• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Dire Straits

R

Radknowski

It's not only radio that's being beaten up by the present recession. The Journal Register joins a growing list of newspaper companies that have declared bankruptcy.

And to make this a legitimate radio post, the latest news from Anheuser-Busch (owned by InBev of Belgium) setting a new 120 payment policy for commercials, should make radio and TV sales managers reach for the Rolaids. This is lousy news for all radio stations that get "beer money." How might it affect 97 Rock, The Edge and WGR especially in the summer and football season? More layoffs and voice tracking as a result? Will other large regional sponsors try to pull the same shenanigans? Will radio put its foot down? Is radio in the position of putting its foot down? Debt service... the quiet killer.

Earlier this year, General Motors made headlines regarding their TV payment schedule.

Bad news on the doorstep / I couldn't take one more step
 
That Ain't Workin'

C'mon, Mike - you can't wait 4 months to get paid for that kitchen rehab job? At least you got half up front for materials, didn't you? The crew doesn't mind waiting 4 months for their paycheck, do they?

The Journal Register Co. is a group of small newspapers, with some in smaller markets around Albany, and other in Ohio. Get a look at their properties at http://www.journalregister.com/publications.html.
 
Re: That Ain't Workin'

SirRoxalot said:
C'mon, Mike - you can't wait 4 months to get paid for that kitchen rehab job? At least you got half up front for materials, didn't you? The crew doesn't mind waiting 4 months for their paycheck, do they?

The Journal Register Co. is a group of small newspapers, with some in smaller markets around Albany, and other in Ohio. Get a look at their properties at http://www.journalregister.com/publications.html.
Click to expand...

If the "Farm team" can't survive, there won't be any good writers down the road, wether it be online or print.

It's bad enough that there isn't enough "farm team" in radio.
 
Yeziknoradio said:
SirRoxalot said:
The Journal Register Co. is a group of small newspapers, with some in smaller markets around Albany, and other in Ohio. Get a look at their properties at http://www.journalregister.com/publications.html.
Click to expand...
If the "Farm team" can't survive, there won't be any good writers down the road, wether it be online or print. It's bad enough that there isn't enough "farm team" in radio.
Click to expand...

Good points, especially about writers and journalists. Heaven help us if we have to rely on the Internet to keep us informed. And message boards are interesting, but for the most part more opinion that fact. At least that's my opinion.
 
Radio can't "put its foot down" because there are too many feet. Even in a consolidated market. Let's say the top three group owners refuse A-B's beer money on 120 day terms. You just know that #4 will take it happily and deal with the debt issue. It's actually an anti-trust issue. And you'll definitely see other advertisers do the same thing. They know that salespeople have an aversion to the word "no".

One side issue: Some shops take back a salesperson's commission after a slow-pay period of time. Wouldn't you hate to have A-B as your direct account? (Yes, I know that most of that is national agency sales, but someone, somewhere, gets a commission on that.)

Small market daily print is in deep trouble, pinched at both ends. Metro dailies do a better job of covering big news and put it in a more attractive package, while small-town weeklies have the low end of the market sewn up. Small and mid-market dailies have all the costs of printing and distribution of metro dailies without the economy of scale. Their ads are overprices relative to the weeklies and underpowered relative to the metros.

Ask yourself where small market radio went and you'll see the future of small market daily print, in general.
 
Too late! A lot of folks ARE relying on the internet for their information! That's why, IMHO, many radio stations don't see the value of doing news.
 
A friend who works in the business told me he could no longer listen to or watch the nightly news. "It's always bad and it depresses me." This guy's no whiner. He works hard, carries his weight and then some. Not one to stick his head in the sand or become comfortably numb to escape reality. He said he now listens to only one NPR radio newscast and one local newscast in the morning, then he turns to music radio or just turns the radio off. He's stopped watching the nightly news too, although he checks the news online on average of twice a day, but he doesn't read details. News about the stock market and his 401k make him physically ill. He felt great sadness for the families of Continental flight 3407, but the night after night reporting and near sensationalism wore him down. Personally, I didn't think TV news became "sensational" or over the top, but I can understand my friend's sentiments. Tough as he is, he said he cried while reading the paper or watching stories about the crash the news. "Any one of those people could be my family," and like many Western New Yorkers, he had friends who were friends of a few passengers on the aircraft.

The conversation led me to wonder if average listeners feel like my friend. Have stories about the economy, continued layoffs and the Continental tragedy taken a toll on average listeners to the extent that they've had enough bad news for a while?? I was thinking the Winter book was going to be big for news radio stations, especially because of the Obama inauguration, the economy, housing and banking news and the tragedy of flight 3407. Now I'm beginning to wonder if average listeners are "tapped out" on news and looking for music to escape reality. In which case, WYRK, Jack, 97 Rock, Star and Kiss may have better Winter books than pundits and keyboard critics like me might imagine.
 
I'm with your friend to some degree. I like to keep up on the news but tend not to listen, read or watch too much news if I know it's only going to depress me. Lately there's been a lot of that everywhere. :(
 
I dunno. Listening to music radio lately is getting more depressing, too. Slick Tom, gone. Pastrick, gone. Gail Ann Huber, gone. 7-Midnight is a "vast wasteland".

OK, now I'm depressing myself.
 
JustPastBuffalo asks, "I'm beginning to wonder if average listeners are "tapped out" on news and looking for music to escape reality."

In other times I'd have worried. Music was a HUGE escape in the 60s, especially as the excitement of the British Invasion gradually took the gloom away in the months after we lost JFK.

Trouble is, the new music isn't providing the same energy, and too many stations don't even play what IS both new and interesting--just recycling the same over-researched artists, and the same over-researched recurrents, and boring everyone. We're also missing bright new personalities to present whatever music is being played. So much satellite, so much automation, so much voice-tracking, it's all a good sleep-inducer.

So as long as news/talk at least remains new and personality-driven, it'll hold its own, even if some of the subject matter is more painful than it's been in years. At least it's got life to it.
 
Bob1370 said:
So as long as news/talk at least remains new and personality-driven, it'll hold its own, even if some of the subject matter is more painful than it's been in years. At least it's got life to it.
Click to expand...

Are you including some of the talk shows on WJJL as part of your example?

Their schedule reads "Oldies Caravan" from 10am-12pm week days, but they seem to be adding more (local?) talk shows lately.
I think this schedule needs to be updated:

http://www.wjjl.com/onair/programlineup.htm
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom