CMF's website

[yugoidar]

Another well reasoned response from Mr. Roxalot.

Maybe Entercom already has an idea in mind to lower the demos and replace CMF's "classic rock" format and Wease's exhorbitant salary. Mr. Gault, who seems to be deeply engrossed, if not involved, in Wease's contract problem, might do well to take some time out and read the latest news from the front page of this website.

Dateline: Kansas City. (From Radio-Info)

"Entercom debuts the new AAA "Boulevard", featuring "quality rock" artists like Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and Jackson Browne - just as the market expected, to replace the previous classic rock KYYS (99.7). Former "KY" staffers like Max Floyd, Tanna Guthrie and afternoon driver Slacker are all out in the format change that removes Entercom from the two-way classic rock battle with Cumulus-owned KCFX".

 

[Radknowski]

Mr. Gault, who seems to be deeply engrossed, if not involved, in Wease's contract problem...

A patron's gotta eat, man! Yes, a fine post by SR.

 

[JohnGault]

Radknowski, you are one of the smartest people here. What do you do? Name, Rank and Radio station, please? Oh well, I guess not.
http://www.amazon.com/Number-Quarte...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200159009&sr=1-1
This book has a wonderful quote in its forward:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair US novelist (1878 - 1968)
I offer my points of view for what they are worth only. I personally enjoy being challenged to think.

How do you make Internet radio pay?

I'll skip the detailed point by point discussion, but you are savvy and bring up lots of good points. If I knew the Internet Business Model and how it would shake out, I wouldn't be wasting my time in Rochester.
A few thoughts:

Their TSL is down because the product doesn't serve them.

The TSL is down because our lack of responsiveness to their needs is making us as relevant to their lives as Lawrence Welk.

Advertisers will still want 25-54s in ten years, and smart programmers will find a way to attract them to terrestrial radio.

If it exists. I think the audience will be mostly 45 plus. I see analog radio going the way of analog TV. Sorry.

John, perhaps the suits need to invest a little emotion into their decisions, and stop treating radio stations like real estate that they buy low, cut costs, pump up the bottom line, then sell before it crashes because they destroyed the foundation. Perhaps they need to realize that their real product isn't "the next format", but the relationships that some talent are capable of building with listeners. Perhaps they need to understand that syndication, voice-tracking, and jockless formats are not in their best interests in the long term.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair
US novelist (1878 - 1968)

BTW, with your point of view, why SHOULD Entercom pay Wease twice the going rate for the market if terrestrial radio is in decline anyway? Your POV is that revenues are going to fall, so why commit to a long-term deal that will become more onerous as time goes on.

Great question. There is already a "going rate" for WEASE, as there is only one WEASE, and no one who generates comparable unique revenue. And I never said what they SHOULD do, if you read back I have not told anyone what to do. That is their free will. I am arguing the unpopular opinion that he has strong leverage as talent, which sadly most of you have forgotten. I have nothing to do with Wease or his negotiations.

Is he flawed? You bet. Babe Ruth was flawed too. If Entercom wants to put a cookie cutter version of what it did in Kansas City on, go for it! I've read these blogs for awhile without joining or posting. Cookie Cutter is a pretty big risk in Rochester. In Kansas City, BTW your poster on that forgets to mention the station they blew up was 17th in the market, and couldn't compete.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Points of Agreement

See, we do have some points of agreement:

Their TSL is down because the product doesn't serve them.

The TSL is down because our lack of responsiveness to their needs is making us as relevant to their lives as Lawrence Welk.

Advertisers will still want 25-54s in ten years, and smart programmers will find a way to attract them to terrestrial radio.

If it exists. I think the audience will be mostly 45 plus.

In the short run, I guess that we'll just have to see how the Wease situation plays out. In the long run, I guess that we'll just have to see how radio as a media plays out. I'm guessing that the corporate raiders who have poured poison into the well will follow Clear Channel out of many markets, that the problems that they've created will reduce the cost of radio stations, and that real broadcasters will get back into the business. That's my best hope for the medium as a whole.

Of course, the government could disrupt the whole deal, with systems like IBOC screwing up the existing broadcast bands to the point where major corporations clamor for a spectrum realignment that allows the government to reclaim some existing broadcast bandwidth. They can then auction off that reclaimed bandwidth for huge dollars. Machiavelli had nothing on these guys.

 

[JohnGault]

Yes we do agree on some things. It is a never ending battle for money.

I wouldn't be as optimistic as you are about radio ever returning to its ownership roots. When consolidators cash out, they sell to investors who cut more, syndicate and voice track, put a fresh coat of paint on, and then get others to invest all over again.

Until there is a major development I've said all I need to about this particular skirmish. Thanks to all who have challenged my views, and expressed their own.

I have read these blogs for awhile, but have never even been registered. I notice that's what most people do, based on the views to posts ratio. This has been interesting, but eats a lot of time up. My next post will be on a brand new topic, in a week or so.

 

[Radknowski]

Radknowski, you are one of the smartest people here.

Fybush, Roxalot, Savage, Sherlock, Smith and Wallack if you want smart. (Sounds like an accounting and/or law firm, just add "LLC" or "LP" after the names.)

What do you do?

Jump into message board dust-ups, scratch my package, paint houses, throw mud, drive my wacky Aunts Sophie and Helen to the hairdresser every other Saturday and inhale drywall dust (not necesarily in that order.)

 

[SirRoxalot]

Looking Onward

This has been a stimulating discussion that has gone well beyond the Wease situation. I still think that radio will hit bottom at some point, and the people willing to risk investment in the medium will be the ones who do it because they believe in it, not because it will be monetarily wise. I see a lot of people searching for answers to the continued decline in radio revenue. It's funny that they don't look at where they've cut - programming - and equate it with what they've lost - revenue.

