Who Killed Radio's Mom and Pops

[Mufallata Spread]

That is a good question but is Radio really like AIG?


"Will the word “radio” even hold meaning for our children and grandchildren, or will it be relegated to the linguistic dustbin with once-common but now-defunct terms like “bakelite,” “automat” and “mimeograph?

"How did the situation get so bad? The answer, sadly, is what makes modern commercial radio like AIG: A perfect storm of industry deregulation combined with a management class comprised of venture capitalists so focused on the bottom dollar that they lost sight of what their business was.


Read more through the following


http://www.gjfreepress.com/article/20090508/ENTERTAINMENT/905079958/1021/NONE&parentprofile=1062

 

[TheBigA]

More myths about radio.

I'd love to see the facts about how many "mom & pops" there were before 1996.

The fact is that most radio stations were owned by companies that owned other things.

For a long time, lots of radio stations were owned by newspapers. Until the FCC banned cross ownership in the late 70s.

Lots of radio stations were owned by insurance companies. Nationwide, National Life, Jefferson Pilot.

Lots of radio stations were owned by electronics manufacturers. Crosley, RCA, Westinghouse.

Sure, there were mom & pops. Small operations, mostly in small towns. But if you lived in a city, your radio station was owned by a company.

Who killed radio's mom & pops? Who killed the corner hardware store? Who killed the local department store? Who killed those things? WE did! We stopped shopping at the local stores. We stopped listening to the mom & pops. Nobody actually "killed" anything. We, as the public, changed our habits. The old ways didn't. Every day, millions of people have a choice between ordering their pizza from a local store and going to Pizza Hut or Dominos. Buying stuff at a small local store or going to Wal Mart. They have a choice between listening to a community run radio station and listening to the corporate-owned station. That's right...there IS community radio. When was the last time you listened?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Thank you, TBA for posting a coherent reply. I looked at the original post and just backed away for awhile for fear I would would get carried away with some "silly talk".

First of all, to have coherent discussion we would have to define "mom and pop" radio. After being away from the industry for awhile I began looking for a "mouse hole" to regain entry in the last few years. Years ago I worked in a number of small communities for some mom and pop operations. A couple of them were newspaper related, but still fit my description of m&p. But many of those little towns of 40 and 50 years ago have grown and now have two, three and even five radio stations. The towns haven't grown that much. Since some of them were financially stretched back then, splitting the available revenue four or five ways even after some growth means m&p can't operated there with a single station and have any hope of sending kids to college, affording a vacation now and then, and the other niceties of life.

Having said all that, in my education and search of the last five years, I have located a number of broadcasters who are operating in the style most of us attribute to the mom & pop operation and they are doing reasonably well, thank you. What they typically do is own five or more stations spread out in three or more markets, but still maintain the style and ambiance of the management and operational style that we fondly remember as an attribute of the m&p of years ago at it's best.

TBA hit the nail right on the head. We don't have Dairy Queens around where you walk up to an outside window to order from a couple that shut the place down for the winter. We don't have hardware stores with wooden floors that squeak when you walk and the owner has at least enough help so he can slip off for the Rotary Club meeting on Thursday. We don't have ladies dress shops anymore where the owner comes over to greet your wife and ask her to take a look at a dress the owner bought at The Market with your wife in mind. We don't have car dealerships where EVERY DEAL is personally finalized by the owner of the dealership who may also write up the Work Order when you come back for your first (second and third?) oil change for that new car.

So where do we come to the idea that it is an industry failure that to be a broadcaster today if we don't do it exactly like we did it in 1936 or 1948 or 1960 or 1972?

We can blame today's mega-owners.... that's the easy out. Pass a law that no owner can control more than 24 stations.... (which I think might be a good thing) but the industry would still develop into patterns that would mystify those of us who remember "back in the day".

P.S. Why the hell doesn't my druggist have a soda fountain!

 

[TheBigA]

P.S. Why the hell doesn't my druggist have a soda fountain!

I love that comment. I was watching a TV documentary on the civil rights movement, talking about the day some black college students sat at a lunchcounter in the south. I looked carefully, and the lunchcounter was in a Woolworths. Made me wonder, what happened to Woolworths? They were hardly mom & pops. They were the big corporates in their day. They built what was the tallest building in New York! Woolworths was the precurser to Wal Mart. You could buy anything there. Including lunch. Not any more.

