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The End of LARadio.com?

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Lately Don Barrett has been strongly implying these are the waning days of LARadio.com and by the end of December LARadio.com will not be how we remember it.

That is too bad, it was an good way for the Southern California radio community to connect.

Granted breaking news or other industry news was often few, far and in-between, and more often than not it was an gossip site, and admittedly it seemed silly printing what songs were played on KRTH that morning, but it was enjoyable reading in the morning and I made some contacts through Mr. Barrett's site.

Mr. Barrett has said the reason for ending the current site is basically the model he is using is no longer profitable, along with password sharing.
 
It is sad but I certainly don't blame him if it now takes more time and effort to produce and doesn't bring in the revenue.

But then again I can't imagine that the site would have that much overhead, hosting is real cheap these days and it doesn't seem like he has a webmaster since it does look quite plain and simple.
 
I think the problem is that there are now other sources for radio news. At one time it was exclusively LARadio and radio boards. But now with all of these email columns, such as Tom Taylor's daily column, the site may have become less relevant. I've noticed a quality drop-off over the past few years. Don has done a great job with the site, but maybe it's time to move on.

EDIT:
Radiojomo is right on the money. Why pay when you have free news now available?
 
The problem has been, for several years, too many people are stealing passwords to get onto the web site and not paying the subscription fee. That is the main problem. Why pay for it? For me it is simple. I don't subscribe to any newspapers or magazines, and Don Barrett's LARADIO.com website is far and away simply THE BEST when it comes to telling the everyday stories of what is going on in the Los Angeles radio market. Not only that, but he has the archives of the web site going back to 1997, many photos and stories of LARADIO stations and personalities, plus a list of thousands of names of L.A. radio people that have worked in the market since the '50s and some even further back, telling their history and what they are doing now or if they are still alive, etc. As a radio journalist, Barrett provides a much-needed fact-filled column 5 days a week, giving not only the present state of L.A. radio every day, but also tells of other radio markets at times, and preserves the past history of L.A. radio and even at times looks at the future. That is why I pay for it, and I don't see anything out there that's better. It will be a huge loss if his website goes away, with all the work he has put into it for 13 years and all the information he has provided and continues to provide about L.A. radio at this time.

Jim Hilliker
Monterey
 
Jim Hilliker said:
The problem has been, for several years, too many people are stealing passwords to get onto the web site and not paying the subscription fee. That is the main problem. Why pay for it? For me it is simple. I don't subscribe to any newspapers or magazines, and Don Barrett's LARADIO.com website is far and away simply THE BEST when it comes to telling the everyday stories of what is going on in the Los Angeles radio market. Not only that, but he has the archives of the web site going back to 1997, many photos and stories of LARADIO stations and personalities, plus a list of thousands of names of L.A. radio people that have worked in the market since the '50s and some even further back, telling their history and what they are doing now or if they are still alive, etc. As a radio journalist, Barrett provides a much-needed fact-filled column 5 days a week, giving not only the present state of L.A. radio every day, but also tells of other radio markets at times, and preserves the past history of L.A. radio and even at times looks at the future. That is why I pay for it, and I don't see anything out there that's better. It will be a huge loss if his website goes away, with all the work he has put into it for 13 years and all the information he has provided and continues to provide about L.A. radio at this time.

Jim Hilliker
Monterey
Click to expand...

Amen. Don fills and exceeds the role the L.A. Times used to play with Don Page, James Brown and other dedicated radio columnists in the 60s and 70s.

As for the overhead...consider the amount of time Don has to devote to gather, write and maintain LARadio.com and then ask yourself...what's his time worth? What could he be doing with that time that might make money?
 
Don could always become a talk show host. For crying out loud, everybody and their uncle seems to be a host these day. Doesn't seem like you need much skills except how to talk loud and generally be overweight and hide behind a microphone.

Speaking of overweight, the ones that readily come to mind are Limbaugh, Frosty Stilwell, Bryan Suits, Tom Leykis, Wayne Resnik, Dennis Prager has been getting plump lately, who else am I missing?
 
westfield60 said:
Don could always become a talk show host. For crying out loud, everybody and their uncle seems to be a host these day. Doesn't seem like you need much skills except how to talk loud and generally be overweight and hide behind a microphone.
Click to expand...

Don's too intelligent, reasonable, thoughtful, well-spoken and slender.
 
It will be sad seeing LARadio.com going away.

I know in my original post I dismissed the site as gossip, but truth be told, for a few years LARadio.com was the first site I checked before my email and other personal online matters.

There was one time when I visited LARadio.com and first learned an job I held was in jeopardy.

While Don Barrett's site may not appear fancy, just relatively simplistic in its design, it is quite an bit of work putting together those stories and chasing sources.

As well the process of putting together his two books on L.A. Radio People is just mind-boggling. Just think of all the effort he, and perhaps an couple other people, came up with in tracking down the thousands of people who have come through the L.A. airwaves. (Mind you his first book was in 1997, before Google made researching much easier.)

