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Clear Channel Seattle: Who's gone?

Clear Channel is obviously in free fall and refuses to spend any money at this point to make KJR-FM a station worth listening to. Great stations start with strong morning shows and what KJR-FM offers today is the worst imaginable. Like an Ipod on shuffle, a chimpanzee would out perform. And the news guy they have on, who just reads the paper and regurgitates the Metro Traffic info, wouldn't know a good story if it hit him in the face. Sorry, just my opinion.

The KJR I remember, was totally involved in the city and was a trend setter in many different ways. The smartest thing CC could do now, is hire Pat O'day or someone who worked under him to revitalize the spirit. Bring back the proud spirit and concept of "reflecting the feeling of the day." Okay, I am done. I don't get paid for advice here.
 
quote author=Grindlfan link=topic=125532.msg1028743#msg1028743 date=1241670100]So the clown programming KJR FM still has his job? How does THAT make sense?[/quote]

Give Seattle a good dedicated 60s and 70s station and the ratings will plummet again.

And I don't think all radio programmers are clowns, only those who refuse to listen to their listeners. I do however think that all consultants are clowns, not to mention frauds. IMHO.
[/quote]

Based on observing the market I'd say give Seattle a 60's/70's station and it will perform just like KBSG did in it's last years....poorly. So no owner is going that route. Yes a lot of programmers are clowns. Having observed Jay Kelly's track record with KBSG (the glory years) and then KJR I would say Jay has been able to get results other programmers cannot touch. Remember how poorly KJR-FM performed for years under other programmers?? Doesn't look to me like Jay went to clown college. You can bet there are decisions he's been told to make (or else) that make him grimace.

I've worked with some good consultants and some clowns/frauds. It's like any business.

Someone mentioned bringing back Pat O'Day. Pat's a legend in radio and fondly remembered but bringing back Pat, or Norm Gregory, or Gary Lockwood, or any of a dozen other former Seattle radio personalities is a recipe for disaster. You would probably be wise to call up some of the current crop of personalities who are on the beach: Fastlane Phillips or Mark Christopher come to mind.

As for KJR-FM or any station for that matter being a trendsetter. Please get it through your heads that radio is no longer a trendsetter. Radio will not be a trendsetter. The trendsetter is YouTube. The trendsetter is iPod. The trendsetter is Pandora. The trendsetter is file sharing & Google & Twitter & a hundred other apps and programs being cooked up by 3 17 years old kids in a basement in someones house right now. No radio owner in America is a trendsetter.
 
The uneducated posts I see on here amaze me. Just because you don't care for a format, doesn't make it horrible. First rule of thumb as a professional is to put personal perference aside. KJR-FM is a top ten, actually top 5 station in the latest book. I guess all those listeners must be wrong?
 
Radio-Schmoozer said:
The uneducated posts I see on here amaze me. Just because you don't care for a format, doesn't make it horrible. First rule of thumb as a professional is to put personal perference aside. KJR-FM is a top ten, actually top 5 station in the latest book. I guess all those listeners must be wrong?
Click to expand...

What I get a chuckle out of in KJR-FM's case is how the biggest gripe about it was the Sunday morning Casey Kasem re-run, and how the automation system handled it. Despite that clear and present weakness that would have decimated any other radio station, KJR-FM persevered through the Casey Kasem hardship and emerged triumphantly.
 
Radio-Schmoozer said:
The uneducated posts I see on here amaze me. Just because you don't care for a format, doesn't make it horrible. First rule of thumb as a professional is to put personal perference aside. KJR-FM is a top ten, actually top 5 station in the latest book. I guess all those listeners must be wrong?
Click to expand...

I spent some time working for a station consulting & programming firm. One of the things we constantly had to remind our clients about was the fact that they DO NOT listen to the radio like listeners do. As stated it is important as a station owner, operator, sales rep., PD or jock to put your preferences aside and see the station as your listeners do. Yes consultants get a bad rap for ruining radio and they probably contributed to some of radios short-comings. But the good consultants know what works and adapt it to a given market. Radio's like cake mix. Everybody likes some kind of cake, so whether you sell cake mix in Seattle or Cincinnati you can bet that the same basic recipe will make a good starting point. Every cake is not exactly the same. But 90% of the ingredients are...eh??

Who mentioned KJR-FM needed a morning show? Can you imagine the net dollars they are making not having to pay big salaries and promotions?? Morning show my butt! Michelle's gotta be just as happy with the money her little 95.7 is making as it is....god knows screwballs in San Antonio should be.
 
Agreed. For whatever some of the no-nothing's on this board say that determine a stations viability based on their own personal tastes; both KJAQ and KJR-FM have done well with automated formats as compared with other large markets. As businesses, I imagine both stations margins are quite good.
 
