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Dirty Diana
Guest
Between Asheville, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Charlotte. CC appears to be getting beat up and down the dial. Any defenders out there?
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Every dog has his day!
Seriously the one postive thing I can say about the "evil empire" is I went in for a part-time job back in 2005 and I hadn't worked at Lite since 1994 when Trumper owned the place. I was amazed at how many people I knew there from when I worked there. So up until the last couple of years Clear Channel Charlotte was fairly stable.
By they way I turned down the job because they wanted me to sign a 6 month non compete. So I'm not so thrilled with Clear Channel for that reason.
To my surprise once I got totally out of radio I discovered that it's not the center of the universe. Some people inside the business think it is, but it's just a job. I'm not even sure you can call it a career anymore. :'(
Seriously the one postive thing I can say about the "evil empire" is I went in for a part-time job back in 2005 and I hadn't worked at Lite since 1994 when Trumper owned the place. I was amazed at how many people I knew there from when I worked there. So up until the last couple of years Clear Channel Charlotte was fairly stable.
By they way I turned down the job because they wanted me to sign a 6 month non compete. So I'm not so thrilled with Clear Channel for that reason.
To my surprise once I got totally out of radio I discovered that it's not the center of the universe. Some people inside the business think it is, but it's just a job. I'm not even sure you can call it a career anymore. :'(
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uppendowndadial
Guest
Some of the best takes on CC are on John Gorman's blog
http://gormanmediablog.blogspot.com/
http://gormanmediablog.blogspot.com/
uppendowndadial said:
Very interesting. I'm not much for consultants, many on air have suffered under consultants. I view them as someone the PD and GM can fire when the ratings tank, thus saving their own jobs.
Often times the staff knows what is needed at the station but management doesn't listen.
Mike,
I'll attest to the truth of that, and share a story about one of the stations where I was PD back in the days...
The newly-hired GM of the station had a habit of asking everyone who walked in the door for programming ideas...except me, his program director. When I tried to suggest something, it was always met with "...we'll discuss it later..." which we never did.
One day I devised myself a plan, which would be the envy of most any man. I made a list of 8-10 things I felt needed attention to in the station's programming. Then I had an old college friend phone the station posing as "Mark Fairwest", a made-up programming consultant who was passing through the area consulting one of the stations in Greensboro. The ruse was that he had happened upon our signal, thought we needed improvement, and was willing to offer "free advice". He then shared the things on my list, and told my GM that he could never discuss his identity with anyone.
Over the next month, my GM began sharing "his" programming ideas with me, which were my ideas to begin with, and I was given free reign to implement them. I don't think Mark Fairwest ever called him again, and I never told Walt the story.
I have come to believe that there are two types of managers in radio...those who build great stations from the inside out, and those who bring greatness from the outside in. There are WAAAYYY too many of the second type for the industry's own good.
Later....
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV
I'll attest to the truth of that, and share a story about one of the stations where I was PD back in the days...
The newly-hired GM of the station had a habit of asking everyone who walked in the door for programming ideas...except me, his program director. When I tried to suggest something, it was always met with "...we'll discuss it later..." which we never did.
One day I devised myself a plan, which would be the envy of most any man. I made a list of 8-10 things I felt needed attention to in the station's programming. Then I had an old college friend phone the station posing as "Mark Fairwest", a made-up programming consultant who was passing through the area consulting one of the stations in Greensboro. The ruse was that he had happened upon our signal, thought we needed improvement, and was willing to offer "free advice". He then shared the things on my list, and told my GM that he could never discuss his identity with anyone.
Over the next month, my GM began sharing "his" programming ideas with me, which were my ideas to begin with, and I was given free reign to implement them. I don't think Mark Fairwest ever called him again, and I never told Walt the story.
I have come to believe that there are two types of managers in radio...those who build great stations from the inside out, and those who bring greatness from the outside in. There are WAAAYYY too many of the second type for the industry's own good.
Later....
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV
M
MaskMan
Guest
Loved the story! You are so right about managing from the inside out. The best managers I ever had did exactly that. So much so, that when I encountered the outside in manager I really didn't know how to work with them. I was so used to having free reign to express opinions and offer ideas that this "outside in" manager just couldn't deal with me. I had been fortunate to work in an environment where people were promoted from within. They had all been brought along to manage from the inside out. Our stations thrived, the employees loved working there and gave it their all. When CC took over, we began getting the outside in managers. They like to bring in people who have no ties to existing employees. In my opinion, that's a big part of the continual decline of CC!
Matt, I also liked the story, well done in the creative thinking department!
I'm amazed that management never realized that we don't only got feedback from the people we came in contact with but also being on the inside we could figure out what changes could be done easily without hurting something else. That's something an outside person can't do.
The consultants I disliked the most were the ones who had never been on the air themselves.
I always appreciated the rare PD who took the time to explain why things were done a certain way. One of the stations I worked for had a very successful window sticker campaign. The sticker was rather plain but very easy to see. Just WFTL in big letters with RADIO 1400 underneath. We were told in our program manual that the station should always be referred to as WFTL radio 14 and never 1400. When I asked this PD why the sticker said 1400 and not 14 he said that the GM/owner liked to display the call letters as WFt.L (as in Fort Lauderdale) and 1400. He did it as 1400 on the sticker so he could get all caps (WFTL) on the sticker. Thus proving a little psychology never hurts!
I'm amazed that management never realized that we don't only got feedback from the people we came in contact with but also being on the inside we could figure out what changes could be done easily without hurting something else. That's something an outside person can't do.
The consultants I disliked the most were the ones who had never been on the air themselves.
I always appreciated the rare PD who took the time to explain why things were done a certain way. One of the stations I worked for had a very successful window sticker campaign. The sticker was rather plain but very easy to see. Just WFTL in big letters with RADIO 1400 underneath. We were told in our program manual that the station should always be referred to as WFTL radio 14 and never 1400. When I asked this PD why the sticker said 1400 and not 14 he said that the GM/owner liked to display the call letters as WFt.L (as in Fort Lauderdale) and 1400. He did it as 1400 on the sticker so he could get all caps (WFTL) on the sticker. Thus proving a little psychology never hurts!
Like I always say if you can't read it all going past at 70mph it isn't worth spending your money on. I hate those stickers you can't even read following behind or even worst stopped behind them.
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