Many of us have come to the same conclusion lately, or so it would appear: RADIO, as an industry, needs a swift kick. Moreover, the industrial leaders - read the National Association of Broadcasters/NAB, owners like the Mays/Clear "Cheap" Channel, etc. - need to be kicked in the collective gonads and/or rear-end-brains. What's been wrong with you for the past 12 years? Do you REALLY BELIEVE your ways are the ways of the REAL radio world?
Now that my initial questions are given - no different than tens of thousands of people who have made a living as professional broadcasters and account executives of radio stations have made during this period of decline in creativity and "overall wellness" in radio - a few comments are warranted.
NAB - when you're hiring someone who has such a lack of knowledge of the inner-workings of an actual on-air radio station (a boss who has an economics degree but hasn't worked as a TV or RADIO general manager, programmer, host, etc.) you are showing your complete lack (repeating) of knowledge of the inner-workings of an actual on-air radio station --- or TV station for that matter of fact. Shame on you NAB officers. Those who place high-risk bets could win in Las Vegas if the bet was on the percentage of NAB employees who could operate a radio station in a small, medium, large, or major market for 4 consecutive years "in the black" - bookees would be hard pressed to find enough betting people under 30 who even care about radio enough to place such a bet. Just guess work here --- 20 to 25% at most??????
Sure...I am hitting low. But I'm probably betting too high --- it's another guess that likely about 10% of NAB employees could operate a station today.
Is it time to stop helping out these so-called leaders and give them the ultimatum "quit now or quit in 3 months"? Sure. Absolutely. They should just quit pretending to know what it is they claim to know. Radio, to the average 20-year-old, is too much about the bottom-line (27 minutes of commercials stuffed into three breaks)! C'mon...I grew up with commercials between every song - that was palatable if you played 12 songs per hour. But IF you can't get ten songs in 60 minutes, where do you think the listener is getting his/her music? Wager it is NOT on the radio stations between 92.1 and 107.9 or for SURE between 530 and 1710 AM. Remember, when I write about this...I am talking about MUSIC radio...the "strength" of radio to younger listeners. But, it's more than merely the music. It is PRESENTATION.
Have you not picked up on this at ALL over the past decade of decline?
We who KNOW it is VITAL to broadcast with a real PRESENTATION in mind have attempted to tell you with the moneybags/stocks/"control" over and over again that you're not seeing the big picture because the bottom line is not where the listener looks. And if you're not paying attention to what the listener DOES, you certainly aren't figuring out what the habits of said listener is to an end point --- they don't listen to your station(s) because they are truly compelled to TUNE OUT that boring, tired, self-serving, loathesome crap you're helping to procreate. That's right - I am telling you that you are the CAUSE of the CRAP on the radio, those reasons that people like this 39-year-old woman I can cite who listens to her freaking mp3 player and her CD player more than her radio. That's right - she's 39 --- someone who has GROWN UP WITH RADIO and SHE LISTENS TO SOMETHING OTHER THAN HER RADIO MORE OFTEN THAN SHE LISTENS TO HER RADIO!!!!!!! And you ask me "how do you know this to be true?" Answer is simply stated - I've been there with her many hours over the past 10 days - in her car, in her house, at MY house, on the phone when she's going to and from work or other locations. What is the reason behind this woman's listening habits? YOU BORE THE CRAP OUT OF HER - YOU PLAY TOO MANY COMMERCIALS - YOU TALK TOO MUCH BETWEEN SONGS - YOU AREN'T GIVING HER SOMETHING SHE WANTS MUSICALLY - YOU ALMOST NEVER TELL HER WHO THE ARTIST/BAND WAS BEFORE OR AFTER THE SONG PLAYED --- SHE FINDS RADIO MORE DISTASTEFUL THAN A FEW YEARS AGO. It is ALL of these reasons and then some! Are you listening to this? She's 39. She's PRIME 25-54 listener material. Yeah - you're ignoring this one woman and probably all potential listeners between the ages of 18 and 54. Go ahead and kill the radio industry.
YOU - NAB, Clear Channel, and a whole host of others - have caused me to do something that you cannot personally do to me because I won't work for you or with you until you have changed your ways: you have caused me, a 20+ year professional broadcaster, to have a girlfriend who listens to the radio primarily "only because you're on the air." How STUPID does that make YOU feel now, Mark Mays? That should absolutely embarrass you. In 1990, I wanted to work for Jacor Communications - would have moved to Tampa myself if I would have had the balls to put a tape into WFLZ as "The Power Pig". Having witnessed how they clearly dominated a market in ONE BOOK, I was impressed. Sure - Randy Michaels tried to get you to listen to his "beefed up" approach to coming into dominance. It appears that he found your way of doing business more important than the way he helped develop Jacor - for now he looks like he's more of a "bottom line" person than a "kick ass with personality" radio professional. Wow - you (Mays and the rest of you consolidating sons of...) caused good men and women to think they were correct in approaching radio by dismissing personnel and forcing lower commissions and telling the listeners and broadcast professionals that this is the only way to seriously make the station viable in the long run.
WHAT CRAP! And that's not how I truly feel. I feel much worse about this industry than I should. THANK GOD I work in a Christian radio station right now. Maybe, just maybe, they'll hold onto the license long enough for me to retire when I am 92 years old - a full fifty years from now.
But --- sure --- Mark Mays...et al --- you know radio better than I do, or I'd have owned a radio station when I was 30. Right?
Ha! Deny the existence of your stupidity. Take the livelihood of TRUE professional broadcasters away by laying off (firing without just cause) hundreds of them/us again this year.
Really we just want to work for someone who CARES what goes on at their station and what the listeners care about in their community. Those stations will succeed, prosper, grow, eventually become legendary to their region. Sorry to say, legend status doesn't grow much these days in medium, large, and major markets - and because so many of you "bottom line" owners bought well down into the small markets, there's little chance of creativity there, too, most of the time.
Okay - maybe I got a bit fired up. But, it's about time someone at the "lower level" shows up and says something with fire in their belly.
I'm not a manager, although I should be. I'm not programming a major market station or doing afternoon drive on a large market station - but I probably can do that better than most radio CEOs these days...in talk, music, variety. And there are people who can BLOW ME AWAY who cannot even get a job right now because of you....
...bottom line idiots.
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