Effective Cost Cutting or Downright Stupidity?

[ImOffTheAir]

Here are some recent moves that Emmis NY has made that really has me saying WTF?!?!?!?


DID YOU KNOW THAT:

* Both midday & overnight personalities at HOT 97 are both voicetracking....and are running their OWN BOARDS. (seriously) They have been instructed to voicetrack an entire week of shows in one shot at 2 or 3 hundred dollars (I can't remember the exact pay rate) THEN are given the option to run their own boards at an additional $10 per hour.

* Hot 97 rebroadcasts 2 hours of the 5AM-7PM shift every night from midnight til 2AM. This gives the overnight personality an extra $20...as she runs the board for those 2 hours in addition to the 3 hour voicetracked overnight shift.

* E Bro Darden only gets paid once every couple of months as mandated by corporate opposed to every 2 weeks.

* A majority of the promotion assistants from KISS & HOT have been let go leaving each station with approximately 2-3 people for all 3 stations in the Emmis NY cluster.

* Most production is voiced by random individuals in the office from board ops to sales assistants..even the human resources director is voicing spots.

* The female voice of KISS officially fired...and another long time part timer has been instructed to be on 'stand by'.

* One young lady who actually used to work at HOT 97 on a part time basis, and who has minimal radio experience, is now the female counterpart on the morning show at KISS AND she is the talent booker AND she voicetracks overnights and KISS AND most recently has been required to do a weekend shift as well.

* The midday shift at KISS that was previously a 5 day a week gig has now become a 6 day a week gig.

* The community affairs program, WEEK IN REVIEW on KISS is currently being threatened. 3 out 4 hosts are being told that the only way this show will remain on air is if they work for FREE.

_________________

Sorry folks -I just don't see things getting better. Decisions like these are just DUMB to me.

 

[ImOffTheAir]

And one more did you know:

* After the HOT 97 show incorporated the syndicated morning show "BIG BOY'S NEIGHBORHOOD", a secretary/programming assistant was doing local breaks. (news, time, weather, etc.) She was recently let go after about a month. Those local breaks are now being done by the Cipha & Rosenberg. It's college radio at it's best.

 

[NoMoreLurking]

And down the hall at RXP, I hear that Pinfield alone makes more than the ENTIRE CD101.9 airstaff did last year. Then there are the other jocks, all under no-cut contracts! Ad sales are no where, and we all know where WRXP sits in the ratings.

Emmis has a real mess on their hands. Expect anything. ESPN, QVC, you name it.

 

[urbanfan]

Well i was an intern at Emmis last year ,and was recently trying heard they have a freeze cuz money not coming in plus they cut hours.......i dont know how overnight on hot 97 is voicetrack just this morning i heard the overnight personality taking live phone calls because she has a segment where u could ask her anything about relationships so i tihnk that live.......... well for the middays are u saying angie martinez voice track her 3pm-7pm show which i highly doubt it plus she don't run the boards. I have a question do i see vidoes on youtube hot 97 when funk master flex interview a guest in some other room i never seen when i was an intern up there do they have another studio outside the station?

 

[KDRadio]

I beleive he is talking about Big Dennis that is VT not Angie

 

[Agent 00 Soul]

That is what I was alluding to in my post that Emmis has cut there weekend staff. The lady your refering to is Raqiyah Mays formerly of HOT 97. I thought that I had some knowledge of what was going over at KISS and HOT. But you really seem to know whats going on over there and it's sad. It's a terrible time to be in radio and the corporations are pimping the talent. What does this say about the future of radio for young aspiring broadcasters? I would say that this will put adding staff on HD channels on hold for now.

 

[urbanfan]

o that sucks if big dennis is voice tracking which i could believe also i notice i dont hear Ralph Macdaniel no more too

 

[RADIO TRUTH]

Do you think Jeff Smulyan took a pay cut?

 

[calguy]

There was a time when making it to a major market, 1 through 10 was a really big deal. I was told at the start of my career not to even think about sending an aircheck to a major market until I had 5 years in the business and even then would be lucky to catch on in a weekend position. You had to have your act together. Back then most major stations had board-ops or as they were called back then "engineers". Jocks couldn't touch the equipment other than maybe opening their own mic. You did 3 hour shifts, but that's because you were expected to be at the top of your game every time you opened the mic. Jock in the top 5 markets made really good money, money that you could actually get ahead in life making. Now major market stations are run pretty much the same as stations in market 50 or even 100. Talent is expected to multi-task and do marathon shifts and if they're lucky are paid jst barely enough to get by. Still they’ll open the bank vault for a mediocre jock like Ryan Seacrest while much more talented people toil away, barely eking out a living. It's really sad.

