Chuck Cooper

[600kogo]

It is with great sadness that I post yesterday San Diego radio legend, former boss jock, Chuck Cooper was laid off from his 30+ year job with Clear Channel.

Chuck was originally hired in 1964 by Bill Drake to come to KGB just before the Boss Radio changeover, Chuck became one of the first Boss Jocks.

From there he went to Radio KDEO and in ended up with KSDO, which was owned by Gannett, then Jacor, then Clear Channel. KSDO of course had its format flipped over to KOGO, so basically Chuck was with the same company.

The last time Chuck DJ'd was at 1360 KPOP.

Shame on Clear Channel Chuck Cooper is a great man, longevity means squat to you people in Stink Hole Texas! You forced a legend into retirement so that Baine and Associates can make a few more dollars.

 

[davideduardo]

Shame on Clear Channel Chuck Cooper is a great man, longevity means squat to you people in Stink Hole Texas! You forced a legend into retirement so that Baine and Associates can make a few more dollars.

Aw, give it a break. The economy is off. Radio is off in markets like SD between 30% and 40% vs. 2007. Pandora will hit 100,000,0000 soon. At some point, the sustainability of the old radio model has to be questioned. The ability to sustain a business at moments like these.

Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners are the two groups that bought Clear Channel. As owners, they can make the same kind of decisions that companies from General Motors to General Electric had to make to both survive and save as many jobs as possible.

 

[SDRadio]

Aw, give it a break. The economy is off. Radio is off in markets like SD between 30% and 40% vs. 2007. Pandora will hit 100,000,0000 soon. At some point, the sustainability of the old radio model has to be questioned. The ability to sustain a business at moments like these.

I can't give a break, David. Those venture capitalist are bean counters. I often wrote that if loose change was found in the hallways at Granite Ridge, it was turned over to send to Texas. Not to far from the truth.

Pandora can hit thrice the number but the first moment the earth moves, or the water falls, local radio reigns. The economics of scale aside, you cannot beat true experience than an announcer on an ISDN from out of town calling it La Jol-lieh instead of La Jolla.

 

[600kogo]

Chris he doesnt get it he doesnt care he is saying this BS because this is my posting! And he has always defended all corporations because thats where he gets his money is from the big corporations so of course he loves them!

 

[davideduardo]

Pandora can hit thrice the number but the first moment the earth moves, or the water falls, local radio reigns. The economics of scale aside, you cannot beat true experience than an announcer on an ISDN from out of town calling it La Jol-lieh instead of La Jolla.

Most people under 21 don't even know what there is on AM, and many would not know how to find an AM station if they did.

And how many FMs in the market would be reporting such an incident outside of morning drive.

Good or bad, news delivery has moved to mobile platforms. Whether the owners of all those iPhones and Blackberrys and Droid phones know that the cellular infrastructure is rather fragile is not important. The bulk of the population does no go to radio for news, and most would not have a radio that does not need mains power in an emergency.

The problems of radio are not limited to Clear Channel and whoever owns them. The "horrible" deal for baseball rights mentioned in another post was not a horrible deal when it was made; it was a horrible deal after the depression set in, radio revenues collapsed and the prospects of future recovery seemed distant. That baseball deal was part of the general issue that what could have reasonably expected to happen didn't.

Whatever the extent of an economic recovery, this is not the San Diego of 4 stations in the mid 40's or even the market with 21 viable stations pre-2007. This is a market where a newspaper can't make money in the near future, and where traditional ad media compete with a variety of new media and where the "franchise value" of any medium is severely reduced.

This is a less than thrilling reality for anyone who has spent decades in radio, including myself. The nature of radio jobs and job opportunities is changing rapidly. Some people will transition to "radio 2.0", some will leave and some will see the end of their radio careers. But I can't see any indication that "business as usual" will return, whether that means live jocks or a station with news vehicles or an owner who started doing weekend shifts or selling the crap accounts.

 

[davideduardo]

... he is saying this BS because this is my posting!

Right conclusion, totally wrong reasoning.

And he has always defended all corporations because thats where he gets his money

No, that is NOT where I get my money.

Of course, you were the person who said I had no appreciation for radio's history, and then chastised me for making an analysis of history that did not agree with your vision.

is from the big corporations so of course he loves them!

I'm particularly fond of companies, big or small, that pay decent dividends or which have sustainable rates of growth, which, of course, means I don't have any skin in any of the broadcast stocks.

 

[radio-darn]

Chris he doesnt get it he doesnt care he is saying this BS because this is my posting! And he has always defended all corporations because that's where he gets his money is from the big corporations so of course he loves them!

