iHeartLayoffs

[HanSenSE]

Does the average podcast make enough money to stand on its own? Is there a breakpoint in downloads to be able to make money off the thing?


And what happens in a natural disaster when we're all supposed to hunker down and grab our radio to listen for instructions? Static? How many stations even have news departments? Or does everything just go to the EAS and we finally get a payoff from all those beeps interrupting programming.

I'm sure the guys who offer hot takes on everything from the 49ers' offense to the best cheerleader racks in the NFL will be an excellent source of "news and official information." [//bluefont]

 

[maumann]

Wish I had realized that in 1979.

Seconded. But it was a fun way to make barely minimum wage, until it wasn't.

 

[Liut]

Seconded. But it was a fun way to make barely minimum wage, until it wasn't.

LOL! Could not have put it better.

I was a dreamer in 1979, but had not gotten a gig. My father, local fire chief, greased my skids later.

Shortly afterward, the first big event to happen on my watch was the bombing of the Marines in Lebanon. It was middle of the night, central time.

CBS alert was sent. I went bonkers trying to get the CBS feed on the air. Fun times ... like radio used to be.

 

[wicked]

And what happens in a natural disaster when we're all supposed to hunker down and grab our radio to listen for instructions? Static? How many stations even have news departments? Or does everything just go to the EAS and we finally get a payoff from all those beeps interrupting programming.

Everyone will get the alert on their smartphone, and that alert tone is 100 times worse than any EBS alert on the radio.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

This isn't promising:

Could iHeart layoffs be the beginning of local radio’s endgame?

Two weeks later, the source said the number of iHeart employees is now 11,000-- meaning 1,500 employees lost their jobs. Everybody is being evaluated for the next round of firings, which, the source indicated could happen as early as March. Even the hosts of some of the most popular and longest-running shows in the market could be in danger.

“It’s temporary who’s safe right now,” Del Colliano said. “But if you had to be anything in that company, you’d want to be doing a morning show that got good ratings.”

 

[Chef2]

Rockies radio announcer among the cuts.

Jerry Schemmel loses job as voice of Rockies on KOA radio

This sucks.
Schemmel was good.
I still remember Charlie Jones on TV during the Rockies first couple of years.

 

[Chef2]

The Broncos radio voice is a station employee (same as Rockies) and he just signed a 10-year contract.

By contrast the CU football and basketball announcer used to work at the same station until he was laid off a few years back. The school hired him and their games are still on the same station.

Will be interesting if KOA will give up one of the properties — Broncos, Rockies and Buffaloes — in most cost-cutting moves.

Those three have been on KOA for decades.

Yeah.....Logan is going nowhere. People would revolt and Altitude would snap him up in a blur. You would see sales reps calling their lawyers to try and get out of their non-competes if they dump the Broncos. I still remember Logan/Hastings together on The Sports Zoo during the week, Broncos on Sunday when their sideline guy was Roach. Now, THAT was a helluva broadcast for just a couple of years.

CU hired Johnson for themselves and is the Director Of Broadcasting. He is very very good.

 

[LanceyHoward]

This isn't promising:

Could iHeart layoffs be the beginning of local radio’s endgame?

Very interesting article. I did not realize that a licensee no longer had to have a physical presence in a city, just a local telephone. The article said that on-air talent may telecommute and do their shows from home (I am sure that is already happening).

My takeaway is that local talent may still be used in drive time but at that in lower revenue in other time periods it is more profitable to just pay for syndicated programming.

Which leads to my question. Are the fees local stations pay professional sports teams for rights dropping?

 

[justgladtobehere]

Very interesting article. I did not realize that a licensee no longer had to have a physical presence in a city. The article said that on-air talent may telecommute and do their shows from home (I am sure that is already happening).

My takeaway is that local talent may still be used in drive time but at that in lower revenue in other time periods it is more profitable to just pay for syndicated programming.

Which leads to my question. Are the fees local stations pay professional sports teams for rights dropping?

