Clear Channel stations (You Can Tell)........

[Starbucks]

I've been listening roughly the past year to Armstrong and Getty waking up to work with them. I've noticed dramatically about the advertising that I hear during prime time morning drive. And other parts of the broadcast day as well. It sounds like instead of Wednesday morning, it sounds like it's Sunday morning during church and public service programming.
KSTE is a powerful station, it has good ratings, and it has a professional morning team. But it sounds like Clear Channel can't sell worth of S*** of advertising. Even between the hours of 5 -8 AM it seems like almost 50% fillers, PSA's, or commercials you use to hear in the middle of the night on weekends.
I never thought the day would come when I would hear Uncle Maddy's dog training, or get rich quick MLM spots right in the heart of morning drive. The other fillers like Dr. Laura, Shaun Hannity, Clark Howard "Say What they Want" constantly played along with the LDS church spots (which I am a member) in the heart of Morning and afternoon drive when you were lucky to get a spot at 10 P.M. on a station like this.
Is this the coming to the end of terrestrial radio? It has become a far cry from the 90's Dot.com days when everything was agency or blue chip spots. Even Michael Savage I here the same fillers, and PSA's.
It sounds like Clear Channel is working to a yard sale.

 

[DaveBayArea]

I haven't heard an A&G show for over a year so I don't know how they compare to other stations, but this IS traditionally the slowest time of the year. However, you'd think they should have at least been able to get a good supply of election advertising.

 

[SFSAC]

DaveBayArea, you bring up a good point, actually you have.
Yes, political advertising is heating up and one would think they should be able to put that in their prime AM drive slots. BUT, you also need competent sales people from management down to AE's or MC's, whichever their title. And that IMHO is where this market is lacking. I know MANY AE's that can sell and MANY that can not. The can not's over rule the can's though.
A perfect example, and I'm switching now to TV, was the Super Bowl. The only ads Fox 40 could muster up was for the Indian Casino initiative and their own programming. IMHO, both a waste. What that tells me is that none of their sales staff could get prime dollars from any one of their advertisers for a prime spot in the Super Bowl. PATHETIC.
We've always debated programming on this board, so thanks for bringing up the other side of the building in radio stations. They (Sales) too are to blame for the demise of what we once knew as good radio.

 

[hammerpants]

Sales are to blame for bad radio?? WTF!

Sales have nothing to do "good" radio or "bad" radio... sure, a well programmed station needs a sales staff with a clue to survive, but they have NO impact on the quality or lack of quality programming.

 

[bobbybooey]

Actually, to some extent sales IS responsible for the current state of radio. Once station GM's started allowing their stations to be completely whored out with 7 minute stop-sets and ridiculous "station promotions" that offered little if any true benefit to the listeners, those listeners began seeking alternative forms of enterainment rather than sitting through a mountain of clutter just to hear their favorite song.

 

[radiovictim]

Actually, to some extent sales IS responsible for the current state of radio. Once station GM's started allowing their stations to be completely whored out with 7 minute stop-sets and ridiculous "station promotions" that offered little if any true benefit to the listeners, those listeners began seeking alternative forms of enterainment rather than sitting through a mountain of clutter just to hear their favorite song.

Not to mention, if a sales staff can't sell their station and bring in revenue, budgets for talent and promotions are lower... and it's hard not to get what you pay for.

 

[BurnedOutOnTheBoards]

It could be a sales problem, but I just never could listen to these guys....Getty's O.K., I guess...but Armstrong just brings little to the table....58 agreed when they dropped the simulcast, which had to cost them little to produce....

I should be more supportive of a local show, since they are few and far between...but just because you're local doesn't mean you're good.

 

[trafficreportingguy]

How low will "agency" spots go.

Not only can you go across the country and hear the same centralized/homogenized radio broadcasts with satellite, but the same annoying badly produced "agency" spots. You know the commercials that nail the 800 phone number at least 5 times with 3 times in-a-row at the end.
And how about that one spot making the rounds on satellite radio hawking making money on home with your computer and the internet. It is the spot where a "pseudo" air talent back sells into the pitch. You know where he stumbles saying he has the number around somewhere?
I am sure you have heard it or soon will. One other thing you must remember, all lot of stations air those programs outside their original time slots--sometimes non-drive times. Those mandatory local breaks have to be filled. Or worse, some of the network spots have to run perhaps during regular drive times due to station inventory availability. Finally, I think the trend in totally tasteless "agency" spots will continue because advertisers with smaller budgets can really reach a national audience. And unfortunately, there is little an affiliate can do to prevent it from airing. Case in point--a recent "rash" of male enhancement spots (pun intended) being read in a very suggested manner be a sultry female voice. Needless to say I had to check the dial position and do a double take because nothing with that content would never be created and aired locally.

 

[BurnedOutOnTheBoards]

It's all part of the "rake-in-money, screw-the-quality" approach that radio management seems to embrace more and more...anything for a buck now, anything to grab that cash for stockholder's dividends, no thought to what the overall trend of lower & lower quality is doing to listenership....and, management out there, this crud sounds every bit as bad in HD... :-[

 

[RealTime]

The end is near according to Jim Cramer.

http://www.thestreet.com/video/10402694/cramer-its-over-for-radio-stocks.html#10402694

 

[BurnedOutOnTheBoards]

Cramer MAY be right....certainly "cash flow" has been the primary selling point...but think about this:

What if the overall economy slows to the point of a deep recession...or, God forbid, a depression? I would see terrestrial radio, with its cheap consumer components, filling a role not too dissimilar to what it played in the 1930's: "free" entertainment when the majority of citizens can't afford to pay.

I know very few of the survivors of the Great Depression ever want to think it could happen again...but why wouldn't it? We live and build businesses on credit, not earnings; typical consumers can barely make their minimum payments; local & state governments {who lack the Federal Government's ability to print legal tender with no backing or intrinsic worth} are facing massive cuts and businesses are looking at crippling fees and tax hikes; our federal government is borrowing trillions from foreign governments.....what would happen when it's a choice between an iPod or dinner? A cell phone or the already delinquent car payment?

Suddenly, the "free" entertainment of terrestrial stations looks far better than paying $12.05 for XM, much less $100 for cable.....

This has all happened before when our nation didn't apply the basic fundamentals of economic sense...and it could happen faster than any global warming disaster.
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