HAS THE PROVIDENCE MARKET BECOME AN ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD?

[za-rex]

Gone seem to be the days when radio people used markets like Providence as a stepping stone to greater things. The market seems to me now a haven for people that have been in it for years with no intention of leaving it until they retire or are let go. Either new blood isn't willing to consider Providence a place to work or the opportunities don't exist here and probably won't in the future. Stations don't even have an existing talent pool that can move up to mornings if it had to be. Is this pretty much it for the market? What you hear is what you get and as people leave, what you hear won't originate locally? What's the future for morning shows since most have been around quite a while and as we've seen in other markets, no one is immune to being eliminated? Where will future morning teams come from in a market where long standing familiarity seems to be key?

 

[Moonstruck]

No reason for those who have been around a while to start looking elsewhere now. They really can't get the same kinds of jobs they have now for the same money. They're not marketable commodities outside Providence and know it. There aren't that many youngish hungry jocks in the market, if any at all. The full or part time shifts they might be doing have been eliminated. Weekenders are at a minimum and most that do weekend aren't looking for full time radio. The only things that might bring new blood into the market would be if Clear Channel sells any of their stations or if there's a change in PDs at Citadel. It's a sad state but it mirrors the composition of the population in this market. No one new is moving in and listeners are set in their ways.

 

[Holland Cooke]

But...to WHERE?

Stations don't even have an existing talent pool that can move up to mornings

Sad-but-true...and not just here.
This is a problem for radio EVERYWHERE.

Decades of automation/consolidation/syndication/voicetracking/otherwise-dumbing-down on-air product have yanked-the-Welcome-mat out-from-under up-and-comers.

Two points...

Gone seem to be the days when radio people used markets like Providence as a stepping stone to greater things.

Providence/Albany/Hartford/etc.-size markets would still be a GREAT jumping-off-point to The Bigs.
It's "Triple-A" to "The Big Show," a jump many have made in radio.
I worked with eventual WABC-ers Howard Hoffman and Mark Simone at WPRO.
Ditto for TV. Ernie Anastos has made MILLIONS in New York, where he went directly from WPRI.
(He now OWNS radio stations!)
Magee Hickey did newscasts in my show on WPRO when she went to Brown.
Then to WLNE. Then to Noo Yawk, where she's still on WCBS-TV.

One problem: Jobs in major markets have dried-up too.
Example: WABC.

The market seems to me now a haven for people that have been in it for years with no intention of leaving it until they retire or are let go

And why not? Though on-air locals make-sport-of perpetuating-the-RI-caricature and otherwise talking-down this place, SOME OF US LOVE IT HERE. When I left WPRO -- after 6 years -- I was still on-the-bottom-of the seniority totem pole (except for Gary DeGraide, a position the station added after I had arrived). This station was THAT special. Most of us were flattered with unsolicited offers from time to time, but why leave?

I moved to Rhode Island three times, and I still think it's the Riviera. I wasn't born here, and many who were seem not to appreciate how nice it is here.

For instance: It amazes me how many adult native Rhode Islanders have never visited Block Island. Yes, The Tent and Rocky Point are dear fading memories. But it'd be a shame to walk-out-of-the-theater thinking "this place is toast." As perennial visitors from New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut know, our precious Block remains comfortably unchanged.

Why-I-left-two-times: 'Had to, for career advancement. In 1980, after being passed-over a couple times for PD jobs at WPRO, I "went-down from Triple-A to A...to coach," (my first PD job, in Manchester NH). And I had to leave again in 1984, when Outlet sold-WSNE-out-from-underneath-me...and made-it-up-to-me-and-then-some with what-turned-out-to-be-my-longest-radio-job, 7 years at WTOP/Washington. But when I started working for myself in the mid-90s, I moved back here.

Admittedly, sweet local on-air gigs are DARN-few. Ditto PD jobs, which now seem largely adminstrative. But if you could land one, this'd be a fine place to end-up. Not that Chicago hasn't got its mojo. But some of us chose HERE.

And the whole ISSUE is dang-near moot now...if Radio Shack is SO wary of "Radio" that it's now "The Shack."
Just-another-clue that making-your-own-thing, online, is the-direction-the-current-is-flowing.

HC
www.HollandCooke.com

 

[Skynet74]

When I first read this post I knew that it couldn't be something unique to just Providence. This stuff is going on in every single market in the country. Goodbye jobs

 

[Holland Cooke]

Just-as-well?

