Clear Channel whacks a bunch of popular Cleveland radio personalities

I won't dispute for a second that deregulation was a huge mistake and has diminished broadcasting.

But....what happened was inevitable as technology allowed for less hands-on operation. You don't see elevator operators any more and you don't find a lot of switchboard operators still working. Same thing with overnight DJs. Most listeners never notice the difference and there aren't enough people listening in those hours for it to really matter much.

 

Read it, Smash. He said right there that he didn't trust anybody at LW from the moment he signed on.

 

OK, then I don't get his outrage at how this went down. It's like complaining that a hooker never really liked you and only cared about your money.

 

Ohio media watcher has entry on Clear Channel's evil plan...
http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/2009/04/local-news-and-premium-choice.html

 

Out here on the Left Coast (and I imagine elsewhere) CC has launched a plan to gut all of the local stations newsrooms and provide a "news hub" in Sacramento for its NorCal and Oregon stations. Station managers are being asked to provide pronunciation guides and news tips to the hub if something goes down in their area.
Brilliance.

 

I've got a fat, throbbing news tip for the "hub" . . . more like a cankerous, running sore than a hub, but you get my point . . .

 

Why anyone has listened to music on the radio for the past ten years is a mystery to me. With easy technology available to anyone which allows anyone to make their own "playlist", why would anyone listen to a "playlist" created by someone else?

Here in the DC area, the top rated radio station is the all-news station WTOP. The sports radio station - owned by Danny Boy Snyder - usually ranks about 25th when the ratings books are published.

ESPN radio has an ad where they try to convince folks to listen to ESPN instead of mindless homers raving about local jockdom. They have a point; some of the local radio folks are pretty lame - - and I mean that to include local guys in markets outside the DC area too. [There is one particular radio voice in Pittsburgh who is outrageous on his best days.]

But the trend toward ESPN and other national radio feeds makes for a homogenization of coverage that gets uninteresting quickly.