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Will Local Talent Be Discovered?

C

Call Me Sherlock

Gee, with the NAB and R & R Convention in town, do you think any of the local talent is apt to be discovered and spirited away by some of the major market brass that are visiting?

Maybe Keith Larson can make it back to his hometown of Chicago or Jeff Katz can make it to the big time! Katz seems to be running his own personal PR campaign in the trades lately. An award from his church, an award from Clover (or was it York?).

Even Jason Lewis never got so much trade press!
 
All the local talent in Charlotte has left market number 33 to work in market number 25 and they never even had to get a U-Haul or fill out change of address cards.

With the major operators here like Clear Channel, Lincoln, Radio One and CBS does market size really make that much of a difference?

The cost of living here is still better than most of the major markets.
 
Call Me Sherlock said:
Gee, with the NAB and R & R Convention in town, do you think any of the local talent is apt to be discovered and spirited away by some of the major market brass that are visiting?
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No way. They're on their cell phones.. either to their brokers or an executive search firm.
 
Oh I'm sure there'll be a lot of "local talent" discovered. Only they'll all be wearing micro minis and charging 150 bucks a "date". OW!
 
Mike Sheridan said:
All the local talent in Charlotte has left market number 33 to work in market number 25 and they never even had to get a U-Haul or fill out change of address cards.
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Hey Mike, unless I'm missing something, according to Radio & Records,Market #25 is Riverside-San Bernadino.

Regarding the NAB, how are the locals treating the visitors? It's been my experience that when a convention hits, people are on their best behavior and there's a pleasant ripple effect with dollars coming into the area being spread around many sectors. Then again, these are radio folks we're talkin' about and they're probably squeezing their dollars so tightly, you can hear the greenbacks wheezing!

I'm told by a few friends down there that it's rather calm and business-like. So many companies have cut their travel and convention budgets that many attendees are springing for their own meals and amenities, (I don't think the "escorts" were ever covered by any company's "travel expenses.")

The guys from the east coast and northeast are probably happy they can get direct flights back home (Buffalo, Pittburgh, NYC, Philly) without having to go through Atlanta or Chicago, two of the busiest airports in America.
 
Actually Jim, CBS recently lead a push to add a few counties to the Charlotte metro. The counties being added include Iredell, Cleveland, Stanly and Anson counties in North Carolina and Chester and Lancaster counties in South Carolina. Since it was determined that more than 55% of the residents of these counties listens to a Metro radio station, Arbitron allowed them to be included. The addition of these counties to the Metro Area increased the size of the market by 30%. The result is that Charlotte will jump up to Market #25 now.


I'm here for NAB this week, and I'm personally having a great time. I never actually go to the convention...it is, in my opinion, a waste of money. The very last thing I want to waste my time with is a bunch of folks telling me how great HD Radio is, and how it's the solution to all of radio's problems, and I'm getting a whole lot of that this week despite the fact that I haven't gone to a single Convention-sponsored function. However, I love being here in the city with lots and lots of other radio folks. Lots of opportunity to mingle, meet with clients and vendors, and network, even if you don't attend the actual Convention.

As for the hospitality, it's great. Charlotte is one of my favorite destinations anyway, being a lifelong North Carolinian until a few years ago. It's kinda like coming home for me, but a good many of my friends are really enjoying the Southern hospitality, so obviously the locals are treating the visitors just fine.
 
Thanks for the market tutorial and the background, Broker. Enjoyed your take on the convention, the peripheral activities and the impressive growth of the Charlotte market... once one of those great "sleepy, southern feeder markets" for guys who are now nationally known and respected, like Jay Thomas and others. Always enjoyed hearing the airchecks of Big Ways and other legendary Top 40 stations (like Quixie In Dixie and The Big Ape.)

Conventions are an interesting study. I've been reading the accounts of the seminars, particularly the PPM, in Radio & Records and other publications.

Fred Jacobs is one of the most astute programming consultants in the business and he's a gentleman as well. Most of us know the business is constantly evolving and it appears we're going through one of those "evolutionary-revolutionary" periods with the onset of PPM measurement.

Working in AC, and having worked in Classic Rock, Classic Hits and AOR, I'm very curious and eager to learn about how the PPM affects each of these formats. I have a suspiscion it will be seismic. The way Active Rock and CHR stations accomodate the change will be of particular interest, given their constutuents' disinterest in radio and moreso, having to account for radio listening. I'd think the PPM would offer a certain advantage, once the participants-respondants are located by Arbitron.

