Why Radio Sucks....or is it just the people in it.

[eyewitness news]

As the largest radio broadcaster, CC often sets the tone for the entire industry and we all get painted with the same brush. Too bad. Still plenty of fine folks in the business doing good radio and generating ratings and revenue. It is also notable that there seems to be much glee on these boards by folks discussing life changing events like being fired. Another thread was titled: Clear Channel GM bites the dust. Nice. I happen to know Tex Meyer and have for 15 years and I'll tell you what, hes a good guy who tried his best to turn things around and it didn't work out. I wish him and his lovely wife Kay the best.

I'm sure many have logged into radio info over the past few days hoping to get the scoop on the folks who have lost their jobs and have the opportunity to make some smart ass remark about it. Why?

It seems that many of folks in radio, or out of radio but still interested in it delight in the suffering of others. Good hearted fun is one thing, but there seems little that is good hearted on this board and most others.

Bottom line, seems like a lot of posters are lacking some basic intregity and compassion and look for any opportunity to hide behind screen names to push their BS adjenda. Think back to some of nasty comments made over the years on this board.

I find it interesting to see so many people on these boards talk about evil GM's and heartless managers, while
making snide remarks about people who are losing their jobs.

I began looking at this board to find discussions..debates and alternate points of view, but most often the boards are filled with High school bs, namecalling and downright mean comments.

I happen to think there is still plenty of great things going on in radio. Is it different from the "old" days? Yes, but if it was easy everybody would be doing it...its supposed to be hard.

I'm sticking to my guns...radio doesn't suck...just some of the people in it.

 

[EncSpy]

this whole site was nicknamed radio-national inquirer for a reason....

 

[powerdown]

Well said eye...

 

[gr8oldies]

There was so much traffic R I froze. Would't be a bunch of vultures out there would there?

 

[Sniffthamic]

I totally agree with greatgoldieoldies on this one!

Eyewitness hits the nail where its head is at. I felt like the "Gm bites the dust" AND "CC firings thread" with the line "post 'em as you get 'em". That was cold. No matter how you feel about corporate radio, what happened the other day happened to people. I hope they all bounce back in an up and coming radio station/radio company/other industry!

A guy told me one time that radio was all about a feeling. It's like Christmas. It feels like it does. He was not Ray Adams!!!! Hahahahahahahahahah! He was George McCartney. (If you're reading this, call me!) No, but seriously, radio will always feel like it does. If you don't feel it, don't do it, you're in the wrong line of work. If you do feel it, you'll never be able to do anything else. Radio isn't broken. The people who need to be running radio aren't doing it too often and mutatis mutandis. I'm not saying I'd like to send all the non radio people in radio on a rocket to the sun!!!!

 

[Big Doug Metzenbaum]

People in radio get fired. It happens. It happened to me more than once. I wouldn't trust anyone in the business who hasn't gotten fired at some point.

Once upon a time you got fired because your ratings sucked, or you pissed off your program director or you got drunk at a remote and embarrassed the account executive. (not that any of the above ever happened to me)

These days, it's all about downsizing or right-sizing or making market corrections. It's bloodless and cold. Radio is not about radio anymore. It's all about real estate and rich guys renting puffed air to each other.

Radio is an enormous stinking cesspool of its own making. It's about cookie-cutter formats on stations owned by huge multi-station conglomerates. "The Simon format, a division of CONHUGECO." The biggest lie since "Mission Accomplished" is "The listener wins." The listener hasn't won, or even come in second, since 1991.

I have huge empathy for my radio bretheren who have been fired. I know what it feels like. I pray they land on their feet. And "by landing on their feet" I mean "find a better job in the real world."

 

[Christopher Chenn]

The sad news is: Big Doug is more right than anyone wants to admit.

 

[quadraphonic]

How many of the bastages who are cutting down fired people actually work in radio still? Doesn't seem like many, most who are still in it are doing five jobs, one of which is rarely posting on internet forums.

Maybe it's better they have this place to vent instead of taking it out on their customers and the milk shake machine and the mop.

 

[surfdude]

I don't think all of the posts on Radio-Info are a true representation of the whole
industry. I'm still in it, part-time at CMG, and I have friends at Entercom and some other groups,
and we still enjoy our jobs.

I do believe some of the A students have left the business on their own, and many D & F students
have been pushed out. But there are still plenty of good people in the biz.

 

[dittohead1]

I started the CC Firings thread and it certainly wasn't to make fun of people who got fired. CC was trying to use inauguration day as a cover for it's big downsizing day and they don't deserve to get away with that. I also wanted people to know who was fired so that OTHER FOLKS could reach out to them and maybe help them get another job. If you are assigning devious motives, maybe those motives are yours. That's your soul-searching.

 

[MaskMan]

and I started the "GM at Clear Channel Bites the Dust" thread and while I admit the headline was rough and could have been more sensitve, if you read my post, I certainly wasn't gloating or unfeeling about his being let go. Certainly not "gleeful" as Eyewitness says! I'm sure he tried very hard to turn it around, although there might be a few employees who would disagree with that. It was more a testament to typical operations at Clear Channel. I have not reveled in people loosing their jobs! I also haven't seen anyone else on here "gleeful" about people loosing their jobs! Anyone finding themselves jobless in this environment is facing a tough road. All the raving and ranting at the beginning of this thread comes off as sanctimonious and self-rightious to me. I see nothing wrong with discussing the fact that Clear Channel has let a lot of people go. If it seems irreverent to you, then maybe you need to do some self introspection. I think people being curious about all of this is quite normal. It's certainly not something you can just sweep under the rug and pretend it didn't happen.

