Through the first three weeks of 2024, I have been asked to confirm so-far unfounded reports of “imminent major cuts” from employees at nearly every major ownership group. One says my company is going to eliminate all midday hosts. Another is about to jettison dozens of morning shows. Yet another will move to even more centralized programming and production roles. Employees are living in a world where they are afraid to do anything for risk of getting on a layoff list. How is this going to create a product that will ebb the tide from increased competition on all sides?
We are so accustomed to hearing on a regular basis the phrase “Radio is Dead (or Dying)” that we fail to acknowledge what that means. When someone says the term “radio is dead” they are not talking about the medium or the general concept of produced audio, but rather the business side of American commercial radio operations at great scale. Wall Street pegged radio as a dying industry as stock values dropped and debt-burdens forced multiple companies into Chapter 11 restructurings creating a feedback loop where other companies felt the need to scale up to match, having to take on increased debt to keep up only to find themselves in the same circumstance.
The term “Live and Local” had been radio’s calling card for decades. In many circumstances a station is now neither. By no means in 2024 should we expect a station to be staffed locally 24/7 as that is no longer feasible for a plethora of reasons. But if a station as part of a cluster in any-sized market is only capable of having a handful of people focused on the content, there is a major problem.
Now a station can now be live without being local, and a station can be local without being live. But it still requires resources to serve that audience. If you want to be the former, your content from the national level needs to have a cohesiveness to it. Just plugging a lineup full of syndication whether it be talk or music programming does nothing. There needs to a be a through-line to keep the audience in-tact. If it is the latter, there are other methods of being local from being out everywhere in the community or the Townsquare model of emphasizing their web presence. Being neither is a recipe for irrelevance for any station or brand.
Broadcast television has learned that lesson quickly with its increase in local news and talk output to compete with the increased streaming video options. Nearly every market has one station positioning in some form emphasizing Live and Local. Yet radio in many places has abandoned both.
There are some operators successfully doing both. Even companies who also have completely eliminated live and local programming at other stations. But if a 50kW FM signal is not producing either, what is its point? How is it being utilized to keep listeners from saying “Radio is Dead?” leading to employees working in fear and failing to create a better product?
Wow, amazing article. Thank you for saying what so much of us can’t say, or put in to words. Having talked to a few of the larger operators, it does seem now that there’s a push to start bringing more young talent in, but we aren’t going to operate on the level of a station from 2008 that just gave up and has been treading water for the last 16 years. At the same time, I think radio would do well to go back to basics, read listener emails, take listener calls, make it feel like a human beings is actually sitting there instead of just listening to an advertisement in between songs. I think radio personalities with references on the résumé that tied to community, should get first priority. Tracking for another market? Fine, still applies. Someone who actually understands the community service aspect of radio is far more likely to do a good job in increasing its relevance, then a bean counter who has never worked in radio in their life, and somehow think they can still run it like a Wall Street stock exchange, and are somehow surprised when it didn’t work.
Lance, you are spot on. But I am also sick of the Boomers and people that left radio 20 years (or more) ago saying that no one listens to radio anymore because it doesn’t play 50’s and 60’s oldies, or have screaming “Boss Jocks” or play audio from vinyl and cart machines.
The medium has changed, is changing and always will change. We’re at that point right now. Where it heads is going to be influenced greatly by the Zoomers – and first hand I have seen there are plenty of the them in college and excited about the medium and it’s potential.
Until then, commercial radio is in trouble because, as you noted, it gave up on what it does best.
“By no means in 2024 should we expect a station to be staffed locally 24/7 as that is no longer feasible for a plethora of reasons.”
I know it’s not common for a station to be live 24/7… but it did get me to thinking; In pretty much every town, large and small, across the USA, you’ll find at least one convenience store/gas station that is open 24/365. By obvious necessity, there is at least one human staffing that store no matter what.
Without knowing exactly how much these little convenience stores in every corner of the country gross, I’d still think if every dinky-doo town can support a 24-hour convenience store, can’t a radio station in a medium/large market do the same?
Question of priorities.