ClearChannel with MASSIVE national cuts

This action by Clear Channel is no surprise. They have been trying to take it private for a couple of years now. The deal was finalized last summer.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01162009/business/clear_channel_plans_revamp_150374.htm

CBS Radio is doing much the same. Radio revenues are plummeting

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/tv/37095119.html?elr=KArksCiU1OiPiiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

It was mentioned above that the thing is to go local. No, syndication is the deal. Cuts costs.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/kfwb-radio-kabc-2267688-knx-hall?slideshow=1

 

Syndication may cut costs, but it doesn't make money for the station. Local advertisers will still buy radio and television advertisements. They won't buy, however, if they get some shitty salesperson who doesn't give a rats about the business and/or product.

The problem is people need to adapt and salespeople are bad at adapting. They don't know how to sell when they have to change the way they're doing things.

 

Yes, salespeople are bad at adapting. They are shitty. They don't give a rats ass.

They are to blame.

Glad that's cleared up.

 

Their boards have crashed, however.

 

I didn't say they were shitty at adapting, I said they were bad at it. I'm not placing all the blame on them. I worked in radio for 10 years. I don't know how many times the company where I worked held workshops on adapting to a new market and a new product. When a salesperson is used to working in this half-syndicated, half-local situation, it's hard to adapt to an entirely local or entirely national product. It just is. They're just like listeners. They have a way that works. Finding a new way is hard, but necessary when the old way isn't working.

Yes, they are saving personnel costs when changing to an entirely syndicated product, but there's so much money to be made in local radio. There's the issue of remote broadcasts, personality endorsements and sponsorships of station activities, but when there aren't personalities at the local level, the company loses out on all of that.

Not to mention, small businesses don't like to advertise with a company that doesn't have someone local on air. I worked at a station where we had half-syndication and half-local and we couldn't sell advertising to save our souls during the syndicated hours. The local hours were jam packed with advertisements, though, and we had live remote broadcasts at least three days a week, not including the weekends. On the weekends, we were remote from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. some days. And people paid a lot of money to have our morning drive guy at their business for 3 hours.

 

I didn't say you said they were shitty at adapting. You said, "bad", and that's what I put in my post. You blamed sales and I don't see how it could have been taken any other way.

I worked in radio. Television, too. Others areas that are related, to boot. I go back to the 80's.

You worked for 10 years in radio? Major market? Were any of the stations owned by a larger corporation, or were they mom and pops?

You need to step back and look at the entire picture - why these decisions are being made and who is making them. Did you read any of the links?

 

I worked for 10 years for a network. A network that competed with Clear Channel and I was at the network headquarters. Then for a year, I worked for a radio station that was owned by a large corporation in a fairly major market. I've also worked in television, again corporate owned. Our station was the one in the group not laying people off because we sold all local and for the most part, all smaller businesses. I blamed sales for not being able to adapt. I didn't blame them for Clear Channel getting themselves in deep shit.

It doesn't matter who's to blame, though. The writing for this was on the wall when Clear Channel sold a large share of the company and got out of the sports marketing business. Not to mention, at Clear Channel stations where I've known some who work, they've laid off entire sales staffs for a bad quarter.

 

Good luck to the folks in CC's chain who lost jobs today. I was a radio geek growing up, and I loved the stations that distinguished themselves with local programming, no matter the genre.

Here's hoping these people land on their feet.

 

Chad Hartman was one of the ones canned in MSP at KFAN...

 

Here's the Chad Hartman story I was fixing to post before Slappy beat me to it:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/37887644.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DU2EPaL_V_9E7ODiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

 

Wow. Unlike his old man he was very good at his job. Guess he was making too much money.