Surviving Cutbacks

[radioprofessor]

The ax has begun to fall at Clear Channel and Bonneville and the parameter of recession is upon the radio world as revenue is in decline especially in national ad dollars. I have helped lead two major groups over the past three decades in budget cutbacks including staff reductions. Four types of on air talent that survive:

Are you really a talent? If you are part of the core parameter of Value to the station, you get to stay. You bring ratings or dollars. All ego's aside, the only people this applies to are morning hosts or talk show hosts that can specifically drive numbers. The typical mid-day, afternoon. night FM talent are expenses that can be cut. Unless you do mornings and rate well, or a talk show that can't be replaced with syndication keeping reading.

Attitude? Will you do more. Do you work late. Are you positive? These are the people you keep around during times of recession to keep others motiviated. Those who are lazy, complaining or gossip will go first.

Pay Cut? Will you cut your pay to help save other jobs, even small cuts? It could mean your job.

Multi-task? Can you help in promotions, do you schedule music, can you write sales copy. Start offering to help and do it now don't wait until your job is threatened.

In my humble view in this type of environment these are the people that add real value to the parameter of success. If you don't fit one of the above work on your resume you will need it.

 

[radioschmoozer]

I agree 100% but don't believe this is anything new. The fat has been cut already and lots of us have been operating with skeletal staff for awhile. I believe there are some stations in town that are particularly vulnerable in this area, but not many. How many jocks are left that just do air shifts? Not many. Those are the ones who should be worried. I see a ton of fat at KZOK. They've got these big name jocks that have been around forever and are paying them big bucks to open the mic a couple times an hour and basically read liners. They've got them intentionally muzzled and still pay them the big bucks. Those are the kind of situations that I think are vulnerable. We live in a world of voice tracking now. Why pay big bucks for liner card jocks? If a jock can't do more than an air shift in this day of corporate radio, watch out. Your pipes and name alone won't be enough to get you through this radio recession.

 

[TakeItFromMe]

Radio ain't a free ride anymore cowboys. Morning shows that get up at 3:00a and work til 5:00p will survive. Jocks that come in a half hour before their shift, do two or three breaks an hour while checkin the internet and payin bills the gravy train is over :-\ At my old station in a top ten market only mornings are live and the rest of the day tracked. Guess what: the ratings are up The ax is fallin and if you don't wanna be under it you might pick up some production help out the promotions cowboys or god forbid spend soome time on your airshift before you go on the air :-[ Clear Channel and Bonneville are the first wake up call with big ole cuts a KIRO, KTTH and KBSG over the last four months. Entercom and Infinity are beginning to follow :-\ don't be all smiles over at Sandusky and Fisher, this cowboy is bettin they got smaller pockets than the big boys :'(

 

[Bongwater]

The ax has begun to fall at Clear Channel and Bonneville and the parameter of recession is upon the radio world as revenue is in decline especially in national ad dollars. I have helped lead two major groups over the past three decades in budget cutbacks including staff reductions. Four types of on air talent that survive:

Are you really a talent? If you are part of the core parameter of Value to the station, you get to stay. You bring ratings or dollars. All ego's aside, the only people this applies to are morning hosts or talk show hosts that can specifically drive numbers. The typical mid-day, afternoon. night FM talent are expenses that can be cut. Unless you do mornings and rate well, or a talk show that can't be replaced with syndication keeping reading.

Attitude? Will you do more. Do you work late. Are you positive? These are the people you keep around during times of recession to keep others motiviated. Those who are lazy, complaining or gossip will go first.

Pay Cut? Will you cut your pay to help save other jobs, even small cuts? It could mean your job.

Multi-task? Can you help in promotions, do you schedule music, can you write sales copy. Start offering to help and do it now don't wait until your job is threatened.

In my humble view in this type of environment these are the people that add real value to the parameter of success. If you don't fit one of the above work on your resume you will need it.

Other survival tips:

1) Get clever with marcaroni & cheese/ramen noodle based recipes.

2) Trade down the Lexus SUV for a $300 '86 Isuzu. I have an '86 I-Mark and like my old truck, I can repair ANYTHING that goes wrong with it. Bigger benefit: It's less likely to get stolen.

3) Shop for almost everything you can at Dollar Stores, Grocery Outlet, Win-Co and Wal-Mart (Most folks these days do that anyway - even a few millionaires I know - even they're losing their butts.)

4) Raid your local sports bar happy hour buffet table - often. For the price of a beer (sip slow, don't chug) you can score a free dinner too. Get there early.

5) The public library is often a great source of DVDs and CDs to build up a collection of music and movies you can copy to your computer.

6) Nobody should spend money on condiments, always score as many free packets of ketchup, tartar sauce and mustard as you can if they're just sitting out there for anybody to grab.

7) Check the public bathrooms for any extra rolls of toilet paper you can snag.

