WWON in the Radio-Info Spotlight

[kenhawk1160]

It is my opinion that this is why local radio is dying out, "wanting something for nothing", another words, some owners have the stations, will not support the community organizations etc with-out some type of financial payback, but yet question their sales exec., managers why the numbers continue to fall with the stations they own....

I half agree with that. Owners who support the community with expectations of some return on their investment isn't an unreasonable request. If a community wants to hear high school football, that's money that a station has to lay out in talent, a producer and cell/line charges to air the game. In most cases, you'll get the advertisers you need to support it. The first year, you might not break even, but the following year, if you can't raise sponsorships, then you have to look at it as "is this the prudent thing to do?"

Right or wrong, there are people in every community who view radio station owners as having deep pockets. This is simply untrue. Most small market radio operators are small business owners like any other and they deserve to make a profit likewise. If half of what you take in can cover your overhead, that's not bad. If you're not satisfied with that, then that's just plain greed.

There's going to be "gimmes" in every small market...remotes and appearances that you are going to have to do without consideration of revenue. The dilemma is knowing when to say yes to some, and no to others, because people will try to take advantage for the reasons I just mentioned. They expect you to be everywhere for everything, and that's just not possible in today's economic climate. We're running with smaller budgets, staffs, and revenues than ever before. That's the reality of the business these days.

 

[radiofan4life]

Amen, I get tired of hearing about these greedy owners making all that money and giving nothing back. I haven't met an owner yet who fit that category. The ones I know are barely paying their bills these days. Things are tough all over. I feel for them just like all small business owners. The fact of the matter is if you don't like who you work for go somewhere else. It's a great country we live in. We have choices. If I go to a restaurant for breakfast and all they are serving is cereal, I have two logical choices. A) I can sit down and enjoy my cereal or B) I can go to another restaurant and eat eggs if I choose. It sounds like to me the guy who criticizes the company he works for publicly has chosen option C) he decided to pee in his cereal and complain about the taste. Makes no sense to me but maybe I'm just old fashioned. One thing for sure, if I had a radio station, I'd rather run it on a computer or a network than have a room full of folks like that to listen to.

 

[selmeradio]

I was not, or atleast did not mean to emply that Grace was a "cash cow", keeping profits for themselves... Things are tight for the economy across the board, and I'm pretty sure that it is the same with the owners of Grace...

My point was, if more ( not just merely $$$, but presence, community help, adopting a child at Christmas, etc....) "was" put into the communities stations serve in general, then people might be more supportive of their local stations....

 

[firepoint525]

I half agree with that. Owners who support the community with expectations of some return on their investment isn't an unreasonable request. If a community wants to hear high school football, that's money that a station has to lay out in talent, a producer and cell/line charges to air the game. In most cases, you'll get the advertisers you need to support it. The first year, you might not break even, but the following year, if you can't raise sponsorships, then you have to look at it as "is this the prudent thing to do?"

At my first station, a small 500-watt daytime-only AM, they carried high school football games tape-delayed on Saturday mornings. I never worked a Saturday morning there, but the owner/manager once told me that sponsors were dropping the broadcasts. I suppose since the outcome of the games was already known, there was really no point in listening to the broadcasts. But I should add that the local high school was having a losing season that year. They eventually started winning some games, but I'm not sure if the sponsors ever returned or not. I never worked any of those games, but on at least a couple of occasions, I played back tapes of the local junior high's football games during my weekday afternoon air shift.

 

[radiofan4life]

That makes sense. Actually it not only makes sense, it is the law. At least as far as the FCC is concerned. Now mind you, I am not an FCC attorney (I did however stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) but as I understand it, the FCC requires stations to serve their local community in a couple of ways. They must maintain a public file on site which includes their quarterly issues and programs reports. Those issues would be made up of local issues identified by the station with input from the community. These are issues that they address on air. Doesn't have to be events they attended or anything like that but does have to be issues that served the community. Secondly, they must maintain a local station manager at each location with fulltime working hours. These are required by all stations. I don't care who it is, if they aren't doing this then they are in violation. Having said that, I'm sure I could drive across Tennessee and find more stations not doing this than are.

 

[Meepster]

I could name you a few right now that have no one there for most of the day.
I'd like to hear the opinion of an FCC law kind of guy about that-out of curiosity.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I never worked a Saturday morning there, but the owner/manager once told me that sponsors were dropping the broadcasts. I suppose since the outcome of the games was already known, there was really no point in listening to the broadcasts. But I should add that the local high school was having a losing season that year. They eventually started winning some games, but I'm not sure if the sponsors ever returned or not.

One of the challenges of doing small market radio is keeping things identified for what they really are.

What is 'serving the community' ? Delayed ball game broadcasts may not be service, but may be something that is 'sellable' thus keeping the station financially alive.

