Why John Hogan needs to resign...

[LA_Guy]

Why John Hogan needs to resign….

I remember reading an essay John Hogan wrote some time ago. In it he spoke
about radio with the analogy of a boat. It was quite trite, and ended up with
(I’m paraphrasing). And if the wind dies-ROW! John, it’s time you got
into that boat and rowed away!

Under your direction, Clear Channel radio has done dismally. Ratings are down,
profits are down, despite your cutting away everything expenses are up, and CC
stock is in the tank. Your “less is more” plan is an utter failure. You
singlehandedly have done more to ruin broadcast radio then anyone else in
history! I saw yesterday that you have found the ultimate way to cut station
expenses to zero-shut them down and turn in their licenses! Great idea, John!

You wasted millions of dollars on IBOC, now proven to be a joke. Any Engineer
worth his salt could have told you that IBOC is fatally flawed. Of course,
yours didn’t-but maybe that has something to do with his being on the Board
of Directors of Ibiquity! But I’m sure that’s just a small conflict of interest though.
Besides, you can always lay off more employees to pay for all that useless IBOC hardware.
Right??

Let me clue you into something John, Instead of putting scads of money filling
secondary IBOC channels with automated drivel, why not put that money into
making your PRIMARY stations better? After all, those are where 99.99% of your
listeners are. Plug the boat’s leaks before you worry about its back up
engine. That way the boat won’t sink. And buy a few pumps while you’re at
it-many of your boats are already flooded well above the water line.

But wait-I just figured your whole philosophy out. LESS IS MORE! It doesn’t
just apply to spots-it applies to everything you do! Less live shows. Less
Program Directors. Less Managers. Less Engineers. Less promotion. Less
research. And the more: More voicetracking. More commercials. More
unemployment in the broadcasting field. All courtesy of Clear Channel.

John, somehow you’ve missed a fundamental tenet of life: Excellence begets
excellence. On the other hand, you seem to believe that excellence is too
expensive. Being mediocre is much more profitable. There’s only one problem,
John-your stations are LESS profitable then when they strived to be the best!

Perhaps I’m being unfair to single you out. After all, under Farid
Suleman’s rule, Citadel is just about bankrupt. CBS and Cumulus aren’t
doing much better. But I don’t believe I am being unfair. As the head of the
largest radio group in the world, you set the tone for the entire industry.
It’s you that they look to for leadership, and frankly it isn’t there. All
I hear you talk about is how “perception” is hurting radio. Well, the
hundreds of employees you laid off just before Christmas aren’t a
perception, they are a reality! Those hard working people deserved better from
Clear Channel then to be unceremoniously showed the door! So John, it’s time
to lay yourself off, and re-hire ten of them back with your salary. That way
they’ll be a few more people to plug the leaks in the boat. Because the boat
is sinking John and as its Captain you must go down with the ship.

 

[DG02816]

Knowing LA_Guy as I do, I can't agree more. Financial bilge pumps won't keep up with THIS mess...Perhaps the powers-that-be should listen to folks like Jerry DelColliano. He pretty much has it figured out as to what radio SHOULD do to keep itself relevant in this IPOD/Internet age....

 

[radionut925]

Knowing LA_Guy as I do, I can't agree more. Financial bilge pumps won't keep up with THIS mess...Perhaps the powers-that-be should listen to folks like Jerry DelColliano. He pretty much has it figured out as to what radio SHOULD do to keep itself relevant in this IPOD/Internet age....

Ditto!

 

[davideduardo]

Knowing LA_Guy as I do, I can't agree more. Financial bilge pumps won't keep up with THIS mess...Perhaps the powers-that-be should listen to folks like Jerry DelColliano. He pretty much has it figured out as to what radio SHOULD do to keep itself relevant in this IPOD/Internet age....

It's pretty easy for someone who has not actually had to make a radio station successful for a coupl'a decades to play "outguess the industry." It's like gambling with Monopoly(tm) money.

