You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'clear channel' tag.
My friend and writer extraordinaire Ken Tucker has a blog. It’s one of my favorites, so you should check it out. About a month ago he posted this piece on the deconstruction of local radio and the move toward a national format.
I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I am, at least to some extent. None of the radio industry trades have offered any analysis of yesterday’s announcements by Clear Channel regarding “Premium Choice” programming (sounds like a satellite television menu offering) and increased attention to localism. Each and everyone of them pretty much reprinted the Clear Channel press releases intact.
I take that back. Tom Taylor on Radio-Info.com does seem to view the proceedings with more than a little skepticism. “Now it’s up to the local PDs (says Clear Channel) to select ‘large portions, single pieces or none of the offered programming’,” Taylor writes. “But if a particular daypart hasn’t measured up lately – do you really think the option would be ‘none’?”
The gist of the story is this: local programmers can select from a menu of “premium choice” programming options to fill their local line-up. Morning guy not working out? Plug in Ryan Seacrest. Afternoon guy’s ratings starting to fade? Plug in Seacrest (his show apparently fits almost anywhere).
Now, I’m not a Clear Channel hater. I never have been. I have friends that work for the company and there are things I admire about it. These initiatives are not among them.
Call me old fashioned and out of touch, but when I was a teen I remember driving with a group of friends to downtown Cleveland to see the Sunday night jock on WGCL (G98) do his show through a window that faced the street. He wasn’t particularly friendly, but he was there.
I also remember calling in a request to Dancin’ Danny Wright, the morning man on that same station, and then listening for him to play it back on-air.
Not any more.
These days the country station in Cleveland, WGAR, only has two local dayparts, mornings and afternoons. Middays and nights are voice tracked out of Baltimore and overnights are syndicated. Cleveland, Ohio. Not Cleveland, Tenn.
CC is also increasing the number of PSAs stations do and making it easier for local officials to reach station management. Go figure.
Dan Miller, a longtime local television anchor here in Nashville, recently died suddenly. Thousands of viewers in the area are still mourning his loss because they saw him as a trusted friend—someone who came into their house every night. Competing stations ran stories about him, and two of those stations even covered news and answered the phones at his former station while his colleagues attended his funeral.
That’s localism. A couple more PSAs on a radio station with a few, if any, local talent is not the same thing.
I just don’t get how radio station owners can continue to fight calls for localism regulation from Capitol Hill and turn stations into satellite operations.
Gerry House on WSIX has built a large and loyal following and when the day comes that he dies (hopefully no time soon), he will be remembered in the same way as Miller: a trusted friend who was a part of our lives.Then what? The country version of Seacrest syndicated from Tampa or somewhere else?
It won’t be the same.
“PLAIN SPEAK”: A blog that aims to communicate without trying to impress. Risible, egregious, pedantic, hubris, multifarious? You won’t find those words here, unless they’re used in jest. Never use a five dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do the job.
The worst kept secret in the radio and record industry came to pass as Clear Channel let go of 1850 employees. I actually thought there might be a slight chance the CC brass wouldn’t do it on the same day as the inauguration as rumored, but they indeed did. The only reason anyone can think of for picking that particular date is that it wouldn’t make much noise on the mainstream news. You must figure they didn’t want bad press for firing 9% of their employees. I find irony in it happening on inauguration day since it is exactly the sort of thing politicians do in Washington. Wait for a big event, put on a parade, strike up the band, and divert the public attention away from the shifty and questionable moves being made.
I wish all of the Clear Channel casualties the best as they look to the future. It is never easy to lose a job, trust me, but invariably it works out for the best. For some of you it will be a prime opportunity to escape the trappings of radio and for others it will only inspire you further to get back in the game. Whatever your decision or calling, our thoughts and prayers are extended to you.
Onward and Upward.
Clear Channel is streaming a couple of Pandora stations on various individual web properties.
Will this testing of the waters turn into something more long term?
Check out the Wired article here.
Does anyone think it is interesting that Lee Abrams left XM to work for Randy Michaels? Jerry Del Calliano thinks it is not only interesting, but suspicious. Find out what he means on his blog Inside Music Media.
Lee, in his own blog, makes a comment about his new partnership with Randy: “We ARE going to re-write the future of media. He’s the kinda guy you want to do it with.”
I look forward to hearing more.
From Media Week:
Katy Bachman
JANUARY 28, 2008 -
As the company prepares to go private, Clear Channel Friday ordered company-wide budget cuts and a hiring freeze for first quarter, possibly longer. In a memo to all managers, John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio called for immediate expense reductions in research, advertising and promotion, new sales hire guarantees, new hires, even discretionary travel and entertainment.
The freeze follows expense and staff reductions made in fourth quarter. Apparently, those adjustments weren’t enough to offset the continued weakness in the radio market. Preliminary figures from the Radio Advertising Bureau showed radio down 6 percent in December, with a four percent drop in local and 12 percent drop in national. Many Wall Street analysts are predicting that radio groups will not hit fourth quarter earnings estimates.
“No one anticipated how challenging Q1 would be for us and while the plans we put in place last Fall made sense then, clearly we are operating in a different environment,” Hogan said in a Jan. 25 internal memo.
How much will these cuts effect daily business of individual stations?
Thoughts?