Financially alive to do WHAT? I am afraid many a manager/owner was so tired after making all the sales calls, gathering the copy, recording the game for playback that they didn't have the inspiration and imagination and energy to then go on and do whatever 'serving the community' means.

Through that telescope that says "hindsight is always 20/20 vision" some of us KNOW what service was or should have been in 1957 or 1977. We did things for people that they can now do for themselves by phone and the internet. I'm not sure our industry has a clear vision of "What is service to the community?" in 2007... er, make that 2008.

 

[selmeradio]

That makes sense. Actually it not only makes sense, it is the law. At least as far as the FCC is concerned. Now mind you, I am not an FCC attorney (I did however stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) but as I understand it, the FCC requires stations to serve their local community in a couple of ways. They must maintain a public file on site which includes their quarterly issues and programs reports. Those issues would be made up of local issues identified by the station with input from the community. These are issues that they address on air. Doesn't have to be events they attended or anything like that but does have to be issues that served the community. Secondly, they must maintain a local station manager at each location with fulltime working hours. These are required by all stations. I don't care who it is, if they aren't doing this then they are in violation. Having said that, I'm sure I could drive across Tennessee and find more stations not doing this than are.

I agree, and I do again apologize for any earlier confusion....

I also very much agree that there are numerious stations with-out the "station Manager"... In alot of cases, which again has alot to do with the economy, the Manager is the "sales exec, the janitor, the lawn maintience, the engineer, the part time board-op, etc..... anything else that needs doing at the station...."

I guess though, this is the day which we are in, Having someone manning the station 24 hours a day is extient, except for EAS purposes....

 

[radiofan4life]

(See Not an FCC attorney disclaimer as mentioned before). My understanding is that there should be someone there who can show the files if requested. You should also post your hours of operation on your front door along with phone numbers should anyone need to contact you after hours. I'm sure that the FCC would understand if you posted a note on the door if someone was not available due to an emergency of some sort. The FCC is reasonable if the effort is there. I have heard rumors that there is talk of requiring 24/7 staffing again. My guess is that would put many a stations out of business.

 

[kenhawk1160]

(See Not an FCC attorney disclaimer as mentioned before). My understanding is that there should be someone there who can show the files if requested. You should also post your hours of operation on your front door along with phone numbers should anyone need to contact you after hours. I'm sure that the FCC would understand if you posted a note on the door if someone was not available due to an emergency of some sort. The FCC is reasonable if the effort is there. I have heard rumors that there is talk of requiring 24/7 staffing again. My guess is that would put many a stations out of business.

Your understanding is correct...you have to maintain business hours at your main studio location, and with a staff/management presence. Your public file is required to be kept in your city of license. If your station is outside the corporate limits of your city of license, then you need to keep it in a place where it can be easily accessed during those hours, like a local attorney or public library.

Licensees are not permitted to deny access to the file for any reason. You are allowed to charge anyone looking at it a reasonable fee, however, for photocopies of any material inside.

 

[bub]

They must maintain a public file on site which includes their quarterly issues and programs reports. Those issues would be made up of local issues identified by the station with input from the community. These are issues that they address on air. Doesn't have to be events they attended or anything like that but does have to be issues that served the community.

In most cases, a simple 30-minute public affairs show can take care of that requirement.

...you have to maintain business hours at your main studio location, and with a staff/management presence. Your public file is required to be kept in your city of license. If your station is outside the corporate limits of your city of license, then you need to keep it in a place where it can be easily accessed during those hours, like a local attorney or public library.

Licensees are not permitted to deny access to the file for any reason. You are allowed to charge anyone looking at it a reasonable fee, however, for photocopies of any material inside.

And it doesn't matter who wants to inspect the public file. A bum off the street with a knowledge of FCC rules and regs or any John /Jane Doe who wants to inspect the file because they have that much time on their hands can walk in to a radio station during normal business hours and request access to the file. The staff/management presence is also needed in the event of an FCC inspection during business hours.

 

[radiofan4life]

Bub, you are right on. Furthermore, you have no legal right to question anyone requesting viewing of your public files. You may not charge for viewing but as kenhawk said you may charge reasonable fees for copies made. At any rate, usually anyone requesting a viewing of public files would have a motive for doing so such as a competitor. Ken you lost me on the comments about if the station is ran from outside the city of license being able to use another venue for storing files. My understanding is that that venue would have to be able to take control of the station via STL or phone and override the programming.

 

[radiofan4life]

Also, comments such as "the owners of WWON have decided to move to Florida and run it from there" make me shudder at the possibilities.

 

[kenhawk1160]

Ken you lost me on the comments about if the station is ran from outside the city of license being able to use another venue for storing files. My understanding is that that venue would have to be able to take control of the station via STL or phone and override the programming.

That is incorrect. While the main studio location no longer has to reside within a station's city of license, the public file still has to be kept within the city of license to the best of my knowledge. It does not have to be on the station's premises. This has nothing to do with 'control' of the station. The main studio location, if outside the city of license, must also have a telephone number that is local to its city of license. Usually, this is a local number that call-forwards to the out-of-town number.

