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Chris Fedor, formerly of WKNR

Capulet....thanks for the feedback.

I still think Triv has to be making way above $100K.

Paying big money to local TV sportscasters is a thing of the past. Donovan at KYC is probably above $100K and John Telich has to be there as well, but I doubt any of the other TV sports anchors are even close. They bounce around a lot and people no longer get their sports fix from the local evening news.

Adam the Bull, outside of his Saturday night gig on CBS radio, has to be around $75K, no????? Even the morning show guys on the Fan, Kiley and Booms, have to be at that range, no????
 
Not to be annoying, but I have a pretty good handle on what the TV pros in a market like Cleveland make, even after the salaries have been slashed over time.. Donovan was making north of a hundred about 15 years ago. He's making a killing and is one of the highest paid local news personalities in the market. The sports directors are all making more than six figures.

Weekends are where they go cheap. Heck, Fox 8 doesn't even have a weekend sports anchor right now.
 
John Baylor said:
Since most of the people on this board have never actually had a full time job in radio. (not a slam, many of you have said so in posts) how would you have any idea what these people are making?
My favorite line: I know it second hand.

and does it really matter?

A man's worth is not dictated by his W2.
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The balanced, gentlemanly, not at all insulting perspective we've come to expect from the great JB.
 
former interm said:
Capulet....thanks for the feedback.

I still think Triv has to be making way above $100K.

Paying big money to local TV sportscasters is a thing of the past. Donovan at KYC is probably above $100K and John Telich has to be there as well, but I doubt any of the other TV sports anchors are even close. They bounce around a lot and people no longer get their sports fix from the local evening news.

Adam the Bull, outside of his Saturday night gig on CBS radio, has to be around $75K, no????? Even the morning show guys on the Fan, Kiley and Booms, have to be at that range, no????
Click to expand...


You're welcome! I am guessing an afternoon drive host in Cleveland radio these days is probably in the 50-60K range.

There's a million former radio people that were "Clear-Channeled" out of radio over the last decade. CBS did the same thing with end of the year layoffs for years and years.
Bassically it works like this. Fire someone who makes 100K and replace them with someone for 30K, or a voice tracker on a network feed.

It's a buyers market for the radio stations. Chuck Booms was on the beach for quite some. I wouldn't be surprised if he and Kiley are making 55K....with lots of unatainable performance bonuses in their deals. LOL! Sports stations don't get ratings. Advertiserss buy time because they want association with the Indians, Browns and Cavs. These same sports advertisers traditionally provide many products to the announcers that endorse them. The GMs know this and thats why they can pay low salaries.

As good as Tony Grossi is I bet my house he took a pay cut when the PD fired him and KNR hired him.

Rizzo is at KNR becuase he needs the job. Doing 4 hours of talk radio a day is way more demanding than reading a teleprompter 6 minutes a day. For whatever reason, TV 8 did not see him in their future plans back when Tony started at WKNR. Tony had to know that and secured radio employment. He represents a tiny percentage of broadcasters who lose a gig and are able to find another. I know so many people who were PDs, MDs, production guys and on air talent who lost great jobs and never got back in.

Willie Nelson sang a song about "mothers don't let your sons grow up to be cowboys" or something like that. Today the song should be " if your kid wants to go into radio, send him to medical school instead " !

I know radio salaries have all been scaled way back everywhere in every format. Not so certain if TV personalities salaries have been cut as drastically over the years. But they have been cut back.

I think thats about all I have to say on this topic.
 
I'm not going to take as facts pay scales from someone who uses the quote "Sports stations don't get ratings". Look at todays PPM numbers on all access. Plenty of sports station getting GREAT ratings.

Are there any real broadcasters on these boards?

Radiodisussions.com should move to a disqus type of login. 99% of so called facts reported here would disappear the instant somebody's real name and photo appeared next to it.

Bon?
 
John Baylor said:
I'm not going to take as facts pay scales from someone who uses the quote "Sports stations don't get ratings". Look at todays PPM numbers on all access.
Click to expand...

Say what you will John. Look at the PPMS

CBS's sports talk station in Cleveland is not even in the top 10 stations in the Cleveland market posted on all access! ! ! !
Ratings? Where? If you're not in the 6+ overall you're nowhere in demos or dayparts.

WKNR is not even listed on all access because they DO NOT subscribe to Arbitron.

Thats a very telling fact. In their world they do not pay the Arbitron fees because their numbers in Arbitron are not substantial enough to warrant the Arbitron fee!

If they're not going to pay Arbitron, why should they pay on air talent who's job it is to ultimatly deliver audience measured by ratings?

As I said above the advertisers on WKNR and the CBS station are looking for associations with the Indians Browns and Cavs.

The account execs from WKNR make pitches to new clients void of
any Arbitron ratings. My guess is the CBS sales people do the same.
 
Thanks for proving my point.

May I remind you that up until a few months ago Cumulus wasn't a subscriber either? Only a fool would have claimed stations such as WPLJ/New York, Q100/Atlanta, were failures because they weren't listed in a meaningless beauty contest online. I work for an ad agency the only number, and I mean only number is 25-54. We don't even look at 18-34.
Cumulus has plenty of stations in the top 10 in dozens of markets. Somehow they survived without Arbitron. A small owner like Craig can survive without Arbitron. Perhaps rather than pay Arbitron six figures+ a year they use the money for other resources, like talent. Seems to me they have a robust staff.
 
John Baylor said:
Thanks for proving my point.
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What point is that? That sports stations don't get ratings? ???

