One of my faves: Bonneville. There are lots of them. Townsquare is another.
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LAYOFFS ONGOING AT BEASLEY MEDIA GROUP
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
One of my faves: Bonneville. There are lots of them. Townsquare is another.
Those are your words, not mine. I never implied any such correlation.
It seems that you aren't hip to the present financial distress at Audacy. The fundamental problem is short-term cash flow. They are losing money, and have limited ability to borrow further.
This investor note from Moody's earlier this month would be a good place to start: Moody's downgrades Audacy's CFR to Caa2; outlook negative
Note that Caa is the lowest Moody's rating that does not imply a default .
Townsquare is not one. They went bankrupt as Regent a decade ago. When they left bankruptcy, the company renamed itself for a fresh start.
It's a bit more complicated. The new company cleaned house of the previous management and the incoming crew bought equity in the new company. This is an example of how to do a good bankruptcy. Very different from the others.
Bonneville is smart. They’ve gradually reduced and adjusted their portfolio to smart growth markets and have operated very carefully. Hubbard is much in the same vein.
I don't understand this mindset that an employer owes you a permanent job. They don't, anymore than some vaporous requirement that everything must remain the same to be successful. There's an old saying in this business: If you haven't been laid off or fired in radio, you've never actually worked in radio.
Given the headwinds traditional media is facing these days, broadcast organizations have no choice but move resources around from traditional/past media to fund modern media. It's called keeping up with the times. If you personally haven't gone out of your way to remain relevant in the face of changes, or continue doing the same thing for several years, expect to be replaced, or your role eliminated.
Given the headwinds traditional media is facing these days, broadcast organizations have no choice but move resources around from traditional/past media to fund modern media. It's called keeping up with the times. If you personally haven't gone out of your way to remain relevant in the face of changes, or continue doing the same thing for several years, expect to be replaced, or your role eliminated.
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People asked "what changed." The answer is "at will employees." No matter what you do, no matter who you work for, you should read about "at will work," because those rules determine how you're treated as an employee:
At-will employment - Wikipedia
This isn't a radio only thing. It's not about a big corporate thing. If you work for someone else, the chances are you are an at will employee, and they can fire you at will.
Oh, but according to some here; cruel RIF-ing of talent spells doom for the radio biz.
I went to Panera for dinner a couple days ago, and they didn't have staff to take orders. The only way to order was to use their automated kiosk. They had two people in the kitchen, no drive through. Welcome to the real world. I can give you other examples in other stores.
I'm not disagreeing with you. I was the one who said in my post that things change, including in the radio biz. I was just confounded how people think talent, or whoever working in a career, are entitled to remain in that role for their entire career.
I've personally automated more people out of work than just about anybody in broadcasting.
Only two jobs I know are for a lifetime: judges and priests. Other than that, we're all at will. I've seen several company founders get tossed out of the companies they founded. We may see it again soon.
The other thing I see is the view that a DJ or newscaster WANTS to continue working at age 75. Some people want to retire.
And Delaware politicians.
Or son's of slumlord real estate developers who later became politician's?
Just reported today that Hubbard is offering buyouts to some of their news staff at WTOP:
radioinsight.com
So there's another very solid radio company that's looking to cut back on staff.
WTOP Initiates Newsroom Contract Buyouts - RadioInsight
Hubbard News 103.5 WTOP Washington DC announced to staff this morning that the company is offering contract buyouts in the form of a Voluntary Separation Program for all full-time non-managerial staff who work in the station's newsroom for the station, website, or website development. The...
radioinsight.com
So there's another very solid radio company that's looking to cut back on staff.
When you order from a kiosk at Panera you still get to enjoy the food you were expecting. The quality of the product is still the same. However, if you expect to hear a radio personality you like and all you hear are music, recorded liners and commercials your expectations have not been met.
Who's expectation? Radio nerds? Or retired radio employees? If so, there aren't enough around to matter.
I first did voicetracking for all but AM Drive at a Hot AC in 1978. The talent was then able to spend more time doing promotions and other activities. They loved not having to sit through the records, and were able to make every bit that they did the best.
We even had a system with tracks for contests where one person who babysat the AM and FM would take the calls and insert the winner in a "doughnut" and put it on the air. We even had carts for every possible temperature with sunny or rainy (temp was always in a 20° range). And we could go live for anything special or do dangerous weather updates live. In the meantime, we had our best talent on overnights and weekends.
The two voicetracked stations were #1 and #2 in a 30 station market.
The food is equivalent to the music. The personal interaction with the clerk who takes your order is replaced by interaction with a computer, not unlike the live DJ replaced with VT.
You want the whole package to remain the same, even though the circumstances have changed.
I have a buddy who works at a station in a city I was driving through last Sunday. The midday airshift was "hosted" by him. He talked over the intros/outros of the songs, mentioned current news events, upcoming activities going on in that area, had plenty of "personality" and was topical. Though I'm thoroughly familiar with VT, I actually messaged him to ask if he was live or if his shift was tracked as I was truly unable to tell. Turns out it was tracked - he recorded his entire airshift in about 45 minutes and did it 3 days prior to the day I heard it.
Exactly! This whole; 'voicetracking is Satan's curse to radio', is nothing more than useless nonsense. If done right, neither radio nerds or average listeners can tell whether it's live or tracked.
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