Clear Channel Layoffs and Why Radio Sucks (Video)
April 29th, 2009 by Ivan Pena in Bombardier ManifestoRadio behemoth Clear Channel is one of the latest victims in the music business downfall. The official news is as follows:
US radio giant Clear Channel Communications has announced a new round of layoffs, with 590 workers in its radio division to be cut. The new layoffs, which follow a round of 1,850 in January, will include employees in programming, engineering and customer service. The January layoffs were primarily in sales. Shows canceled due to the layoffs will be replaced by nationally syndicated shows. Clear Channel also said that it has suspended matching contributions to employees retirement accounts, but would resume making contributions if the company is successful in reaching 90% of its internal cost saving targets.
It sucks that people are losing their jobs, but is anyone really surprised? Radio has been a corporate game for so long, that it’s no longer relevant. So what now?
Much of the demise of the music business can be blamed on the Internet and iPods, but the truth is that as the outlets and gateways for music became more and more business, MTV stopped playing music videos and radio stations stopped taking requests. Labels have been paying for radio airplay for decades and spending lots and lots of money on trips and spiffs. Now that the labels are broke, are you surprised to see corporate radio is tanking as well?
The radio industry has been suffering declines in ad spending as listeners migrate to MP3s and non-terrestrial radio (XM/Sirius or Internet). As long as the music outlets are directly funded by the major labels, radio will be reduced to an audio billboard and will disappear.
Here’s a cool video about why the Mainstream Music Industry sucks from people that have been in it for a while (and even profited from it at some point):
Listen to Dick Dale. He knows what he’s talking about. I run a label and I agree with his advice. But my label doesn’t own our band’s music. :)
Enjoy. Share.
Ivan
Ivan writes “Bombardier Manifesto” for Creative Loafing, blog posts about the music industry, being in a band and marketing. Ivan also runs Mohawk Bomb Records.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:09 am
This video is amazing. Where did you find it?
April 29th, 2009 at 10:40 am
The Clear Channel situation is pretty mind boggling. A few weeks ago they introduced a new program called “Premium Choice,” where programmers can choose whether they want to develop local talent or use voicetracking from a talent pool.
You can read about it here.
http://www.rwonline.com/article/78732
But yesterday, there were cases where a station’s entire airstaff and Program Director were let go! It doesn’t sound like there’s much of a choice being offered. The bottom line is that initiatives like these look good to the shareholders and sound good to the employees, but nothing really changes.
Clear Channel is the extreme example. There ARE smaller companies that actually give a shit about product over profit.
But Thom Yorke is absolutely right at the end of that video. The entire system is sick, and in many cases these companies can only blame themselves.
April 29th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I have worked in radio for over six years now, not for Clear Channel, but trust me, this is not just a CC problem, in fact this is not just a radio problem, all media outlets who make their money off advertisers are suffering. They are experiencing huge losses because companies are not advertising, that is the bottom line.
Radio is NOT hurting because of all this supposed money we were receiving from labels. The FCC closely monitors all interactions with record labels, and has for years now. (Check this out for more info on what radio station have agreed to: http://tr.im/k2cv). Each year, every single employee at my company is required to sign and anti-payola agreement and we are harshly fined if anyone breaks that agreement.
Complain about radio sucking, I can’t say I disagree. We play too few songs, too often, sure, we all know that, but we are playing it safe, we are a medium catering to the masses. People are still listening, our cume numbers are not down, but advertising dollars are…that is why Clear Channel is laying off another 590 people, the record labels have absolutely nothing to do with it.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:18 am
There may not be actual Payola switching hands, but my husband worked for CC for a few years, and there were definite non-pay payola practices, like agreements to play certain artists an agreed upon number of times in X number of weeks leading up to their Tampa appearance, or trade for an artist appearance in town in exchange for an agreement to play said artists’ single on the radio X number of times. There’s payola, all right — never doubt it. It just takes a non-monetary form…
August 10th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
NEW PROOF OF THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN CLEAR CHANNEL, LIVE NATION AND THE RACIST, HOMOPHOBIC CHRISTIAN RIGHT IN TEXAS, AND UTAH.
http://www.muckety.com/Live-Nation/5015659.muckety
When you get there click on ” L. Lowry Mays”
Note that “L. Lowry Mays” and his sons are operating CEO’s and owners of Clear Channel, as well as live nation. also notice they have gone to great lengths to disguise this connection.
THE FATHER
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowry_Mays
http://www.nndb.com/people/533/000052377/
mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=52377
THE SON
http://www.nndb.com/people/087/000170574/
http://www.nndb.com/people/087/000170574/
mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=170574
The Mays family is closely associated with the same people who thought up, and put prop 8 on the ballot in California, and who are destroying local music EVERYWHERE, and are also currently trying to buy out or close local clubs. These are the same kind of people that tried to block the civil rights movement, make pot illegal, while trying to crush affirmative action.
Incidentally, their “competition”, GOLDENVOICE, (who own the Warfield) once a bastion of indy music and thought, and now owners of Coachella Music Festival, is now owned by Philip Anschutz
Fundamentalist, far-right christian activist, and investor
http://www.nndb.com/people/498/000094216/
mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=94216
mapper.nndb.com/start/?map=1789
This is a war against ALL ‘independant’ progressive local music culture .. coming from The Christian right, and is based mostly out of Texas, and is a creature of a number religious right think-tank groups, political affiliations, and old school TEXAS money.
Do the research. , most of the local clubs with over a 700 capacity are either owned by Clear Channel, or GOLDENVOICE, and the radio stations, and billboards, and every method of public notice is owned by the far right. And they planned this for decades.
BOYCOTT ALL THESE VENUES AND RADIO STATIONS. TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
IF YOU ATTEND SHOWS AT THESE VENUES, OR LISTEN TO THESE STATIONS YOU SUPPORT MITT ROMNEY AND PHILLIP ANSCHUTZ
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC, LOCALLY OWNED VENUES, AND KEEP OUR BAY AREA DOLLAR IN THE BAY AREA, AND OUT OF TEXAS, AND THE HANDS OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT.