Radio Ink's Bizarre Blog on Radio's Future

[DavidKaye]

Eric Rhoads is the publisher of Radio Ink. I read it from time to time, and generally find it amusing in all the self-importance radio people still have for themselves.

Eric's latest blog brings up the ultimate in delusion. He writes about "saving radio" and brings up this very strange paragraph:

Human Decency
A decent human being would not abandon a spouse if he or she contracted cancer. Just as your care and attention are needed for a sick family member during a challenging time, your devotion to radio is needed now -- no matter how great your frustration level with your employer. You are not alone. If you got into radio because you love it, garner the devotion to fix it. Mounting pressure has detracted from radio's fun atmosphere, but solving our industrywide sales problem will relieve that pressure. You are valuable and you are needed now.

Now, what is wrong with that paragraph? Well, radio is not a person. Radio, terrestrial radio, is a form of technology that appears to be phasing out. It is stupid to equate the downturn of radio with a spouse that has cancer. In fact, it's insulting to folks with cancer to read such a thing.

If radio is in a permanent downturn (and so far it appears to be), then maybe it's time for radio people to stop pining for the good old days of buggy whips, oil lanterns, and blacksmiths, and embrace the new technology on the block.

Blogs like Eric's remind me of my great uncle Domingo who pined for the good old days, cussing out the "youngsters" who had changed the name of Bank of Italy to Bank of America decades earlier. He couldn't release his grasp on an event that had happened 40 years earlier. Many radio folks today can't release their grasp on radio that happened 40 years earlier, either. It's sad when you think about it.

The Eric Rhoads blog: http://ericrhoads.blogs.com/ink_tank/

I just want to shake these people and tell them to wake up and smell the new technology. Lie down in it and get it all over your fur like a dog on the lawn. Embrace the new, don't cuss it out.

 

[DyingMedium]

Don't see the how that's offensive to people with Cancer. It's a decent, if over-wrought, analogy. I don't agree with all Rhoads has to say here, but he makes many salient points.

New technology is not the reason Radio has taken a giant dump. It's because Corporate radio took out just about everything that made Radio fun to begin with. When you cut costs and make radio stations in every city sounds the same, you're going to lose listeners...and give new technology an opportunity to keep that audience, rather than grow it all together.

 

[DavidKaye]

New technology is not the reason Radio has taken a giant dump. It's because Corporate radio took out just about everything that made Radio fun to begin with. When you cut costs and make radio stations in every city sounds the same, you're going to lose listeners...and give new technology an opportunity to keep that audience, rather than grow it all together.

You have a short memory. Corporate radio has existed since the earliest days of radio. Let's take a look at some of the most successful radio stations of the rock era: WABC, KHJ, KFRC, WLS, CKLW, WHBQ, WPLJ, KLOS, KMET, KSAN -- all corporate owned. Obviously, corporate ownership is not what caused the problem.

 

[AngieC]

Still, I believe it's a big contributor. Consumers go further and further down the path of making custom music mixes, picking up new and deeply varied content from a growing pool of sources (most of which were unheard of less than a decade ago). Meanwhile, commercial radio - as DyingMedium notes - barrels in exactly the opposite direction: highly-circumscribed content in a handful of one-size-fits-most formats.

It may not be the only cause of the problem, but it's certainly exacerbating it.

 

[SFStatic]

As I recall, in the rock era, those stations named above were corporate owned, but a corporation (or person for that matter( could only own 7 AMs and 7 FMs as far as radio. That is a HUGE difference! Even though a big corporation, RKO couldn't have had 1200 stations at that time. This meant a lot more owners in the largest markets, all competing for the pool of available money. I agree with Angie, the big corporations are a big contributor. Two things radio has had that made it unique have been automobile penetration, and personalities. The latter are being killed off...read some of the news floating around about having morning shows voice track afternoons, or 6 hour voice tracked shifts on AC stations in the important midday daypart. These things cannot possibly be helping the situation. Also check the marketing. For people in the media business, radio owners sure don't do the kind of advertising they suggest to their own clients!