 

[kinetic]

Why the hell doesn't my druggist have a soda fountain!

Mine does. The owners (town council) saw to it that all the businesses were locally owned and operated. No chains, no mega-stores. Only one operation has shuddered its doors, a restuarant. The shakes are delish!

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Mine does. The owners (town council) saw to it that all the businesses were locally owned and operated. No chains, no mega-stores. Only one operation has shuddered its doors, a restaurant. The shakes are delish!

Love it! At my age I decided that if I could ever locate that mom and pop station it was going to be in one of those little "botique towns" that cultivate their historic features. The kind of town that people come in for the day to walk through the shops, eat an ice cream cone and sit on the bench to watch the locals and tourists amble by. And I sat down and wrote up a business plan on how it could be done. I was on thin ice to start with.... and then my retirement funds shrank just like every one elses'.

I think I may have share with you off-line one day that if I am stuck where I am, it ain't all bad. Drive an hour south and I am in downtown 'hotlanta with everything (good and bad) that the big city has to offer. Drive an hour north and I am talking to the hikers on the Appalachian Trail. And, Oh Darn, between here and the trail I have to stop off for ice cream in one of those little towns.

And we have some radio stations around here that when you listen, you wonder if maybe there is a business next door that has a soda fountain. :

 

[kinetic]

Mine does. The owners (town council) saw to it that all the businesses were locally owned and operated. No chains, no mega-stores. Only one operation has shuddered its doors, a restaurant. The shakes are delish!

Love it! At my age I decided that if I could ever locate that mom and pop station it was going to be in one of those little "botique towns" that cultivate their historic features. The kind of town that people come in for the day to walk through the shops, eat an ice cream cone and sit on the bench to watch the locals and tourists amble by. And I sat down and wrote up a business plan on how it could be done. I was on thin ice to start with.... and then my retirement funds shrank just like every one elses'.

I think I may have share with you off-line one day that if I am stuck where I am, it ain't all bad. Drive an hour south and I am in downtown 'hotlanta with everything (good and bad) that the big city has to offer. Drive an hour north and I am talking to the hikers on the Appalachian Trail. And, Oh Darn, between here and the trail I have to stop off for ice cream in one of those little towns.

And we have some radio stations around here that when you listen, you wonder if maybe there is a business next door that has a soda fountain. :

You did share, and there is indeed a large market right down the road and a major not far beyond that which residents refer to as "the city," when they're making that trip to the symphony or whatever... In the other direction --the more rural one-- another town (where they park diagonally) with a community radio station featuring a mix of local and some syndicated. A little hokey, but it's theirs. I can see the day where they might go away because they're in the shadow of big sticks, but for now, while not flourishing, their managing. My daughter does love to go to that drug store though; she thinks it's the coolest thing especially since, at age 9, she understands they're products of yesteryear. It's nice she'll have gotten to experience that piece of culture.

Oh, now that I think of it, there are at least two great sweet shops in Cincinatti, if you ever get up that way. Being it's right across from Kentucky, they're probably more related to a rednecker like you than a city slicker like me.

A's post is a reminder that things change. On here we seem to debate why they change, which may help us understand how they change and whether adjustments can be made to affect the change in a positive way (whatever "positive" means), but things do change. Change is one of the few "constants" we have in life.

 

[Tom Wells]

Change is merely proof that time is passing, and human nature is to make changes.

We fiddle with the rabbit ear antenna, not knowing whch angle will finally be the best, and we find many less-than-optimal orientations
in our search for the best position.

Businesses and economies fiddle too. The true cost of a product is not apparent until the higher quality choice is no longer available, at any price. Of course mega marketers are cheaper, but our acceptance of them is our collective preference for low prices over the old days of smaller ownership. It's a lottery, where we trade our chances for "the better life" against the chances of those who work for such corporations, for the low prices while hoping our own job is not eliminated as all corporations adjust.
Mom and Pop get tired, corporations do not, and Mom and Pop could actually BE satisfied.
Corporatons cannot. Like sharks, they must continually feed for the growth and cash flow.