It's hard to believe that someone would be told to VT their show and then run it for peanuts. It’s unbelievable, but that's radio today, run by sales people who get their orders from some non-radio conglomerate that could care less about being broadcasters... I’ve said it before, radio is killing itself.

Thanks for letting me rant...

 

[leethalweapon]

There was a time when making it to a major market, 1 through 10 was a really big deal. I was told at the start of my career not to even think about sending an aircheck to a major market until I had 5 years in the business and even then would be lucky to catch on in a weekend position. You had to have your act together. Back then most major stations had board-ops or as they were called back then "engineers". Jocks couldn't touch the equipment other than maybe opening their own mic. You did 3 hour shifts, but that's because you were expected to be at the top of your game every time you opened the mic. Jock in the top 5 markets made really good money, money that you could actually get ahead in life making. Now major market stations are run pretty much the same as stations in market 50 or even 100. Talent is expected to multi-task and do marathon shifts and if they're lucky are paid jst barely enough to get by. Still they’ll open the bank vault for a mediocre jock like Ryan Seacrest while much more talented people toil away, barely eking out a living. It's really sad.

It's hard to believe that someone would be told to VT their show and then run it for peanuts. It’s unbelievable, but that's radio today, run by sales people who get their orders from some non-radio conglomerate that could care less about being broadcasters... I’ve said it before, radio is killing itself.

Thanks for letting me rant...

Back when you started, doing a shift was real work. Juggling carts, records (CD's) and splicing calls was a true art. These days, it is digital editing and digital playout, so unless you are doing a phone heavy interactive program, there is a hell of a lot of time for nothing. Management see's that, and have made the ajustments and got the talent that can fill numerous roles. I won't argue against that logic, because it is all about getting your monies worth out of you employees.

In my 10 years in the Australian industry, I have worked as a board-op, on-air/production manager, and straight up production manager to my present position as production assistant in a major market station. I sometimes think that my current job is minor, but with my position comes responsebility that I still have pinch myself about. I would say that the many tasks I perform are better for me and keep me focused. By taking on these extra task's, I am insuring myself against the budget cut axe.

 

[fang39]

There was a time when making it to a major market, 1 through 10 was a really big deal. I was told at the start of my career not to even think about sending an aircheck to a major market until I had 5 years in the business and even then would be lucky to catch on in a weekend position. You had to have your act together. Back then most major stations had board-ops or as they were called back then "engineers". Jocks couldn't touch the equipment other than maybe opening their own mic. You did 3 hour shifts, but that's because you were expected to be at the top of your game every time you opened the mic. Jock in the top 5 markets made really good money, money that you could actually get ahead in life making. Now major market stations are run pretty much the same as stations in market 50 or even 100. Talent is expected to multi-task and do marathon shifts and if they're lucky are paid jst barely enough to get by. Still they’ll open the bank vault for a mediocre jock like Ryan Seacrest while much more talented people toil away, barely eking out a living. It's really sad.

It's hard to believe that someone would be told to VT their show and then run it for peanuts. It’s unbelievable, but that's radio today, run by sales people who get their orders from some non-radio conglomerate that could care less about being broadcasters... I’ve said it before, radio is killing itself.

Thanks for letting me rant...

Back when you started, doing a shift was real work. Juggling carts, records (CD's) and splicing calls was a true art. These days, it is digital editing and digital playout, so unless you are doing a phone heavy interactive program, there is a hell of a lot of time for nothing. Management see's that, and have made the ajustments and got the talent that can fill numerous roles. I won't argue against that logic, because it is all about getting your monies worth out of you employees.

In my 10 years in the Australian industry, I have worked as a board-op, on-air/production manager, and straight up production manager to my present position as production assistant in a major market station. I sometimes think that my current job is minor, but with my position comes responsebility that I still have pinch myself about. I would say that the many tasks I perform are better for me and keep me focused. By taking on these extra task's, I am insuring myself against the budget cut axe.