 

[davideduardo]

Under your direction, Clear Channel radio has done dismally. Ratings are down,

Actually, ratings are up slightly. Go to the ratings section and add cluster shares in the ongoing (not sold markets)

profits are down,

Actually, on a same station basis, profits are WAY up. Remember, in 2007 Clear has already disposed of hundreds of stations, so on a "same station" basis (the way retail is evaluated) the improvement is quite large. On an enterprise basis, the 2006 cash flows were $1.84 billion, and in 2007, per Morningstar's average of analysts' projections, it will be about $1.75 billion with hundreds of stations less! That is very good performance in a relatively slow or bad year for radio.

[/quote]despite your cutting away everything expenses are up, and CC
stock is in the tank. [/quote]

The entire market is in the tank. All gains for 2007 have been wiped out, and the averages are 4% to 6% down in the first 40 days of 2008, depending on what time of each day you check the market.

You wasted millions of dollars on IBOC, now proven to be a joke. Any Engineer
worth his salt could have told you that IBOC is fatally flawed.

That is pure opinion. At the SCBA conference in LA 12 days ago, group managers like Stone, Smulyan and Mason predicted an explosion of HD interest with the new low power chipsets that are now ready.

Of course,
yours didn’t-but maybe that has something to do with his being on the Board
of Directors of Ibiquity! But I’m sure that’s just a small conflict of interest though.

It is just the opposite, since Clear owns a piece of iBiquity. It is usual for investors with significant interests in a company to have representative on the board of that company. It would be highly irresponsible and neglect of fiscal responsibility were Clear not to be represented on iBiquity's board.

Besides, you can always lay off more employees to pay for all that useless IBOC hardware.
Right??

It was paid for years ago. And the amount is insignficant in the markets where Clear has put it. $100 k to put HD on an FM in LA, for example, is a drop in the bucket when a typical station bills over $30 million.

Being mediocre is much more profitable. There’s only one problem,
John-your stations are LESS profitable then when they strived to be the best!

Clever rhetoric, except for the fact that Clear has monster cash flows and excellent profits from radio.

CBS and Cumulus aren’t
doing much better.

CBS has been separate from Viacom for only 3 years. The Street consensus is that 2007 will be the absolute best of the three years on cash flow (remember CBS is more than radio), and the best year in a decade for CBS radio.

It would be a lot easier to consider your opinions if you did not post false earnings reports, fail to look at the overall economy, and ignore the relatively low costs of capital expenses such as HD and fail to recognize that major owners of companies always sit the board of the companies they are invested in. Your whole point is built on a foundation of mistaken data, making your conclusions unfounded.

Note: this is a modification of my answer in another of the board sections where you posted the exact same material.

 

[LA_Guy]

Knowing LA_Guy as I do, I can't agree more. Financial bilge pumps won't keep up with THIS mess...Perhaps the powers-that-be should listen to folks like Jerry DelColliano. He pretty much has it figured out as to what radio SHOULD do to keep itself relevant in this IPOD/Internet age....

It's pretty easy for someone who has not actually had to make a radio station successful for a coupl'a decades to play "outguess the industry." It's like gambling with Monopoly(tm) money.

Uhm, David, I owned two FM's. Both were startups-and both were the fastest nothing to #1 in their markets (one beat the record of the other). Both were profitable.

I also signed on and managed on a TV station in a top 10 market. It was in the black ten months after sign on-TWICE as fast as its owners expected it to be!

I'm no frustrated DJ or Monday morning quarterback. I know how to run radio stations. Even better, I know how NOT to run radio stations. I know incompetance when I see it-and John Hogan is at the top of his glass ceiling. He has reached his level of incompetance. He is living proof that the Peter Principle is alive and well.....

He needs to go....

 

[davideduardo]

It's pretty easy for someone who has not actually had to make a radio station successful for a coupl'a decades to play "outguess the industry." It's like gambling with Monopoly(tm) money.

Uhm, David, I owned two FM's. Both were startups-and both were the fastest nothing to #1 in their markets (one beat the record of the other). Both were profitable.

I was referring to Jerry, not you.

In any case, I too have owned a few FMs. My first profitable one turned the corner in 1967 after less than a year on the air.

