It seems I'm in the minority here, but I'll stick with the initial comments that I made in my post above. I didn't really read into the parts of the article from the OP about HR, mental health and diversity, so much as the first few paragraphs and I do agree with her general sentiment about the effects of consolidation on radio broadcasting.
As an example, when visiting my folks for Thanksgiving last year, there was no Christmas parade held that weekend in that city because of Covid, but one of the local TV stations showed a bunch of past parades one evening to try and bring some holiday spirit. One of the parades I happened to catch was from 1997. Two of the best known radio stations at that time had entries. One, an AC, was easily #1 in the market, nearly every one of their on-air staff were in the parade riding in or walking alongside the station vehicle, their secretary was dressed as their mascot, they were handing out station logo swag, the crowd was excited to see them, and many were familiar faces (most certainly voices) in the community. The jocks often did live broadcasts at businesses that advertised with them, they had a heavy presence at nearly every concert that happened there, were seemingly always doing contests, promotions and events in the community and the station made good $$. Another entry in the parade was a horse-drawn stagecoach, sponsored by a country station which was I believe #2 or a close 3 in the ratings. Again, their morning guy was atop the coach holding the horse's reigns and the coach was filled with their on-air staff, while others were walking alongside. The crowd was waving and yelling to them.
Later, they showed the parade from I think 2005. Same city, same sized crowd, same holiday, but the difference was that the country station had within that time been gobbled up by one of the big corporations, flipped to talk and was consolidated with about 5 other stations within that market. The AC, long-beloved and long #1 in that market had been sold by a retiring owner to a larger company, who then sold it to another even larger company who consolidated it with 3 other stations. It was now satellite content 24/7 with voice tracking. Both stations had a presence in the parade. Both had trucks or vans with the station's logos on them. No on-air staff, because there were none. All gone. No swag because those days were gone. The vehicles were most likely driven by sales staff or someone who'd be completely unknown to listeners. That's it. A van with it's hazard lights flashing away. No one in the crowd seemed to care - and their ratings had fallen badly. Huge contrast from their presence at that same event a few years previous. The once #1 rated AC from 8 years ago was now #4 or 5 in that market after the consolidation, format flip and dismissal of local air talent. The country station that had been #2 or a close 3 was now a #6 rated talker, airing mostly syndicated shows or programming from a national network.
How is that "better" for anyone involved? The station, the listeners, the former staff, the advertisers who really have no incentive to spend money there anymore because of fallen ratings and the lack of local 'personalities', etc? While I think everyone here realizes that times change, tastes change, listener habits change and one must adjust to all that, I fundamentally agree with the author's first sentence, that consolidation and downsizing have had a deeper, in at least some cases detrimental effect than sometimes meets the eye. Also, as I mentioned in my post above, it's harder and harder to explain why people should listen to terrestrial radio vs. satellite or an app, when so many stations have lost their "personalities" and what made them unique and special.
www.allaccess.com