Best regards,

Jim Pastrick
 
Pick up a copy of Radio World. I wrote an article for their NAB issues on PPM that includes an interview with Mike McVay and one of the session presenters. PPM is showing great love to AC and any format that can be picked up passively. It's not working out as well for urban and youth oriented formats, mostly due to sample sizes. There's still some grumbling about the length of time a PPM keeper has to stay on board.

I asked McVay if he thought satellite radio would show up stronger if/when the technology is implemented at Sirius and XM. His answer was basically, "have you heard anything about Howard Stern lately?"

There's a PPM study on the Arbitron website that shows that listeners almost always stay with a station through a stop set - something that was previously not mainstream thought (unless you worked for 107.9 during the "we only stop the music twice and hour" period).

One bug that I haven't gotten an answer on, is embedded markets and whether they'll be able to accurately do PPM.
 
I just hope they leave Mark Packer alone because his sports show "Primetime with the Packman" is the best sports show on air in this area.
 
With nearly every small market station in America automated, where the hell will the next generation of talent come from anyway? I still FEEL young, but will be 50 on my next birthday. Been doin' this since 1974, and given the chance, I'd do it all over again. But would the opportunities even exist?
 
Yep, Mike, I'll ne 58 and started in 1966 and would do it all over again.. The trick is, we have to take the stations away from the congomerates as Clear Channel and the rest..The we can get back to what radio was orginally designed to be...Most inportant, News to the community they were licensed to and entertainment..rather than Jim, Bob, Simon, Ralph, George BS.. and Horsesh##!
 
BIG APE said:
Yep, Mike, I'll ne 58 and started in 1966 and would do it all over again.. The trick is, we have to take the stations away from the congomerates as Clear Channel and the rest..The we can get back to what radio was orginally designed to be...Most inportant, News to the community they were licensed to and entertainment..rather than Jim, Bob, Simon, Ralph, George BS.. and Horsesh##!
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I'm right between you guys, I'm 55 and started in 1972. Radio is all I ever wanted to do. While I enjoyed it I'm not sure if I would do it all over again. After my last part-time radio job the thrill is gone. Lots of what I enjoyed about radio doesn't seem to exist anymore.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
BIG APE said:
Yep, Mike, I'll ne 58 and started in 1966 and would do it all over again.. The trick is, we have to take the stations away from the congomerates as Clear Channel and the rest..The we can get back to what radio was orginally designed to be...Most inportant, News to the community they were licensed to and entertainment..rather than Jim, Bob, Simon, Ralph, George BS.. and Horsesh##!
Click to expand...

I'm right between you guys, I'm 55 and started in 1972. Radio is all I ever wanted to do. While I enjoyed it I'm not sure if I would do it all over again. After my last part-time radio job the thrill is gone. Lots of what I enjoyed about radio doesn't seem to exist anymore.
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I am mostly along with Mike here. I am 55, and started in radio in 1966, stayed in mostly until 1995 with a few breaks. I got out because most of what I enjoyed was gone, and the pay was total crap. I no wmake more than triple what I made during my best year ever in radio. The only thing I do in radio these days is when I take 2 weeks every 4 years to help staff the radio station at the National Boy Scout Jamboree! What a hoot that is, so much fun and I get to work with a bunch of great guys and great scouts.

That said, I miss radio at least what it used to be, and what it still could be if the bean counters would go away and let radio be an entertainment medium instgead of trying to make it a cash generator like other businesses. It must make money, true, but it is not like any other business, not even television, it is totally different, and if those in charge don't understand anything but numbers, it will become . . . well what it is in most places now.

New talent will be harder and harder to find as time passes, but there will also be less of a demand for it as well, eventually it will all dry up unless changes are made, and there will be nothing but jukebox radio left.

As I have said many times before, I despise "Jukebox Radio" because it forces me to listen to commercials, then gives me nothing in return but music that I have no hand in selecting. If that is all radio can offer me, I will stay with my CD player, with no commercials and I get to choose the music. That is why all my music radio now comes from XM, more choice of music, and many personality based stations so much more than jukebox. On terrestrial radio I only listen to talk radio these days, no jukebox for me.
 
As long as "what radio used to be" is alive in us, it's ALIVE. It can return. I believe it will. In a few small-town stations, and a very few big ones, it never left. Much of what we remember...local information, community involvement, live "warm bodies" still lives in public radio, which is thriving.
 
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