Clear Channel may cut 1,000 jobs Tuesday...

[beejus]

Rumors are swirling that Clear Channel may be planning to cut as many as 1,000 jobs nationwide, and try to hide the news of the firings behind the inauguration Tuesday.

Article here:

www.audiographics.com/agd/011409-1.htm

[CookyMonzta]

Jan 16, 2009 9:35:12 GMT -5 beejus said:

Rumors are swirling that Clear Channel may be planning to cut as many as 1,000 jobs nationwide, and try to hide the news of the firings behind the inauguration Tuesday.

Article here:

www.audiographics.com/agd/011409-1.htm

They can run, but they know they can't hide. Mainstream radio, as I see it, is on its death knell. Satellite and most certainly Internet radio are coming to bury them.

This is a direct result of the collapse of the playlist. Twenty years ago it was very rare for top singles to play more than 8 times a day each. These days, radio stations will play a top tune 20 times a day. On more than one occasion, I have heard the same song played 45 minutes apart.

The more they play a song, the fewer songs they play on that station in a single day; and therefore, the playlist is smaller.

I remember when a station's playlist would have as many as 200 songs over the span of a week, maybe more. These days, you'll be lucky to hear 40 different tunes on a single station in a single week.

I don't have satellite radio, but I do listen to Internet radio, and Internet radio so far has given the people a much wider variety of current music that you can no longer find anywhere on mainstream radio's current-based music stations. Advertisers are now throwing more of their money toward Internet radio these days.

If I had to wager some horse money right now, I'd say that by 2015 mainstream radio will be nearly void of radio stations that play present-day pop, R&B, rock or whatever genre they specialize in. In fact, AM and FM radio will most likely become a bastion of news, talk and sports radio. Even high-definition radio will lose their music stations, one by one. Consider the merger of XM and Sirius, and consider the development of tabletop and portable Internet radios. Together they will make conventional and HD AM/FM radio obsolete.

[beejus]

Jan 18, 2009 4:58:53 GMT -5 CookyMonzta said:

Jan 16, 2009 9:35:12 GMT -5 beejus said:

Rumors are swirling that Clear Channel may be planning to cut as many as 1,000 jobs nationwide, and try to hide the news of the firings behind the inauguration Tuesday.

Article here:

www.audiographics.com/agd/011409-1.htm

They can run, but they know they can't hide. Mainstream radio, as I see it, is on its death knell. Satellite and most certainly Internet radio are coming to bury them.

This is a direct result of the collapse of the playlist. Twenty years ago it was very rare for top singles to play more than 8 times a day each. These days, radio stations will play a top tune 20 times a day. On more than one occasion, I have heard the same song played 45 minutes apart.

The more they play a song, the fewer songs they play on that station in a single day; and therefore, the playlist is smaller.

I remember when a station's playlist would have as many as 200 songs over the span of a week, maybe more. These days, you'll be lucky to hear 40 different tunes on a single station in a single week.

I don't have satellite radio, but I do listen to Internet radio, and Internet radio so far has given the people a much wider variety of current music that you can no longer find anywhere on mainstream radio's current-based music stations. Advertisers are now throwing more of their money toward Internet radio these days.

If I had to wager some horse money right now, I'd say that by 2015 mainstream radio will be nearly void of radio stations that play present-day pop, R&B, rock or whatever genre they specialize in. In fact, AM and FM radio will most likely become a bastion of news, talk and sports radio. Even high-definition radio will lose their music stations, one by one. Consider the merger of XM and Sirius, and consider the development of tabletop and portable Internet radios. Together they will make conventional and HD AM/FM radio obsolete.

Unless there's a financial miracle... XM/Sirius probably won't make it til 2010.

[CookyMonzta]

Jan 18, 2009 13:17:19 GMT -5 beejus said:

Jan 18, 2009 4:58:53 GMT -5 CookyMonzta said:

They can run, but they know they can't hide. Mainstream radio, as I see it, is on its death knell. Satellite and most certainly Internet radio are coming to bury them.

This is a direct result of the collapse of the playlist. Twenty years ago it was very rare for top singles to play more than 8 times a day each. These days, radio stations will play a top tune 20 times a day. On more than one occasion, I have heard the same song played 45 minutes apart.

