ClearChannel with MASSIVE national cuts

Here's the Dallas report: Only 2 names so far.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/01/the_clearance_begins_at_clear.php

Clear Channel doesn't have a big footprint in Dallas other than KISS FM.

 

Spup1122,

If you were at a network for 10 years I'm guessing it was a full-time, salaried postion, not a position such as promotions assistant, and I'll take your word on that. If you saw the entire process for that long, it just surprises me that you don't take a broader view.

A small or mid-major market station has to survive on local ad dollars because they are not going to get in the ad agency door without ratings that would justify being on the buy. The larger stations price themselves out of the reach of the small advertisers, unless you want to count 6AM-Mid as a good purchase.

I don't have the Clear Channel Station list in front of me, but I would imagine that most would fall into the large market category. Maybe someone has that list. It would be interesting to see. They went after money/salary, like Hartman at KFAN, and you don't find that at a 5000 watt stick.

So the process of going private and everything that went along with that, including declining radio revenues --not to mention the economy being in the tank with little hope for a quick recovery of ad dollars-- has little to do with why Clear Channel wacked people today, who by the way, were mostly sales.

Agree to disagree.

By the way, I prefer local programming over syndication, but that's becoming a limited listening option.

 

Got to hand it to you on that one, Ace.

It deserved a better run that it got, hence the bump.

 

WDFN, 1130 the Fan in Detroit let everyone go. Lots of good radio personalities that I've been listening to since I was in middle school are done.

 

If all of these stations are just going to dump non-local syndicated programming on the airwaves, I think the FCC should start revoking some station licenses.

They're not even trying to serve the public interest anymore.

 

Under semi-normal circumstances, I would have said, "the incoming administration will probably take action," but at this point I suspect this problem will be pretty far down its worry list.

 

One of the main problems with radio today is lack of younger, "up-and-coming" on-air talent. Now the schtick is to scream and be contrarian for the heck of it, and it has been for a long time. Jobs were cut 15 years or 20 years ago at podunk-sized stations, when everyone went to the bird. That is starting to show itself today. There still are some very good major-market personalities, but listen to middays on a talk station in a top-20 market. Some of those hosts -- provided the station doesn't pick up, say, Glenn Beck or something else in that time slot -- are brutal.

You can expand this out to board ops, engineers, etc., too. Small graveyarders are not hiring board ops for $8 per hour anymore. Now it's some kid straight out of college who is hired to babysit the board at a 50k watter. Granted, there is not as much to do nowadays on the board unless you're airing a game or a live talk show. But the second something goes wrong with Audiovault or Scott or whatever systems stations use (I'm largely out of the loop on those), you hear large periods of dead air, a spot stepped on or cut off-mid stream (which I was taught was a BIG no-no when I was learning my thing) or something along those lines.

I'll use this example: WEEI in Boston. Recognized by many as the "best" sports station in the country. Listen to them for three hours. I bet you'll find 10 screw-ups resulting from bad behind-the-glass management of programming by a producer, board op, etc. -- a screwed-up break where spots are playing over each other, a promo cutting off a host, a way outdated spot. It's brutal at times.

My radio experience is limited -- I "worked" at a small 1,000-watt AM back in junior high and high school 15, 20 years ago. I'm now hearing stuff happen on air on big-city stations that got me crucified back then.

 

No, but it would be lovely to see people challenge the license... they don't even have to give to another buyer...

 

The FCC needs to put more pressure on stations to serve the public interest, certainly. Think of little towns in the country where a tornado could rip the town into shreds without a word being mentioned on the radio. That's a likely scenario when the only two stations in town are a pop-country station and a Jeebus station, both beamed in from half a continent away and with no zoned NWS alerts because no one's making them install the equipment and turn it on.

 

http://www.freep.com/article/20090120/SPORTS18/90120095/Mike+Stone++others+from+WDFN+react+to+layoffs

 

They have 12 local stations in my area, apparently, across both frequencies.

 

Hartman was there from the beginning, always liked him on there, when he was paired with Barreiro and solo. I hope Common Man rips on Clear Channel on a show, in the past he's talked quite openly about personnel problems - including his own - with Clear Channel. Although I'm not sure if he did after Dubay was let go.