back office cuts

[TVradioguru]

AM is still viable in markets where the programming is compelling.

KGO is an example of what happens when corporate rules by decree, based on an agenda that has little to do with what's going on locally. If they simply set reasonable revenue targets, and let local management determine how to get there, they'd likely be more successful. But Citadel has a syndication division to prop up. Oh, well. KGO was only an AM anyway.[/sarcasm]

KGO has essentially the same live line up they've had for years. Some could argue that is part of their problem, along with the aging demographic that listens to AM talk radio.

I have friends who work at KGO. There has been no 'corporate mandates' related to programming, only budget targets. In fact, I was listening to KGO while in the Bay Area last month. KGO still sounds like the KGO from ten years ago. Same jingles, most of the same hosts. I fail to see how you can make the point that Citadel has somehow tampered with the programming to the detriment of KGO, when really little has changed.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Uh-huh. Nothing's changed at KGO. I guess Mickey Luckoff left for no reason. And the ratings decline is just an anomaly.

 

[TheBigA]

Uh-huh. Nothing's changed at KGO. I guess Mickey Luckoff left for no reason. And the ratings decline is just an anomaly.

The ratings decline began under his watch. It's not an anomaly, and he had no solution.

He left because he's ten years past retirement and hasn't had a new idea this century. If he was so great, Disney would have found a place for him. Let me say this clearly: He was a top-scale suit who was making TV money running a couple of dying AM stations.

Here's the real question: Why is Cumulus running ESPN and carrying the World Series (from Disney), taking it to #1, when a station once owned by Disney runs a bunch of tired talkers? Who let sports go to the competition? I'd fire that person.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Most larger markets revenues were off 30% to 40%, so draconian cuts were obligatory everywhere. But at the AMs, a revenue drop of 40% is beyond the margin of most such stations, so many lost money and continue to do so.

And somehow Citadel didn't know this when they bought the stations? Duh!

No, radio revenues were pacing a tiny bit upwards through '07 and were the Citadel people to have been able to predict the recession, they would have been heralded as visionaries.

All they had to do was look at the growing unemployment figures. We knew the recession was coming long before it got here.