Never
has the basic nature of commercial radio and public radio been so different.
Like
many journalists who cover media, last Wednesday [link] we reported on
iHeartMedia’s big new operating plan that, they claim, transform the company
into a digital powerhouse.
But really, iHeart’s new plan is a way to operate the company with as few people as possible.
Missing
from the plan is a commitment to local service.
Also missing are the communities where they own radio stations. There seems to be no
corporate vision or sense of purpose, other than money.
Of
course, the own the place and do as they please.
But really, iHeart’s new plan is a way to operate the company with as few people as possible.
Why
is iHeart doing this?
The answer is,
they need to fatten the bottom line so the company will attract a big buy out offer.
Then the executive management team and the shareholders likely will get a big
windfall of cash. Both Liberty Media and SiriusXM are trying to buy iHeart’s
assets.
To
grow the bottom line, iHeart has initiated hundreds of “employee dislocations”
– also known “getting fired” – at their 800+ radio stations. Lots of
programming people have been cut, plus people working in news, sports and even
engineering are taking big hits.
Never
has the nature of commercial radio and public radio been so different.
Temporarily,
this may help public radio gain additional listeners. But the bigger effect will be a declining
number of listeners.
i-Heart
is failing Radio 101.
Lance
Venta, editor and publisher of RadioInsight.com, he wrote a fascinating post about
the guts of iHeart’s plan [link]. He used a variety of sources such as internal
memos to tell the story. We don’t know Mr. Venta, but we admire his good work.
HERE IS THE PLAN
ACCORDING TO LANCE VENTA
(imporant stuff is
highlighted)
NO MORE LOCAL PLAYLISTS OR LOCAL VOICE TRACKER
Many markets have
relied on what the company used to call “Premium Choice” music logs and
voicetrackers to fill non-locally originating parts of their schedule. That
will take on a new form.
SCHEDULING OF MUSIC
TRACKS WILL NOW BE DONE AT THE CORPORATE LEVEL
From talking to many
people on the programming end as well as those in the record industry, the
remaining local Program
Directors will no longer directly schedule music at their stations.
They will still have
the ability to suggest additions or removals of songs for their stations but the actual playlists will be
done on the corporate level.
The company has made
“significant investments it has made in technology and artificial intelligence
(AI). AI is powered to link
with Media Monitors, Mediabase and other licensed data streams. (Corporate determines the
playlist order.)
MORE VOICE-TRACKING, FEWER PEOPLE
• On-air talent to
voicetrack additional dayparts and stations with integrations to allow
programmers to easily denote what should be mentioned in each break.
The company has made “significant investments it has made
in technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Those technological
advancements…explain why the company eliminated many of the programming and
on-air jobs.
There will be people
in engineering will be dislocated
Multiple engineers have stated to us they have been required
to diagram all of their wiring configurations at studios and transmitters and
turn over all passwords to corporate in
order for their monitoring systems to be integrated.
• Moving all IT work to the
national level, which saw the exit of a few engineers this week.
Plus do you really need every midday jock
making similar rewrites of a TMZ article when you can just have the staff at the upcoming Digital “Center of
Excellence” in Nashville write original stories for all the station
sites?
KEN SAYS: This is a big roll of the dice at the corporate level.
They seam to be betting they can make the bottom line so robust, they can get
someone like John Malone to make them all rich.
MARTIN
LUTHER KING LOVED RADIO
Dr.
King’s voice was wonderfully suited to AM radio. He appeared dozens of times on WDIA, Memphis,
the first all-black formatted radio station WDIA.
Here
is the story in my YouTube video:
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