The combination of consolidation and the advances in technology have made the ability to do the work that had previously been done by 2 or 3 persons a necessity to stay employed in the business today. From purely an economic standpoint, that makes sense. There are fewer jobs available and only those who can "multi-task" will continue to find work. But the problem goes much deeper than that. Unfortunately, Broadcast companies are being run by people whose only interest in the broadcast business is how much revenue they can squeeze out of it. They don't care about the end product, just as long as they hit their bottom line projections. If those are not met, they cut operating expenses, figuring a 10% cut in staffing budgets will translate into a 10% gain on the profit side. Simple, but wrong. If the end product suffers, and IMHO it always does, and you lose listeners, what has been gained?

Long time NYC air personality Dave Herman, formerly of WPLJ, WNEW-FM, K-Rock, et al, once wrote on the Dentist's board how radio no longer cares about cultivating a relationship with their listeners (sorry Dave, I'm paraphrasing!). It's true. It's a tangible component to Radio that has been lost through the consolidation, technology and bean counting I referenced to in the parargraph above. And try as they may to defense their strategies and gimmicks, they continue to overlook or ignore this obvious point. They're more content with people turning them "on" as opposed to actually listening. Apparently, since people have a shorter attention span and have far more choices for entertainment today, their thinking is to program for 20 minutes of listening and just repeat they same throughout the rest of the broadcast schedule. There's no longer a reason to tune in at a specific time, because you can hear the same stuff at 10:00 am that you will at 10:00 pm, etc.

While one can argue the values of broader playlists, that's not what I'm getting at. Today, the jocks aren't the factor they once were, as they basically have been reduced to reading liner cards and offering nothing if themselves by way of personality. Again, IMHO, it's the Air Personality that makes the difference in the presentation that draws listeners to the different dayparts. In the 1960's, I used to make it a point to turn on 77 WABC at 7:00 pm to hear the open of Cousin Brucie's show. Through the 70's, Scott Muni in the afternoon on WNEW-FM was a must listen. In the 80's and 90's, yes, I would even listen to Howard Stern, just to hear what outrageous thing he would say next. And while I may be showing my age with these references, the point is, it was the Air Personalities that drew me in. They made a connection with me as a listener. That's an art that been lost, and with the current method of operations, may never be recovered.

 

[MistahTroof]

And down the hall at RXP, I hear that Pinfield alone makes more than the ENTIRE CD101.9 airstaff did last year.

Pinfield is paid over 300K per year.

 

[calguy]

The combination of consolidation and the advances in technology have made the ability to do the work that had previously been done by 2 or 3 persons a necessity to stay employed in the business today. From purely an economic standpoint, that makes sense. There are fewer jobs available and only those who can "multi-task" will continue to find work. But the problem goes much deeper than that. Unfortunately, Broadcast companies are being run by people whose only interest in the broadcast business is how much revenue they can squeeze out of it. They don't care about the end product, just as long as they hit their bottom line projections. If those are not met, they cut operating expenses, figuring a 10% cut in staffing budgets will translate into a 10% gain on the profit side. Simple, but wrong. If the end product suffers, and IMHO it always does, and you lose listeners, what has been gained?

Long time NYC air personality Dave Herman, formerly of WPLJ, WNEW-FM, K-Rock, et al, once wrote on the Dentist's board how radio no longer cares about cultivating a relationship with their listeners (sorry Dave, I'm paraphrasing!). It's true. It's a tangible component to Radio that has been lost through the consolidation, technology and bean counting I referenced to in the parargraph above. And try as they may to defense their strategies and gimmicks, they continue to overlook or ignore this obvious point. They're more content with people turning them "on" as opposed to actually listening. Apparently, since people have a shorter attention span and have far more choices for entertainment today, their thinking is to program for 20 minutes of listening and just repeat they same throughout the rest of the broadcast schedule. There's no longer a reason to tune in at a specific time, because you can hear the same stuff at 10:00 am that you will at 10:00 pm, etc.

