News: Clear Channel Cuts D.J.'s Across the Country

supaspaz

Quote:

Originally posted by New York Times

Clear Channel Cuts D.J.’s Across the Country
By BRIAN STELTER

Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio station operator in the United States, dismissed dozens of local D.J.’s this week, affecting small stations from Syracuse to Spokane, Wash., and raising fresh concerns about the homogenization of radio programming.

Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio station operator in the United States, dismissed dozens of local D.J.’s this week.

Clear Channel Radio, which operates about 850 stations in the United States and employs 12,000 people, declined to say how many employees were dismissed, but some of the D.J.’s said they believed that the number was in the hundreds.

The company said the layoffs were not made to cut costs but were part of a revamping of its about 600 regional radio stations. (Its 250 other stations are in large markets like New York and Los Angeles.)

SOURCE

For those of you curious about what goes on behind the scenes of the radio industry, the rest of the article is an interesting read as well.

This is going to have a devastating impact on local radio. It seems we are moving toward a completely centralized programming model for small markets, which will just lead pop music to conform and stagnate even more. It's not an unexpected development, but it's definitely a disappointing one.

Ghandi

Clear Channel is one of the biggest companies nationwide controlling what's played on tons of radio stations across America. They're a massive road block to new acts trying to get on the air in a dull mainstream music scene. Maybe if they let people play the requests they get and not a strict playlist the wouldn't be in this situation since they'd have advertisers willing to pay for time slots people actually listen to since they play music people actually want to listen to.

$20 billion in debt? I don't pity their situation. They're a dinosaur and their day has passed. At the heart it's about radio personalities and music. They've got plenty of willing radio personalities, their problem is the music they force on us.

Rated R

I just did a case study about radio stations in the US. There are high fixed costs and they need to spread the variable costs as widely as possible. Advertising revenue is down due to people listening to their iPods and mp3s more than ever so they are struggling to break even and continue to make a profit.

To be honest though DJ's generally play the exact same songs because they tend to be universally popular. There might be a few changes, but the vast majority will remain the same.

supaspaz

Quote:

Originally posted by Rated R

To be honest though DJ's generally play the exact same songs because they tend to be universally popular. There might be a few changes, but the vast majority will remain the same.

They do that because of this increasing corporatization of the radio industry. There are centrally mandated playlists that come down from Clear Channel headquarters to the local stations that they own (likely favoring artists from the labels that "treat the company well," etc.). It has really segmented audiences and killed the potential for sleeper hits from independent and unsigned acts. But whatever, ratings are apparently up and Clear Channel needs the money, so they forge ahead on this path.