If a station is physically unmanned for any period of time, it must be equipped with off-site transmitter control, like a Sine Systems unit, which does allow you to break into the audio chain and interrupt programming, if it's set up correctly. You can't have your old STL and remote transmitter controller that you used in the 80's still on site, lock the doors and leave at 5pm and still stay on the air. THAT is illegal.

 

[J-Rod]

I'm going to agree with an Earlier Post, although I can't remember who wrote it, but there are many stations across Tennesse, The South, the Country that would be shut down today if the FCC walked in.

I'm also going to agree with selmeradio and say that Stations need to be local, From my own experiences in small market radio, if you keep it local and dedicated to the community you might make enough money to keep things going.

If you throw on a Sat. feed and ignore things.. you will have to close the doors.

There is no guarantee of success, but there is a sure fire way to fail.

Let's hope we get more live and local.

 

[kenhawk1160]

If you throw on a Sat. feed and ignore things.. you will have to close the doors.

There is no guarantee of success, but there is a sure fire way to fail.

Let's hope we get more live and local.

I half-agree with that. You can succeed with the satellite, but you better have enough local news, public affairs and sports programming on the air that takes the listener's attention off the fact that it's satellite.

When I worked in Indiana, PA, our station was one of the first AM's in the country to use satellite, and we were told after sign-on (at AM 1520 and at only 250 watts) that we'd never survive. Almost 25 years later, though I'm no longer there, they're at AM 1160 and boast 10,000 watts. They're the county-exclusive affiliate for Pittsburgh Pirates baseball, as well as high school and local college ball games. 25 minutes of news and sports at the top of the hour in AM/PM drive and at noon. That was done by doing the news from the top of the hour to the end of the :20 break on the satellite, when we were able to rejoin the network cleanly.

A fully live and local airstaff who does DJ shifts in real time is not realistic in today's business world. You're better off with a small contingency of live, local on-air people who are capable of broadcasting news and sports, and voicing commercials. I can name a ton of stations that use satellite programming that are doing very well, and the average listener doesn't care where the DJ's come from.

 

[firepoint525]

A fully live and local airstaff who does DJ shifts in real time is not realistic in today's business world. You're better off with a small contingency of live, local on-air people who are capable of broadcasting news and sports, and voicing commercials. I can name a ton of stations that use satellite programming that are doing very well, and the average listener doesn't care where the DJ's come from.

Most stations do not have enough overhead, and thus cannot afford to pay a DJ to come in and play the hits at night. Even if they did, and could, most DJs wouldn't accept the gig anyway, because they wouldn't be able to make enough money to pay their own bills!

So it becomes mutually exclusive!

 

[Meepster]

I think you mean most stations DO have TOO MUCH overhead, right?

Or is it some kind of tax write off thing? ;D

 

[J-Rod]

Oh yeah Ken, I agree. Sat. can be run correctly and then it is it's a great tool.

I worked at a cluster of stations that ran overnight sat programs, and one of the stations had a live morning show and the rest was a feed.

nothing wrong with that, because the had great local news and sports coverage, the were the only Braves affiliate in the area and just over all had a station that focused on the wants and needs of the community.

but like I said. if you just turn on a feed and then go sell ads, I don't think it will work.

You have to put the local effort.


oh and Meep. the station i work at has way to much overhead...

-a fully paid for building
-old and fully paid for equipment
-elec. water. gas. phone
-one full time employee, and 3 part timers.

way too much overhead... cuts must be made... ;D

we're thinking of selling the toilet and hot water heater... anyone interested

 

[Meepster]

"Most" stations being the key.

"Most" smaller stations are in debt up to their keesters because the owners paid too much for them, miscalculated the overhead, over-estimated their (or their staff's) sales ability, over-estimated local listener loyalty, counted on years long relationships with advertisers (house accounts) that dwindle away, didn't count upon equipment repairs and replacement, insurance costs, taxes, property taxes, license fees, franchise costs, and etc.

On the other hand...

Others are purchased AND operated with finances already on hand, are satisfied to operate at a loss for write-offs to cover other income, were left to the owners in a will with NO overhead, and are SO OLD and been owned by the same people for so long that everything is paid for, etc.

Still others (Smallest list) are small market stations that are still doing things with live local programming, the way they should be done, getting and KEEPING local listeners and advertisers, and are making good money doing things the right way.

If your "well-off" station is in the latter group-congratulations!

However, if it's in the middle group, I wouldn't be bragging too much about really old paid-for equipment and buildings...if something goes wrong and sudden unexpected financial issues come up, (transmitters and buildings are expensive-and so are toilets and water heaters)

If they have to suddenly cut costs somewhere...it is very easy to add another couple of hours from the sat. feed and send a human to the house.

You don't have to pay salary or worker's comp on satellite feeds. ;D ;D