Posted by Steve Green on November 06, 2009 at 11:38:11:
In Reply to: Re: Board Reflections for November 5 posted by Roy Fredriks on November 05, 2009 at 14:38:18:
Wow, I don't like that scenario at all, Roy.
The very thing that many on this board indict as one of the reasons for radio's slump is the industry's reluctance to go more live and local. Citadel's version of WABC has been accused of that. Plus, placing the stuff on FM would mean fewer music channels ; fewer opportunities for youth music to try and rally a generation in whatever form. Youth is sorely needed.
As well, after sports, more sports, talk, all-news and news-talk goes to FM, that places huge numbers of those undesirable older demos smack onto a dial where management and sales traditionally never wanted all those horrible people listening who not just have grey hair but who are set in their ways.
And as the FM dial moves toward becoming the 2-meter band on the Short Wave dial, the move would also leave the AM dial up for grabs .... with MORE paid programming, less local fare than they have now, second-tier syndication, and other going-out-of-business symptoms.
FM talk that skews younger is a theory to latch onto, but is only as valid as, oh, a little thing like finding new talent. The cutbacks in the budgets (and other factors) have stymied this process -- on FM as well as AM. Young talent development is inert.
Of course, there aren't many suggestions that will make the cut. Larry Weiss's thread turned over a huge rock, and unearthed all sorts of pesty creatures. In a vivid way, this nutshelled post and the resultant commotion touched on and recertified virtually every facet, theory, strategy and principle ever discussed on this forum. The entire thread should be required reading at any radio-management get-togther or seminar.
There are, obviously, no easy solutions. There may be very few hard answers available, either. Still, I think discussons like this deserve to be brought up from time to time -- as a duty. Many of those aBoard here were introduced to the NYRMB when it was an offshoot of a nostalgia- oriented site in the first place. To me, it's either pay some heed to those good-old-days or do nothing, and watch the whole industry attract even more flies than it draws already.
In terms of time spent listening, radio inexorably is becoming an antiquated billboard on a old highway paralleled by a swift, modern bypass which is equipped with preiodic rest stops where wiFi is available 24/7. Perhaps those in the eye of the radio management storm, closest to it all, can winnow a strategy or two from this timely thread.
My point is that this topic, as well as subsquent ones, should not go unnoticed. I realize that it's all been said before, Allan. But if decisions are made to attempt to stall, or even reverse, the trend, priciples and standards and entertainment ideas from back when the business was successful have to be a wiser choice than using those from an era when it all started to implode. There isn't really a choice, anyway.