The First Thing for Radio in 2010 - Change
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It's not been a good week for the radio industry. We've had to deal with Citadel filing bankruptcy (and, now, Next Media), a most idiotic stunt gone awry with a more idiotic explanation from the offending station (as if the audience has "stupid" stamped on its forehead), and the babbling of one hired-gun analyst whose primary job is to make radio industry execs feel better.
The bankruptcy was expected, as well as keeping in place the person who led Citadel down its path. Is anyone at radio industry trade publications asking why Citadel Chairman/CEO Farid Suleman should maintain his position? If so, it's not in any article I've been exposed to. Keeping Suleman exemplifies, more than any other single item, why radio is having such a poor time; it refuses to change inept management, and it refuses to ask even the most rudimentary questions about fiduciary responsibility.
By now most everyone in radio has heard about the burning turkey, van, and the injured fireman. Clear Channel's WFLZ, Tampa, made headlines in The Tampa Tribune with a story akin to the comical WKRP episode about throwing turkeys out of a helicopter; only, WVLZ's event was seriously unsafe. To make matters worse, management at the station came out with this explanation - "Like we've done several times in the past, our intent was to show how dangerous it is to cook a turkey in this type of situation." Message to management: This is radio. Just how are you supposed to demonstrate the dangers to an audience that can't see what you are doing? According to The Tampa Tribune "The morning show and stunt were streamed live on the station's Web site and recorded," though I don't know if this means a video or audio stream - which doesn't matter today.
I don't think this is what we mean when urging the radio industry to better use the internet, nor are these other examples of WFLZ using online video.
BTW, this story is noticeably absent from Clear Channel-owned InsideRadio.com.
The last item to cover does appear at InsideRadio.com, as a headline, "Exclusive: November revenue shows gains." This is followed by the line "Radio’s embryonic revival continued in November, even if it was fuelled more by easy comparisons than a rebounding economy."
Author of this analysis, Jim Boyle, suggests: "Due to significant political advertising in the first week of November 2008 in many battleground state markets, an adjustment is appropriate to reflect recurring year-on-year revenue. Using an average 2% to adjust for that political ad onslaught, I estimate November industry revenue was 'organically' down by a more subdued 7%."
So, we have an analyst who discounts a previous year because of the anomaly called "elections." I haven't checked, but I'd bet that those elections were used last year to demonstrate that radio had a better-than-expected November 2008.
Boyle was noted in a 2004 Audio Graphics article with these words: Go to Radio Ink or the Radio and Records web site and you will see an article on how Wachovia Securities analyst James Boyle says radio has "hit bottom."
This was also pointed to in the 2004 AG article: The first thing you notice is that James Boyle is not ranked in the top thirty [when compared with other media analysts in 2004]. The next is that he has a less-than-stellar performance in being right.
As we leave 2009 the only thought that should be on anyone's mind is how the radio industry can change in 2010. Will we see some of the top execs shown the exit? Will we see radio stations do things that actually contribute to improvement for their communities? Will we begin to get real about just how damaging a rosier-than-reality picture is when painted by a former industry analyst who now writes for a Clear Channel owned industry publication?
If possible, it would be a pleasure to print something that the radio industry did this year that forced anyone connected to it to hold their head high with pride. Besides radio acting as a microphone for bad weather and California fires, I'm coming up empty.
The course set over a decade ago was wrong, is wrong, and will continue to be wrong. The radio business simply cannot continue to operate on self-destruct.
Just getting away from how things are done is change enough, for now. Relative to radio, it's the only option.
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