While one can argue the values of broader playlists, that's not what I'm getting at. Today, the jocks aren't the factor they once were, as they basically have been reduced to reading liner cards and offering nothing if themselves by way of personality. Again, IMHO, it's the Air Personality that makes the difference in the presentation that draws listeners to the different dayparts. In the 1960's, I used to make it a point to turn on 77 WABC at 7:00 pm to hear the open of Cousin Brucie's show. Through the 70's, Scott Muni in the afternoon on WNEW-FM was a must listen. In the 80's and 90's, yes, I would even listen to Howard Stern, just to hear what outrageous thing he would say next. And while I may be showing my age with these references, the point is, it was the Air Personalities that drew me in. They made a connection with me as a listener. That's an art that been lost, and with the current method of operations, may never be recovered.

[/quote]

Sad as it is you are hitting the nail on the head. Technology has helped all of this along. With hard drive systems in place you can walk away and do other things while you're on the air, but to do a show properly you still have to build and segue edit your show. This takes time to do. Most have to do it for their next show while on the air. This can distract you quite a bit from the show you're doing at the moment. In the "old days" talent would roll in to the studio, plug in a cart, compact disc or record and off you went. Now days your basically working at an automated station that you "live assist". Problem is, it takes preparation. This is added to your usual show prep and production duties. Plus you may be writing spots for endorsement campaigns. A necessity in this day and age to make the money that you should actually be paid if you could get a real salary out of the company you toil away for. My point is that in today’s radio world it's really almost impossible to be a great personality because you're spending so much time on all the other stuff you've got to do.Though I do admit to seeing producers for morning shows handling some of the build/segue edit chores that the rest of the air staff does for themselves. Where I work it's a common sight to see your morning team on the air for 6 hours and in a production studio till mid-afternoon. They're exhausted and it sounds like it.

Also have to agree with you about how companies want to program their stations. They totally miss the point. But with the PPM I do see programmer's that are starting to comeback to the thought of appointment listening, sadly most don't understand how to do it.

 

[charlestondxman]

Well, if that's what it's like in New York, it's worse in South Carolina. Charleston, which is market 84 (one below Syracuse), I don't believe has one station with a local overnight person. In fact, their soft rock station only has three local personalities, with a morning show from Louisiana called Murphy, Sam, and Jody.

Five years ago, they had a full compliment of personalities, with a local morning show hosted by Leo Windham, a market icon, and Allison Keller (the only one left at the station), a midday show, afternoon drive, and even two or three weekend personalities, with good syndicated shows like Super Gold and American Gold. None of that except for Allison Keller's midday show exists now.

The main FM news-talk station has three hours of local programming a day, one hour of morning news, followed by a two-hour morning show done by the people next door at the country music station, the same bits and everything. The AM station has a decent lineup, but they had to move their local afternoon drive show to middays to fit Sean Hannity and Mark Levin in.

The R&B station has Tom Joyner in the morning, and Baisden during the afternoon, and only has two local people on during the daytime, which is sad for a market like Charleston.

The classic rock station is nothing like Q104.3, on 104.5, with what seems like a 50 song playlist, but they do have some live personalities.
The Bridge, which is like what you have at RXP, is not what it's cracked up to be, is a decent station, probably the best in Charleston, but it mostly plays classic rock, with some good personalities (six hour shifts on the weekends).

One of the top 40 stations has Ryan Seacrest during afternoon drive, and the other one, B92, is down to just three local personalities, four and five hour shifts each, with Kidd Kraddick in the morning. The other station has a average morning show, catering to teenagers, and local personalities most of the day, with one doing a Noon-7 shift on Sunday.

Columbia's soft rock station, WTCB, has about the only 24-hour local programming in the state. They have eleven people on their weekend staff, and are live 24 hours on weekdays. Except for two hours (Backtrax USA) on Saturday night, and two hours of Contemporary Christian music on Sunday morning (hosted by the PD), they are all local, every day.

 

[urbanfan]

I really feel sorry for current students that are taking radio as a major....... and i also feel sorry for current jocks that have been here for years too. i really hope things jump back in the future though with HD radio coming around now

 

[htowler]

One of the top 40 stations has Ryan Seacrest during afternoon drive, and the other one, B92, is down to just three local personalities, four and five hour shifts each, with Kidd Kraddick in the morning. The other station has a average morning show, catering to teenagers, and local personalities most of the day, with one doing a Noon-7 shift on Sunday.

Apex is slowly killing B92.

I miss the Morning Mess and Kobe.