There are plenty of us who have owned stations on here, I am sure. We all probably have some interesting stories. But the common link between most of us is that we would not put our own money in a station today. True?

I'm no frustrated DJ or Monday morning quarterback. I know how to run radio stations. Even better, I know how NOT to run radio stations. I know incompetance when I see it-and John Hogan is at the top of his glass ceiling. He has reached his level of incompetance. He is living proof that the Peter Principle is alive and well.....

I think you are mistaken. He is in the driver's seat, but the issues are not of his making. He did not pay the multiples, make the promises and set the course when consolidation began. Now he will have to answer to owners who are not broadcasters.

 

[amfmsw]

David, I just read a post from you on another board that was right on point. Excellent. With this, however, I'm afraid if you were throwing darts, you missed the wall.

CC stock was at $90, it is now in the $20's. It has been run into the ground. I am ashamed to state that I moved all my mutual funds to those without broadcast and print media. Investors do not care about cash flow, they care about dividends and earings ratios. What does it say dave, when the company is shutting off transmitters to save on the light bill? To me, it says there's REAL trouble.

As a reputable consultant, you know there are times to listen to your clients and industry. This is one of those times. The record industry would not listen, and missed the tides of youth swimming away. They are gone forever. The same has happened to radio. The only big profit centers are with adults over 30, and radio is abandoning THEM too!

You're not listening, and neither are they. We can't justify ourselves anymore, and the corporate raiders are to blame. The industry, with rare private ownership exception, has been gutted of it's very soul. Respectfully Dave, in this post, sadly, LA has hit the bullseye.

 

[davideduardo]

David, I just read a post from you on another board that was right on point. Excellent. With this, however, I'm afraid if you were throwing darts, you missed the wall.

CC stock was at $90, it is now in the $20's. It has been run into the ground. I am ashamed to state that I moved all my mutual funds to those without broadcast and print media. Investors do not care about cash flow, they care about dividends and earings ratios. What does it say dave, when the company is shutting off transmitters to save on the light bill? To me, it says there's REAL trouble.

The market frequently moves in strange ways. Microsoft bid on Yahoo because the price was 80% below its high of the last 5 or 6 years. Washington Mutual is off 60% from its 52 week high. Low growth sectors today are out of favor, but that is how the market works.

The market favors high growth, not stable, slow growth income. One of the best companies in the world, GE, with consistent earnings growth, has see pretty much no share growth for years.

As a reputable consultant, you know there are times to listen to your clients and industry. This is one of those times. The record industry would not listen, and missed the tides of youth swimming away. They are gone forever. The same has happened to radio. The only big profit centers are with adults over 30, and radio is abandoning THEM too!

The record companies, like the movie companies, are paranoid about betraying their traditional bread and butter business, brick and mortar record stores and theatres. The problem is that most of us do not want to buy hard copy CDs and go to movie theatres. We want to buy the content, but in a form we can use. Record companies can not understand the consumer, and movie companies are just absolutely clueless.

You're not listening, and neither are they.

Those of us in radio understand the analogy: deliver content by whichever method listeners want, and on demand if needed. However, the alterative channels are still not clear. There are, probably, not the current version of the web. They may be WiMax, but the breakup of clearwire and Spring makes this nebulous for the moment. Radio stations, after 1920, were not in the equipment business, we were in the content business. As new channels become effective providers of broadcasts (as opposed to playlists) we will be there.

We can't justify ourselves anymore, and the corporate raiders are to blame. The industry, with rare private ownership exception, has been gutted of it's very soul. Respectfully Dave, in this post, sadly, LA has hit the bullseye.

People who don't understand radio should not be in radio. Look at the cases of movie studios and record companies that went too corporate, too. Anything in the area of entertainment has to be product driven. We agree significantly, although there are many companies in radio that are talent and product driven and have a "radio soul." I'm at one of them, thankfully.

LA's problem is not his vision (he never indicated he had one, and I doubt, within his negativism and finger pointing, that he has one). His problem is trying to justify a harsh critique with facts that were simple wrong... all of them.