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By Paul Thurst, on August 30th, 2009
 I just finished reading Fighting for Air by Eric Klinenberg. It is a good book and a great discription of what has happened to radio since the major consolidations occured in 1999 and 2000. Depressing. Just damn depressing is what it is.
The book chronicles the evolution of the Prophet System and how that system was used to replace entire radio station air staffs. It discusses the various failures that radio has produced as a result of automated programming, the complete lack of originality, public safety issues and how major media companies have stripped the heart and soul out of radio.
Something that the book points out that I never really considered, every one of these unoriginal canned music stations diminishes all radio by some increment. For those that think the Clear Channels, Cumulus and Citadels are only harming themselves, think again. People who get fed up with radio and buy an I-pod are excluding all radio stations from then on. That is another degree of audience lost to a competing medium.
Having worked for one of the smaller group owners since 1999, one that rarely if ever appears on anyone’s radar, I can say I have seen some minor shades of what has happened with Clear Channel in the company I work for. I think everyone who works in radio has seen some of this in one form or another no matter who they work for.
Radio has never been the most stable of employers. Even in the early days, people moved in and out of radio stations, sometimes taking a job with the competitor across town and sometimes moving across country. It was understood that sometimes changes needed to be made, sometimes people had to be let go. It was a part of the landscape. The difference is in the post consolidation radio environment, people are leaving radio altogether, replaced by a mindless computer programmed from afar.
During my time as a radio engineer, I have installed a few of these computer automation systems. I think the first one was in 1993 on an AM station doing all news. We used it for the overnight hours, replacing some minimum wage board operators. The general manager was shocked and a little bit in awe of how well the system worked.
This trend continued in 1994, when I installed a BE Audiovault system at an AM/FM combo. There again, the system replaced an overnight board operator on the AM station. Later, the FM station did a sort of mini-mation where the overnight news guy checked on it every 45-50 minutes. Those stations are now completely voice tracked and or satellite syndicated.
Through the 90′s, I installed first generation computer based automation systems mostly on AM stations. Things like Digilink, DCS, ENCO, etc.
In other markets, an automation system was used to resurrect a couple of FM stations, starting out voice tracked, then adding live bodies to fill in day parts, usually having the 6 pm to 6 am time slot voice tracked. Having three day parts live is better than none I suppose.
The AM stations in my market cluster now are running some awful syndicated satellite news/talk programming. Why are these stations even on the air? They should be sold to someone who will operate them locally, or turn their licenses in.
For whatever roll I have played in ruining radio, I am sorry for it.
It is a good book, I recommend anybody that works in the radio business read it.
By Paul Thurst, on August 26th, 2009
I sent off a letter to my Senators and Congressman this morning regarding HR 1147/S 592 AKA Local Community Radio Act. Basically I am against this. Not that I don’t appreciate what it is trying to accomplish. I believe the technical degradation of the FM band is a higher concern. After all, if we turn the FM band into what the AM band has become, nobody will listen to radio.
Radio is too important to ruin. Here is what I wrote:
I strongly urge you NOT to support the bipartisan Local Community Radio Act (HR 1147/ S. 592) sponsored by Reps. Mike Doyle and Lee Terry and Sens. Maria Cantwell and John McCain.
In spite of what many have said, Low Power FM (LPFM) contributes to the technical degradation of the FM service. By adding more and more signals covering every possible spot in the FM spectrum, the noise floor is raised causing many FM receivers to “picket fence” which is annoying to most listeners.
Radio has suffered enough degradation over the last few decades. AM radio is now so fraught with interference, especially at night, most people do not even consider listening to it. Packing the FM dial with thousands of low power operators will create the same problems and cause most people to abandon radio altogether.
I am a strong proponent of 1st amendment rights. I believe the sponsors of this bill are well intentioned, however misinformed. I believe that the deregulation of commercial radio allowing one company to own 1,200 radio licenses has created most of the problems we see today.
Clear Channel, in particular, has removed almost all localism from radio, creating bland canned music channels. Their modus operandi was to buy a group of radio stations in a market, combine the stations under one roof, get rid of most of the staff, and drop the advertising rates so other local stations could not compete. Non-Clear Channel stations were then forced to make cuts in there advertising rates and or expenses to stay in business.
The answer is not to create a bigger mess. Instead:
1. Push the FCC to tighten ownership rules. In some ways the horse is already out of the barn, but it would prevent another Clear Channel from forming in the future.