My favorite Dairy Queen is a walk-up in Lake Station, IN, that does close for the winter.
They used tho give out free "dog dishes" of ice cream if you had a dog in the car.
Wouldn't it be your favorite, too?

I grew up in a town where owners struggled as nearby malls sucked dollars out of the downtowns.
The town is almost unchanged 30 years later, as nearby cornfields filled with subdivsions and mega shopping.
Rather than watch that happen, I moved to Chicago, to an old neighborhood, where it was easier to not see the Wal-Marts.
I still try to spend my money with mom-n-pop if I can, but it requires my conscious decision to spend more because
the old mom-n-pop hardware store does have available, a better and more expensive grade of fragistat than Wal Mart carries.
I just made that up... a better example would be that it's time for some transmission work, and I will not settle for anything less than the
guy 60 miles away, who costs more but is worth it.
What I can get here that I seldom see in suburbia or rural america, is fresh cut french fries, which cost more and are a lot more trouble to make. If nobody else cared to keep these little places in business,they wouldn't exist.
What I can't easily find here is a good yeast rasied doughnut, as DD killed off all the independent donut shops years ago.
I was always amazed when working in St Louis, that "regular" good donuts are everywhere and lots of independent little shops.

Sometimes change is good, but sometimes not changing is even better.
Human nature, breakage, marketing, art, culture, all argue for change.
Only purists and fanatics hold true to some ideal which can be at least be semi-constant, if not unchanging.

 

[amfmxm]

So where do we come to the idea that it is an industry failure that to be a broadcaster today if we don't do it exactly like we did it in 1936 or 1948 or 1960 or 1972?

We can blame today's mega-owners.... that's the easy out.

Actually we can blame the mega-owners, or more accurately, the reversal of laws/regulations prohibiting mega-ownership. And reversing those laws/regulations does not require jumping in a way-back machine to 1936... or 1995.

Anti-trust laws... and radio ownership caps... were enacted to guard against the kind of corporate abuses we have seen played out in our industry over the past several decades. They were undone by greedy bastards who saw an opportunity to make a shitload of money and live like kings.

Congress, and to a lesser extent the FCC, has the power to reverse the reversal. It's been done before and can be done again. The Democrats are likely to be steering this ship for a long time, so the smart money is on a Big Stick to break up the monoliths--in banking, in radio, and possibly even in retail.

So there may be a DQ in your future, too!

 

[TheBigA]

Anti-trust laws... and radio ownership caps... were enacted to guard against the kind of corporate abuses we have seen played out in our industry over the past several decades. They were undone by greedy bastards who saw an opportunity to make a shitload of money and live like kings.

They were not undone. Ownership laws were merely loosened. But radio ownership caps still exist. There are also market concentration caps and even market revenue caps that prevent one company from controlling too much of a market's advertising revenue. All this was done to prevent a monopoly, and in 13 years, no one has charged any of the radio companies with operating as a monopoly. All of the radio sales that have happened during the past 13 years were approved by three government agencies: The FCC, the FTC, and the Justice Department.

In addition to commercial broadcasting, there is also a very vibrant non-commercial broadcasting system which operates in direct competition with commercial radio. And the government has spent the past ten years encouraging LPFM community broadcasters.

Congress, and to a lesser extent the FCC, has the power to reverse the reversal. It's been done before and can be done again. The Democrats are likely to be steering this ship for a long time, so the smart money is on a Big Stick to break up the monoliths--in banking, in radio, and possibly even in retail.

The FCC definitely does NOT have the power to reverse a federal law. In order for a change to happen, the 96TCA must either be ammended or changed. It is extremely unlikely that the Democrats will reverse the law. It was their law, which they pushed through Congress in 1995. And the people advising Obama on technology issues do not believe ownership laws require loosening. What they want to do is make it beneficial for current owners to either donate or sell some of their station to women or minority ownership groups. That is likely to happen in the next year. However, these minority owners are not going to have the capital necessary to make wholesale changes in the way radio stations are run. It's very likely that while the ownership may change, the actual operation won't. That has already been the pattern at stations sold in the last year by Clear Channel and CBS.