TVradioguru, FYI, KJR-FM is not automated. They are live from 6a (Kevin Ebi has news/traffic in the mornings/Heidi May mid-days/Randy Lundquist is live afternoons until 7p. Unlike Jack
 
The cold hard fact is right now, Clear Channel stock is just about worthless. So the only realistic way they'll have to get out of this is to end up selling radio stations - whole market clusters even, for fire sale prices.

One upside is behemoths like Clear Channel and CBS are not in any spending mood. The downside is the rest of us aren't either......
 
Radio-Schmoozer said:
The uneducated posts I see on here amaze me.
Click to expand...

It's not that they are amazing as much as they are incredibly hilarious. This board never fails to make me laugh just about every single day.

The Street said:
And the news guy they have on, who just reads the paper and regurgitates the Metro Traffic info, wouldn't know a good story if it hit him in the face. Sorry, just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Not that Kevin Ebi needs me to defend him - but remember he's following orders from, as Gridl so eloquently put it, "the clown programming KJR-FM". Kevin is a very good newsman and reporter and honestly, his talents are being wasted reading only "good news". But it's not like there's a lot of newsreader opening in Seattle...so I understand why he's there.
 
Radio-Schmoozer said:
TVradioguru, FYI, KJR-FM is not automated. They are live from 6a (Kevin Ebi has news/traffic in the mornings/Heidi May mid-days/Randy Lundquist is live afternoons until 7p. Unlike Jack
Click to expand...

True, Jack-FM really is like an iPod on shuffle. That said KJR-FM is sooo close to fully automated (NexGen system and all) that jocks are not so much "air talent" as they are systems administrators I don't want to take anything away from the air staff, they're good human beings doing as they are directed. So if someone thinks they sound like robots it's what they do in order to get a paycheck.

Interestingly the level of automation in radio stations today is something we wished for 20 or 30 years ago so that jocks could get away from some of the drudgery...some of the numbingly boring tasks associated with being on the air. Wouldn't ya know it, management took a good thing (automation) and pushed it waaaay beyond helpful. Radio's so devoid of personality now (save for the very rare exception) it makes vanilla sound like an exciting new flavor!!
 
The Street said:
Clear Channel is obviously in free fall and refuses to spend any money at this point to make KJR-FM a station worth listening to. Great stations start with strong morning shows and what KJR-FM offers today is the worst imaginable. Like an Ipod on shuffle, a chimpanzee would out perform. And the news guy they have on, who just reads the paper and regurgitates the Metro Traffic info, wouldn't know a good story if it hit him in the face. Sorry, just my opinion.
Click to expand...

If you think the morning news guy at KJR-FM is there to report hard news and breaking news, your expectations for a morning newscast on a music station is woefully out of alignment with reality.


The Street said:
The KJR I remember, was totally involved in the city and was a trend setter in many different ways. The smartest thing CC could do now, is hire Pat O'day or someone who worked under him to revitalize the spirit. Bring back the proud spirit and concept of "reflecting the feeling of the day." Okay, I am done. I don't get paid for advice here.
Click to expand...

If I paid for that kind of advice, I'd be demanding a refund. With interest payment.
 
SeattleRadioPro said:
Radio-Schmoozer said:
The uneducated posts I see on here amaze me.
Click to expand...

It's not that they are amazing as much as they are incredibly hilarious. This board never fails to make me laugh just about every single day.

The Street said:
And the news guy they have on, who just reads the paper and regurgitates the Metro Traffic info, wouldn't know a good story if it hit him in the face. Sorry, just my opinion.
Click to expand...

Not that Kevin Ebi needs me to defend him - but remember he's following orders from, as Gridl so eloquently put it, "the clown programming KJR-FM". Kevin is a very good newsman and reporter and honestly, his talents are being wasted reading only "good news". But it's not like there's a lot of newsreader opening in Seattle...so I understand why he's there.
Click to expand...

Wasn't Kevin Ebi on KIRO at one time? I know I've heard that name before.....
 
Radio-Schmoozer said:
TVradioguru, FYI, KJR-FM is not automated. They are live from 6a (Kevin Ebi has news/traffic in the mornings/Heidi May mid-days/Randy Lundquist is live afternoons until 7p. Unlike Jack
Click to expand...

I don't consider having a Metro Traffic news in the morning "live".

I read the Guru's comments as comparing the differences between well run automated (or mainly automated) stations vs. stations with traditional expensive talent. Unlike what other's have claimed here, automated stations like KJR and Jack Seattle CAN be in within the top 10 in a large market.
 
Yes Kevin was the business reporter at KIRO for several years....and he actually is a very good photographer as well.
 
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