2. If major radio groups go bankrupt and are broken up, allow it to happen, do not intervene. This will allow real radio broadcasters to pick up the pieces and put something together. Perhaps investigate supporting small radio owners by waiving FCC fees and limited tax breaks for a period of time.
3. Push the FCC to continue with the localism hearings they were conducting.
4. Push the FCC to update the EAS and make a workable Emergency Alert System in the US.
Radio is too important a resource to have it ruined. Of all the media outlets, radio is the most robust. During an emergency often times the utility grid is down. Many radio stations have backup power generators and can provide vital information when the internet, phone system, cable TV network, cellphone system, e-mail, etc are down.
Radio can provide local government important mass access to their constituents during elections and at other important times. Radio is free, there are no subscription fees, no service providers, etc. Almost everyone owns a radio, most people own several.
Small savvy radio owners can make a go of it, provided the deck is not stacked against them.
Please DO NOT support the Local Community Radio Act. Thank you.
If you want to get involved, you can go the the Free Press website, there you will find a link to a “Take Action” page (not sure that link will work). Again, I am not opposed to Free Press, or even Free Radio. Packing the FM spectrum with LPFM, translators and the like will only create reception problems. This is just become another reason for people not to listen to radio.
By Paul Thurst, on August 16th, 2009
Sounds kind of silly, but in some cases, failure is good. Companies that are inefficient, poorly run, poorly conceived, have substandard products, do not serve their clients, and so on should be able to fail. This allows good companies, that do thing right, to thrive.
Too big to fail is too big and those companies should be broken up. This holds true in the radio business as well as the banking industry, the auto industry and so on. What is truly unfortunate is that the people most responsible for the failure, the upper management and CEOs, often get away with millions while the people who had their back into it get to go to the unemployment office.
That being said, radio is in for some drastic changes soon.
NO BAILOUTS FOR RADIO
Enough already with the bailouts. Radio is not some precious national resource, it does not funtion for the betterment of society, nor does it provide vital information in the time of emergency. It stopped doing those things years ago when deregulation kicked in, deregulation which was lobbied for extensively by the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) at the behest of radio and tv stations owners, by the way.
Once deregulation took effect, station management went on a hunt for pennies, often tripping over dollars to get them. By staff reductions and cost cutting, the product was deluded and the medium was marginalized and that is where we are today.
Not everyone followed the above narative, there are some operators who stuck to the frame work of public/customer service and kept good programming on the air. Those stations are few and far between but they are out there. Why should they not reap the benefits of there forward thinking?
By Paul Thurst, on July 17th, 2009
Technically speaking, no. Here is how radio is defined in the dictionary:
ra⋅di⋅o
[rey-dee-oh]
-noun
1. wireless telegraphy or telephony: speeches broadcast by radio.
2. an apparatus for receiving or transmitting radio broadcasts.
3. a message transmitted by radio.
Therefore, the internet, something relying on wired connections for the transmission of data for the most part, is not radio. A radio station that is streaming audio, is a different matter.
Aside from that technicality, there is something else that is important to note. Internet broadcasters (AKA webcaster) lack some other key components that make a radio station a radio station; A specific set of rules that govern their behavior. Things like profanity, copyright infringement, slander, payola, plugola, syndication rights, advertising rules (things tobacco, alcohol) emergency information, public issues and so on.
A radio station license is granted in the public interest. Time was that radio station were required to do a certain amount of public service broadcasting, things like the news, religious programs, community interest programs. Many station still do this. An internet broadcaster is under so such constraints. Some would say that is better and it just might be. However, when Tim Westergren says “don’t call it internet radio, just call it radio,” sir, you are wrong.
By Paul Thurst, on July 12th, 2009
The FCC has drafted a Notification of Inquiry (NOI) examining the state of media journalism in America. Why? No harm can come from this, right? Let us read a little further:
A major issue the report details is the possibility of “behavioral rules” for broadcasters, according to the official. Behavioral rules might include guidelines that broadcasts serve the public interest.
Bringing back Cold War-era guidelines mandating that broadcasters do “non-entertainment” programming is another idea being examined, according to the official.
From CNSNews.com
Doh! Now that most radio stations have fired their news departments, the government wants news. Frankly, I think it is a dumb idea. The hands of time can’t be turned back so there is no use trying.
