Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

[hotpatrick2004]

Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

Look what they have done to the kiss morning show in los angeles with ryan seacrest. I know it is local but they have to present it in such a way for on air with ryan seacrest to be syndicated to other stations in the country the same day.It ahs lost its local flavor Then we have premium choice which is a disaster and has killed the local flavor of the radio station they are plugging this garbage into!!!

They cant get away with it in bigger markets but if they could better believe they would. I dont here the jocks talk near as much as say just 5 years ago it is sad!!!I bet even a show like ryan seacrest and lisa had fox back when they were on star could not happen today but i liked there show.

Hard to believe back in 1986 clear channel only owned 43 stations


Opinions

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

Look what they have done to the kiss morning show in los angeles with ryan seacrest. I know it is local but they have to present it in such a way for on air with ryan seacrest to be syndicated to other stations in the country the same day.It ahs lost its local flavor

The show has to be presented in a fashion that works with PPM. How local is a comment about Idol or Lady Gaga, anyway?

They cant get away with it in bigger markets but if they could better believe they would. I dont here the jocks talk near as much as say just 5 years ago it is sad!!!I bet even a show like ryan seacrest and lisa had fox back when they were on star could not happen today but i liked there show.

When Seacrest was talking a lot at the time Amp debuted, he actually lost one book to that new station which had no content at all. Seacrest was told to zip it, and even said that on interviews. But he followed the guidance, and went back to the top.

Once calculation based on the comperession of TSL in PPM shows Howard Stern would have not even been in the top 10 in share in LA or NY... PPM is a different world.

Hard to believe back in 1986 clear channel only owned 43 stations

IIRC, in 1986 you could own 7 AM, 7 FM and 7 TVs.

 

[TheBigA]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

Yep...they've really screwed things up. They have 3 of the Top 5 stations in town. And KIIS is #2. What a bunch of losers.

 

[hotpatrick2004]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

I am not even talking about ratings!!!I am not talking about the music i rarely here him say los angeles it is sad it does not even sound local. Kiss doing so well has more to do with there heritage then anything.I enjoyed ryan much more so when he was paired with lisa fox on star then what he does now.The mcdonaldlization of radio continues no matter where you live.

 

[TheBigA]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

I am not even talking about ratings!!!

Then it doesn't matter. Radio is a business, not a hobby. McDonalds is successful. You want art? Go to a museum.

 

[briancraig]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

I believe it was in July 1984 that the FCC voted to allow one company to own 12 AMs and 12 FMs nationwide.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

I believe it was in July 1984 that the FCC voted to allow one company to own 12 AMs and 12 FMs nationwide.

Yep. It's reported on Page 27 in the July 30 edition of Broadcasting, where the limits are extended to 12-12-12 for AM, FM and TV, with all caps to expire in 1990 "unless the Commission's intervention is required."

The issue will be online on the Broadcasting Magazine page later this afternoon.

 

[musicman3355]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

The KIIS version of Ryan's morning show is actually more localized, with the exception of the interviews, the content is much different in the KIIS version of the show. Like others said, mornings and the station all together does well.

What annoys me about CC is the Premium Choice TRASH they put on most markets. It's especially annoying when syndicated trash takes over a local show (Channel 955 Detroit for example). I'm glad Premium Choice isn't aired in LA.

 

[TheBigA]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

The KIIS version of Ryan's morning show is actually more localized, with the exception of the interviews,

By the way, Rick Dees did exactly the same thing when he was at KIIS. His superstar interviews were non-local and cut up for use in his Weekly Top 40 show at the time.

It's especially annoying when syndicated trash takes over a local show (Channel 955 Detroit for example).

Not sure what you mean. Mojo is based in Detroit.

 

[musicman3355]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

It's especially annoying when syndicated trash takes over a local show (Channel 955 Detroit for example).

Not sure what you mean. Mojo is based in Detroit.

The syndicated "Saturday Night Online" took out the "Saturday Night Bomb" mixshow, not to mention 955 took out many mixshows for Premium Choice.

 

[hotpatrick2004]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

I would agree with that statement premium choice is far worse then anything cc has done in los angeles. The only reason premium choice has not aired in la i think is because it is a huge market and cc could not get away with it.I had heard over a year ago premium choice was not doing well and they were going to get rid of it. It truly is one of the worst thinsg ever done to radio by far!!!It ranks top 4 of worst things in my book!!!

On the plus side i like kiis now so much better then in 2004 when they made the flip from rick to ryan they went pretty rhythmic there for awhile but now seem to be more of a chr/pop. I have heard beat it lately kinda odd hearing that on a chr in 2011 in regular rotation. I love there mix show at noon everyday i flip back n forth from kiis to 98.7 to kroq at noon. I go from hearing 88 liones about 44 women to anything anything by dramarama to pitbull!!! That si something i enjoy on radio here all the mix shows from kiis to power 106 to kday.