8) FREE BEER! Yes, it's a possibility. Get to know somebody who works in the loading docks of your local brewery. You'd be surprised at what I've seen some of 'em get away with! Especially if it's after hours and they look like they can use some help. Just look good, keep your laundry clean and you won't be mistaken for a wino....

9) If you're a handyman/woman - the sky's the limit. Take a cue from the engineers, if you're good at fixing stuff, your chances for survival in THIS economy are a LOT better. There's still a lot of folks with more money than skills and they can help you make ends meet if ya got what it takes....

10) Get to know college folks (REAL ones, not rich kids that read fashion magazines. Real college people don't got mom and dad covering EVERYTHING, including magazine subscriptions.) They're EXPERTS in surviving on the cheap. Also college computer labs are also great places to tap into the internet for free when you're REALLY broke. Just bring a backpack full of books and try to blend in.....

Seattle radio related? You damn well better believe it is. Because Seattle is a town where you can get away with all of this and Seattle radio people need help. So I'm just offering what I knew back then (and much of this info I STILL use, I am a little better off than I was 5 years ago, but whatever benefit of it I now have has been taken up by three extra people in my life and I can't give them up without giving everything else I've gained-and why would I?) So to the people struggling now, I offer what got me through those days when I had nobody and nothing else to fall back on.....

Beyond this, the other best thing in life is to take a cue from "Rock Star" from Nickelback and start from the ground up all over again and become a big rock star. Pick up a guitar and start playing and with MySpace and the internet these days, you just never know where it can take you.....

 

[beefjerky]

Great description of the last 10 years of radio!

I'm pretty sure most are aware that there are better, more creative ways, to earn a living.

The Internet, for instance?

 

[spectacle]

What a charming, demoralizing, empty, dead profile of an industry. No wonder radio towers look more and more like grave markers these days!

Wouldn't you love to be 22 and getting into radio NOW? No opportunity, little growth (according to Inside Radio recently), austere economic conditions that have no end...BUT...you might get on the air someday! Maybe in a PSA!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! What was it the Beach Boys sang? "fun fun fun 'til her daddy takes the t-bird away".

Looks like daddy took everything!

 

[ambandwidth]

Although you may love it, its time to get out of it.
There's plenty of other avenues in life to persue.
It was good while it lasted, I guess.
he he

 

[AQH]

What a charming, demoralizing, empty, dead profile of an industry. No wonder radio towers look more and more like grave markers these days!

Wouldn't you love to be 22 and getting into radio NOW? No opportunity, little growth (according to Inside Radio recently), austere economic conditions that have no end...BUT...you might get on the air someday! Maybe in a PSA!

When I see those broadcast school ads on TV, they really do seem somewhat disingenuous.

However, remember that people entering the business now have a different set of expectations. Most of the people complaining on this board compare today with the "good ol' days" of unlimited free CDs, free concert tickets and other goodies all just for walking in the door. Today, it's all about earning your way through and making yourself as valuable to the station as you possibly can.

That's not to ignore the sad truth that there are many good and talented people that are let go in an unfair manner over budget cuts. This board provides a great forum to spout out about The Man putting everyone down, but that happens everywhere. Look at Yahoo and IBM recently cutting their staffs.

I'm not defending the owners, I think they've gone too far in cuts and will pay, again, dearly for this in the very near future.

The bottom line is that the reality of this business changes. Some choose to hump Pat O'Day's leg, some choose to embrace reality. It's the ones who understand today's environment are the ones who have a future.

 

[beefjerky]

yep, radio sucks to listen to, it sucks to work in it... NEXT!

The corporations now own a big load of exactly what they deserve!

C-Ya, wouldn't want to Be Ya!

 

[Bongwater]

I just barely paid off my National Broadcasting School bill, lighten up. Didn't get #(#@$ out of it that I could not tell just by LISTENING to the radio. But I cannot fault the instructors, most of them got just as ripped off as I was.

And hard to believe a few of my classmates would now look to me for some $$$ support and even a place to live. Even harder to believe that weird kid nobody thought would ever make it would hold so many strings now.

Remember that....

But I hold no grudges, Why? I came out of it better than most of them. That student loan haunted me for years long after my radio dream collapsed has been paid. But somehow, I made it. And so can you. Radio is a very cutthroat industry, I have no patience or tolerance for that. I have better things to do.

 

[PatClark]

And dont forget on the national front with Emmis and CBS. Major layoff's, and newly announced multi-taskers, announced this week.

Im glad to know I lost my job the old fashioned way, from sucking! ;D

May I suggest how to maximize your dollar:

You can work the early shift at Starbucks starting at 5am (it helps with the schedule if you were a former morning jock)

This gives you health benefits! But doesnt pay any sort of bill. But...

You can easily work the late shift at Walmart, 4pm-12am.

With those two gigs you can easily rock a studio apartment in a bad part of town.