At the same time, you can expect to see more LPFM licenses made available. Once again, they will become community non-commercial radio stations, and they won't have a lot of money to hire people. The LPFM station in my town runs with a volunteer staff.

 

[TheBigA]

And the people advising Obama on technology issues do not believe ownership laws require loosening.

Whoops...typo. The people advising Obama on technology issues do not believe ownership laws require tightening.

 

[Stewy]

Who really killed the mom-n-pops? Mom and Pop did (in many cases), as posted earlier, they get tired, they were offered money they'd never before dreamed of, cashed in and moved to South Florida (or Arizona). Once the oligopolies started eating into whatever market contained a holdout mom-n-pop, the holdouts soon realized they didn't have deep enough pockets to keep the idiot corps at bay and gave up and sold out.

Who killed the mom-n-pops.......who got paid and signed on the dotted line? Mom and Pop.

Greed/entitlement ....... they are both the same, "I want as much as I can get", "I'm entitled to as much as I can get".

The oligopolies will break apart soon with or without government mandate, they've already fallen.

JMHO

 

[redneckriviera]

Who really killed the mom-n-pops? Mom and Pop did (in many cases), as posted earlier, they get tired, they were offered money they'd never before dreamed of, cashed in and moved to South Florida (or Arizona). Once the oligopolies started eating into whatever market contained a holdout mom-n-pop, the holdouts soon realized they didn't have deep enough pockets to keep the idiot corps at bay and gave up and sold out.

Who killed the mom-n-pops.......who got paid and signed on the dotted line? Mom and Pop.

Greed/entitlement ....... they are both the same, "I want as much as I can get", "I'm entitled to as much as I can get".

The oligopolies will break apart soon with or without government mandate, they've already fallen.

JMHO

Nicely stated, Stewy. I tend to agree that the end of this particular phase is near (see Nassau), though I do think that without a change in either law or rules & regs (don't want to spark Big A's ire by mis-stating this) a wave of different oligopolies will merely replace the ones we have.

And, no, that's not good.

I think it's weird (can't quite decide whether it's funny or sad) that there do seem to be a number of apologists on this board for the corporatization and consolidation that has obviously catapulted so many smart and talented people out of radio during the past several decades. Regardless of whether one calls smaller companies moms-n-pops or merely smaller, unconsolidated licensees, it really doesn't take a Mensa member to recognize that radio was much more competitive and much healthier before the huge companies swooped in and started firing everyone.

Nor does it take brilliance to recognize that this particular event has had little or nothing to do with the emergence of new media, which thus far have provided no significant statistical evidence of having any negative effect on traditional radio.

 

[TheBigA]

Nor does it take brilliance to recognize that this particular event has had little or nothing to do with the emergence of new media, which thus far have provided no significant statistical evidence of having any negative effect on traditional radio.

Huh? "No significant statistical evidence?"

What kind of evidence is significant to you?

Don't you think there might be a connection between a 20% drop in advertising revenue in the last 6 months, and all those folks getting fired? You can't pay people a salary when there's no money coming in. And it's not just a factor at big radio companies. Take a look at Tom Taylor's email and see how many small radio stations are firing their staffs. Sure, Clear Channel gets all the headlines, but who mourns when a DJ at a mom & pop radio station in Clovis NM gets laid off after 25 years? Obviously not anyone here. They think it's all about the big bad corporates. But every size radio station in this country, with every kind of ownership and management, is cutting back on its staff.

OK, I'll grant you that new media hasn't had a negative effect on JUST traditional radio. It's killed EVERY form of traditional media known to man, starting with newspapers, radio, and yes even television. And it hasn't stopped with killing traditional media. It's also killed other traditional forms of entertainment, like the music business. How is that not significant?

New media has completely replaced traditional media in terms of the devices people use every day. Fifteen years ago, the boom box was a popular electronic device. Not any more. Cell phones, Blackberries, laptops, and all kinds of small electronic devices have replaced boom boxes and transistor radios. I know it's popular to blame owners and managers, but this is a sociological revolution! Everybody knows it's true. I'm not making this up. Ask people what device is the most important in their daily life: The radio, the cell phone, the computer, or the TV. Then tell me about statistical evidence.

