I was reading this article in the latest edition of Wired Magazine about "Things That Suck" and was saddened to read this segment about radio.
The quote that really hit home for me was a conclusion the author made regarding radio's consolidation.
The result: watered-down programming designed primarily not to offend.
Let's clarify a couple of things, radio as a medium does not suck, the way radio is run is what sucks.
Radio is under attack on all fronts, for audience from the Ipod, the Internet and Satellite and for revenue from from the Internet. Radio’s response has not been smart to these attacks, radio companies have decided that cutting important staff members are the way out of this crisis, but that is shortsighted. Firing the very people who create the product will only hasten the decline of radio as we know it.
The article points out that the big companies are hurting radio and that is partially true, when you are beholden to stockholders, it is much easier to cut costs than to grow revenue. Radio should have begun building great Air Personalities year ago in anticipation of "the content crisis" they are facing now, but instead, those job were cut and the stations merely voice tracked the shows. Yes, in the short term those salaries were saved to the bottom line, but now radio doesn't have enough great talent to adequately draw enough audience to create a viable revenue model. Advertisers don't see enough stars in radio to waste their money. From the advertiser’s point of view, Satellite radio (for now) and the Internet offer way more sex appeal as a medium to reach their audience. Even though Internet advertising is unproven, it is still seen as a sexier way to spend your ad dollars.
All the years of talent neglect are now beginning to haunt radio. Think about it, you can listen to any radio show in the country on the Internet, which do you choose? Howard? Limbaugh? Who else is there? Radio hasn't created stars because it didn't want to pay a snot nose beginner a living wage 10 years ago, not they have nothing and no way to fix it.
In the end radio can and will only survive as a local medium. Check out the success stories in the business right now. They are all in medium and small markets where the independent local owner is investing in the community and in his radio station. The big cities are still cutting costs and local programming. If you are in a city, wouldn't you rather talk about local issues or hear local music? You just can't get that anymore on station like WJR in Detroit. It would have been unheard of for WJR to run so much out of market programming 10 years ago, but now a large chunk of their programming is syndicated with Limbaugh and Hannity.
At a time when radio should be defending its turf and churning out great, new programming, it has decided to go in the other direction. This is largly due to the FCC hammering indecency, but it is also the fault of consolidation.
The smart ones will get it and thrive, the ones owned by HUGE companies won't and will perish....but not before they make billions of dollars.
