The New Ken Charles is...

[miranda919]

I have to say that I DO like Michael Berry.

The appointment was more or less a shock.

The man is a very nice person. And he has great leadership qualities. So I AM excited for him.

My only fear is this--

He has no true radio experience. This is the same as taking a man who likes to tinker with cars here and there...

And then giving him a bunch of scrap metal and parts, and telling him to make a working luxury car.

*I never said I was good with analogies.*

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

I hate to have to be the one to point out the obvious, but "old style" worked pretty well up until 1996, when greedy consolidation groups quit doing radio and started doing conglomeration. It's taken just over a decade to bring it to the point where they'll blame just about anything for the decline in the business they've systematically destroyed. Incredible.

 

[Fo-Fo-Fo-Hye]

Aunti, I love how you find a way to spin your agenda into any and every thread. We get it… you don’t like radio anymore. Good for you. You’d find a way to weave your problem with radio into a thread about Girl Scout cookies. Stop whining and start trying to make a difference… or did the big bad “corporate” man take away your proverbial balls? :'(
Turn that frown upside down buckaroo! By the way Aunti... 1996 was 11 years ago... it's that type of thinking that got us KIOL.

 

[truthsayer]

Hold on yal' I believe Mr. Berry is over the AM stations. If I understood correctly. FM changes would come from someone else.

 

[Seansvoice]

Hold on yal' I believe Mr. Berry is over the AM stations. If I understood correctly. FM changes would come from someone else.

Probably from one of Sam Walton's heirs.

No wait...its Clear Channel, not Wal-Mart. Hard to tell them apart. :

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

Wow, what a nasty-spirited post. I'm not mistaken when I recall that the last time you were here, you were busy blaming the listeners for their disloyalty in turning away from a product they'd loved and supported for decades. Nowadays, I suppose it's fashionable to blame general managers with lifetime radio experience.

Transmarket voicetracking, lame promotions, liner cards, generic morning shows, and the fact that it's just no fun for either the listeners or radio staff anymore, fighting over a .2 share, none of those factors ever enter into your blame game. I don't blame you for being loyal to what you are; anything less is biting the hand that feeds you. I do blame you for thinking it's one person with an agenda. Look around.

You see, Fo, there are a whole lot of us who are disgusted with the consistent mismanagement and misdirection of a once-viable medium, one that most of us loved more than anything. New media exists in part because terrestrial radio has been so badly bungled since consolidation. If you hadn't blown it, we wouldn't exist. You're supposed to convince us you can compel the new media when you're still busy killing the old one?


Radio managers are quick to yelp that their hands are tied when it comes to bad programming and bad management policy. Corporate says we voicetrack, corporate says we flip formats (since you seem to be stuck on that). Corporate demands national contesting, corporate determines what songs get played. In fact, radio experience doesn't seem to matter when you're told exactly what to do every day. You're probably right, Fofo, it doesn't make any sense to have career radio guys in management in the building. Perhaps more city councilmen will be called in to replace those folks who are standing around claiming their hands are tied while the business continues to dwindle.

 

[Fo-Fo-Fo-Hye]

Again, you missed the point... because you wanted to miss the point. Here, I'll spell it out for you... nice and simple. Dated thinking and dated ideas are obviously not working. Maybe someone from outside can bring in some new and different ideas. There... that's it. That and I said give him a chance. I don't know if it will work... but I am at least smart enough to see that something in this business needs to change. Actually, I was making two points, the second being... since you hate "corporate" radio why not start an "I Hate Corporate Radio" thread? See, then your rantings would be where they belong... in a thread they actually had something to do with. But you come into any thread that cracks the door for your complaints and you start venting. See, I unlike you look at the non "corporate" radio stations across the country and I see terrible programming, lack of funds and heavy handed bosses. So not being "corporate" doesn't really have anything to do with it.
I'm not going to waste my time telling you that I have worked for three of the largest "corporate" radio companies and neither time did anyone from outside out building ever tell us what to play, or how no one ever blamed someone outside the building for tying their hands with programming, or the fact that in 14 years, I have never done a national contest... because that might be too much for you to handle in one post.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

Wow. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. No, please don't waste your time on telling me things we both know to be untrue.