The more they play a song, the fewer songs they play on that station in a single day; and therefore, the playlist is smaller.

I remember when a station's playlist would have as many as 200 songs over the span of a week, maybe more. These days, you'll be lucky to hear 40 different tunes on a single station in a single week.

I don't have satellite radio, but I do listen to Internet radio, and Internet radio so far has given the people a much wider variety of current music that you can no longer find anywhere on mainstream radio's current-based music stations. Advertisers are now throwing more of their money toward Internet radio these days.

If I had to wager some horse money right now, I'd say that by 2015 mainstream radio will be nearly void of radio stations that play present-day pop, R&B, rock or whatever genre they specialize in. In fact, AM and FM radio will most likely become a bastion of news, talk and sports radio. Even high-definition radio will lose their music stations, one by one. Consider the merger of XM and Sirius, and consider the development of tabletop and portable Internet radios. Together they will make conventional and HD AM/FM radio obsolete.

Unless there's a financial miracle... XM/Sirius probably won't make it til 2010.

Which would then leave Internet radio as the premier provider of music. Advertising dollars are going their way more often these days than they go toward mainstream or even HD radio. People are not as interested in paying $12.95 a month for radio content as they might have been 5 years ago, because they can get the same thing and so much more on the Web, although it'll cost at least $20 a month for broadband. Once more, you can get a decent tabletop Internet radio capable of carrying over 10,000 stations worldwide for about $150, and the transmission is free.

[beejus]

Jan 18, 2009 23:39:18 GMT -5 CookyMonzta said:

Jan 18, 2009 13:17:19 GMT -5 beejus said:

Unless there's a financial miracle... XM/Sirius probably won't make it til 2010.

Which would then leave Internet radio as the premier provider of music. Advertising dollars are going their way more often these days than they go toward mainstream or even HD radio. People are not as interested in paying $12.95 a month for radio content as they might have been 5 years ago, because they can get the same thing and so much more on the Web, although it'll cost at least $20 a month for broadband. Once more, you can get a decent tabletop Internet radio capable of carrying over 10,000 stations worldwide for about $150, and the transmission is free.

While there are some gems of great internet programming out there... there is a TON of bad programming as well... which brings up the question... will the average listener spend the time to dig around and find an internet station that they like and will keep tuned into?

Plus with so many internet stations, the audience gets GREATLY fragmented. While you're able to more accurately track your listenership, it keeps getting more and more fragmented between all of the internet stations... to the point you ask "just how much can i charge for spots on this station?" And can you make it profitable?

I'm not saying internet radio COULDN'T knock off terrestrial radio. But if you start slicing the audience up into pieces that are too small... trying to stay afloat might not be possible.

[oscillations.]

Media jobs are being slashed left and right this month. Publishing, "new media", radio, TV. It's all gone toe up.

[johnm1120]

1850 were laid off yesterday. Allaccess has a list of employees who were let go. In Miami 4 were let go. 1 from Y100 (T40), 1 from 103.5 The Beat (UAC), 1 from Mega 94.9 (Hurban) and 1 from WIOD (Talk)

[cartman2002]

Any people losing their jobs from the Springfield, MA/Hartford Ct. area?

[tico]

Clear Channel also dug deep into Fox Sports Radio as Andrew Siciliano and sidekick Krystal Fernandez are gone, as well as overnighter Ben Maller. Also gone are the morning duo Craig Shemon and James Washington.

[banks]

Over the last decade or so, CC and others have been lowering their spot rates to under-cut their competition, which means their competition has to cut rates, and then their competition has had to cut staff payroll, and so on and so on... Is telling your customers that what they've been paying for all this time was worth less than what they'd been paying for all along a good business practice?

People don't watch "American Idol" because Seacrest hosts it, they watch it for the performances.

Big companies (CC, Cumulus, Citadel, etc.) aren't as interested in ratings when they can bring down the bottom line. Less overheard with slightly lower ratings can (and will) result in more profit...until nobody listens to the radio anymore.

And with big companies make sweeping "no more night jocks" edicts, we're just not going to serve the up-and-coming 18-34 demo (urban, CHR, country, alternative, etc). That ought to make radio continue to be viable in the near future...

The sooner the big companies go bankrupt and/or start selling off their portfolios, the better. When that starts to happen, I think you'll find the situation improving, slowly but surely.