Sounds like Town Square has some big holes to fill. OM and PDs for ALL of their stations now. Joe was PD of The Breeze as well. It makes you wonder what's going on in the Rand Building. As for Joe, I'm pretty sure he's old enough to get Social Security and Medicare and start drawing on his 401K. Maybe he'll VT or show up somewhere part-time to help make up the difference in income.
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More changes at TSM Buffalo?
- Thread starter DN14224
- Start date
Maybe Joe will be back on WECK at some point in the future. Since Joe has a reputation of being a nice guy, it's hard to imagine that he burned a bridge when he left Buddy's operation a few years back. Time will tell...
Joe’s had his own production company for decades now so he won’t be out of work.
Did he quit or did Townsquare force him out?
Didn't they push him into retirement when the station was called JOY several years ago?
Wouldn't surprise me if Townsquare is asking its staff and managers to take steep pay cuts. It would explain the mass exodus...
I provide a link to this article from last week:
www.insideradio.com
Digital first. What does that mean to old school radio programmers?
Townsquare Media Takes Its ‘Digital First’ Message To Another Investor Conference.
Townsquare Media has become a regular at investor conferences lately, presenting its story at three events in September alone. Frustrated that his company – which generates nearly half its revenue
Digital first. What does that mean to old school radio programmers?
Probably not much. This company serves up the super lame "Free Beer" show as its flagship program.I provide a link to this article from last week:
Townsquare Media Takes Its ‘Digital First’ Message To Another Investor Conference.
Townsquare Media has become a regular at investor conferences lately, presenting its story at three events in September alone. Frustrated that his company – which generates nearly half its revenue
Digital first. What does that mean to old school radio programmers?
Buffalo is also Townsquares biggest market. That's not going to excite the Wall Street crowd...
Actually, Middlesex-Somerset-Union, NJ (central New Jersey) at #43, is TSM's largest market. Buffalo-Niagara Falls is #59. That aside, a reputable source indicates Joe gave his notice and most definitely was not forced out. Word is he'll continue to do some behind the scenes work for an undetermined period of time. This would indicate the parting was entirely professional. As to pay cuts, purely speculative. Again, it's media in 2021... "strange days have found us..."
Here's an interview with Townsquare CEO Bill Wilson from July. I posted it in another thread:
www.insideradio.com
This is a key sentence: Air talent are no longer bonused based on broadcast ratings but rather on achieving digital goals.
Townsquare’s Bill Wilson On Getting Big Results From Small Markets.
Fashioning a thriving digital business from a company that operates exclusively outside the top 50 markets may seem counter-intuitive to some but that strategy is paying off for Townsquare Media.
This is a key sentence: Air talent are no longer bonused based on broadcast ratings but rather on achieving digital goals.
How exactly do announcers achieve digital goals? Is it simply by number of Twitter and Facebook posts per day? The on air product is almost totally irrelevant at this point...Here's an interview with Townsquare CEO Bill Wilson from July. I posted it in another thread:
Townsquare’s Bill Wilson On Getting Big Results From Small Markets.
Fashioning a thriving digital business from a company that operates exclusively outside the top 50 markets may seem counter-intuitive to some but that strategy is paying off for Townsquare Media.
This is a key sentence: Air talent are no longer bonused based on broadcast ratings but rather on achieving digital goals.
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Town Square is in a very different competitive situation in small markets than it is in larger markets. Town Square has become THE local media in many of its small markets. Small market newspapers are folding like card tables at a Bills tailgate. TSM is using radio to drive people to its websites and is beefing up website content to make their sites the local go-to for news and bulletin-board material. They're also using those sites to market their national content and shows.
In larger markets they don't have the media monopoly that they have in small markets. They have competition across the board - radio, newspaper, and TV. Their one-size-fits-all approach to digital simply doesn't get the results in larger markets that it gets in small markets and that is a ripple in their "digital-first" force. So, pressure is applied to "get the digital numbers up" - both revenue-wise and programming wise.
The results in the Buffalo market are not to their liking. Their legacy stations - WYRK and WBLK - continue to perform in the radio ratings with a bit of slippage as resources are spread more thinly. The stations that they did reprogram - WJYE-Mix-Breeze and WBUF have miserably underperformed. They've cut staff and pushed people to put on multiple hats and it sounds like they're burning out talent in all phases of the business locally. It's not just programming. That's the more visible part of the business. They've also had a lot of turnover in sales and other staff areas.
In larger markets they don't have the media monopoly that they have in small markets. They have competition across the board - radio, newspaper, and TV. Their one-size-fits-all approach to digital simply doesn't get the results in larger markets that it gets in small markets and that is a ripple in their "digital-first" force. So, pressure is applied to "get the digital numbers up" - both revenue-wise and programming wise.
The results in the Buffalo market are not to their liking. Their legacy stations - WYRK and WBLK - continue to perform in the radio ratings with a bit of slippage as resources are spread more thinly. The stations that they did reprogram - WJYE-Mix-Breeze and WBUF have miserably underperformed. They've cut staff and pushed people to put on multiple hats and it sounds like they're burning out talent in all phases of the business locally. It's not just programming. That's the more visible part of the business. They've also had a lot of turnover in sales and other staff areas.
Good question, and (finally) a post from you that resonates with a lot of air talent, regardless of age, background or experience.
