[BC] Goodbye Local Radio-pass me the Kleenex

[Douglas B. Pritchett]

For me, it was the early 80's. Westinghouse sold our local WOWO to Price 
Communications made up of a bunch of Wall Street types. First thing they 
did was go office to office and ask people what they did. Now, remember, 
these Price people were not broadcasters. They were looking at this like 
any other business. First they talked with the promotions director. She 
explained what she did. They handed her her termination and final check. 
Then next door to the traffic director. She explained what she and her 
assistant did. (done by hand, no computers there yet). They fired her 
assistant. Then to engineering. 3 man shop. One studio guy, 2 RF guys 
for the 50KW directional. Fired two more. Then the sales coordinator. 
Air staff? Kept most, but wanted to take the station off the air after 
10pm because "no one listenes after 10pm".
The next book the station lost nearly 40% of it audience. Sales were 
down about the same. And they just couldn't figure it out.
Next time out, the Price people fired the GM.
Oh.....that'll fix it.
Station has only now recovered.
Gotta love it.

-- 
Douglas B. Pritchett
Fort Wayne, IN
dpritchett1 at comcast.net


Steve wrote:

>Doug and all...
>
>Just for the sake of comparison. Did you notice this change taking place around the mid to late 70's? I believe that's when I started smelling the bean counters at CBS-FM. (San Francisco)
>  
>