Several new names have come to the table. JohnGault, yugoidar, bobn, ImagingDude119, ChiaHead, alexanderthepeon, watchdogg, SSSKub, and others that I'm sure I missed. Whether they are long-time lurkers who finally felt compelled to post, new indentities for old posters, people with a dog in this fight, or folks who are new to Radio-Info, it's been interesting sorting through the various viewpoints.

The exchange of ideas is never a bad thing. Other points of view bring all of us closer to wisdom.

 

[yugoidar]

Right again, Sir Roxalot! I guess this is where we all gather around the campfire and sing "Kum-ba-ya", huh? It's been fun, guys--keep posting!

 

[Radknowski]

I guess this is where we all gather around the campfire and sing "Kum-ba-ya", huh?

And all this time, I thought we were singing "Tub Thumping."

 

[SirRoxalot]

Thub Tumping

Chumbawamba Kumbaya. Isn't he the new head of the United Nations? ;D

 

[Bob1370]

One other point is worth making in this discussion.

Radio is really a lot more user-friendly, as a source of audio entertainment, than anything else people are using these days.

Think about what you have to do to hear music another way. A CD or cassette deck in your dash requires you, first to go out and buy recorded music (or tape it or burn a CD from another source) and then select and program it yourself every time you listen. An MP3 player involves first selecting and downloading the music, then programming it into your machine--and if you have a set order and sequence for your songs (what the communications mavens call "metaprogramming") that's still more thought and more work put into it. And you paid for every cut you downloaded unless you find one of those pirate sites the RIAA is always hunting and suing. Online listening? Involves powering up your laptop, desktop or PDA, or your browser-enabled phone, dialing up or logging on to your ISP, navigating the Web to find the site, then picking the music you want to listen to from a menu at the site you selected. Podcasts can make it a LITTLE easier than if you have to hunt for individual cuts on your own for either online listening or an MP3 download to your iPod, but how many people are kind enough to build individual podcasts of extended music sets for your pleasure, and pick a selection of cuts you'll like? They're harder to find than you might think.

All that takes some extra work. It can be a royal pain, even if you're pretty adept with the technology, especially when the site you're seeking isn't well constructed or Murphy's Law kicks in. So why do a lot of people bother putting themselves through it, rather than listen to the radio medium that's at your fingertips with just the touch of an on-button and a station selector button?

Basically because we're not giving them enough in value-added, beyond a selection of burned-out songs punctuated by seemingly endless commercial stop-sets. We used to...we offered a lot of entertainment and information provided by likable personalities, as well as a lot of current music (or talk about current issues) and kept the length of stopsets to a minimum so we didn't make people gag on a commercial overdose in any given 15 minute span. If we went BACK to that formula we could persuade a lot of people who are tired of all the effort they put into programming their own audio entertainment, to give us in radio another try. At least some of those lost listeners, along with some who've never given us much of a chance up to now, would probably not only try us again, but spend more time with us again. We could be people's first choice for audio entertainment once more, because we would offer them something they like without making them work hard for it.

We still have a chance to stop the audience bleeding, and even restore some health and some growth to radio once more. It might not ever be quite as strong as it was in 1990 (when Arbitron says per-capita commercial radio usage in the US peaked)...but it'd be a hell of a lot more likely to survive and thrive than it is if we stay on our current course as a medium and a business.

 

[Ed Trefzger]

So why do a lot of people bother putting themselves through it, rather than listen to the radio medium that's at your fingertips with just the touch of an on-button and a station selector button?

Basically because we're not giving them enough in value-added, beyond a selection of burned-out songs punctuated by seemingly endless commercial stop-sets.

You hit the nail on the head. Radio needs to go back to doing what it can do better than anyone else. For young people, radio has ceased to be a source of music discovery, a place where a friend let you hear what was new and great.

 

[Radknowski]

Radio's is running scared, especially music radio. It's tough for PD's and GM's to have big nads when your job's on the line... much easier to play the best tested 300 songs and rotate them to death, put on a nice voice guy and let it rip. But let's be honest folks. No balls, no babies. Keep doing what you've always done and you'll get what you always got: Diminished returns and people walking away in search of something else that inspires them, entertains them, intrigues them, grabs them and makes them want to come back like a good meal, a fine drink or a thrilling ride at an amusement park.

Radio cannot out iPod an iPod. When will the managers calling the shots from the 7th floor corner office understand this?!

When's the last time you heard a music jock who made you think? Laugh? Say the words, "That's interesting..." or "I didn't know that." I'm not talking about Delilah or Tesh or any of the syndicated clones. I'm talking live, local jocks who know their craft.... These local jocks are out there, but you'd never know it by the sound of music radio stations today. Even the good jocks have been forced to reel it in, play the jingles, bumpers and promos. They're the lucky ones who still have jobs. The unfortunate jocks have been replaced by Jack, Bob, Dick, Fickle and whatnot. It's uninspiring, bland, vanilla radio... yeah, I know, vanilla is everybody's favorite flavor... but after a while, it becomes like a barium smoothie and just as constipating. If you're a jock competiting with a lifeless, automated Jack, Bob or Fickle, you should want it to die a quick death.

Some GM's and PD's know the price of everything but the value of nothing... including the talent on their own airstaffs.

 

[Bob1370]

"If you're a jock competiting with a lifeless, automated Jack, Bob or Fickle, you should want it to die a quick death."

They HAVE been dying slow, agonizing deaths. CBS was the first to start putting them to death (if they still owned WBUF they'd have killed it in Buffalo by now, like they did in New York). It'll be interesting to see how soon people in the business see the good results CBS got from returning to live, local, value-added personality radio, and start emulating their success instead of everyone else's failure with mechanized radio.