For those who may not recall, LARadio.com was designed purely to promote his new book.

Then small radio updates were provided.

What will fill the void I am not sure.

It seems at the least Mr. Barrett has hinted at maybe updating LARadio.com once-an-week.

It is also possible Mr. Barrett may just be looking for an new role and challenge in his life.
 
Don's first book came out in 1994 and the second book was published in 1997. Don says he spends up to 10 to 12 hours a day putting LARADIO.com together each day. The section Where Are They Now takes up where the books left off. I'm not sure, but I've heard that the website is his only source of income at this time. To me, the site is still much more than only gossipm but is usually filled with not only some real journalism about the daily happenings in Los Angeles radio, but other stories about stations and personalities, past and present. The man does his homework when it comes to reporting on L.A. radio stories and always gives both sides of the story and allows for others to comment in his email section every day.

Jim Hilliker
 
I've been a paid subscriber for many years and have provided my password to no one.

People simply do not appreciate the absolute grind it is to produce content every day. I think he does a great job reporting "just the facts" while rarely injecting his own opinions. On the rare times he does editorialize, he clearly labels it as such. It is this "down the middle approach" that makes people of all types read his work and feel that when the send in their far-out opinions, they will be heard and printed by him without judgment. I have sent him a few emails over the years, and he has printed every one of them. Also, it is obvious he fact checks relentlessly, as any good reporter should. There is clearly a demand for this type of reporting and if new competition is hurting him, then it was he who was way ahead of the curve, providing content and making money on the internet back when most folks didn't even know what the internet was yet.

My gut feel is the drain of producing a column every day is starting to get to him, the revenues probably are not what they once were; he doesn't have enough eyeballs to make advertising work and thus the work is getting harder and the reward is becoming less. He wants to finally start making some real money (or at least quit losing it).

This day has come much later than I thought it would, so Don I say thanks. I've appreciated the hard work that obviously goes into the column every day and it has been one of my first stops on the web for years.
 
I emailed Don on Monday and without divulging what he said it would appear that changes are afoot. I will say that I told Don that his LA Radio site has been the first thing I read every morning for many years. If it goes away I will certainly go through withdrawals without it. He's done something nobody else has and that's to create a site that really reports on what's going on in LA's radio scene in more depth than any national site can ever do. He actually gives us a look at the people behind the mic and the scenes. I know that there are sites in San Diego and Chicago, but they aren't even close. I feel it's because to do it right, to do what Don has done takes a lot of time and energy with apparently small financial returns. I hope that he stays with it for even one day a week and keeps his archives available, but if not, well, it's been a good run and he has much to be proud of. Kudos Don!
 
I agree the the end of LARadio would be a loss and a shame. It is simply the site of it's type in the web. Although I live in St. Louis and haven't worked in LA radio for many years, LARadio is one of the first things I read at 9am every morning.
Don, I hope you can work things out!

Jim Shannon
 
With LARadio.com slowing going away, who fills the void?

Newspaper columnists are few, few and in-between. Of the top of my head there is Gary Lycon at the Orange County Register (with all due respect a lot of his stuff often seems to be reprints from LARadio.com) and Richard Wagoner at The Daily Breeze.

Does the Los Angeles Times even have an regular radio columnist?

An idea is coming to my head.

Why not have Don Barrett write an weekly column for the Times?

Surely the Times is having problems of their own, not the least of which is their parent company Tribune is in bankruptcy, but if such an deal were stuck Mr. Barrett would already bring an rather large contingency of readers to his column.

If not the Times, perhaps Daily News?

There surely has to be some publication that would run Mr. Barrett's column.
 
Oh well ::) His problem was that he did charge, showing a complete lack of web savvy....thought he could make a quick buck and didn't realize the way to monetize a site is through hits.
 
Ken Greeb said:
Oh well ::) His problem was that he did charge, showing a complete lack of web savvy....thought he could make a quick buck and didn't realize the way to monetize a site is through hits.
Click to expand...

On a site with millions of visitors, maybe. But net ads are pennies and dimes. LARadio.com is a small, special-interest site...probably no more than 100,000 people would read it even if it were free. That's too small a base to generate hit or click-driven revenue.
 
It was always an elitist in crowd site and could have expanded way beyond a little radio news and vehicle for out of work jocks to still feel relevant. It didn't have to be a special interest site and there are many ways to promote a web site which obviously he wasn't aware of.
 
Ken Greeb said:
It was always an elitist in crowd site and could have expanded way beyond a little radio news and vehicle for out of work jocks to still feel relevant. It didn't have to be a special interest site and there are many ways to promote a web site which obviously he wasn't aware of.
Click to expand...

Ken: As long as the topic is radio in any one city (even a major metropolis), you're limited to a small group of people.

Expanding that to national coverage is no guarantee of success (see R&R).

As for "elitist in crowd"...being on the air in market #2 puts you in the elite (and I'm someone who's not in that group, but grew up on and loves L.A. radio who only made it to market 15.).
 
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