Goodbye jobs

NO question.
Clearly, the old Japanese model (lifelong employment > gold watch, pension) is kaput.
Heck, now it's the opposite. The-longer-you-keep-a-job, the-bigger-the-bulls-eye-on-your-forehead.

The greater opportunities now are do-it-yourself stuff that full-time employers would only get-in-the-way-of.

A college drop-out -- now the richest man in the world -- started Microsoft.
In just-the-last-several-years, young do-it-yourselfers invented YouTube, Google, etc.

Not-that-it-takes something-on-that-scale to prosper online.

Old model: Make a couple hundred thou' doing one thing one place ("salary").
New model: Make a couple hundred thou' doing 10 things that each make $20K, or 20 things that each make $10K, etc.
Using is the computer you're using right now.

 

[Skynet74]

Re: Just-as-well?

The greater opportunities now are do-it-yourself stuff that full-time employers would only get-in-the-way-of.

A college drop-out -- now the richest man in the world -- started Microsoft.
In just-the-last-several-years, young do-it-yourselfers invented YouTube, Google, etc.

Not-that-it-takes something-on-that-scale to prosper online.

Old model: Make a couple hundred thou' doing one thing one place ("salary").
New model: Make a couple hundred thou' doing 10 things that each make $20K, or 20 things that each make $10K, etc.
Using is the computer you're using right now.

Absolutely 100 percent agreee! I Couldn't agree more. It's a known fact that most wealthy people don't work for other people. Most wealthy people work for themselves. Obviously there are a few exceptions. Very very few. But for the most part it remains true. I used to work in the 900 Number Audiotext industry back in the 90's. Pay per call information. I owned my own Psychic line and my own Dateline. Things were going incredibly well... until the whole 900 number industry collapsed. Lots of fraud, lots of chargebacks. The phone companies wanted out. The whole thing became a mess. However I learned two very important lessons. #1. You can make insane money from your house. #2. People will pay insane money for information that they can easily access. I'm currently working on something new. Something so new that it is nothing more than just an idea in my head right now. However it takes my experience in the audiotext industry and combines it with the power of the internet. People are more than willing to pay for the right thing. Whether it be information or entertainment. Holland knows this. People pay him to give them information. The right information is worth cold hard cash~!

But... getting back to Radio. Everybody should take a look at Adam Carolla. Watch him very closely. He may become the prime example of what to do next when you lose your radio job.

 

[Moonstruck]

Doing it for yourself may be necessary from a standpoint of financial survival if it has to be but most will say they will miss working in a radio station.

 

[Holland Cooke]

"most will say they will miss working in a radio station"

Many who still work in radio stations -- doing-more-jobs-for-less-money -- miss the vacation time they also had cut-back.

The [Radio] "Shack" thing speaks volumes.

 

[Runrigger]

Re: "most will say they will miss working in a radio station"

Many who still work in radio stations -- doing-more-jobs-for-less-money -- miss the vacation time they also had cut-back.

The [Radio] "Shack" thing speaks volumes.

If you worked in any of the suburban RI music stations in the 70's & 80's you multi-tasked before it was fashionable. You played the music, you did the news, you covered city council meetings, you shoveled the walk. Vacation? I don't even remember if I had health insurance, but was too young to care.

I recently saw a PBS special on the pioneers of television. Sid Caesar commented that what killed the TV variety show was the remote control. People had no patience & could now give in to their short attention spans without leaving the easy chair. Now apply that theory to radio & think of the multitude of other options available from satellite radio to Wifi to Pandora to I-Phones & God knows what else is coming down the line. What's the answer Holland? I say play to the audience who radio still means something to instead of trying to pander to the people who have no intention of rediscovering the medium because they want control over what they hear every single moment.

 

[Holland Cooke]

Ride the horse in the direction he's facing.

I AGREE.

I say play to the audience who radio still means something to instead of trying to pander to the people who have no intention of rediscovering the medium because they want control over what they hear every single moment.

OR discovering-it-to-begin-with.
Youth-targeted formats have limited potential, since radio's lost generation uses other media for music and to interact.
And because there are so-much-more-obvious-things to do with an FM (News/Talk, for-the-other-80%-of-listeners).

Radio -- especially non-music stations -- should obsess-on relevance-to busy 40-somethings in-car.
They're high-TSL users, and uber-consumers. Every time they get out of the car, the spend...on something.
Being relevant to this audience SURE-WON'T alienate the older listeners (who control most-of-the-wealth in our society).

