Clear Channel job cuts a symptom of radio ad woes

As someone with first-hand knowledge and experience working in Richmond radio for many years, I can say that the headline would better read “Current Radio job cuts….“, rather than “Clear Channel job cuts….“.  Two reasons.  Almost all major radio companies are having to cut personnel due to the economic situation and general loss of radio ad revenue during this downturn.  Second, Clear Channel has employed (no pun intended) the tactic of laying off people year after year, even during good economic times when the local group was turning a profit, going all the way back to when they moved all their stations to the one building on Basie Road (letting go of people like Tim Farley, Lou Dean, etc. on Church Hill at WRVA), back in 2000.  That, too, was another era where the economy was not suffering.

There is, locally, a direct connection between the downfall of Richmond radio and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which, instead of bringing “competition”, brought us to the quagmire we are in everywhere of few companies running 4 to 10 stations in a market with LITTLE local ownership and decision-making.  Clear Channel has been planning this model of “play one song playlist on all similarly-formatted stations nationwide” for a decade now.  Meanwhile, Cox should be ashamed of itself.  Theire stations play nothing more than the same songs over and over with no personalities, just people reading prepared statements on liner cards about “50 minutes of music per hour” and the “commercial-free drive at five”.  Mix 103 is its third attempt to play the same format under a “new” moniker.

I’m smart enough to know the days of the original Q Morning Zoo, the real personalities of XL102 (pre-Jeff and Jeff, like Dick and Dixie and Paul Shugrue), and the legends of WRVA will never return.  But radio does have a chance to redeem itself by taking its one biggest competitive advantage, BEING LOCAL, and using it, NOW.  Newspapers are withering, and though as an earlier commenter said correctly, network television is surviving (do you think CBS cares what local news content is on in Richmond?  Versus Denver?  Listen up Clear Channel…), local TV stations are slowly paring down their news departments across the country.  Many stations have canned sports departments, and the days of the two-anchor format may be numbered down the line (i.e.—why are we paying two people to read the news when one will do?)  NOW is the time for radio to RETURN to providing LOCAL programming with personalities you could actually MEET at an event or live broadcast (when is Elvis Duran going to be in Richmond, eh?) and connect with.  People you enjoy listening to, along with the music you like or the news/talk you need/want!  No need to make everything local (people want Rush, for example); be smart about your programming and listen to what the people want.  Simple as that.

One last thought.  As Clear Channel destroys the heritage Q94, once filled with personality and now down to one local figure, it does hold onto one station with at least the local flavor radio needs, Lite 98.  The music you can take or leave, but Bill Bevins, Shelly Perkins, Kat Simons and Adam Stubbs are the real reason why that station has been at/near the top of the ratings for years now.  If Clear Channel ever decides to make it Lite a John Tesh-driven jukebox, will the last Clear Channel employee please shut the lights out.  And don’t put it past them.  It’s all about the bean counters, who know nothing about radio.  Which is why the company is over $20 billion in debt and their credit rating is falling.

All the comments here about the sorry state of Richmond radio sadden me because I know what it once was and what it can be!  But, I must agree with the premise as well.

I promise you this, Cox is doing the exact same thing. They had Sludge and Abe and fired Abe and put on Bubba the Lovesponge. Then moved Sludge. I sure he will be gone soon.

Cox is just as guilty of destroying radio in Richmond as Clear Channel.

It occurred to me this morning that there is a correlation between network television and radio. The big three television networks, NBC,ABC,and CBS, are still around and still very competitive in their markets even in the face of cable and satellite subscriptions, and new free networks have entered the market, Fox, WB, CW etc… There seems to be room for lots of people in free network television, yet clear channel seems to blame internet and satellite for some of it’s economic woes? Network television is surviving because it provides things that people want, and customizes these things for local markets, ie nightly local news. Maybe Clear Channel should look at network television as a model for success.

the new q94 morning show SUCKS!  Not that Melissa and Sid were all that fantastic, but this is Virginia, I don’t want to hear some syndicate from New York first thing in the morning, blech!  Looks like my iPod will be getting a lot more air time.

WRIR, Richmond Independent Radio, 97.3> Check it out.