Mega Corps and Radio

[landtuna]

Yeah, that's it. Government placing barriers in the way of getting help is the answer to improving radio. Why don't we just broadcast in Morse while we're at it?

Hey, Morse is faster than texting. In my case, a whole lot faster.

 

[landtuna]

Used to be every town had local hardware, drug, and pizza stores. Now it's all chains.

Not in my market it isn't.

 

[davideduardo]

Tastes are a lot different in downtown Portland or Austin than they are in Medford or Lubbock. Not that radio's taken much note.

Actually, radio takes note. But in markets like Lubbock and Medford, we see the effects of too many stations and not enough revenue. Stations are forced to program syndicated shows and formats, as they can not afford to be live and local all or even part of the time.

I was COO of a group that included some stations in North Florida in the late 80's and early 90's. In Lake City, FL, where our AM /FM made money and the second AM could not turn a profit, the FCC dropped in a handful of Docket 80-90 FMs. They all took satellite programming and undercut rates. Since revenues did not increase despite having three times the viable stations, we went to a negative cash flow situation and had to cut much of the local news, sports (with more stations, the High School demanded rights for the games!) and such. And at the same time, WalMart opened and essentially killed half the local merchants... who were our advertisers. At the time, WalMart did not buy radio.

From being a market with lots of local news (6 hours a day of local news, sports, birth notices, community affairs, police blotter, etc) we went to news drops in satellite formats. We still could barely break even.

Spot rates went from $10 to $12 down to $3 or less in the market, and nobody made money.

Don't always blame large corporations. In the Lake City case, if in 1990 we could have had a second FM, we would have survived, made money and not had to cut as much.

 

[gr8oldies]

So they shop at Costco instead.

What apologists like BigA and DavidE seem to ignore is the value in localism.

There are markets in the US that are not pro-big box stores, and value their local identity and businesses highly. It's a mark of pride and community.

It's often a wise business plan to own a niche instead of scrapping with four other outlets for the same audience on a lower budget.

Look at places where educated people live and incomes are rising. Think about what they value and enjoy.

They're not buying pricey lofts because of proximity to a Walmart.

Tastes are a lot different in downtown Portland or Austin than they are in Medford or Lubbock. Not that radio's taken much note.