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RIP R&R

M

mredindc

Guest
After 36 years, Radio & Records will publish its last issue this Friday (6/5). Website is also a goner. 40 staffers to lose their gigs. What did Erica Farber know when she bailed out?
 
Radio & Records announced the shutdown on its website less than 30 minutes ago (around 2:15 p.m.) For anybody who's been in the business, R&R was the industry newspaper. Back in the day, you waited for it to arrive in the mail and read it cover to cover to check the adds, the openings and the latest industry hype.

Unfortunately, the demise of R&R points to bigger issues and unanswered challenges in publishing and journalism. Such irony. Apparently, reporting on the broadcasting business is as risky as the broadcasting business itself. I wish the staff and those who will be out of work Godspeed and good luck. Your hard work and efforts were appreciated by many and you will be missed.
 
JimPastrick said:
Radio & Records announced the shutdown on its website less than 30 minutes ago (around 2:15 p.m.) For anybody who's been in the business, R&R was the industry newspaper. Back in the day, you waited for it to arrive in the mail and read it cover to cover to check the adds, the openings and the latest industry hype.

Unfortunately, the demise of R&R points to bigger issues and unanswered challenges in publishing and journalism. Such irony. Apparently, reporting on the broadcasting business is as risky as the broadcasting business itself. I wish the staff and those who will be out of work Godspeed and good luck. Your hard work and efforts were appreciated by many and you will be missed.
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Since I live in Los Angeles, my waiting to read it was slightly different. In the early 80's, I'd go to 24-hour news stands where they would deliver it late on a Wednesday night and read it there or after I could afford it, purchase it and read it in my car right there. Their offices use to be in a small office building on the SW corner of the Century City mall and I'd go and pick up my copy there once I got my first subscription. You always wanted to see the news and ratings as soon as they came out. Even in the early 90's, once the delivered copies of R&R made it to the radio station, whoever grabbed the copies that came in would drop whatever they were doing to read it.

As of late, R&R hasn't been a source of much breaking news. Looking at the ratings at a glance or the music charts were really all that was left of what was once the bible of the radio industry.

There is no reason for any "printed" publication (magazine or newspaper) to exist anymore. Everything, including all newspapers, will be electronic in a decade. We all have to move along and embrace the new technologies and will be much better and up to date. Same goes for over-the-air radio. It also needs to move to streaming exclusively.
 
"Same goes for over-the-air radio. It also needs to move to streaming exclusively"

That statement is wrong on so many levels, I won't address it.



RIP Radio & Records. It's the Radio-Info.com era, now!
 
I was going to say, "I can't believe it." But realized how untrue that is. This was written on the wall when Billboard/Nielsen took over. My condolences to all who will not be absorbed by Billboard - that's 40 more unemployed in our biz. Congrats to Erica and Henry who got out just in time.

I'll never forget my first day. I was a Dwight Case hire. He met me at the elevator with a hearty handshake and "Welcome home!" Made me feel great after an uncomfortable period on the beach. It's mighty lonely in LA when you're out of work. Being at R&R put me right in the middle of everything that was happening in radio.

I was a little nervous when Bob Wilson came back, but he always treated me well and I really enjoyed my time there. There was always a buzz in the halls and you could really feel it late on Tuesdays when we'd put it to bed. It was a fun job, paid good money and and gave me a lot of experience that I put to use everyday now.
 
I was a subscriber to R&R at one time in the 80s. How many remember when the R&R was always locked away in the PD or GMs office, or you'd get it with the want ads ripped out?
 
JimPastrick said:
Apparently, reporting on the broadcasting business is as risky as the broadcasting business itself.
Click to expand...

Good point. For basically the same reason. A quick look at the advertisers in R&R can explain why they shut it down. Record labels, who have less money for trade ads, and radio syndicators, who have less money for trade ads. Ad supported content suppliers, especially those with high costs, are all in trouble.
 
gr8oldies said:
you'd get it with the want ads ripped out?
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I confess, there were times when I'd rip them out before passing it along. I can also remember getting really PO'd at the guys who'd take it out of my office before I got the music done. I had all my little shorthand notes and code all over the chart page and was always afraid someone would spill coffee on it or something. That's funny. I'd forgotten that part of being a PD.
 
gr8oldies said:
I was a subscriber to R&R at one time in the 80s. How many remember when the R&R was always locked away in the PD or GMs office, or you'd get it with the want ads ripped out?
Click to expand...

*hand in air* Yep. I remember.
 
Doesn't it seem kind of abrupt?

I mean, usually they'll announce something like this and then the publication will close maybe a month or two later.

Do subscriptions have to be refunded?

What about the ads that they did sell, do they have to give that money back?
 
The R&R website is already toes up. I linked to the confirmation from the site on OMW, only to see it stop working just minutes after I'd posted it!

Wow. What a loss. And yes, gr8oldies, I remember getting it on the table outside the PD's office. Always a week late, usually with the job ads gone.

RIP, R&R...in this Internet era, you didn't move fast enough, and got usurped by AllAccess, R-I and other online sources of information...but I'm still sad to see you go.
 
AnimatronicAbeLincoln said:
Doesn't it seem kind of abrupt?

I mean, usually they'll announce something like this and then the publication will close maybe a month or two later.

Do subscriptions have to be refunded?

What about the ads that they did sell, do they have to give that money back?
Click to expand...

Not abrupt if it's bleeding money. To those who watch these things it was "writing on the wall" the minute Neilsen/BB took over. Yes, any paid subs will have to be pro-rated and refunded. Though there may not be as many as you think - lotsa comps in the trade biz. Ad contracts, our non-Street Talk ear-to-the-air hears, were mostly ending and not renewing anyway. You may have noticed the record biz isn't in such great shape these days - neither is it peachy being a non-record vendor to the industry. Obviously any ads that don't run, don't get billed - just like any ad venue.
 
Let's not forget the R&R Convention that had been scheduled for September 23-25 in Philly.
 
I remember reading R&R as a kid at Tower Records. I remember reading my first issue and being amazed that you can actually get a "career" in radio! I wanted to be in radio after I read that issue. I would stand in front of the news stand for hours just reading all the new ads at all the stations with my brother just waiting around the store for me to finish. He would always try to get me out of there ASAP and I always remember wanting to take home at least one issue but I always remember never having enough money to buy an issue! I stopped going to Tower Records for a while and then when I heard that they would be closing I kept thinking to myself, do you think they'll have a copy of R&R available on sale for me to have my one issue of R&R? They didn't. They didn't sell it anywhere else near my house and I looked for it everywhere! After a while, I eventually was satisfied by the online edition but I'll never forget about how much R&R changed my life...
 
R&R website is back up, sort of. You're now redirected to Billboard.biz, which is silent regarding the demise of R&R. Ponderous, man. F---in' ponderous!
 
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