The Groz gets cut back to part-time

[TheFrameGuy]

The Groz tells his audience yesterday that he will no longer be working the 1 - 5 shift. KJR has cut his hours back to 3 - 5. Listen here http://tinyurl.com/5dfkbg.

 

[345palm]

There simply isn't a classier, funnier, warmer, hipper, or more knowledgable guy in sports radio! Just the way he handled the announcement shows that.

 

[RadioEdit]

I've been listening to the Groz since he came to town in 1991 when KJR flipped from Oldies to All Sports. Glad to hear he is still with the station, and he is at his best when working with the Gas Man on Groz with Gas.

 

[CyBeer]

The Groz tells his audience yesterday that he will no longer be working the 1 - 5 shift. KJR has cut his hours back to 3 - 5. Listen here http://tinyurl.com/5dfkbg.

Thanks Dialtwisty
er, or was it Majorradio?
I forget

 

[CorporateSuit]

Unforunately, The Groz has really been mailing it in for years, even before his bypass. I'm not surprised of this change (even if he decided it himself) because there is no fire, no passion for what he does. He knows a lot, don't get me wrong, but he never goes in-depth on any topic. The Gas Man has been carrying him for a long time during Groz & Gas and Mike continues to come up with great anaylsis and commentary on sports topics. Meanwhile the Groz just agrees to agree with him.

 

[talkerdjdude]

I'd like to hear him back on KIRO radio. Frankly, Bill Swartz doesn't do it for me. Knows his stuff but puts in to many wacky sound effects and isn't funny.

 

[slickkicker]

I heard it yesterday and was floored. The Groz is the reason why I listen to KJR a lot. My guess is that they wanted him to take a pay cut and the reply was he'd do less time on the air. With Ian just doing a couple of hours from 1 to 3 it appears very temporary and that there's a divide. Hopefully management re-evaluates the situation.

KJR has a strong weekday lineup from 6A-7P that most sports talkers would kill for. Why blow it up. And Groz with Gas could be a great addition to any major market morning slot, even at a crosstown rival. They could get some bigger money as a team in a larger town or move it to the bird. Nice play by Groz to keep doing the 3P-5P slot and being classy. By just keeping on it signals that you're a straight up guy and remind everyone, on a daily basis, that you're in play out there.

Groz from 1P-3P was my favorite part of the Seattle broadcast day. Just Dave, the guests and the callers. I'm missing it already.

 

[Kelly]

Even though we can debate when PM Drive begins and ends on a weekday, that time slot is a tough one.

Dave is a VERY talented sports-talk host, but middays is tough to attract listeners that are able to listen on a regular basis. In fact, if you look at overall radio listening in the market by daypart, 12AM-Mid, you'll see that every station takes a huge cume hit in middays. Most people are working or going about their lives, with little opportunity to listen. Since the talking-sports demo, (aka men 18-34), is typically working between 1 and 5PM, it only amplifies the over all listener loss radio is experiencing, let alone KJR. I surmise that paying an expensive talk show host to hold down a midday slot, with some PM drive overlap, is indeed a money loser, given the lack of ratings and advertising dollars available to middays as a whole.

I believe Dave is smart by hanging in there and being flexible about his work hours. There just aren't as many sucessful local sports-talk stations left in America anymore to shop a job with. Perhaps Dave is right too, and in the meantime he can get something going by writing on-line, or webcasting for far less expense than being on a 50,000 watt AM station. After all, most of the national advertising that used to be on radio, have migrated to websites anyway!

 

[slickkicker]

I guess what you've said here Kelley is that a very talented personality can't be sold on a heritage 50k signal in a Top 15 market with nearly 200,000 millionaire households. Is this right! Are KJR personalities reduced to selling mortgages while sales sits on there ass. Does TSL mean anything here.

Try selling! People do it on car lots and in furniture stores everyday. Mid-Days may be tough but so is everything in life. Overnights and weekends suck too. I'm tired of this crap.

 

[Kelly]

I guess what you've said here Kelley is that a very talented personality can't be sold on a heritage 50k signal in a Top 15 market with nearly 200,000 millionaire households. Is this right! Are KJR personalities reduced to selling mortgages while sales sits on there ass. Does TSL mean anything here.

Try selling! People do it on car lots and in furniture stores everyday. Mid-Days may be tough but so is everything in life. Overnights and weekends suck too. I'm tired of this crap.