 

[DavidKaye]

As I recall, in the rock era, those stations named above were corporate owned, but a corporation (or person for that matter( could only own 7 AMs and 7 FMs as far as radio. That is a HUGE difference! Even though a big corporation, RKO couldn't have had 1200 stations at that time. This meant a lot more owners in the largest markets, all competing for the pool of available money.

But I've just shown that nearly all the popular stations -- the legends -- were all corporate. Every one on the list was owned by RKO, NBC, or Metromedia. Competing against the small independent owners actually meant that they could have even MORE dominance because they could easily outspend their local competitors compared with today where the competitors are also deep-pocked corporations.

The result in the old days is that they often drove the small guys into the ground. This is one big reason why KYA couldn't compete with KFRC once KFRC changed its format to Drake. KYA was then owned by a small owner. And then they sold to Avco, which didn't know what do to with radio. Some markets maintained popular stations owned by small owners such as Sacramento where KROY was supreme. But their direct competitors were also small owners. And eventually even KROY bit the dust as more and more people tuned to better-financed out-of-market KFRC instead.

The latter are being killed off...read some of the news floating around about having morning shows voice track afternoons, or 6 hour voice tracked shifts on AC stations in the important midday daypart. These things cannot possibly be helping the situation. Also check the marketing. For people in the media business, radio owners sure don't do the kind of advertising they suggest to their own clients!

I see radio billboards all over town. Mancow was advertised heavily on the backs of hundreds of buses. He still didn't crack through the noise. KOIT, KIOI, KBLX, and a bunch of others are all advertising heavily.

As to the voicetracked shifts, results have shown that listeners go for the "more music" stations. This, in fact, was Bill Drake's stock in trade. "Don't turn on the mic unless you have something to say." And always say it over a music bed. This came about in a day when DJs played a 2:30 record and then talked for another 2 minutes. As soon as the Drake format came along, people abandoned the DJ patter stations en masse.

Now, is it possible to bring back personality radio in all dayparts? Well, if that's what you want and you have a track record as a PD (even a half-assed one apparently as station owners are clutching at straws) you might have yourself a new career. Owners are looking for something, anything, to take hold. Go for it.

 

[SFStatic]

You are correct...they could and did outspend the local competitors, and clobbered them. Note that the corporate giants today aren't falling all over themselves to do so. Billboards are chump change...very few are dropping the 400 grand per quarter on TV it really takes to market around here...a lot of them were just a few years ago, and the numbers reflected this. You don't see KIOI or KBLX doing this...only KOIT, which despite some erosion, is still a pretty tall dog in the market.

 

[DyingMedium]

Alright, Mr. Literal...Stations were owned by corporations...But not nearly to the degree they are now...And there wasn't this god-awful national branding being put on local stations. A "Kiss" in every market. "Bob", "Jack"...all these natinal rollouts. No community involvement...Public Affairs cut entirely from the programming. Stations gutted. Budgets slashed. Stock price must be held.

Listeners were completely forgotten...Not even mentioned for the most part. No attention paid to the unique aspects of various markets. No home growing of broadcasters who would make people want to listen thru the spot breaks.

Yay. Billboards. Those used to be the FIRST step in promotion. Not the last.

And, finally, I know first hand how much less money there is in station operating budgets than there was 10 years ago. New Technology was ready to step in and fill the breach. Which it did very well.

 

[DavidKaye]

Alright, Mr. Literal...Stations were owned by corporations...But not nearly to the degree they are now...

Are we talking about the death of radio in the medium and small markets or in the big cities? The removal of ownership restrictions didn't significantly change the corporate ownership of successful stations in the big cities. It simply brought corporate ownership to places like Modesto.

For instance, in the Bay Area 30 years ago, there were stations owned by NBC, CBS, ABC, Entercom, Metromedia, RKO General, General Electric, etc.

And there wasn't this god-awful national branding being put on local stations. A "Kiss" in every market. "Bob", "Jack"...all these natinal rollouts.