In other words, talk to who's listening, and matters.
Dance-with-the-girls-who'll-dance, don't-with-those-who-won't.

 

[Holland Cooke]

Or, to quote a Wall Street Journal headline...

“If Baby Boomers were a country, they’d be the world’s 11th largest economy.”

 

[Holland Cooke]

And Dick Stroud's book "The 50-Plus Market..."

“Over the next 10 years, the number of 50+ consumers will increase at a rate of 9 times faster than the growth of their children's and grandchildren's generations.”

 

[donnikhan]

{edited because I still want to work in radio}

if its any consolation, I'm going from 'BRU to another market(s) soonish, maybe.

 

[McRadio]

And one station that has the opportunity to talk to the audience we're speaking of is B101. And what are they doing? They're doing what they should be for morning drive then force-feeding generic radio from out-of-town. I heard one of their weekend premium choice people this weekend informing the audience of Billy Joel's divorce. How old is that story? Two months? They do nothing but talk about the artists as if the audience for this format thinks like the audience for CHR or Urban and even cares. You can't blame the premium choice jocks all of whom have probably paid their dues doing live radio elsewhere. They're just taking advantage of the direction this biz is going, What else can they possibly talk about when so many stations around the country are hearing them simultaneously? People say Clear Channel should sell WSNE. Frankly WSNE was never anything anyway. B101 used to be something. Sell that puppy for no other reason than someone else should be responsible for it.

 

[Holland Cooke]

"Frankly WSNE was never anything anyway."

"Harumph!"

As a former WSNE Program Director:

a.) I must applaud my gang (82-84), a classy bunch who did pretty well in the ratings; and
b.) with respect to remaining local on-air voices, I still say 93.3-as-WHJJ-FM would be a market game-changer.

HC
www.HollandCooke.com

 

[wknd92]

{edited because I still want to work in radio}

if its any consolation, I'm going from 'BRU to another market(s) soonish, maybe.

I would not be surprised that if in the next 2 years just the opposite of consolidation happens, that Clear Channel and Citadel and the other large conglomerates start widespread spinoffs of stations, if not clusters of stations, to move debt service.

 

[Holland Cooke]

We did NOT rehearse this, right?

I would not be surprised that if in the next 2 years just the opposite of consolidation happens, that Clear Channel and Citadel and the other large conglomerates start widespread spinoffs of stations, if not clusters of stations, to move debt service.

It's already starting.
You'll hear FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell call it "divestiture," "de-consolidation:"
http://hollandcookemedia.wordpress.com/4jimbo/

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

WHJJ-FM......Yes...but...

I still say 93.3-as-WHJJ-FM would be a market game-changer.

And I still agree with you...on the condition that WHJJ puts some effort into getting some fun sounding live and local voices into the act, while avoiding the pitfall of having the station sound so extremely Providence-focused, that it turns off (or never turns on in the first place)...the folks you've been talking about here for ages...BRISTOL COUNTY MASSACHUSETTS!

If, on the other hand, an "HJJ-FM" were simply to stand pat with its present programming...then why bother (aside from the significant signal improvement in the market)?

As much as I've really enjoyed taking my potshots at 990 over the years, I have to admit that the folks doing the English language programming right now actually sound like they ENJOY what they're doing, and are having fun with it.

Sure...(except for Steve Bianchi)...it sounds like amature hour. BUT, in a market that's gotten so very bland and stale, maybe the sound of "regular folk playing radio" isn't such a bad thing, and actually REFRESHING.

NOW...put 990's English speaking content on an FM signal, and maybe THEN it could be a sort of "game changer".

 

[Speaker of Truth]

Exactly who is going to buy all these stations that Clear Channel and other conglomerates want to sell off? We've seen CBS rid themselves of some Pacific Northwest properties in the past week--but at what multiples are some of the "pouncers" going to want to get back in the game? And once they're back in--what will they do? Likely more of the same..

 

[Holland Cooke]

Re: WHJJ-FM......Yes...but...

If... an "HJJ-FM" were simply to stand pat with its present programming...then why bother (aside from the significant signal improvement in the market)?

THAT ALONE is worth flipping the FM.
And expanding WHERE stars Beck/Rush/Hannity are heard is only part of it.
WHO hears the station will change significantly, since so many people just don't listen to AM.
FM puts the-three-biggest-stars-in-Talk-Radio in-the-ear-of many radio users who are already in 920's footprint, but just don't use it.