The reason The Groz, was put in that slot was an attempt to boost what is normally reduced listening period because of the daypart, and working core demo combination. For the most part, the combination worked well for several years. Fast forward to 2008, and now with further diminishing midday listening/ratings because of competition from devices like I-PODS at work, then throw in significantly reduced national ad revenue and a slowing economy, and a station must go into survival mode, by knowing where every dollar goes out, or comes in. I certainly don't envy the program director or GM having to make that sort of move, but when you are tasked by the head office to retain positive cash-flow in a radio environment that is down 12% or more, you really don't have a choice.

As I mentioned previously, Dave's willingness and understanding of the situation shows he is a true professional willing to adjust to the times.

Making the claim, "just go out and sell something" is pretty simple to be sure, but not realistic. Clearly there is something to sell, just few buyers, (or listeners), right now.

 

[slickkicker]

O.K. perhaps I was a bit harsh. Clear Channel is being chopped down to 36 bucks a share right now. The reasons are varied as to why CC is losing value. There's the thought that it's simply overvalued and misgoverned. CC overpaid for, and then gutted, the assets in most every market they invested in. And remember that CC invested in dead markets like Scranton, Yakima and Hooterville.

The local market has nothing to do with the equations as a whole nationally. Large media markets, like Seattle, continue to thrive. The smart, educated and the risk-takers continue to flock to places like Seattle, New York and L.A. These people can be reached rather easily and targeted more effectively by radio broadcasting, be it as a listener or purchaser.

What it really comes down too is this. CC is looking to chop big dollars off the payroll in there largest markets in order to make the properties attractive to investors and stockholders. They can't get blood from a stone in Hooterville because they've already trashed that town. So guys like Dave Grosby have to suck uo when, in reality, it was the CC game plan, initiated a score ago, that is in play here.

And yes I stand by my "go sell something" statement. This market is one of the few in which Clear Channel wasn't the dominant player or at least a very dominant prescense. CC doesn't seem to want to hit the pavement here too much. And then local, strong players like Fisher and others like Sandusky seem to thrive in the face of incredible competition. They get there soles dirty.

 

[Kelly]

O.K. perhaps I was a bit harsh. Clear Channel is being chopped down to 36 bucks a share right now. The reasons are varied as to why CC is losing value. There's the thought that it's simply overvalued and misgoverned. CC overpaid for, and then gutted, the assets in most every market they invested in. And remember that CC invested in dead markets like Scranton, Yakima and Hooterville.

The local market has nothing to do with the equations as a whole nationally. Large media markets, like Seattle, continue to thrive. The smart, educated and the risk-takers continue to flock to places like Seattle, New York and L.A. These people can be reached rather easily and targeted more effectively by radio broadcasting, be it as a listener or purchaser.

What it really comes down too is this. CC is looking to chop big dollars off the payroll in there largest markets in order to make the properties attractive to investors and stockholders. They can't get blood from a stone in Hooterville because they've already trashed that town. So guys like Dave Grosby have to suck uo when, in reality, it was the CC game plan, initiated a score ago, that is in play here.

And yes I stand by my "go sell something" statement. This market is one of the few in which Clear Channel wasn't the dominant player or at least a very dominant prescense. CC doesn't seem to want to hit the pavement here too much. And then local, strong players like Fisher and others like Sandusky seem to thrive in the face of incredible competition. They get there soles dirty.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I'm not sure you are well connected to the current market conditions of radio.

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I own a few shares of Clear Channel. CCU has been hovering in the $30-$35 a share range for several years. In spite of this whole stock-buy-back fiasco in an effort to go private, CCU shares hang in there about the same rate. Certainly one can debate whether radio-based companies should be publicly traded in the first place, but we can debate that at a later date.

Second, you seem to assume that there are some groups "thriving" in the Seattle market. I'm sure others on this board could chime in with non-station-specifics, but as a whole, there are few if any, radio groups that are thriving right now. Sure there will be stations in a market that outperform others in cume or TSL, but the fact that national ad revenue has dropped significantly, political spending on radio is almost non-existent, and local, (especially automotive), is down 50% from last year, I don't believe your observation that any group is "thriving", would be correct. I think the term "surviving" would be more accurate.

 

[dunno]

Slick need to visit lower Queen Anne. There's no doubt you could get a gig sellin somethin there. No kidding! Yes its easier to sit on this site and arm chair. I do admire those of you on the street, I've been there and theres nothing easy about it!

Kelly, thanks for the insight as always. This board often lacks it. Bucks are being split 6 ways to tommorow. Print, TV, Internet, Dex, Mailers, Radio just to name 6.

The cool thing for Groz is he continues to have a place to hang his hat. Meanwhile, he can look for a better job if he so desires. Much easier to do that while working somewhere.

I do enjoy this site and the posts, even from those of you that know nothing about the biz.