Well, let's see. Didn't every market of size have a "Boss Radio"? Weren't stations everywhere trying to re-create the success of KYNO and KHJ? Didn't every market of size have stations using PAMS jingles? Why, in the Bay Area alone, KYA, KEWB and later KNEW, KNBR and others all had PAMS jingles. Didn't that produce a blanding of radio?

No community involvement...Public Affairs cut entirely from the programming. Stations gutted. Budgets slashed. Stock price must be held.

This may be the first time I've seen anybody but myself wax nostalgic for public affairs. I fondly remember the pubaffairs department of KFRC in the RKO days, when they produced such programs as Dupont Gai, and folks like Jo Interrante and Jan Yanahiro produced some excellent pubaffairs segments, and Allan Pierce put out the Ever Changing Transcendental Multilingual Two Ton Mustard Seed. But so far in over 15 years of posting on broadcasting boards and Usenet, yours is the only post I've read to lament the loss of local pubaffairs programming. Congratulations on noticing.

Listeners were completely forgotten...Not even mentioned for the most part. No attention paid to the unique aspects of various markets. No home growing of broadcasters who would make people want to listen thru the spot breaks.

I think people such as David Eduardo might be inclined to disagree about this. From what I understand a lot of effort goes into creating formats that fit local stations. Certainly, local station clusters of every ownership I'm familiar with have local PDs. If these formats are rolled out nationally, why then do stations waste their money hiring local PDs?

 

[DyingMedium]

Good question...why do they waste their time hiring local PDs? Because, in many cases, they have them program 2 or 3 stations at the same time...

 

[dungboy]

IMO the problem with radio today is not the technology, you would think more sophisticated technology would enhance the medium not become the problem. The problem is that todays jocks/programmers are just not very good and the management types who are in control do not understand why people listen to the radio in the first place.

Another factor is what passes as "entertainment". Dennis Erectus was at least twenty years ahead of his time, all his outrageous content was very similar to todays "shock jock" but with a huge difference, he understood why people were listening to his show and what was that you might ask? Take away all the insults, put downs, sex talk and base humor from todays jock and what do you have left? Not much. These people rely on this crap to make up for the fact they have little talent. Dennis is the reason why people listened to him not the twisted content he delivered Great radio is theatre of the mind...simple as that.

The Sunday Night Idiot Show beat KGO on Sunday nights about eight years in a row. I didn't have a producer or a real format for that matter. I'd walk in the studio with a stack of records and started answering the phone. As the Wolfman once told me "The disk jocky is the pied piper leading the listeners to bliss" When I was a boy, I knew what station I was listening to by which jock was on the air not because they rammed the calls down my throat.

My advice to anyone working in radio today and is having "issues" with its current state is to find another line of work. Life is to short to be a puppet on a string for some snake wearing a suit. Wise up.

M. Dung

 

[DavidKaye]

Good question...why do they waste their time hiring local PDs? Because, in many cases, they have them program 2 or 3 stations at the same time...

But if all these stations are programmed nationally why have any local PDs at all? Considering the kind of bucks a good PD can pull down, local PDs must matter or the owners wouldn't bother with them, right?

 

[SFStatic]

Unless you own the station, and don't owe the bank any money, you are always a puppet on a string for a snake in a suit. This is also true of almost any other business.

 

[smedge2006]

In this industry that I love passionately, I am seeing trends that I do not like: Some of radio's best managers and sales managers are resigning over proposed 2008 budgets that cut down to the bone and that they simply want no part of, and some of radio's best are being pushed out by executives who think non-radio people can do better. These group executives are not bad people; they are simply under enormous pressure from investors to solve their problems.

Eric Rhoads' publication has always been the most sycophantic toward consolidation and the "snakes in the suits" of all the radio trades. All the trades failed in giving an accurate picture of what consolidation has done to the industry Rhoads claims to love -- save Inside Radio under Del Colliano -- but Rhoads was the worst of the toadies. He's criticizing the people who are finally realizing they have to do something -- and that the only way to get the message to the suits is to quit. Too many of these group executives ARE bad people, made worse by consolidation and the contraction of an industry dying of its own stupidity.