The above is a exerpt from the soon to be released book "How to survive in radio post 1996" by Pat Clark.

 

[slickkicker]

How to survive in radio you ask? Get out. I got tired of the office politics, overbearing operations management, consultants with lame credentials and VP's who'd give them the time of day. And I don't miss the overbearing morning shows that hog the budget, demand the spotlight and make life miserable for the rank and file.

I know this post sounds bitter. I'm a third generation broadcaster however, with eighteen years in front, behind and managing the mike. I reluctantly left some time ago. Today however you'll never see my resume cross paths with some HR dweeb again.

I'm totally content and happy with my new career and life. This board, and broadcasting in general, is better left as a hobby of sorts I guess. It was fun in my 20's and most of my 30's. When it stopped being fun, and stopped paying, I got out.

 

[IndigoCoyote]

When it stopped being fun, and stopped paying, I got out.

That's a very good way of putting it, s-kicker. Life's too short.

Larry, I am so sorry...I WAS one of those NBS instructors back in the late 80s. I "was young and I needed the money" as they like to say. Brand new baby and a low paying radio gig in NW WA, so I commuted to teach. We really tried as instructors to do our best...but ultimately most of those places were mills for harvesting student loans, I'm afraid. Once I figured that out I quit...well, gave 2 weeks notice and then was fired. :'(

That's showbiz.

I really feel for y'all trying to make a living in this biz...it's just a fun hobby for me, voice tracking for some LPFMs in SW WA. I like my day job and it certainly pays the bills. Given what everyone on this board is saying, it sounds like not a great idea to attempt a commercial comeback.

 

[Bongwater]

Little did you know Mr. Coyote....I KNEW you.....

I have no resentment against anybody at all who taught me-including you. I hated the industry it brought me into. You were not responsible for the greedy jerks I ran into. Or for Telecom '96. We were ALL victims. Me and you and almost all us at NBS.

But we live in a new age now and although it's painful to watch, the same thoughtless people who stabbed our backs and cut our throats are now getting theirs. Unfortunately, it is at the expense of the industry we all loved and cared about beyond the greed, ego and $$$ factor. It was whoever was listening we cared about. We were old school. Now I reading articles HERE about how to create PERSONALITIES. JEEZ! That was ALL we were TRYING to BE! Bo NOOO! "READ THE LINERS!!" I was barked at time and time again.

F--- that. (sorry editors, but I have to call it as I felt it. If you had to go through exactly the same thing, you'd be FAR more explicit.)

I actually had a few PDs in Portland and Seattle tell me to do things I cannot by order of board editors repeat here (it involved illicit drugs and other things - hence my most recent board name and all my references to drugs in the past. This industry is NOT as innocent as baby kittens as they'd all like you believe.) Enough was enough. I kept this certain reference to my past as a REMINDER to CERTAIN people, not ALL, but certain ones....

Jerry Garcia once said "Even the town whore can become respectable if she stays around long enough". Well, I'm still here.

Now back to that torturous remake of the Aerosmith classic "Dream On" by Kelly Sweet (some songs should NEVER be covered by contemporary artists)......

 

[IndigoCoyote]

So that's who did that gawd awful cover! Jeezzzz, heard it in the Woodinville Safeway and just about died! Another guy from the 70s looked at me, winced, said "I cannot believe this f*****g s**t!!" and just started laughing. What are ya gonna do?

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

I still want to know if people hate the "classics" so much, why are they constantly being remade, or become the focus for about 70% of the performances on American Idol?? Seems unfair to have it both ways ... claiming "that stuff is OLD" and then turning around and doing a rendition of one of the songs to improve the chances of making it to "the next round".

Still, as you point out in this thread....there ARE some limits!!

 

[slickkicker]

I get my fingernails dirty right now. And I got a hot new wife who'd rather be with a "drooling dog boy blue collar dude" as compared to the geek who used count numbers, tag spots, work 70 hour weeks and suck up to the group veep.

For those of you who posted here saying that's imperative to work 5AM till 7PM I say blow it up your a-- pal! You've been preaching that line for over a decade now and very soon you'll find out that the starving wanna-be dweeb who's been puckering up to your butt ain't gonna be around much longer anymore.

That's when I got out. My part-timers and interns were not getting recognized and corporate didn't care. That's when I left.

 

[ty]

Thanks Lar,

Try these steps too,

1: Go to St. Vincent Depaul and Goodwill.
2: buy something you know the value of, electronics, golf clubs, clock radios, vacuum cleaners, paisley shirts, used lint rollers etc...
3: take items to nearest pawn shop and hock for more.
4: Repeat steps 1-3 until desired amount of extra cash is obtained.
I do this all the time, covers my car payment every month.

Donate blood, it pays, more often you do it, the more they pay. Free orange juice upon exit.
Covers the cost of travel to and from Thrift store and Pawn shop.

Good luck!