Please! Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you wrote. Maybe there was a typo. Show me how you arrived at the idea that there is "no significant statistical evidence of new media having any negative effect on traditional radio." I'd really like to see exactly how you arrived at that conclusion.

 

[adma]

Regardless of whether one calls smaller companies moms-n-pops or merely smaller, unconsolidated licensees, it really doesn't take a Mensa member to recognize that radio was much more competitive and much healthier before the huge companies swooped in and started firing everyone.

Uh, how much before? Because I remember driving across swaths of America in the mid-90s and hearing a lot of sad Joe Dirt-ish rock stations and figuring this medium was already heading the way of Kresge and Woolworth. That was pre-consolidation--arguably, the "huge companies" merely postponed the inevitable by enveloping it all in a smokescreen.

s it take brilliance to recognize that this particular event has had little or nothing to do with the emergence of new media, which thus far have provided no significant statistical evidence of having any negative effect on traditional radio.

Only a wishfully-thinking guy with a name like "redneckriviera" would entertain that sort of claim :

 

[redneckriviera]

Are you guys actually IN radio? Or are you just watching from the sidelines?

The recent drop in radio ad revenue is directly connected to the drop in retail, which is directly related to the current economic recesssion impacting nearly all business sectors in the United States. Hey, it's in all the papers! (Or, if you prefer, it's on all the websites).

The rise of the internet has effected the newspaper business most directly, and the growth of internet advertising has come almost completely at the expense of newspapers.

I hate to fall back on research when personal opinion is so much more fun to sling around, but the previously cited study from Edison & Arbitron released a few weeks ago confirms that radio listening continues to be strong and that online listening enhances radio's strength rather than hurting it.

The pesky facts can really mess up good theories, but every once in awhile they come in handy.

 

[gr8oldies]

There were a couple of true mom and pops in the area that I grew up. One was WPGW in Portland, IN, where the late Glenn West and his wife held forth. If the station was off the air, it might just be that the record ran out while Glenn was out mowing the lawn. It didn't sound good, it carried three of the four ABC networks, and you would hear Mrs. West's sing-songy voice say "this is your ABC Network News Station, WPGW in Portlan, Indiana". It was purchased by a couple of guys from Pennsylvania, who hired a local school teacher for Sundaya..he nowe owns the station and one in Berne IN, so i guess you can still put it in the mom and pop category. WERM in Wapakoneta, OH was owned by Ernestine and Harry Miller. Very muddy audioed Beautiful Music by day, and the 6 to 10 Club with rock and roll at night. (They ran Wolfman Jack's Air Force show). Before the station was sold, the kids ran it as a oersonal hard rock jukebox.

It was us who killed downtown, ate at chain restaurants instead of local diners, and listened to big market stations instead of swap shop. We decided we wanted the convenience of a lower price and being able to go out for something at 10:00 on a Saturday night instead of having to do all our shopping before 5pm Momday through Saturday. There's am old song called "Scarlett ribbons" where the father sees his little daughter praying for a scarlet ribbon..of course "all the stores are closed and shuttered" late on a Saturday night. No problem today!

 

[firepoint525]

I would caution against saying that all moms and pops were great, at least if you were actually working in radio. Pick up a copy of the Broadcasting Yearbook. Look up any station you like. If all the key positions at that station (GM, PD, ops. mgr., office manager, sales manager/director) are all held by people having the same last name, run for the hills! If you go to work for a station like that, you are seen as invading their fiefdom! Even worse if all those previously mentioned positions are held by the same person! When one person wears all (or most) of the hats, believe me, they can find fault with whatever you do (or don't do)! Sometimes, corporations and corporately managed stations can be great because they can't micromanage everything you do! And another thing, beware of nepotism! If the GM's son is 15 or 16, you can bet he WILL get an airshift somewhere at that station!

 

[redneckriviera]

Only a wishfully-thinking guy with a name like "redneckriviera" would entertain that sort of claim :

It's a geographical reference. More or less from Gulf Shores, Alabama to Panama City, Florida. If you've never sat on a barstool parked in the sand at Juana's Pagodas at Navarre Beach (Google it) sipping on rum drinks, you've never really lived.

 

[Stewy]

Amen RNR!