 

[BIG APE]

I started the CC Firings thread and it certainly wasn't to make fun of people who got fired. CC was trying to use inauguration day as a cover for it's big downsizing day and they don't deserve to get away with that. I also wanted people to know who was fired so that OTHER FOLKS could reach out to them and maybe help them get another job. If you are assigning devious motives, maybe those motives are yours. That's your soul-searching.

I have to come to your defense with this one..If CC is such a God Fearing company, just Google..Clear Channel Sucks and see what you come up with. A friend of mine actually had a website at one time by this name. I don't know if it is still up or not..But thousands of posts can't be wrong...Clear Channel should have NEVER been allowed to aquire all the stations they control in the first place. Just some more Demo RAT BS.. Clinton or Carter one!..Maybe a new FCC Commish can wave the magic wand and fix this!

 

[vchimpanzee]

I don't work in radio.

I just find the ranting on this site entertaining (I first came here because I lost WFMX), but I also learn valuable information here and, these days, I update Wikipedia if it hasn't been done already when I find the new information.

I think a good reason to celebrate any bad news at Clear Channel is the hope that they'll have to get rid of some stations, possibly selling them to people who will be more responsive to us. I guess it's wrong to assume that the people they fired were the ones making radio undesirable for us.

I have been directly affected by Clear Channel's actions in a couple of ways. The fact is that the one change I mentioned has worked out mostly positively for me. I had to switch to another station to hear Paul Harvey, and at that time the station had just started playing music I like. Rather than be forced to hear Big and Rich and Montgomery Gentry unless I turned the clock radio off after Paul Harvey (thereby risking making a mistake that would cause the clock radio not to come on the next time), I was being treated to the likes of Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. And on Saturday, I could turn on Paul Harvey at noon, something I had avoided with WFMX, and hear some of Paul's best material. And if I left the radio on, provided there was no sports, I could hear good music. And that music just keeps getting better and better.

The bad side (aside from no longer automatically hearing the good new country) is that if I miss Paul's "Rest of the Story" at 3, I can't hear it at 6:30 (though NASCAR sometimes prevented that), and if someone messed up, or the signal is bad, or I just forget, I risk missing it at 7:30 the next morning on the same station (I've been waking up with a clock radio at that time, though, ever since they started doing the rebroadcast). I've had to resort to that when NASCAR made it necessary, and Friday was always the worst day for them messing up taping the show for rebroadcast.

Plus the other station refuses to acknowledge the Saturday morning "Rest of the Story" broadcast even exists. And these have not been available online. I remember when they were, if NASCAR messed up Friday, there was only one online broadcast and by the time I got to a computer, that was the Saturday one.

The same satellite format that is used on the Paul Harvey station was on the station I listened to in the mountains. Clear Channel couldn't be bothered with losing money on that station, and with no signal problems to speak of on WWNC, they decided to do a WWNC simulcast anyway.

 

[BIG APE]

;D I'm am real glad you shared all that info..I'm not being saracastic..I am really impressed. Perhaps if more people like you had made your wishes known as you have some of this ungodly crap could have been avoided. With the demise of Clear Channel, I hope that some local broadcasters will take the opportunity to grab this and turn this around. Get these stations back local and allow radio to thrive as it once did when I worked in it in it's heyday.

Thanks Chimp for your honest opinion and voice! You are the people the stations need to listen too, Not some "jackass consultants from Dallas!

BIG APE!

 

[spacetrucker]

Amen Brother!!!

 

[BIG APE]

: I actually would like to know if ANYONE besides those in the business still listen to ANY Off air radio stations? I find myself scanning the dials just to see what is happening on what station, but I never leave it on one station over a few minutes..It's too naueous (sp)Sickning (sp) Barf! There is absolutely NO information useful except for a few AM stations WLXN, WSJS etc, I might hit for a few minutes for the weather, but that's another story..Accuweather sucks as does the Weather Channel..One sits in DC and the other in Atlanta and neither gets the forecast right ever! Of course, lets not leave out the local forecasters either...They don't have a clue either! So what else is left..Someone reading the police blotter from the local newspapers or 2 day old news or better yet, Hell, lets just read the NC Summary off the wire. I actually would rather hear the local Obit's light the funeral homes used to air..I guess what I'm saying is..It's a vast wasteland and until someone decides to go back local, the stations are going to continue down the toliet. Comments?? BIG APE

 

[audiomusiclover]

Wow, guess Radio may as well go dark and lets just go back to listening to the distant drums for info...

 

[Christopher Chenn]

Wow, guess Radio may as well go dark and lets just go back to listening to the distant drums for info...

The distant drums are called alternative media. I Pods, Satellite radio, Internet, etc. Radio has been totally inept in keeping up with the world and adjusting to new technologies. Instead the radio brains are busy figuring out how to force another few sales bucks out of a stale old product and then how many staff can be cut without losing too much revenue. The cart is pushing the horse and until someone really gets it, radio is going down. When I say totally gets it I mean a REAL big change in a product that is so totally different you might not recognize it from old radio.

 

[gr8oldies]

Yeah, I just heard that all radio stations nationwide got 0.0 shares in all demographics and dayparts. Of course people are listening! We have station sponsored concerts and events that are sold out. I hear radio in cars and stores. Ask folks around here who were glued to our news/talker during our hurricane remnant windstorm that killed power for days on end. No, "everyone" isn't listening to obscure microniche music on an iPod 24/7.

 

[BIG APE]

Yeah, I just heard that all radio stations nationwide got 0.0 shares in all demographics and dayparts. Of course people are listening! We have station sponsored concerts and events that are sold out. I hear radio in cars and stores. Ask folks around here who were glued to our news/talker during our hurricane remnant windstorm that killed power for days on end. No, "everyone" isn't listening to obscure microniche music on an iPod 24/7.

And what market are you referring to sir? Certainly not Raleigh/GSO??