From what I have read and heard, Page Views, Visitors, Unique Views and Average Time On Page are a few of the metrics that might make up the goals set forth by a media company such as TSM. (BTW, it's very likely that these metrics are studied and reviewed by the owners of this particular website; the Buffalo-Niagara Falls board, you and I, contribute significantly to the aggregate.) But even the aforementioned points are relative to the overall views and metrics applied to a station's main/home page and the metrics of prominent social networking platforms such as Facebook, plus Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.
Seems to me this is like comparing the cume of a daypart (say middays) to the overall cume of the radio station, Monday-Friday (or Monday-Sunday) 6 am to midnight; or comparing the cume/TSL of the midday personality to the overall week, or comparing the cume of the midday personality to the morning personality (many of which, in fact, are studied.)
Correct me if I'm wrong about the metrics, but I'll stand by my perception.
Add to this the requirement to post on several platforms each day (some companies require posts and pictures seven days a week.) For example, requiring one or two posts per day on the station website, InstaGram, Twitter and Facebook.
It's easy to understand how and why air talent can get burned out.
Add to this (understandable) constraints on content, such as "No Political Opinion," "No Sexual Innuendo," "Fastidiously Family Rated," and "No Content That Might Alienate Sponsors," and the threats of lawsuits for violations of copyright if/when stories or pictures are used in a post on a station or cluster website. All of these factors lend themselves to air talent looking over their shoulders and getting burned out on social media requirements. The easy way out is writing about music, performers, weather a traffic and mundane crap that after a short while doesn't lend itself to building/enhancing the metrics demanded by the company or Market Manager.
Some air talent are quite adept and successful regarding social media posts, but the fact is, not every air talent is a writer or web editor. And if you view DJ posts on ten radio websites or social media feeds, you'll find nine posts that are uninteresting or poorly written, if not blatantly nonsensical. Every writer/journalist/web jockey/wannabee write needs a qualified editor... and qualified web editors are also under the gun.
And so, some air talent and managers say "I've had my fill" and walk.
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I saw a TSM job post for an on air talent in a different market where the talent was required to post 3 to 5 items on the website per day. Some people just can’t find enough interesting stuff to meet that requirement, so they post anything they can find. And that ain’t cutting it.
As for the on air products becoming irrelevant, TSM describes itself as a “Digital Media and Radio Advertising Company” on their website, so you can figure out what that says…
Have you ever added up all of the minutes that a typical on-air talent speaks? Does it add up to ten minutes a day?
If you're on a morning show, it's more than one person. That usually means there's a producer. So the producer oversees the digital.
Hopefully most of these people have degrees in communications. That to me involved more than front and back announcing songs. Anyone who has graduated college in the last ten years, social media and digital editing are part of the curriculum. "Digital" involves anything from doing a podcast, posting the creative bits from your morning show, posting links to articles that are relevant to the audience, articles that you might have referenced during your show, that sort of thing. Providing extra context to the on-air presentation.
I wasn't aware that air talent even qualified for bonuses. In my world, if you don't deliver ratings, why are you there?
You weren't aware that air talent can receive bonus pay for ratings? Where have you been for the last 30 years. The idea was that "Air Talent" help contribute to ratings success. Ratings are now less relevant because digital is the shiny new bauble.
Many stations with low ratings still have one or two local people. You should ask those places why they are there. Maybe they sweep and empty the wastebaskets after their shift ends...
The way it usually works in my world is you use your ratings success to negotiate a bigger fee or something else in your next contract. But if the contract includes certain ratings targets, sure they get them. How many DJs do you know who work with a contract? This gets back to the debate about shows vs. format. If the station pushes the format rather than the talent, then the format is the star, and the format gets the ratings.
There have been a lot of situations where successful jocks with great ratings have still gotten RIFed because corporate thought that they could be replaced by VT or syndication without losing audience. Sometimes they're right. Sometimes they're wrong. I don't think you hear about people being hired back when corporate discovers that they made a mistake and ratings and revenue drop.
The most famous story was Imus. He was fired from WNBC by Bob Pittman, who wanted to hire his girlfriend. So Imus got sent to Cleveland, Pittman hired his girlfriend, she bombed. After a couple books, she & Bob both got fired, and then the new PD brought back Imus.
That is another of the Pittman "learning experiences".
In 1973-74, he did Top 40 on FM WPEZ in Pittsburgh against 13-Q, a very directional AM.
13-Q in 1974 averaged a 9.0 while WPEZ had a 3.6 average.
13-Q was Bill Tanner, while WPEZ had Pittman.
In the larger markets and with the medium and large group owners, contracts, at least in the principal dayparts, are usual.
I always thought that if a talent was going to be in TV ads, present concerts, MC charity benefits, etc., they ought to be under contract if only to specify any fees for off-air functions and to avoid lawsuits later.
Well said. But if the talent is part of the station image, then it is convenient for both sides to be under contract. That goes for PDs and other key positions. I've had contracts since 1995 and they have been of benefit to me as well as the stations I have worked with.
13-Q at the time also had a superior line-up, including the legendary Jack Armstrong, hired away from WKBW by Buzz Bennett to do 6-10 p.m. in Pittsburgh. Airchecks of both stations at the time reveal 13Q sounding like the master craftsmen, while Z93 sounded like apprentices.
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