Re(3): Warning to stations cutting staff Posted on March 27, 2024 at 06:10:59 PM by rman
I'm fairly sure that those who have flown this nest never even came IN here and what few did, never came back.
Maybe you dont' read this room but since Susquehanna days, no one in the industry here has ever spoken well of managements, most especially since the stations were bought up by big guys. That was Reagan's doing, changing the makeup of the FCC.
I'm fairly confident that was before your time. Radio was pretty good in the 60s and 70s. Stations couldnt' own too many stations so they were almost locally owned; I think you could have six. The best stations were radio tv combos when then the rules change and startions started selling to larger corporations, they had to spin off some of the properties. I know this, I was in radio when my company sold and they spun off the FM in the basement. So being a journalist, I moved to the TV station and was never in radio again.
Stations have been bought and sold with regularity this market and then others; some picked up, not by founding broadcasters, but simply groups of investors. THings fell apart when cable was invented and the FCC relaxed rules. No more Fairness Doctrine, no need for news was the one thing that kept radio from just being a music machine. Now it's moving to internet listening service. Used to be Radio got attention in the broadcasting trades but all the attention has turned to TV and what radio did get attention was just the conglomerates. What killed the radio start was partly tv but IMHO, it was deregulation. And what made radio sound alike everywhere was consultants. They had clients everywhere, jacking around with the broadcast hour, where to put the spots, centering on Arbitron diaries. Midcentury, most jocks knew nothing of programming to the book.
There might be some retired guys who know more about that than I did because most of my time was in news. Jim will know that, he worked for a blowtorch in WIchita selling time and they had personality and crackerjack news. I dont think Country listeners even cared what they played because they mostly did talk...personality talk. And a full log.
Same where I was. Cable changed everything when the advertisers fled radio. TV too. Our staffs all got cut in half. There were as many people in news ans in programming and the night jocks were live not on tape. And they had freedom, not formats.
70s in TV, after the switch from 16mm film to 3/4 inch tape, and then we bought satellite time from the networks at abt $70 for 5 minutes...the NAB conventions were about live and SNG trucks. TV reporters enterprised stories almost every day. I know, I was one of em. THey convered the state capitals, and some had Washington Bureaus.
I'm not sure Gateway existed yet but I know this room when I got here was full of complainers. I'm just the only one left. THey're gone, didn't come back. Left the market or left the business.
No, I'm impressed with corporate radio... run by sales people or jocks, all of whom studied under the same consultants in whichever larger market they learned the formats. Suddenly nobody had a college degree and that was one thing that gave people well rounded, open minded educations. I'd say innovation and ability to risk-take. Those managers were all older than me, real professionals. Talent turnover was actually pretty low. Radio even had meterologists because the established stations were radio TV combos so they were already on staff.
Now everyone knows that when storms kick up, find you a TV or a PC; If live jocks said anything 25 years ago, they grabbed some NWS weather copy from the newsroom and read it.
Were you where when the stations ordered their staffs not to write in here because they were tired of their stations getting dissed?
Were you around before that when powerhouse AM stations had long range... true not stereo sadly but suddently there were, what 3 times the number of stations in a market...ya start getting close to T-town (or in some cases just out of the county), and the FMs faded away. We had W stations, clear channel stations, 610, 710, 810, 980 and a handlful of low powers. They had staff and money to spend. Innovative contests.
Those old guys are still out on the internet FB pages reminescing about the big names at KHJ etc etc. HEre we got me, and acouple guys doing politics, dirty old man and Snowman. Every one anonymous handles; do you know anybody else besides you in here still on the air? Most of em didn't talk in here much and they never said where they worked. They didn't dare. I don't think the big talent ever came in here unless it was to do a eulogy for somebody from the 70s who had died.
I presume Gateway City Radio started with STL... the're gone. Midkansas is gone, Mid Mo is gone. Could be the only reason why this one is here is me and Jim! ROFLMAO! I think that's because other than us, nobody here would ever type a complete paragraph! I'm not sure they knew how. Replies: There have been no replies.
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