 

[LKellerIII]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

CC stations in the Bay Area are no better or worse under Bain than they were before. We get Seacrest's show in afternoon drive here. I'm not a fan, but it's a big improvement over the revolving door of low quality voice-tracked jocks they were using before. At least Ryan's show has content, and some thought and effort goes into the production.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

CC launched the horrendously named 'Premium Choice' as a cost cutting move pure & simple, which resulted in Mediabase dropping several stations from their panel of reporters; that's why you can hear Seacrest on130+ top 40 & Hot AC stations nowadays.

You'll never hear Premium Choice programming on KIIS; three of their four weelday jocks are live, and 'Boy Toy' Jesse voicetracks his show from San Diego, where he works at KHTS (Channel 93.3), IIRC.

 

[TheBigA]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

CC launched the horrendously named 'Premium Choice' as a cost cutting move pure & simple, which resulted in Mediabase dropping several stations from their panel of reporters; that's why you can hear Seacrest on130+ top 40 & Hot AC stations nowadays.

A couple of corrections:

Seacrest isn't part of Premium Choice. He is syndicated as a separate service outside PC.

Mediabase dropped the stations, but then lumped them into a single group reporter, since their playlists are identical.

 

[GenXRadio]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

Well you can thank Mitt Romney for it all and NO this isn't a political ranting being inserted.
Mitt runs Bain Capital and in true venture capital form it IS all about the money.
I've been told that they have no desire to be in the radio business they merely want to extract all they can from their investment and will do so by making them streamlined, revenue machines and programming be damned.
They're going to start by selling off most of the small market stations trying to sell them in as few chunks as possible and eventually get to the point where they will sell off the big cities but will do so only when the market is right and they've also made sufficent profits while they streamline which only makes great business sense.
Now the radio geek in me wishes they would sell some of their signature properties, stations that are staples within the communities they serve and who are legendary to someone who wants to do BOTH, have great programming AND make money! It CAN be done you just need people passionate for radio who are also business mindful or at least have a team of people who focus on their individual areas to come together to make the station a winner all around.
As long as Bain owns CC stations you are NOT going to see big investments, if anything it will be about cutting, saving and watching the balance sheet first and foremost I just hope the day they sell comes a lot sooner rather t han later.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: "Bain Capital" has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

Well you can thank Mitt Romney for it all and NO this isn't a political ranting being inserted.
Mitt runs Bain Capital and in true venture capital form it IS all about the money.

1. Mitt Romney does not run Bain Capital. He left in 1999, and that is about 12 years ago.
2. In any business, it's about the money. Without a profit, the business fails and owners and employees alike are SOL.
3. Even Romney's enduring investments in some of the companies Bain bought is in blind trusts and not actively administered.

I've been told that they have no desire to be in the radio business they merely want to extract all they can from their investment and will do so by making them streamlined, revenue machines and programming be damned.

Investment bankers have no "desire" to be in any particular business. They have a desire to make a business profitable, often by buying distressed companies and making them more responsive to market conditions. And if the nation is in a recession, it's in everyone's best interests to keep the business alive.

They're going to start by selling off most of the small market stations trying to sell them in as few chunks as possible and eventually get to the point where they will sell off the big cities but will do so only when the market is right and they've also made sufficent profits while they streamline which only makes great business sense.

They can never sell the large market facilities for what they paid for them. And the selling of some smaller markets has been predominantly determined by an analysis of whether the station cluster in each market is efficient; in certain cases, markets where only one or two viable stations were in the cluster were sold off. Or markets that are too small are sold because it takes the same management time to deal with Idaho Falls as it does to deal with Denver... and the ROI is just not there.

Now the radio geek in me wishes they would sell some of their signature properties, stations that are staples within the communities they serve and who are legendary to someone who wants to do BOTH, have great programming AND make money! It CAN be done you just need people passionate for radio who are also business mindful or at least have a team of people who focus on their individual areas to come together to make the station a winner all around.

You are forgetting that we still have a recession, and in the larger markets the PPM has brought a near-40% reduction in market PUR and thus CPP based rates and agencies have not adjusted CPP to the new reality; most markets are still off 30% to 40% from the pre-recession billing level and 30% to 40% brings most stations very close to not even covering expenses unless cuts are made.

As long as Bain owns CC stations you are NOT going to see big investments,

You likely won't see big investments in traditional terrestrial radio, but the adding of Bob Pittman to the company team may mean significant investments in the broad area of new media and of alternative distribution of content.

 

[TheBigA]

Re: Bains capital has made clear channel stations far worse in every market

I just hope the day they sell comes a lot sooner rather t han later.

Who are they going to sell to? Who has the money to buy? At any price?

The past is not coming back. No matter how much you wish and hope. The past is done.

I've seen a lot of well meaning people with all that passion and love of radio you're talking about pour their own personal money into things, only to watch it burn up.

The whole Mickey Rooney idea that all you have to do is put on a show and entertain and people will listen is absolutely unrealistic. It's simply not how people use the media today. The quicker people in radio (or those on the beach) realize this the better. The problem isn't the owners, the problem isn't hiring talent or allowing them do what they want. The problem is that the audience has changed. No amount of trying to bring back the past will change the fact that the audience has already moved on.