Local radio a thing of the past?

Clear Channel is greatly reducing the amount of local talent at their 850 radio stations in 150 cities around the US. This includes such icons as KBCO and KBSI locally where most of the on air talent have been given their walking papers. Instead, their stations are going to automated "piped" in content created in LA or elsewhere. Having spent most of my years listening to college radio stations and other free spirit radio, this is sad. Might as well go with XM/Sirius at this point.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/ostrow/2012 ... nel/11943/
"In another round of year-end staff reductions, management decided to reduce staff and put more syndicated fare on the air as a cost-cutting measure. Stone echoed the expectation nationally, that Clear Channel intends to rely more on the company’s Premium Choice syndicated service, which offers more than a dozen musical formats.

On Wednesday, radio trade publications reported Moody’s analysts believe Clear Channel may have a tough time refinancing more than $10 billion in debt obligations due in 2016. Industry observers speculate that Clear Channel may have to consider a merger or a sell off of some of its assets. The company was acquired by Bain Capital in 2008."



Thanks Mitt.

ANd what does Mitt Romney have to do with this?

Might also be due to lower advertising revenue. Many of my coworkers listen to I-pods instead of radio stations. I was listening to KBCO today but I only do that a couple times a month. Most of the music I listen to is Sirius XM

Clear Channel was profitable in 2008 when they were acquired by Bain Capital. In July 2008, Bain acquired Clear Channel for $24 billion, by putting down $1.2 billion in equity, and leveraging the remaining $23.5 billion in debt with Clear Channel's assets as collateral. Sweet deal. Bain is getting their money back with interest(along with enormous "management fees") while Clear Channel is struggling to make the interest payments on the debt. with their advertising market going in the toilet (thanks to Rush and Sandra Fluke), hundreds if not thousands of employees are losing their jobs. And who was the primary beneficiary of Bain Capital in 2008? Glad you asked, your pal Mitt, as part of his "severance" package.

It's a wonderful little concept called creative destruction that happens in a capitalist society. Horses and buggies gave way to the horseless carriage, which gave way to the automobile. This is the same principle applied to radio, television and the print media. Once the satellite radio came online, the days of local radio stations with local programming became a thing of the past. Not so much if it would happen as it was when it would happen.

The best way to go broke? Get an ever increasing share of an ever declining market. Remember when there were small print shops in every neighborhood and strip mall? The place where you got your letterheads. business cards and envelopes printed? The place with the self service copiers that you paid a dime apiece or so for? They're gone like flatulence in a hurricane for the most part now. Today you have that copier built right into the printer that is connected to your computer. The letterhead is a template that you open up and use, so you no longer need a box of 500 sitting in the office. And who wants to settle for a letterhead printed in black ink, black and one color or two colors when you can use every color in the rainbow.

One of my best friends' dad repaired typewriters and adding machines as an occupation to provide for his family when I was a kid growing up in Southeast Denver. Not many of those left in town either these days.

Denver had two daily newspapers, both of which were hundreds of pages every day. Now we have one daily paper and it has maybe a hundred pages on Sunday. Why the decline? The majority of the revenue came from the classified ads and the print ads, not the subscriptions. Craig's list did more to kill off the newspaper industry than all the slanted reporting ever could have. Does anyone even open up Yellow Pages anymore? I know it's been about 5 years or so since I even looked at one, but it's how most of us found merchants with services and products we wished to purchase just a few short years ago.

AM is mostly talk radio these days because they needed to find a new audience when FM radio got big. Before losing their market in music to FM they lost their market in entertainment to the TV. LPs gave way to tape, which gave way to CDs which gave way to MP3s. Beta and VHS had a battle for supremacy, which was short lived until DVDs came to the market. The original format is now secondary to Blu Ray and with live streaming even Blu Rays are less than half of what they used to cost.

This is the way things work, the way they are supposed to work. Bemoaning the loss of local radio stations is a lot like bemoaning the loss of union workers to weld together the bodies of the automobiles to programmable robots doing the work. The robots are more efficient, produce higher quality, and allow more vehicles to be built in a shorter amount of time, ultimately reducing the cost of the vehicle to the consumer, providing them with a better, longer lasting product and increasing the profits of the company, all at the same time. What's not to like about that?

Why would I listen to what some disk jockey decides to play when I can program my own play list and listen to what I want to hear, when I want to hear it, instead of listening for hours in the vain hope that the DJ is going to play the songs I want to hear? Why would I sit and listen to some guy who is advertising his cabinet resurfacing shop, or a company that wants me to subscribe to their automated, remote back up service for my computer files when I could be listening to music, music I wanted to listen to, instead?

