I am amazed at how many here seem to come across as if only radio operates in a manner where the owners (be they local yokel or corporate) will pinch pennies and not pay a dime more for anything, etc. This is how all businesses in industry operates too. What has changed in the past thirty years is that the power of the union has decreased and globalization.
Back prior to 1980 the unions were far stronger than they are today. This caused many non-union companies to pay better and give better benefits, etc, because the union was out side of their plant site gate trying to get in. So it was easier for companies to pay better, etc, than have to deal with a union on site. Today, far less people are union employees so the union's influence is far less than thirty years ago. Many will blame President Reagan for this when he busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union when they illegally went on strike. Others will blame the greediness of the union bosses who themselves became big business operators and who have made their companies very unprofitable. I believe the truth is yes the unions got too big for their britches and overstepped themselves and President Reagan put them in their place. In 1950 or 51, the Coal Union almost shut down the nation with a strike. President Truman had to interveine as the nation then ran on coal, including the railroads which were the primary method for transporting goods around the nation and the nations power plants also ran on coal then. So Reagan wasn't the first President to have to adjust the attitude of over zealous union bosses.
Also, today's corporation's are world wide entites, they generally do not have loyalty to anyplace as they have plants, offices, etc all over the globe. So if one country or part of a country becomes too environmentally challenging, or taxation is too high, or unions are too agressive, they simply close down that location and move that work elsewhere.
Let's now talk the radio industry. How many radio markets are unionized today? Only the major markets. Are all the stations in a major market unionized ? With station owners being able to have practically as many stations in a market as they want, this gives them almost a monopoly thus allowing them to control wages in that market. Even the local yokel owned stations are not going to pay substancially higher wages than the megacorporation owned station across town as they probably are getting a similar rate for spots. Many radio companies have other business interests other than just radio, so if they don't make the profit margin they want, they'll just sell off those under performing stations or markets and put their money in something that will give them a better return on their stockholders dollars.
Bottom line in radio as in the industrial world is the same, make as much money for the stockholders or owners as they can. What makes it a bit more frustrating is that radio is not just a business, but an art, but the owners will never allow the art of radio to get in the way of the business of radio. So if they believe they can make more money with national syndicated programming in the short term rather than local programming, they'll go with the syndicated shows. They are not looking at long tern, but the short term, just as most industry does. It's not pretty, but that's how it works.
So radio isn't alone in this. All Americans, no matter their profession, other than government workers face this problem. So figure out how to resolve this for industry and you probably will also have your answer for radio, good luck.