Kevin and Bean did their radio show in separate cites for like the last 10 years. A newsreader on WBZ got called out when he said something like "the weather outside is brutally cold" when he was doing the show from his winter home in Florida. Apparently it has become pretty simple to set up a studio in a home if the person has the money.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Geraldo Rivera does a morning show for the big iHeart AM station in Cleveland. He has a home studio setup. He lives in the Cleveland burbs.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

One of the classic country stations here has a DJ who telecommutes a few days per week. You can tell when he's actually at the station because he'll mention "here at our studio located ... " and have other radio station folks drop-in for chit-chat. When he's at home, it's just info about the songs.

 

[Batman]

Very interesting article. I did not realize that a licensee no longer had to have a physical presence in a city. The article said that on-air talent may telecommute and do their shows from home (I am sure that is already happening).

Steve Czaban does a morning show on 97.3 in Milwaukee (an iHeart station; the show started just last year) and an afternoon show in DC on a non-iHeart station. He lives in Northern Virginia. He's talked about his schedule and set up a lot on his podcast, which is separate from either show.
He goes to Milwaukee about one week a month for a blizzard of meetings with advertisers, appearances and face time at the station, then comes back to DC where he lives at the end of that week. I think he does a lot of day-to-day work on both shows out of his home in Northern Virginia. They've referenced the occasional technical difficulty on the afternoon show that forces his co-hosts to vamp for a couple of minutes until it's fixed.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Geraldo Rivera does a morning show for the big iHeart AM station in Cleveland. He has a home studio setup. He lives in the Cleveland burbs.

Geraldo Riveria lives in the Cleveland area? I would have never thought that.

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

Geraldo Riveria lives in the Cleveland area? I would have never thought that.

Al Capone in Ohio: legend or myth?
makes sense

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Geraldo Riveria lives in the Cleveland area? I would have never thought that.

Has for a couple years.

He married someone from here, and eventually they moved. She's like 35 years younger than him. Well done, Geraldo.

Broadcaster Geraldo Rivera says he'll live here the rest of his life: My Cleveland

 

[wicked]

Local full-service radio has been dead for a couple decades. I wouldn’t be surprised if Entercom soon puts together a network for its all-news stations: 20 minutes out of a half hour hour are national, 10 (including stop sets) are local.

 

[playthrough]

I'm a longtime fan of all things Cincinnati, and when living in Florida many years ago I was paired on the first tee with a guy named Gary. He said his first name and that he was in radio when I asked him what he did, and I almost screamed back -- "You're Gary Burbank!" He was delighted to be recognized, and indeed he did his show from a home studio in Ocala.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

I'm a longtime fan of all things Cincinnati, and when living in Florida many years ago I was paired on the first tee with a guy named Gary. He said his first name and that he was in radio when I asked him what he did, and I almost screamed back -- "You're Gary Burbank!" He was delighted to be recognized, and indeed he did his show from a home studio in Ocala.

Loved him. Was a huge Reds fan growing up in NW Ohio and listened to Reds games on WLW all the time. So naturally I tuned into Gary Burbank's show before the games quite often. Will never forget Earl Pitts, Uhmerican. And I don't know if they came up with it, but they called Reds pitcher Bob Owchinko the Human Batting Tee. What a nickname.

 

[Chef2]

I'm a longtime fan of all things Cincinnati, and when living in Florida many years ago I was paired on the first tee with a guy named Gary. He said his first name and that he was in radio when I asked him what he did, and I almost screamed back -- "You're Gary Burbank!" He was delighted to be recognized, and indeed he did his show from a home studio in Ocala.

I know a lot of people don't like him, but I could listen to 4 straight hours of Bill Cunningham and Seg go back and forth.

 

[maumann]

Yeah, guy in our neighborhood who co-owns the AM in the next town (that doesn't have enough power to reach us) has a basement studio that would be the envy of any station in the country. It's amazing. And he sells insurance full-time to pay for his part-time hobby.

To the question of local radio rights fees, I've searched and can't find a decent answer. It's obviously less than back in the heyday of radio play-by-play. The Tigers and Red Wings have a multi-season contract with their flagship, then appear to work separate deals with any affiliates. I'm guessing the 6,000-watt FM in Alma pays a lot less than WXYT, but is required to carry the network ads.

How much? I can't even hazard a decent guess. 162 games, four hour time slot, 48 affiliates. Maybe $10,000 a season for the far-flung low-watters, $250,000-$500,000 to run the network? Seems low but radio is loose change compared to the MLBAM and FOX deals.