Or is it that you have to get real creative with Maximizer to show any marketable audience? ::)

You can't pull any numbers for WKNR can you? They don't subscribe. ;D
 
Capulet is pretty close to the dollars/salaries he's mentioning. How the heck do I know? I recently retired from many decades in broadcasting.

What he said about big, big changes in salaries for on-air folks in radio and TV is very true.

When he said many on-air people are just grateful to have a job, despite reduced salaries is absolutely true. How do I know? The many TV and radio people I know personally here in the midwest and elsewhere in the US have told me that privately. Many in their 50's say: "I just hope and pray I can keep a job til I reach at least 62" (when Americans can apply for early social security).

A lot of the big reduction in on-air talent salaries is due to a large drop in advertising revenue in radio and local TV nationwide. Some of it was the recession, but that's not the main driver.

Our economy has changed....many businesses are operating with far fewer employees (automation, not just media), so sales are down in many businesses (not all, but many)...that means companies are finding far less expensive ways to advertise their businesses...and that has really hurt local radio and local TV. Where did 20%-30% of those "local ad dollars" go in the past 4 or 5 years? The web/internet.

Thus, stations have cut back in salaries of on-air folks.

Want a good example? A man in his 50's, Russ Mitchell of WKYC....who spent decades with CBS News comes to Cleveland? That kind of thing just didn't happen pre deregulation and pre-internet. The advertising and media world has made some rather significant changes...and that's depressed salaries. Capulet is so right.
 
Tim said:
Capulet is pretty close to the dollars/salaries he's mentioning. How the heck do I know? I recently retired from many decades in broadcasting.

What he said about big, big changes in salaries for on-air folks in radio and TV is very true.

Capulet is so right.
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Thanks Tim.

The biggest catalist in all this this is deregulation in 1992.........then the Telecom Bill in 1996.
 
I still do some freelance marketing work (not in radio or TV), and one of my current customers told me he's cut his annual media budget to less than $10,000 a year because he's found he can effectively promote his small chain of restaurants better on-line on his own website, social media, and e-mail data base to customers.

And, he's doing it at a tiny fraction of what he used to spend in local electronic media. "Because of the reach of the internet I can still be effective and invest far less money in paid media advertising....I can control my costs a lot better than ever before". His words, not mine.

Those are lost dollars that used to go to local radio and local cable. This person is one of millions and millions of businesses who've gone the same route. That's a big part of the decline in ad revenues in local radio, tv, and cable, and that has a real impact on the number of on-air people on staff and salaries.
 
Tim said:
Those are lost dollars that used to go to local radio.......This person is one of millions.... of businesses who've gone the same route. That's a big part of the decline in ad revenues in local radio, tv, and cable, and that has a real impact on the number of on-air people on staff and salaries.
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Amen brother!
 
Thus, stations have cut back in salaries of on-air folks.

Want a good example? A man in his 50's, Russ Mitchell of WKYC....who spent decades with CBS News comes to Cleveland? That kind of thing just didn't happen pre deregulation and pre-internet. The advertising and media world has made some rather significant changes...and that's depressed salaries. Capulet is so right.
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Again, not saying you guys are completely off with some of the salary numbers, but you're drastically underestimating certain personalities and the amount of revenue that is still coming in (saw a WSJ piece on northeast ohio setting all-time records during the election that alludes to this. I'll try to find it tomorrow morning).

Russ Mitchell is making plenty of money, he came to Cleveland because he was working holidays and weekends and he had assurances (contract stipulations) that he wouldn't have to do that here. At some point you have to raise a family and he asked his agent to look into some opportunities. It's almost the EXACT same story with George Smith, who desperately wanted to leave his DC bureau job for notoriously underpaying ESPN. Pretty sure he and his wife just had their second kid. He traveled literally every day for his job and wanted something different. He did not take a huge pay cut to come here (adjusted for cost of living, he's actually making pretty similar money).

As far as Kiley and Booms, why would Kevin Kiley move to Cleveland when his wife lives just outside of DC for 60,000. Just not happening for a guy that's 65. He and booms are making just about double that
 
By and large Capulet is very close in his salary estimates for the overwhelming majority of on-air gigs in most local radio and local TV markets. Sure, there are exceptions in every market...but, the reality is there are far, far, far fewer 6-figure on-air people in non-top 10 markets in 2013 than even 10 or 15 years ago.

And, most people in their 50's are done raising their families...their kids are in their 20's+. Many of the networks have cut weekenders salaries as well. Many weekend network TV personalities/newsreaders work 12-hour shifts. That was never the case in previous decades.

So, coming to Cleveland for a weekend network news talent gives certainly gives them weekends off, and in some cases maybe a bit more money. But, rest assured...very few folks in TV are making anywhere close to what most media fans think they're making.

TV and radio would've had down years without the 2012 election and all-time record political advertising.
 
The song previously referred to is actually a duet credited to "Waylon and Willie", which would be Waylon Jennings and the aforementioned Willie Nelson. "Mamma's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" spent a month at the top of the Billboard Country charts in 1978. It was such a big hit that it almost made the Pop/Rock Top 40 on the Hot 100".
 
johnbasalla said:
The song previously referred to is actually a duet credited to "Waylon and Willie", which would be Waylon Jennings and the aforementioned Willie Nelson. "Mamma's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" spent a month at the top of the Billboard Country charts in 1978. It was such a big hit that it almost made the Pop/Rock Top 40 on the Hot 100".
Click to expand...

Yeah! That one! Thanks. After this thread it's " Momma don't let your babies grow up to be minimum wage Djs !" lol
 
"Mamma's, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Don't let 'em pick guitars and drive them old trucks. Let 'em be doctors and lawyers, and such".
 
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