 

[fang39]

Well, if that's what it's like in New York, it's worse in South Carolina. Charleston, which is market 84 (one below Syracuse), I don't believe has one station with a local overnight person. In fact, their soft rock station only has three local personalities, with a morning show from Louisiana called Murphy, Sam, and Jody.

Five years ago, they had a full compliment of personalities, with a local morning show hosted by Leo Windham, a market icon, and Allison Keller (the only one left at the station), a midday show, afternoon drive, and even two or three weekend personalities, with good syndicated shows like Super Gold and American Gold. None of that except for Allison Keller's midday show exists now.

The main FM news-talk station has three hours of local programming a day, one hour of morning news, followed by a two-hour morning show done by the people next door at the country music station, the same bits and everything. The AM station has a decent lineup, but they had to move their local afternoon drive show to middays to fit Sean Hannity and Mark Levin in.

The R&B station has Tom Joyner in the morning, and Baisden during the afternoon, and only has two local people on during the daytime, which is sad for a market like Charleston.

The classic rock station is nothing like Q104.3, on 104.5, with what seems like a 50 song playlist, but they do have some live personalities.
The Bridge, which is like what you have at RXP, is not what it's cracked up to be, is a decent station, probably the best in Charleston, but it mostly plays classic rock, with some good personalities (six hour shifts on the weekends).

One of the top 40 stations has Ryan Seacrest during afternoon drive, and the other one, B92, is down to just three local personalities, four and five hour shifts each, with Kidd Kraddick in the morning. The other station has a average morning show, catering to teenagers, and local personalities most of the day, with one doing a Noon-7 shift on Sunday.

Columbia's soft rock station, WTCB, has about the only 24-hour local programming in the state. They have eleven people on their weekend staff, and are live 24 hours on weekdays. Except for two hours (Backtrax USA) on Saturday night, and two hours of Contemporary Christian music on Sunday morning (hosted by the PD), they are all local, every day.

I really feel sorry for current students that are taking radio as a major....... and i also feel sorry for current jocks that have been here for years too. i really hope things jump back in the future though with HD radio coming around now

And to think that I'm still paying off Sallie Mae Loans to pay for my Connecticut School of Broadcasting training! I wonder which will end first....the monthly loan payments (til 2014) or local air talent on terrestrial radio. I'm betting the latter.

 

[davideduardo]

Do you think Jeff Smulyan took a pay cut?

Yes, he did. To $1 a year.

 

[neo11]

Do you think Jeff Smulyan took a pay cut?

Yes, he did. To $1 a year.

Still overpaid.

 

[wikhradio]

Up until very recently, I was a weeknight jock on a local alternative station. I was only part time, only could get 25 hours a week, but that was alright for me. I had a huge passion for that station that I hope came across to the listeners.

We were working on trying to build listener loyalty, to try to keep them coming back and if we were to switch formats, have the listeners wonder where we went. We had appointments for listeners to come back (such as 8:15 to get qualified for something, or 7:45 for music and entertainment news, or 10:45 for goofy news). I had interaction on my webpage at the website as well, with me blogging nightly, as well as having some features I couldn't do on air, right on my webpage, to get the listeners involved. The other jock and my boss was also working really hard to make the station sound good, and to build up a listener base with us 3 only.

But of course, radio cuts hit us. Our one fulltime jock that we had, who also did production for the imaging on the station, was cut. My position was virtually cut as well, however I was able to stay in a weekends capacity. My boss was left with a syndicated morning show and him in the afternoons, without a budget to even have anyone track much of anything during the weekdays (no DJs on middays or nights anymore). It was a very sad thing to see, especially since our ratings went up a tremendous amount in the last book (after 3 full books of being alternative).

The issue... the sales for our station was low (even though our ratings were good and rising). The sales staff wasn't able to get advertising for the station. They were selling us like we were some hard rockin station, that only has guys who go out to bars and drink every night. Even though SOME of the listeners are like this, many aren't. A week or 2 before the cuts took place, we had added a few new advertisers (possibly could've saved everything). However, it was too late to save our already small staff...

So that is my experience in radio. I am lucky enough to have gotten a fulltime position at another radio company. In all honestly, I agree. Radio is killing itself. Until it invests more into the personalities once again, only then will radio recover. People still thirst for interesting radio, that provides them with things that enhance the listening experience, in addition to the music they love. Without the enhancing, well then it is just an iPod you can't control.... and that is basically not even worth it to listen then...