The day the music died..........?

[the professor]

I'm usually one to be full of optimism for our business but today I find myself unusually grim about the state of radio. It seems there is bad news everywhere we turn whether it be programming---sales---or management. No doubt this is a difficult time to be in any business but it seems, especially, radio. Many of us (and I count myself among those) took the easy way and replicated major markets. We decided that personality wasn't everything. After all, I can do that 5 hour shift in just 30 minutes on the voice-tracker! An entire generation of radio people don't know what it feels like to do a live show with lots of audience interaction. Sales people can't focus on just one station---now they sell the entire cluster and throw in the lower-tier stations (the ones not getting listeners) for free. They must make goals and sell a good mix of both 30's and 60's so they fit the formula. Managers handle mutiple stations with less people and less budgets. Success isn't necessarily the rating books or the listener and community interaction...it's the profit margin at the bottom of the ledger. In most stations the quietest and least occupied rooms in the building are most often the on-air studios. We've screwed up. We let business become a regular business when it was never meant to be. Radio should be locally owned and operated. Big companies should get out. Ownership limits should return. Sure, I know profits are a necessity. I just hate the fact they come at the expense of what made radio great instead of the timeless things that made radio great. When do people realize we need to do something...anything...to get the younger demos back to radio? We don't live in a 25-54 (soon to be 35-64) year old world. Radio was exciting and fun. Radio provided information and news. Radio was the heart of it's communities. Radio made you laugh, cry, sing and shout. People say it's too late. I don't believe that. We just need to find radio's soul again. Happy 2009.

 

[MisterBilge]

You might be living in a dream world there, Professor. But I hope you're not. A long time ago, video killed the radio star. Now it's video games. And the iPod. And the internet. Mega-ownership and deregulation killed the radio star. Non-broadcaster owners killed the radio star. Then there's satellite radio - and even that's hanging on by a thread. You've got a lot of nails going into the radio coffin, Professor. And how about legendary news-talk stations that have nothing more than a board op and syndicated programming in the over-night? Breaking news and events impacting public safety happen locally overnight. Who's going to report on that? The board op? Is that serving the public interest? Radio's created it's own monster with "jock in the box" voice tracking. Why take time to interact with the audience? Maybe because a listener could be drawn to a station that communicates, listens to what's on the listener's mind? What a concept! Radio's taken such a downward spiral I wonder if it can ever recover. You're right. Radio was theatre of the mind. It was entertainment. It stirred the emotions. It was relevent. Perhaps the stations soon to be spun off by the Clear Channels of the world will be picked by small ma and pa operations who might just want to serve their local communities once again. And perhaps these new owners will hire broadcasters who are free to entertain - and have fun. Maybe radio's not completely dead. I think you've got it pegged: "we just need to find radion's soul again." Happy 2009 right back at you!

 

[MassMusicMan]

Another thread about this? Yawn.

I want the 5 seconds between "ooh, a thread about music" and "oh, another diatribe about hard times" back.

 

[BTN BRI]

Well, That's pretty much what we are doing here in Bennington, Vermont.
If you miss it, Then listen on line, "While you can".. Who knows what "new fee's" will come our way in 2009 from the kind folks at Sound Exchange and the like.
wbtnam.org

Btn Bri

 

[probuttonpusher]

Prof I kind of agree. Let me explain. With local only ownership you have a poor person doing 80 jobs working 50 hours a week making what you would if you worked part time at mcdonalds. Mega congloms brought better wages and more specialized postions (morning co hosts, afternoon news, production only people) I think what we have to do is find a mix of this. And that is begining to happen. Some congloms pay well and are now expecting thier staffs to mulit task, some local owners are starting to understand that if you want your staff to work and STAY working for you for a while you need to throw them some decent cash and not expect them to live only for you. This whole mess we have been through has had its purpose I believe. I hope it has taught people that you cant program a station in VT or NH like you program a station in CA or WDC. It HAS to be local programing and it has to be decent. Proof that radio isnt dead happened a few weeks ago in NH with the ice storm. Thousands had nothing but a radio and hopefully they realized that they missed and rely on that old friend.

 

[austingrace]

yeah! i agree with the first poster. i hope radio will come back. i think radio can make a come back. i bet someone will find the soul of radio and bring it back . i think radio is all about being local. i think people are slowly figuring it out. i know it will happen one day . i hate dreading the radio. but i can't help it. it is the same old thing over and over. happy 2009 to you all and let's hope things turn around.

 

[louiemanno]

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