[BC] Turned-off listeners (Was: ...Sirius-ly...")

[Jerry Mathis]

Why don't you make inquiries and see if you can find out? I bet a lot of us 
would like to know.

Is it the same owners? Did competition come to town (a new station or 
stations, or someone switched formats)? Did they think they could make more 
money by going satellite and cutting staff? Did the rent on the studio space 
suddenly increase to something unconscionable? Were the owners simply 
wanting to "slow down"? Did Wal-Mart come to town? SOMETHING must have 
happened.........

The answer may help refute those of us who have said (including myself) that 
a return to localism is the answer to a stations' survival.



Jerry Mathis
Clear Channel Radio, Tupelo & Meridian MS




>From: WFIFeng at aol.com
>Reply-To: Broadcast Radio Mailing List <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>To: broadcast at radiolists.net
>Subject: [BC] Turned-off listeners (Was: ...Sirius-ly...")
>Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 22:31:28 EDT
>
>In a message dated 05/14/2005 7:08:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>armtx at mhcable.com writes:
>
> > I don't think its consumer ignorance as much as it is a choice not  to
> >  support something that supports garbage programming.
>
>Exactly. They're voting with their wallets, and that's the loudest way to
>vote.
>
>What puzzles me, tho, is why all the live & local radio people are gone...
>how did those small, local stations ever survive with staffs of a dozen or 
>more?
>I had been to the site of a certain small station back in the very early 
>90's
>and it was alive... there were no less than a dozen people in there, all
>busily working. Production people cutting & splicing, recording bits, 
>etc...
>dashing back & forth to the air studio with carts & Copy, where the DJ was 
>keeping
>the hits spinning, playing spots, etc. That station had been running that 
>way
>for quite a few years, too... as a *daytimer*! When I was there it was 24
>hours on a new freq, and it was very much alive and humming.
>
>Then, a few years later, I had the sad task of helping with gutting the now
>*former* studio/office facilities of that small station. It had just 
>"flipped
>the bird" and was now nothing more than a satellite dish & PC at the TX 
>site.
>That once-"alive" building was now empty. Dark. Dusty. Most of the 
>furniture
>had already been removed. All that remained was some equipment that needed 
>to be
>moved to the TX site for storage, and the rest to the dumpster. I have to
>admit, it actually choked me up just a little... what was once a living,
>breathing organism, was now just an empty shell. Empty office after empty 
>office, on a
>hallway that was once bustling with activity. It was now cold, lonely, 
>bleak.
>Oh, sure, that station's *signal* was still on the air, and it still had 
>the
>same call letters... but the busy staff was now a memory. Only the FCC
>mandated two remained (the owner & his wife) and a part time staffer, who 
>did all of
>his work in the little "closet" studio up at the TX site.
>
>Again... what happened? How were all those little stations keeping such
>staffs paid and happy, and now, they're all dark & empty with nothing but a 
>PC &
>sat dish most of the time?
>
>If some stations would bring back the live, *local* announcers and
>programming, I wonder if the listenership would eventually return, also? 
>They'd notice
>that the announcers were talking about their local area, giving the actual
>*time* & temp (not "12 past the hour")...
>
>sigh. Rant over.
>
>Willie...
>
>_______________________________________________
>This is the BROADCAST mailing list
>To send to the list, email: broadcast at radiolists.net
>For sub changes, archives and info on this other lists: 
>http://www.radiolists.net/