I believe that each of us must make a personal commitment that, no matter what it
takes, we will not allow our medium to decline. We will work harder,
smarter, and more passionately than ever.

This is the old "take ownership" canard. Which reminds me of something I heard someone say once, on the radio: "Don't love your job, because it will never love you back." Radio is full of people who have loved their industry way too much. It's time for the people who have been downsized, consolidated and overworked to start withholding their love until the industry straightens up.

Just as your care and attention are needed for a sick family member during
a challenging time, your devotion to radio is needed now -- no matter
how great your frustration level with your employer. You are not
alone. If you got into radio because you love it, garner the devotion
to fix it. Mounting pressure has detracted from radio's fun
atmosphere, but solving our industrywide sales problem will relieve
that pressure. You are valuable and you are needed now.

Rhoads' blog is what's sick here -- preaching to the choir that they must engage in totally unrequited love, as if radio was David Koresh and they were the Branch Davidians. That they owe familial devotion to a faceless industry that has gotten meaner with the years. To whom must they offer their ministrations and chicken soup? Mark Mays? Jeff Smulyan? Radio has not loved its foot soldiers. It has abused them. The survivors and casualties owe radio as much as someone owes the drunken stepfather who beat her up every night.

Your one idea may be the catalyst that will change the radio industry. Ed McLaughlin's vision for Rush Limbaugh was that one idea that saved the dying AM radio band. One idea. Commit to trying new initiatives, even in the face of bold disagreement.

Radio's current climate not only disagrees with new ideas, it crushes them. (See Greenstone Media and others.) You can't commit to new initiatives when those above you are committed against them. Only a total pull-out of the industry by anyone with a grain of creativity will force the necessary changes.

 

[coppersmom]

My advice is to love every minute you are on the air.

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

Hi there! Since I spent 36 years, two months behind a mic (age 17 - 53 ...) can I drop my two cents about what killed radio? The ipod allows custom programming of your own radio station. I see this as the biggest challenge to radio. Then the cookie-cutter formats:Alice, Jack, etc. etc. and what Bobby Ocean calls 'strip mining' (great term!) of radio. Gutting the operations and selling off any assets.
Pre-2000 there was still some feeling for the "soul" of radio. That's gone now, although visiting KFRC one day a week to do my Beatle shows I see the love and dedication of the people still walking the halls of radio stations today. Please don't be so hard on them. They're only soing the best they can. -John-

 

[skyrocker]

Life is to short to be a puppet on a string for some snake wearing a suit

"L'argent fait dance' le singe," boys and girls.

 

[smedge2006]

"L'argent fait dance' le singe," boys and girls.

Translation: Money makes the monkey dance.

 

[davideduardo]

Unless you own the station, and don't owe the bank any money, you are always a puppet on a string for a snake in a suit. This is also true of almost any other business.

If you object so much to the concept that capital creates jobs that you have to equate management to reptiles, there are places where this formula is not employed. Cuba has pretty much eliminated capitalists, as has Guayana. Venezuela is well on the road to eliminating "the boss man" except at the top, and quite a few sub-Saharan African nations such as Zimbabwe offer the absence of profit driven mangement you seek. Some of these do not even require the learning of a new language.

 

[SFStatic]

I was merely pointing out the FACT that nearly everyone answers to someone else-even in an socialist or Commie country, except for the strong man in charge- and bet he has to watch it himself. The snake reference was originally made by another poster, and I merely picked it up to add to the thread. The same is true in all business-you are almost certainly answering to someone else.

Unless you have a large number of small clients, and don't get 80 percent of your business from 20 percent of them, when they say jump, you will ask "how high?" as well. I am sure you are aware that the great percent of businesses are created by individuals with precious little capital.

For the record, I own more than one suit and more than one business.