Seeing as nothing here has changed or will change,,, I'll let ya'll handle it.

Today Clear Channel let go radio station KBPI's Gregg "Uncle Nasty" Stone. He was there for 20 years serving up rock and roll for your drive home through rush hour.

PrintSmith wrote: It's a wonderful little concept called creative destruction that happens in a capitalist society. Horses and buggies gave way to the horseless carriage, which gave way to the automobile. This is the same principle applied to radio, television and the print media. Once the satellite radio came online, the days of local radio stations with local programming became a thing of the past. Not so much if it would happen as it was when it would happen.

The best way to go broke? Get an ever increasing share of an ever declining market. Remember when there were small print shops in every neighborhood and strip mall? The place where you got your letterheads. business cards and envelopes printed? The place with the self service copiers that you paid a dime apiece or so for? They're gone like flatulence in a hurricane for the most part now. Today you have that copier built right into the printer that is connected to your computer. The letterhead is a template that you open up and use, so you no longer need a box of 500 sitting in the office. And who wants to settle for a letterhead printed in black ink, black and one color or two colors when you can use every color in the rainbow.

One of my best friends' dad repaired typewriters and adding machines as an occupation to provide for his family when I was a kid growing up in Southeast Denver. Not many of those left in town either these days.

Denver had two daily newspapers, both of which were hundreds of pages every day. Now we have one daily paper and it has maybe a hundred pages on Sunday. Why the decline? The majority of the revenue came from the classified ads and the print ads, not the subscriptions. Craig's list did more to kill off the newspaper industry than all the slanted reporting ever could have. Does anyone even open up Yellow Pages anymore? I know it's been about 5 years or so since I even looked at one, but it's how most of us found merchants with services and products we wished to purchase just a few short years ago.

AM is mostly talk radio these days because they needed to find a new audience when FM radio got big. Before losing their market in music to FM they lost their market in entertainment to the TV. LPs gave way to tape, which gave way to CDs which gave way to MP3s. Beta and VHS had a battle for supremacy, which was short lived until DVDs came to the market. The original format is now secondary to Blu Ray and with live streaming even Blu Rays are less than half of what they used to cost.

This is the way things work, the way they are supposed to work. Bemoaning the loss of local radio stations is a lot like bemoaning the loss of union workers to weld together the bodies of the automobiles to programmable robots doing the work. The robots are more efficient, produce higher quality, and allow more vehicles to be built in a shorter amount of time, ultimately reducing the cost of the vehicle to the consumer, providing them with a better, longer lasting product and increasing the profits of the company, all at the same time. What's not to like about that?

Why would I listen to what some disk jockey decides to play when I can program my own play list and listen to what I want to hear, when I want to hear it, instead of listening for hours in the vain hope that the DJ is going to play the songs I want to hear? Why would I sit and listen to some guy who is advertising his cabinet resurfacing shop, or a company that wants me to subscribe to their automated, remote back up service for my computer files when I could be listening to music, music I wanted to listen to, instead?

The single reason stated by Clear Channel as to why they are unprofitable? The amount of debt service they are saddled with due to the acquisition by Bain. It has left them unable to provide better services, unable to capital improvements, unable to survive.

The reason why independent radio does prosper is by providing unique services to the local communities. It has nothing to do with horse and buggy technology. The reason why I prefer unique local radio particularly college and public radio is they provide unique listening that I can not get from my ipod or XM/Sirius. They expose me to programming that I may not be aware, of artists that I have no yet heard, thought provoking commentary that I might not otherwise be acquainted with. Rather than listening to the Springsteen channel on XM or Pandora, instead I hear up and coming artists, or artists to which I have not yet been exposed. Obviously, I do not listen to top 40 or other formatted channels, and certainly do not listen to automated piped in pandalum. Further, I truly enjoy community radio stations in my travels. I have listened to some fascinating community radio stations in small towns such as paonia, moab, taos, durango, telluride, etc. These are fantastic ways to become acquainted with the culture and nature of these small towns and their residents, as well as become aware of the local going ons which the internet will not provide.

Some prefer their own personal echo chambers, but I really enjoy the stimulation from truly independent local progressive radio.

I have greatly enjoyed progressive stations, such as college stations, or early (pre-Clear Channel) KBCO, KTCL, etc. I mourn their passing.

Unintended consequences? Clear Channel might have to start selling off or turning off many of their stations and they can go back to local control. I thought KBCO was much better before Clear Channel tried to corner the Denver market.

There are also internet radio stations like Pandora and Slacker that let you program your own genre and artist play list. I haven't listened to terrestrial radio in years. Why? Because I hate listening to commercials.