From the very fine www.dcrtv.com:

Clear Channel Cuts Coming - 1/10 - DCRTV is getting some information about a big batch of cuts coming to Clear Channel's radio stations across the country. We've already reported that the cuts, discussed among execs this past week at a big powwow in San Antonio, could be in the range of 8 percent, across-the-board. Affected employees will be notified by their next payday or by the end of the month, we're told. General managers aren't being given "an agenda." They're being handed their station-specific and even employee-specific budgets on-the-spot, mandated by "corporate." High-priced talent that isn't "delivering" what the Bain/Lee buyout firm and Mays family management have decided is an appropriate return on investment may not be around for long. The local managers may even be handed a list ranking all of their employees in terms of "effectiveness" - and that may be a prelude to having corporate determine who's staying for 2009 and who's going.

Who's next?

what happened to "no changes?"

Another clueless about the synergy between good local product getting in the way of ROI?

Why not put rush and a couple other syndie goons on ALL CC stations? Think of the savings.

BAIN/LEE.... Know anything about radio?

Just generic business I guess. what works in on field works in another.......

NOT!!!!

GEEZ how about business specific management?

If it goes south maybe we can bail them out as well.......

Guess we knew it was coming.

I wonder if the Playhouse will still be on jammin in a few months?
They are the only high priced talent at Clear channel! Or I should say PK!

I can't imagine any of the talent on Z100 currently are high priced talent! Im sure they are all making beans or close to it.

.

Being here in San Antonio and having competed with CC before and after they bought all those stations, I think it is important to understand a few things about them.

Lowry Mays is an Investment Banker. His two sons have never run a radio station as a General Manager, never worked in one as a sales rep and never been on the air or participated in programming.

If you haven't read the book about Clear Channel...not the Reed Bunzel version...you should.

They understand Radio sales. They understand the relationship between the Advertisers and the stations. They DO NOT understand, nor do they value talent, even though they own Premiere, which is nothing but talent. They do not understand the relationship between the listeners and the Radio stations.

Think back to everything they have done since the beginning of consolidation, and you'll get it.

Now, the economy is in the tank, the stations have been stripped of talent, news departments, local involvement, and they have adopted a business school tactic of trying to determine the value of each employee based on ROI.

These guys do not have a clue, and the sooner they are out of our business, the better. I just hope there is something left.

To make things worse Z100 is adding A ryan Seacrest Special for a few hours right smack in the middle of the day, 5 days a week!
Talk about BRUTAL!!!
Can clear Channel do anything more to drive listeners away and abandon their radio for IPODS??? I think not!

Poor Jammin 1075 will be stripped of their live air talent and replaced with crappy voice tracked jocks and stupid syndicated programs like Ryan Seacrest!!

Just serving the public interest! :-0

It scares me to think that there are probably a lot of companies out there where the top management came from an accounting, investment banking, or sales background, rather than having worked themselves up within that company or within another company in the same industry. Not having that experience, I think it is very difficult or impossible to appreciate how different employees and resources fit together to make or do whatever it is that the company makes or does. I have heard a number of humorous stories about retarded things that those types of managers say and do because they just don't understand the internal operating processes of the companies they work for.

http://www.bloodlesscoup.com/blog/005309.html

Alfredo,

One of our biggest problems right now is that many of the people with a lot of experience and expertise who ran Radio's biggest companies before consolidation are not longer in the business. Some just cashed out when they sold their stations. Others found that they could make more money doing something else. There is a lack of leadership in the big markets right now. Most of the experienced people are in the smaller markets and not in positions where their influence can change things.

Case in point. The NAB just conducted a vote to add a large market Radio member position to it's board, because the board is now made up mostly of small market owners. They actually can't get the large market people to participate, so they thought the creation of another position would help. I voted against it because I'm operating in a small market and the differences between what we're doing and what has come to pass in the big markets are night and day.

We need leadership because there are a lot of difficult regulartory and music related issues just around the corner and the industry must be united if we're going to win.

Jammin won't survive the move to Macadam. 100kw on a non-performer is a waste. It will become one of the following:

-Talk
-Hispanic
-Modern rock
-Country
-Smooth Jazz

Some of those are fake and two are real options.

Cue Wayno in 3... 2... 1...

You have to wait 3 weeks before Wayne digs this thread up and brings it to the top of the forum.

I believe it could be a Talk simulcast. I don't think any of the others are viable options.

I still don't see "Jammin' 107-5" going away, at this point.

Rich,
Can you explain the title of this thread please? I don't understand the 4949 part.

4949 is the address on Macadam of the Clear Channel Broadcast center.

>>You have to wait 3 weeks before Wayne digs this thread up and brings it to the top of the forum.<<

Too funny!

So, as long as these same people are in the exec seats there can't possibly be any changes in operating procedure. If your only concern is percentages, ROI, margins, and cost leveraging, and you have never been taught the value of people as an asset rather than an expense or depreciable asset, then you have no way of recognizing the value add of local communicators in this industry, nor is the BIGGER IS BETTER a long term win.

You can tweak all you want, combine duties, streamline, add syndies, otto, but that degrades the presentation further. Eventually your decline can no longer be covered by cuts. You can throw up your hands at that point and say the industry is no longer viable.

You would be wrong. Not viable on the path chosen, but certainly viable once the business practices change.

It seems the goal is to wring it dry and leave the shell behind. Maybe those type of business policies are why the economy is where it is .......

I bet I don't need to say what I want here do I?
Nothing has worked on 107.5 yet.

Hi, Wayne. Welcome to the party!!

thanks! I hope you are doing well.

Called it!

I can almost hear the Smooth Jazz...

Smooth doesn't sell! 105.9 tried but it was DOA!

I didn't say, necessarily, that the Smooth Jazz would be playing on a Portland radio station. I just said that I can almost hear it...

That's tinnitus you're hearing.



Often times its a bit tuneful than stuff on Jammin's playlist though.

The 80s were very successful for awhile.

The 80s were very successful for awhile.....

In the 80s (:-)

I don't think anything has worked on 105.9. Their current formant has fewer listeners than Smooth Jazz ever did. 105.9 probably doesn't have as good of a signal as some other channels

As much as I liked Star 105.9, I am in agreement that nothing that has ever played on that frequency has been a smash hit ratings-wise. Everything except the Smooth Jazz format had some direct format competitor that was pretty well established.

Star 105.9 - Rosie 105
105.9 The River - KGON
KOOL 105.9 - K-Hits 106.7

KVMX started out #1 12+ and slowly lost audience over a period of years.