Several of you want to join this debate (
5/10/06 RBR #92)
begun by Scott Evans.
Scott...Quit Your Bitching!
I have heard enough. If you have worked for Clear Channel and you are carrying a grudge, then you need to come to terms with it and move on. If you haven't worked for Clear Channel then you are void of first-hand experience with the company infrastructure and internal programs that would, at the very least, surprise you.
However, if you are upset with the fact that Clear Channel owns 1,200+ radio stations, the largest outdoor advertising platform in the country, and Premier Radio Networks (Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome etc.), vent your anger on your Congressman. It was Congress who put the opportunity in the hands of whoever was capable of stepping-up, and the end result is Clear Channel, Citadel, Cumulus, CBS, Radio One, Cox, Entercom, etc., etc.
We need to quit passing the blame to Clear Channel for the ills of an industry of which they own less than 9% of the licenses, and we need to tap into those creative talents we keep telling everyone we have, address and solve our problems as quickly and efficiently as we can and move on! Hey, if you are not a part of the solution then you are the problem!
I agree we have a lot of challenges to address, but the single biggest and costliest mistake we have made as operators has been our evolution to a highly cluttered advertising platform, of which we are all guilty. Clear Channel, with their "Less Is More" initiative, has brought to the table one approach to solving that problem and I applaud Hogan for having the guts to address it and do something about it, if you don't think it works for your station then don't use it. However, if stations around the country big or small, don't embrace the concept of the need for vastly reduced inventory and return to a music intensive philosophy, then we are all going to witness continued market share and revenue evaporation.
Simply put, there are more music/entertainment platforms competing for our listener than ever before and if we don't comprehend the dynamics and the subsequent impact, address it and clean it up, then we deserve what comes. I am not referring to Satellite Radio, because that is not and should not be our worry. Our worry today should be the iPod, which tomorrow will pale in comparison to the Internet and the coast-to-coast WiFi connectivity due to arrive in a few short years bringing total Internet mobility with it. Now, to me that is both frightening and exhilarating at the same time, however, if we deal with this issue the same way we dealt with the satellite issue, we will all be skinned alive! We do have time to adapt but we don't have time to bitch.
The bottom line is pretty damn simple. Our industry is froth with mistakes that have been made over the last decade and it includes the: FCC, NAB, Congress, Wall Street players, and the independent owners/operators. However, all of that is in the past and if we choose to learn from it, those lessons will fuel our emergence from this finger-pointing funk, freeing each and every broadcaster, big or small, to objectively analyze their operation through a 21st century perspective and begin the adaptation to this new world in which we are now competing. But, you better hurry, because the clock is ticking!
Rodney H. Rainey
RadioMetrix Solutions
Good Morning - Gain a personal edge on today's business day. Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
