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Bob Rivers' Show - Contract Renewal?

J

JustaLissner

There was a lot of talk on this board earlier in the summer about Bob's contract being up sometime this summer. A lot of speculation and pot-stirring about what direction the show might go. I have been listening all summer with that in the back of my mind. Noticed a couple of what could've been innuendos about moving away from CBS and Joe mentioned a couple of times things that made me wonder if he was worried about having to go look for a new job. Probably I was just reading "gloom-and-doom" into what would've been their normal conversation. But nothing seems to have changed...have they negotiated a contract renewal? Anybody know if the one remaining decent morning drive show in Seattle will be around for another year??
 
Bob Rivers is too big of a force for KZOK and CBS to just drop like that. His name is synonymous with KZOK by now. If Bob Rivers were to go anywhere else, KZOK would suffer HUGELY. Bob's shoes are hard to fill.

However, if, as the rumor mill here once cranked out that Bob COULD go to KIRO-FM, it's possible KIRO could get a hell of a morning radio spike. Question is; how do you shape the rest of KIRO around it? I mean, it's kinda hard to go from Twisted Tunes and talk in the morning straight into Dave Ross. Unless you can talk Dave into mixing it up with some Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and Pink Floyd tunes. And many of KIRO's listeners are just a wee bit older than the typical classic rock demo. And KIRO-FM's already in a precarious position with PPM (say that 10 times fast) as it is

So I kinda think Bob will probably be around on 102.5 MHz for some time to come.....
 
Wager, anyone?
 
So... is there a history of success of major market radio shows after sitting out non-compete agreements? Is six months a long time in the ears of the fickle listeners?
 
Bill Wolfenbarger said:
So... is there a history of success of major market radio shows after sitting out non-compete agreements? Is six months a long time in the ears of the fickle listeners?
Click to expand...

I have a feeling I may stand corrected before this morning is over.....

Didn't rule out KIRO. Or anybody else. It just didn't seem likely.....
 
Bill Wolfenbarger said:
So... is there a history of success of major market radio shows after sitting out non-compete agreements? Is six months a long time in the ears of the fickle listeners?
Click to expand...

Happened to that very radio show a decade ago, Bill - when KISW only wanted to bring back Rivers, not the whole entourage. They sat out the noncompete and - well, we know the rest of the story.
 
I'm trying to remember the character name they used first day on KZOK .. think it was Mr. Pondscum -- was supposed to be inside joke that referred to Steve Oshin ("Ocean") as homage to being a radio executive idiot who was so short-sighted in his decision making. Now it's CBS' turn to think entirely with the near-term pennies as they blow out heritage after heritage and then turn around and scramble to keep each audience that was established over decades.

All this has taught me that sending my kid to earn an MBA would be the bigest colossal waste of money I could ever do. I've seen more rational thinking come out of some guy sitting on the commode with a Sports Illustrated and a Sharpie ... or a high school kid struggling to complete the "TV Guide" crossword in a Starbucks.
 
A class act to the end Bob and crew appear to be spending their last hour promoting local bands. I have enjoyed being both an advertiser and a listener and truly wish them all the best.
 
Okay but lets take a step back and think about it from a business perspective, forgetting the fan perspective for a moment.. A alternate view from the 'devils' perspective if you will...

If you were writing the checks at KZOK; say your expensive morning show since PPM in the market was enacted has been in a slow decline. Now here you are at contract renewal time and your morning show is requesting, or expecting an increase of say..30%. Because of the economy, your margins in morning drive are currenly, say 20%. Assuming you give into the morning show requests, the margins on the morning show(not knowing when the depressed economy will let up), go to roughly -10%.

Remember, you have the number one CR station in the market, so do you: (A)Bend to the negotiations and give them what the show wants, hoping that the economic situation turns mid through the new contract? (B) Renew and hope that the shows ratings increase? (C)Play hardball with the risk that the show doesn't renew? or (D), Not renew the show and cut your potential losses by maintaining overall multi-daypart station ratings, knowing that you may lose some in mornings?

My guess is they'll take scenario D.
 
I took a step back and now I'm taking a step forward.

here's the deal: I don't enjoy bland radio..no matter how profitable it is. There are others a little like me. For every one of us there is a formula:

CUME = CUME -1

How profitable is THAT scenario when repeated by several thousand? Yeah ... I get the "radio listening is bigger than it has ever been" yadda yadda yadda. But in the end ... if hardly anyone wants to touch the "ON" button anymore....what's the business model in THAT??

This is fixable ... but no one has the b@lls to do it ... except in small ownership scenarios where it IS fun to listen to the product.
 
So I listened all morning. Streaming online (against company policy...oops). Not a single reference. In signing off Bob mentioned very briefly, "Today is our 10th anniversary with CBS." And something to the effect of "we appreciate all the great support from CBS." Sounded to me like they'll be back on air at KZOK tomorrow. If not they certainly gave no indication otherwise that I caught.
 
Gary Crowe just said something like: This one's for Bob, Spike, Joe, Maura, Pedro - and the rest of the gang.

Then he played - Best Friend by Queen

Very telling
 
If CBS let that show get away from them then they must be on the dope... Seriously who are you going to put on in place of the Gold Standard that Bob's show has been??? No place to go but down from there...
 
JustaLissner said:
In signing off Bob mentioned very briefly, "Today is our 10th anniversary with CBS." And something to the effect of "we appreciate all the great support from CBS." Sounded to me like they'll be back on air at KZOK tomorrow. If not they certainly gave no indication otherwise that I caught.
Click to expand...

That WAS the sign-off. Subtle and classy.
 
Many large broadcast giants and CBS is no exception I'm sure, are being operated and organized by financial people.... Accountants.. keepingcomplaining investors at arms length..anyway they can. Programming departments now have a boss who's bottom line is really at the bottom.. When it operates under that platform, soul searching and misgivings to correct the numbers are never in evidence. Its an economy of very thick skins..
 
They'll go 2 min breaks and "more music in the morning". They'll hire a DJ and the PPM ratings will prob go up. Revenue is going to go down but PROFIT will go WAAAY up. They are spending prob. $1,000,000 plus on that staff. Get a DJ with no producer for $60K and no matter what, you are already ahead $940K. It's simple math.
 
SandyG said:
They'll go 2 min breaks and "more music in the morning". They'll hire a DJ and the PPM ratings will prob go up. Revenue is going to go down but PROFIT will go WAAAY up. They are spending prob. $1,000,000 plus on that staff. Get a DJ with no producer for $60K and no matter what, you are already ahead $940K. It's simple math.
Click to expand...

And that is what sucks about the business right now... To many bean counters and financial portfolios with a vested interest on getting more for less and in the end we all lose...

I may never get rich doing Internet Radio but at least I have the freedom to live and die by my own hand without some corporate suit playing back seat DJ and at the end of the day I still have a job I like doing with no fear of what the next shift might bring...
 
SandyG said:
They are spending prob. $1,000,000 plus on that staff.
Click to expand...

It was much more than that.


SandyG said:
Get a DJ with no producer for $60K and no matter what, you are already ahead $940K. It's simple math.
Click to expand...

If only it were that simple in real life.
 
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