Tom Taylor: Where's the Great Radio? (Feb 4, 2009)

Broadcast Notes (Feb 4, 2009)

The Analog Nightlight Program has been adopted by the FCC last month. This means that some pre-approved full powered analog TV stations will remain on the air for up to 30 days after Feb 17. This is so that viewers can receive emergency and DTV transition information. In San Diego, the nightlight stations are on channels 15, 39, and 51. Los Angeles has five: 2, 4, 5, 22, and 40.

Comments (Feb 4, 2009)

I'd say that you were pretty much dead on. I'm stationed 3000 miles from my beloved San Diego. I listen to the DSC show nearly every day at home, and at least once a week at work. As soon as that show is over, KGB gets turned off. I have a better selection of music than what they play. I also read the NC Times, Signon San Diego, the Reader, and The Coast News online, again, nearly every day, even when I'm on travel. Speaking of travel, XM does a great marketing ploy, which is to put XM in rental cars (as well as on many airlines). Although the last one I rented had regular radio with what they call "XM Preview," which is not the same thing as XM. Still, I'll be getting XM in our vehicles, maybe the house, as soon as we have some discretionary income coming in. Television and radio just don't get it. Speaking of television, most television is geared to air commercials, with enough programming to keep you interested. And since when does the cable I pay lots of money for feel compelled to sell commercials, even in the "free" movies on On-demand? I'm sick of it, and I'm not going to take it much longer. By bluenwhitegokart 6:08 a.m., Jan 24, 2009.

It's sad to see such a great industry continually go down the tubes. I feel for all those who were let go in the Clear Channel massacre of last week. I was a jock at KSEA, 97.3 in San Diego from December '72 until the entire staff was let go on December 11, 1974. 22 employees let go 2 weeks before Christmas even though the ratings were on the rise and billing was really starting to improve. I can't help but believe that KSEA would have been where B-100 ended up. KSEA was a very good sounding Top 40 at that time (even under P.D. Tom Straw) and was making decent headway against monster KCBQ. Radio (from an on-air perspective) always was a difficut business to maintain any longevity at one station. Some talent were able to do it, but for most you had better rent month to month and keep your resume updated and your suitcase packed. There were those who were able to stay in the same city, but over the course of years worked at many different stations and spent more time than they should unemployed. Today it seems radio is all but monopolized by a handful of companies. Mom and Pop owners hardly exist except in the smallest of markets. Look at Clear Channel. How many stations do they own? Other large group owners holding 6 or 7 stations have figured out they can run syndication in the morning and automate the rest of the day by voice tracking. Operate all 7 stations with just one staff. And without AFTRA they don't have to pay extra to make one talent voice track 2 or 3 other stations. Or one newsperson or one promotion director to cover them all. And speaking of promotions, did you ever hear the Clear Channel call-in giveaway that takes the 100th call NATIONWIDE to win $10,000? 154 stations in 44 states, one 800 number. (Sounds like the CBS TV show Numbers). And if the winner wasn't from your city/station, you never heard who won because if you live in Las Vegas and the winner lives in Indianapolis, what do you do? The one big element that makes sense to a big time promotion, which is having the winner scream with excitement and tell everyone listening what a great station you have, is lost. In Las Vegas John Berry was axed at Clear Channel's Sunny 106.5 (KSNE)after 16 years. He was the afternoon air talent/music director. I'm wondering why they didn't keep John Berry and let the boring morning show go eliminating two over-inflated salaries. They could have then picked-up a syndicated morning show for a lot less. I'm also wondering who made the decisions about who got the axe and who didn't, for all of Clear Channel's stations. Were they made at the corporate level, or did they leave it up to local management? It looks like Clear Channel is in big trouble. I suppose they will start selling off stations (if they can find buyers) or be forced to eliminate even more positions. What has already happened should be a warning to all other Clear Channel employees: Update your resume and never assume your job is safe. By BizarreChef 3:48 p.m., Jan 28, 2009.

Is HD Radio a Farce? (Feb 4, 2009)

http://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com/

The Wires (Feb 4, 2009)

Inside Radio: Dark stations jump two-thirds. There are 235 stations currently off the air, a 68% increase over a year ago. The biggest increase is from stations that simply say they cannot afford to keep the transmitter on any longer. The bright spot: The pace seems to have slowed.

Inside Music Media: Radio is broke. But there is no way to know for certain. The market cap on publicly-traded radio groups is so startlingly low as to be useless. The cap for Citadel, for example -- is around $54 million dollars. And that includes all those major market ABC properties. That can't be right. So Wall Street's own litmus test of value doesn't really work for radio. Very little Wall Street does works for radio. The local radio business was a victim of investment bank greed during the heady times of the Nineties. No radio station was ever really worth $100 million (read more - Jerry Del Colliano - Inside Music Radio)