Colorado Media Newsroom
January 26th, 2024, 01:52 PM
From Radio Insight:
https://radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/1970/01/livelocal-200x200.jpgThrough the first three weeks of 2024, I have been asked to confirm so-far unfounded reports of “imminent major cuts” from employees at nearly every major ownership group. One says my company is going to eliminate all midday hosts. Another is about to jettison dozens of morning shows. Yet another will move to even more centralized programming and production roles. Employees are living in a world where they are afraid to do anything for risk of getting on a layoff list. How is this going to create a product that will ebb the tide from increased competition on all sides?
We are so accustomed to hearing on a regular basis the phrase “Radio is Dead (or Dying)” that we fail to acknowledge what that means. When someone says the term “radio is dead” they are not talking about the medium or the general concept of produced audio, but rather the business side of American commercial radio operations at great scale. Wall Street pegged radio as a dying industry as stock values dropped and debt-burdens forced multiple companies into Chapter 11 restructurings creating a feedback loop where other companies felt the need to scale up to match, having to take on increased debt to keep up only to find themselves in the same circumstance.
The term “Live and Local” had been radio’s calling card for decades. In many circumstances a station is now neither. By no means in 2024 should we expect a station to be staffed locally 24/7 as that is no longer feasible for a plethora of reasons. But if a station as part of a cluster in any-sized market is only capable of having a handful of people focused on the content, there is a major problem.
Now a station can now be live without being local, and a station can be local without being live. But it still requires resources to serve that audience. If you want to be the former, your content from the national level needs to have a cohesiveness to it. Just plugging a lineup full of syndication whether it be talk or music programming does nothing. There needs to a be a through-line to keep the audience in-tact. If it is the latter, there are other methods of being local from being out everywhere in the community or the Townsquare model of emphasizing their web presence. Being neither is a recipe for irrelevance for any station or brand.
Broadcast television has learned that lesson quickly with its increase in local news and talk output to compete with the increased streaming video options. Nearly every market has one station positioning in some form emphasizing Live and Local. Yet radio in many places has abandoned both.
There are some operators successfully doing both. Even companies who also have completely eliminated live and local programming at other stations. But if a 50kW FM signal is not producing either, what is its point? How is it being utilized to keep listeners from saying “Radio is Dead?” leading to employees working in fear and failing to create a better product?
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/263581/live-or-local/)
https://radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/1970/01/livelocal-200x200.jpgThrough the first three weeks of 2024, I have been asked to confirm so-far unfounded reports of “imminent major cuts” from employees at nearly every major ownership group. One says my company is going to eliminate all midday hosts. Another is about to jettison dozens of morning shows. Yet another will move to even more centralized programming and production roles. Employees are living in a world where they are afraid to do anything for risk of getting on a layoff list. How is this going to create a product that will ebb the tide from increased competition on all sides?
We are so accustomed to hearing on a regular basis the phrase “Radio is Dead (or Dying)” that we fail to acknowledge what that means. When someone says the term “radio is dead” they are not talking about the medium or the general concept of produced audio, but rather the business side of American commercial radio operations at great scale. Wall Street pegged radio as a dying industry as stock values dropped and debt-burdens forced multiple companies into Chapter 11 restructurings creating a feedback loop where other companies felt the need to scale up to match, having to take on increased debt to keep up only to find themselves in the same circumstance.
The term “Live and Local” had been radio’s calling card for decades. In many circumstances a station is now neither. By no means in 2024 should we expect a station to be staffed locally 24/7 as that is no longer feasible for a plethora of reasons. But if a station as part of a cluster in any-sized market is only capable of having a handful of people focused on the content, there is a major problem.
Now a station can now be live without being local, and a station can be local without being live. But it still requires resources to serve that audience. If you want to be the former, your content from the national level needs to have a cohesiveness to it. Just plugging a lineup full of syndication whether it be talk or music programming does nothing. There needs to a be a through-line to keep the audience in-tact. If it is the latter, there are other methods of being local from being out everywhere in the community or the Townsquare model of emphasizing their web presence. Being neither is a recipe for irrelevance for any station or brand.
Broadcast television has learned that lesson quickly with its increase in local news and talk output to compete with the increased streaming video options. Nearly every market has one station positioning in some form emphasizing Live and Local. Yet radio in many places has abandoned both.
There are some operators successfully doing both. Even companies who also have completely eliminated live and local programming at other stations. But if a 50kW FM signal is not producing either, what is its point? How is it being utilized to keep listeners from saying “Radio is Dead?” leading to employees working in fear and failing to create a better product?
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/263581/live-or-local/)