You must be a government employee or on welfare Or maybe you're retired (no that couldn't be because retirement checks come from funds invested in the stocks of big corporations).

Granted Chris has been partial to the company line when it comes to reporting on local radio stations, but I think he does that out of allegiance to the people who work there, despite their bosses back east.

Long before Clear Channel or even Jacor came along people were getting blown out at radio stations on a very frequent basis: granted if you were younger you had a good chance of getting a job at another place in town, but if you were perhaps over 40 or so the odds against a new job were quite slim and there were darn few people who had the kind of run Chuck Cooper had.

I remember one of those times when KOGO got new owners in about 1980 and all the guys who'd been there 20 years or more were fired: they had great union contracts but the new owners wouldn't recognize it so they got no severance instead of the nice sum they'd expected after all those years of paying union dues. I remember how sad it was to see one of those guys, a great ballsy-voiced newsman, probably in his 50's at the time, clerking at a 7-Eleven in Lakeside, his lucrative radio career gone, with nothing to show for it.

Radio job stability has always sucked for most people in the business: even worse have been the prospects of being able to make career of it and get a retirement income.

There are a lot fewer jobs in radio now (as there are in lots of aging industries) but there were no good old days as far as it being good to its workers, at least not the air talent. I've had GM's tell me "It's not my responsibility to pay you enough to live on." I've had PD's tell me to train the new weekend guy only to come in Monday and find out he had my job. I've watched the salesmen at successful stations buy expensive cars, trade out expensive TV's and otherwise enjoy the trappings of success while the on air talent who created the successful programming made peanuts and drove the equivalent of rusted Ramblers.

Being a radio announcer has been a dicey career choice for at least the last half-century: there were plenty of small corporations and owners who were jerks and mistreated employees.

I'm sorry Chuck is out of work, but I bet he'd be the first to tell how surprised he was to have gone this long in any era.

 

[davideduardo]

You must be a government employee or on welfare Or maybe you're retired (no that couldn't be because retirement checks come from funds invested in the stocks of big corporations).

Granted Chris has been partial to the company line when it comes to reporting on local radio stations, but I think he does that out of allegiance to the people who work there, despite their bosses back east.

I think kogo intended his brickbat for me, not Chris, who I think has always done a good, fair and credible job of letting anyone interested know about what's going on in San Diego radio.

 

[SDRadio]

Granted Chris has been partial to the company line when it comes to reporting on local radio stations, but I think he does that out of allegiance to the people who work there, despite their bosses back east.

Thank you 'radio-darn'. As I wrote in Tuesday's edition: you have to trust me on that one. I know the PD at KOGO is not popular with some; but I've known him for over 20-years. Always told me the truth. You are right, I have allegiance to those at the station, the board operators, talent, news folks, traffic, and road reports. That's the station.

It is too bad that the bean counters, no matter who the big company is, is pulling the shots instead of local management. I'm encouraged that local hosts are back at KGB, KIOZ; and KyXy did a big change in their broadcast day -- with no one being fired.

David, I disagree with you on the AM radio band. There are some below 21 that know it exists. Radio left that audience a long time ago for (mostly) talk format; but when the earth moves or the rain falls -- local radio on AM or FM remains the staple. I do thank you for recognizing what I do for the radio community. David Tanny and myself at two separate web sites fill the void the main newspaper left.

 

[in3media_be1]

Content from this thread has been moved to Take It Outside


http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=186651.msg1642523#msg1642523

 

[600kogo]

you know its sad I cant even post something about a radio legend without David Eduardo putting his opinion in on something it did need to be on. This is about a great man being laid off not any opinions!

 

[davideduardo]

you know its sad I cant even post something about a radio legend without David Eduardo putting his opinion in on something it did need to be on. This is about a great man being laid off not any opinions!

And it is also about why a good broadcaster... as so many have been... is being laid off. The industry is changing, and most of the change does not have anything to do with "big corporations."

 

[Big 121]

The "Coop" also spent a few years at Country KSON, sharing the mike with Jim(The Duck)Duncan, Dick Warren, Jerry(Gene Knight),"Smokey"
Rogers[he did name his son-ROY], 2-Gun Noel (Confer)Kelley, and Chuck Owen. The day "Snowbird" aired, Coop must have played it 20 times over the audition speaker,he was so mesmerized with Anne Murrays vocals....

 

[nocoradio]

I am sorry to hear about Chuck, as I worked with him for several years. But this is only a continuation of what will happen at Granite Ridge. As the economy improves, and other radio shops get some breathing room, CC won't. Bain is so far in the hole with CC. It isn't going to get better. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. The BILLIONS they are down can't be made up with voice-tracking and "hub-and-spoke" operations. But it doesn't mean they won't try.