There are radio stations out there that provide good local and national news, most NPR stations for example. There are also a few commercial stations still doing it. Those that can make money on it will and that is the way it should be.
I listen to the local NPR station’s (WAMC) program called “The Media Project.” It is an interesting show where a Television news anchor, a local newspaper editor and the radio station president talk about media issues. Often, it turns into a lament about how the internet news sources are cutting into their own audience because the internet is “free.” The news paper editor in particular often feels that he is shouldering the burden (by paying the reporter’s salaries) of gathering the news and the free loading internet people who write blogs, like this one, merely leach off of the newspaper’s hard work. And he has a point.
So charge for it. I’d pay a $3-5 per month fee to have full on line access to a good local paper. I think many other people would too. When they started giving away their content is when they got into trouble and that is their own fault. This would be a good formula:
- Media outlets (newspapers, TV stations, Radio stations, Cable companies, etc) get together come up with a policy for online content.
- A good example would be, limited free access to national stories and front page items and advertisements. Charge a nominal subscription fee for locally generated content and full access. Charge a higher fee for content without advertising (except classifieds).
- Create a website that is laid out like a newspaper. Keep all the sections the same and make it very easy to navigate around in.
Some newspapers, like the New York Times, are already doing things like this. The reality is that online media is here to stay. Those legacy media outlets that want to survive are going to have to figure out a way to compete and make money online.
By Paul Thurst, on July 8th, 2009
The opposite of consolidation is fragmentation. Rumors abound that Clear Channel Communication is on the verge of bankruptcy, Cumulus stock is trading at $0.61 per share, Citadel Broadcasting Corporation is a $0.038 per share and so on.
What does this mean? The great consolidation experiment of the 90′s and 00′s has been an abject failure. Remember when deregulation was going to save the day? Instead, it merely prolonged the day when many small non-revenue generating radio stations should sign off and turn in their licenses.
A quick review:
- Major corporations formed with the express purpose of buying radio stations and consolidating operations. This was supposed to save money and make stations run more efficiently with smaller staffs.
- These corporations swooped into large, medium and small markets, often paying multiples of 14 to 18 times cash flow. Books were cooked to make non-revenue generating radio stations look good, thus soaking the buyers.
- The new owner’s discovered their stations were not doing all that great, even with the “market synergy” of group ownership.
- Most of the station’s staff were replaced by computers, programming was handled by wizards located hundreds or thousands of miles away with no awareness of any particular location’s uniqueness.
- Radio formats become homogenized, bland, and boring. People begin looking around for other entertainment
- Radio becomes irrelevant.
Which leads us to our current situation. When the economy tanked in late 2008, advertising revenues dried up over night. Since all these radio groups were operating at the top of the business cycle, with no (zero, zilch, nada) room for error, many owners began to have troubles making loan payments.
The semi good news is that all of the radio corporations are in the same sinking boat. Even if the banks could force the sale of radio properties, the values are so low now that they will never re-coop their losses. So the waiting game begins.
Clear Channel, however, may be liquidated anyway. The Bain financial group is not known for being nice. They likely have anticipated a bankruptcy even before they financed Clear Channel’s move from public to private and did it for the fees they could charge. In short, they don’t give a shit if Clear Channel lives or dies, they have already made their money.
If Clear Channel begins selling stations, will the other groups start snapping them up? There are two key considerations, financing and FCC regulations.
The lending institutions that are holding the paper on these stations now will likely have a long memory. It may not be so easy to get loans in the future, especially for those companies that leverage themselves to the hilt and refinance every few years.
The Congress has been considering tightning ownership regulations, this may force the FCC to adopt rules that do not allow current radio station owners to buy up the Clear Channel scraps and add them to their own collections.
What we may see is many stations fail. These are the stations that should have failed in the 90′s but were “saved” by consolidation. Those stations that are still economically viable, may be bought up by the dedicated radio professionals and run semi-profitably. Those stations that can be locally important can reclaim some of their lost audence.
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Axiom
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
~1st amendment to the United States Constitution
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
~Benjamin Franklin
...radio was discovered, and not invented, and that these frequencies and principles were always in existence long before man was aware of them. Therefore, no one owns them. They are there as free as sunlight, which is a higher frequency form of the same energy.
~Alan Weiner
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers
~Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Article 19
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Heard in the clear