirRoxalot]

There are more than a few guys around here that can say that they've worked in a Top 25, a Top 30, a Top 50, and a medium market without ever having moved.

 

[TheBigA]

This is all you need to know:

1950 580,132 0.7%
1960 532,759 −8.2%
1970 462,768 −13.1%
1980 357,870 −22.7%
1990 328,123 −8.3%
2000 292,648 −10.8%
2010 261,310 −10.7%

This affects everything, from housing to the media. Smaller market? Not as good on the resume. If you sell audience, and the audience is smaller, the rate goes down, regardless of programming. That means you can't afford to pay as much or hire as many people.

 

[Savage]

Taxes, fees, regulations, anti-business, pro-public-sector unions....an essentially socialist society upstate. And why is this happening? Hear them speak:

A fabled Upstate New York Assemblyman, pressed about the loss of not only massive segments of population but also arguably those who are the most productive members of society, business owners and employers: "Let 'em move away, I don't care. Every one who goes to North Carolina is one less person to vote against me."

Such is what what call "leadership" in Albany.

 

[TheBigA]

And yet in the states that have fewer regulations, fewer unions, and lower wages, the businesses hire illegal aliens because the citizens won't work for the money. You look at population demographics in low tax states, and you'll see an increase in Hispanic residents, not former upstaters. And by the way, it's also led to an increase in non-English radio formats in those areas. That isn't helping the jobless who don't speak Spanish.

 

[TheBigA]

Let me add: Look at how radio deregulation has affected jobs. Has it helped or hurt? As an investor, I'll suggest that without deregulation, more than half of the stations in this country would have shut down. The net result, by keeping the number of stations with fewer jobs, is about the same. But I can't think of any radio de-regulation that would increase hiring, and I suspect that applies to many other service industries.

 

[Savage]

If you're talking about low-wage service industries, there may be some truth in what you say. But the track record of Texas is instructive. Texas has lower taxes, fewer regulations, and has a doors-open-for-business legislative attitude. They also aren't opposing hydrofracking gas exploration like New York is, creating thousands of high-wage industrial and professional positions. So check the results: Texas accounts for 40% of all new US jobs created over the past year.

Same deal with Pennsylvania. Even though it's a northeastern rust-belt state Harrisburg is at least smart enough to not stand on its own energy hose. Hydrofracking alone accounts for 50,000 new high-wage jobs in PA. There's a stark contrast between Southern Tier NY residents and those just over the border, where homeowners have little natural gas wells in their backyards, unobtrusive little rigs, which are paying their mortgages and financing college educations. Makes a huge difference.

 

[TheBigA]

Even though it's a northeastern rust-belt state Harrisburg is at least smart enough to not stand on its own energy hose. Hydrofracking alone accounts for 50,000 new high-wage jobs in PA.

They're high wage because they're union jobs.

 

[Bob1370]

"If you're talking about low-wage service industries, there may be some truth in what you say. But the track record of Texas is instructive. Texas has lower taxes, fewer regulations, and has a doors-open-for-business legislative attitude. They also aren't opposing hydrofracking gas exploration like New York is, creating thousands of high-wage industrial and professional positions. So check the results: Texas accounts for 40% of all new US jobs created over the past year."

Trouble is, the Labor Department says nearly all of the net new job growth in Texas was in minimum wage or near-minimum wage jobs with no health care or retirement benefits. As far as net creation of new private sector jobs with higher wages and benefits and value added, labor economists at the Federal Reserve tell me the six county Rochester metro (which tacked on 11,000 new high-quality private sector jobs in the period since July 1, 2010) did a better job in relative terms than the whole state of Texas...remember the old Chamber of Commerce campaign with the tag line "I'd Rather Be In Rochester"? Guess they knew what they were talking about. NY State also has a balanced budget, and Texas has a $27 billion deficit for 2011-2012 that it can't figure out how to close even with smoke and mirrors. We might want to think about marketing our region as a better place to do both industrial and retail business, and use our media smarts (and our media outlets) to get the word out.