Since you're having a little trouble comprehending, let me spell it out for you. This thread is about Ken Charles' replacement being a career politician. It's not about Girl Scout cookies, it's not about your personal feelings, it's not about me. No amount of your misdirection is going to change that. This thread is about filling a GM position in Market # 6 with a non-career-radio person. The bs reason you've trotted out for your company's hiring of a person with limited experience is that a lack of radio experience is desirable---because your traditional methods of compelling the listeners just aren't working. Either way, regardless of who you blame, you've admitted a huge failure to keep up with what the rest of America is doing. I've addressed those points, but as we've seen time and time again from you, you're not particularly interested in (or capable of) maintaining a civil dialogue.

From your ilk, in this very thread, we have learned that:

~New media (boo!) is more than knowing what a blog is,
~Traditional radio is a much smaller, less significant part of "the media landscape" than it was 10 years ago, and
~Radio experience doesn't count for much these days if you're going up for a CC GM position.

Meanwhile, you're scrambling to catch up with the listeners and broadcasters who HAVE ditched terrestrial radio and have embraced the new technology and delivery methods that have been available to all in the last 10 years. What you call "new" media, by the way, has been growing up without you for several years, now, without you. Getting a politician to guide you doesn't necessarily mean that you'll catch up now or ever, but if that's what you think is going to put the genie back in the bottle, more power to you. As I said, alternative media wouldn't exist if people didn't want something better than the product you've given them for the last decade. If listeners didn't agree in droves, this discussion (such as it is) wouldn't be taking place. Sure, go ahead and get a politician to tell you why your methods aren't working (not that you can do anything about it but nod your head at this point). You'll believe just about anything except what the actual listeners who have abandoned you are telling you loud and clear. That's okay, you don't have to listen to them. We're happy to do that for you, too.

 

[bobbybooey]

If you're gonna gripe about the hire, at least get your facts straight. Berry was hired NOT to be a GM, but rather an OM, Operations Manager. He'll be overseeing CC's 3 AM stations, all of which have their own Program Director. So hiring someone without a radio-programming resume for that role seems to me to be a bit of a non-issue, as long as he lets the programmers program and sticks to the managerial/leadership role for which he seems pretty well suited (regardless of his political experience).

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

I stand corrected. I agreed early on that it probably wasn't about programming. I guess I'll always be a bit cynical when any corporation operating in this town which has vested political goals chooses a local politican for its leadership. I did agree that in the future, we will probably see many more larger-market top tier managerial positions at CC being filled from without, and specifically chosen from such ranks as city councilmen and politically-inclined attorneys. I agreed that if one were to have oft-stated goals of requesting larger station caps in the top 10 markets, it would be the right maneuver to hire someone from that sort of background, rather than a person who had been in radio management for many years. I just didn't say it was a good thing for radio, and I sort of disagree with those who insist that it is.


I admit biting the bait, though, in responding to the notion that people with pre-condolidation radio experience are part of what's wrong with the radio business. After all, the failures that they're pointing to have happened in the last decade, exactly coincidental with the conglomerate business model. As CC and other companies now scramble to occupy the new media and regain the tech-savvy lost listeners that its terrestrial managers have disenfranchised (and often flat-out insulted) for years, I can't help but think that as long as their managers continue to mouth unbelievable party lines in their most hostile voices, they're not really "getting" what the new media exodus is all about in the first place. That said, I promise I won't brawl with Fofo anymore. No need. *grinning*

 

[FilioScotia]

....the failures that they're pointing to have happened in the last decade, exactly coincidental with the conglomerate business model...

You nailed it. I've been in the radio business for more than 40 years, and by my recollection it was working just fine until the mid 90s -- when the conglomerates took over.