I have mixed feelings about everything that happened yesterday. Like everyone else, I am rooting for President Obama. If he does well, then it's likely we all will do well. Even though I didn't vote for him, I do think he brings fresh blood and ideas to The White House. I hope he can deliver on half of what he promised during the long campaign. If he can then he'll have done a great job.
At the same time I'm rooting for the new President, I am saddened by what happened to my industry yesterday. The radio industry has been ravaged by the rough economy, and there have been layoffs that have been going on for about six months now. But there had not been, up until yesterday, a true bloodbath. That has changed.
Clear Channel Communications, for those of you that don't know, is a multimedia conglomerate. They own about one thousand radio stations across the company. When the big companies were buying radio stations left and right during the 1990's, Clear Channel was the company that was buying up the most stations.
Clear Channel runs some of the bigger sports radio stations in the country. XTRA Sports 570 in Los Angeles. KJR 950 in Seattle. I could mention a number of others, but it wouldn't make sense to right now.
Why? Because some of those stations don't exist anymore, or at least exist in the form that they did just twenty-four hours ago. Clear Channel laid off 9% of its work force yesterday. Maybe nine percent doesn't sound like a big number to you. If that's the case, try this on for size - 1,850 people lost their jobs yesterday for no other reason than their 'number' was too big.
Among those - the entire air staff at Detroit's FAN. WDFN 1130 fired all of their local personalities yesterday, including the very popular 'Stoney & Wojo.' XTRA Sports in San Diego pulled the same trick. I'm just using those two particualr stations as examples.
So, what does Cear Channel plan on doing with those two stations? Why they plan to keep the sports format, but instead of having a local product that fans can connect, with, they will likely run FOX Sports Radio 24/7. National sports talk in cities passionate about sports like Detroit and San Diego.
Clear Channel will probably continue to make money with those stations. Sports radio, after all, does tend to attract good advertising dollars. But, what Clear Channel doesn't realize is that they aren't serving their local audience. Actually, they do realize it. They just don't care. All they care about is their bottom line.
Imagine you're a sports fan in Detroit this morning. You get in the car and you want to hear about your Lions, Tigers, Red Wings, whatever. But, when you turn on the radio you get nothing but stuff you probably don't care about. Is that serving your needs? I don't think so.
You see, that's what these radio operators like Clear Channel forget. They forget that when radio started in the 1920's stations served the needs of the community. A good example would be WTMJ here in Milwaukee. It serves the community the same way it always has - by being the station to go to for news, weather and sports (they have all the play by play). We in the business call these stations 'Heritage' stations.
Clear Channel has seemingly forgot what made radio an important part of the fabric of this country for many years. The focus has gone from serving the community and getting ratings (not necessarily in that order) to making money.
The big companies like Clear Channel obviously don't care about anything but the bottom line. And they are victimizing everyone involved.
The people that get laid off are victims. And the listening audience is victimized as well. Your needs as a listener are not being met.
So, while the rest of the country celebrates our new President, and deservedly so, let me be the one who reminds you that yesterday's news wasn't all good.
1,850 people lost their jobs yesterday in one industry. All from one company.
Celebrate 'Change" if you'd like, but do me a favor. Keep in mind those that lost their jobs yesterday.
And think about whether or not your needs are being served by your local media.
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