uponenotch said:
Letting go of on air talent such as Bill, Dave and Allie at KOOL and J. McCarthy at KMLE along with several department personal and others being re-shifted into taking on additional responsibility isn't normal operating procedure's for most business's. This is something that we've all been through, if you've ever worked an honest day in your life. We all know that no job lasts forever, and most of us have all been fired at one time or another in this business. Now it's different, the business is shrinking and most of us are very conscious of that. You should all feel lucky about the equity (if your really in the business) that you've built in a side of the business which was non-mainstream until 15 years ago. Most of us entered a much, much more competitive end of the business, and we are now seeing it decline. I've experienced this 3 different times and a lot of people are suffering right now including those who had to carry out the dirty task of making the individual announcement's. You think it's easy?!!! I think not! My hat goes off to Mark Waters and Kris Abrams for standing strong and going forward to make CBS Radio the VERY BEST IT CAN BE!
Hysterical, some of these presidential candidates could use a good spin doctor such as yourself.
CBS Radio is a joke, one with a terrible setup and an even worse punchline. I won't go into a detailed array of the calamities CBS Radio has been a part of for the last few years, but let's hit the high notes shall we? CBS Radio is the king of conceptual radio branding that fails in almost every market, example: Jack-FM. Imagine if you will a station that is essentially a glorified classic hits format (classic hits being a genre that has never done too well), combined with imaging that is more condescending, cluttering and downright annoying to the listener than any jock could ever be. Throw in a station that is totally disconnected from the community and serves nothing more than being a jukebox with commercials and you have the perfect equation for a flop of an idea. Sure, Jack-FM costs almost nothing because it's a computer hooked up to a transmitter, and they really only need a couple sales staff, a borrowed engineer and maybe someone to press CTRL-F if the automation should stop, but realistically it's a loser because no one listens (with a couple exceptions, such as L.A.--but you can't count L.A. because that market is beyond all comprehension).
The other big conceptual idea that Joel Hollender and the (you'll pardon the obvious paradox here) 'brain trust' at CBS Radio developed was FREE-FM. CBS can spin this however they want, but anyone who was not receiving a check with a CBS Logo on it was telling you that this was a failure of an idea from day one. The very concept was a direct result of Howard Stern's move to Sirius and the satellite radio driven fever that has been in place ever since. "FREE" implies no monthly fee, but also implies, you get what you pay for. CBS banked on the idea that hot-talk (which has always been a failure--ehem--outside of L.A.) and an entire lineup of Stern-clones would revolutionize radio. Yes, an entire day of amateur hour where everyone talks about "What food gives you your smelliest B.M. give me a call!). Gee, I can't imagine why this wasn't a big winner. This is the part of the post where I acknowledge the same two people on this board that tell me how successful Tom Leykis has been and how great his show is and how much money it makes--the same show that has failed four times in Phoenix now and multiple times in multiple markets-ehem--OUTSIDE OF L.A.
CBS has no loyalty to talent (see idiot Imus), yet has the aforementioned loyalty to proven failed concepts. Not only does CBS refuse to stand behind talent, but then selectively decides whether or not they wish to adhere to the contract they created. I don't like Imus at all, in fact, I think he basically has a rainbow that must sit permanently fixed over his head because of all the luck he seems to have in this business. Nevertheless, the way CBS treated him on his way out the door was incredibly low class--not too dissimilar to the way they handled Howard Stern's departure and refused to allow him to use his own tapes until that issue was later settled after a lengthy legal proceeding... way to go CBS, way to go.
CBS systematically does it's best to drive away listeners with format changes that make little sense, ex: WCBS New York, Free-FM, et al, WNEW, 101-5 JAMZ... need I say more... While attempting to prop up washed up talent like Opie and Anthony. Their music stations are successful only by accident in some cases. As I have stated in numerous posts, it's impossible to screw up the oldies format, only one company has ever done it and that was AM/FM--yikes, but CBS is certainly making an effort to take KOOL 94.5 into the FREE toilet.
Now, at the risk of sounding non-objective, at one time CBS Radio/Infinity Broadcasting was actually a well run company, this goes back to the days of Mel Carmison. A precipitous fall has taken place since at CBS Radio and unless some major head rolling goes on, I would expect this trend to continue until CBS is worse than such notable companies as Citadel... oof.
