The radio is on -- but is it real or AI? Today it's not much of an issue -- 10 years from now, who knows? Pic from 2016. The station I was listening to when I snapped the pic was KBRE 1660 AM Merced, a rocker from Central California.
As many of my readers probably understand, radio has always been a part of my life. I write about radios, radio listening, long-distance radio listening ('DXing'), and the like. I worked in radio for much of my life. When I was a kid I dreamed of being a DJ, which I was for about a month and a half.
Just a couple weeks ago -- in mid- to late-January -- the radio industry saw a shakeup that may still have yet to finish: the largest radio company in the US laid off about 10% of its employees, including DJ's and sports announcers at highly rated radio stations. The company in question, IHeartMedia (formerly known as Clear Channel radio corporation), owns 850 stations nationwide. They are one of several large conglomerates that influence the rest of the industry, if only because of their large imprint on it.
In their announcement, in which they referred to the laying off of employees as a "displacement", the IHeart company referred to changes in the media and radio landscape, and how they had to adjust to such changes. They are going to concentrate more of their efforts in digital media (i.e., online delivery, and the use of AI and other computerized technologies in running their network of radio stations). They plan on centralizing their operations, using digital delivery from central sources to their stations in various cities across the U.S.
In radio circles, the layoffs were referred to as a "bloodbath", and I suppose if you were one of those laid off, it indeed was. It's like the old adage -- when your neighbor loses his or her job, it's a recession, but when you yourself lose a job, it's a depression.
As I follow several radio industry web forums, some of the quotes from laid off staff were seemingly boilerplate ("Looking forwards to new possibilities"), and others were almost heartwrenching -- written by people who had been living out their dream, even if they weren't making lots of money.
The idea of being behind a microphone and reaching out to thousands of people while playing music was a dream job that was suddenly shattered due to a corporate decision to replace them with automated, AI generated music and voice tracking.
I myself worked in radio for 20 years. I got my first internship in radio in Fall of 1987, after which I did a three year stint at Seattle's KCMU, the station that first played Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, and numerous other grunge era bands. Then I worked at a company that serviced over 1200 radio stations with music -- on tape, CD, and computer hard drive. By the time I was laid off (due to corporate centralization) in December 2006 we were preparing to deliver music online.
I understand the pain of many of those who were laid off. Also, I understand the fears of those who have said that they don't think they will work in radio again. I know that I didn't.
That said, as a bystander in the industry, I worry that what was once a thriving medium is slowly fading in importance. See, the unstated facts behind these job cuts in radio are that revenues nationwide just aren't happening. The radio industry took in $20 billion in the early 20th Century. This past year the entire industry took in $12 billion, and that number is apparently dropping.
Even since 2000, radio's revenues have dropped, as have the number of listeners, and the amount of time listeners actually listen to radio.
For years, I heard radio experts state that radio is fine, it "still reaches 93% of America", yada yada. But since the IHeart situation cropped up, the reality is finally being revealed: that those "93%" do not listen to radio as much as they used to.... That the younger, "money demos" do not listen to radio as much as the over-45's who advertisers are apparently loathe to reach... That clusters of stations in some large US cities pull in half the revenue they took in in the year 2005.
In San Diego, for example, a radio company sold several stations (including AM talker KFMB 760) to another media company. They then laid off a lot of staff. It turns out that one of the problems with San Diego radio was that in 2005 the market combined took in $220 million. Last year all those stations only took in $141 million. Undoubtedly that drop in revenue in just 15 years affected the value of KFMB and the other stations in its cluster.
You can read about it here:
https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2020/jan/28/ticker-look-san-diego-radio-casualty-list/#
The problem with radio is complex -- consolidation (thanks to the Telecom Act of 1996) didn't help things much, for example. But it's not the main problem. Some guys say "homogenized radio" and "too many commercials", or "not enough DJ's" are the problem. But those issues, while they may have some merit, aren't the problem. Revenue is the problem. Advertisers (the large ad agencies, in particular -- at least according to some radio industry veterans online) do not support radio the way they used to. And advertising is the mother's milk of radio. Without that money coming in, the lights are going to go off.
And this revenue problem may be tied to the rise of the internet. Advertising dollars can go elsewhere, and if radio is losing listeners to online streaming and other media choices, radio appears less valuable to advertisers.
Either way, what we are seeing, with the layoffs, the revenue drops, the frenzy of automation, and the reduction in listeners, is the Slow Death Of Radio.
Although it pains me to see the industry dying, and it's painful to hear the testimonies of people in small and medium sized markets who got laid off, and had their dreams crushed, Radio -- after all -- is a business. The stations can't run on air. It takes money to make it all work, and succeed.
Even though radio media giants like IHeart have made some questionable decisions in the past, they are feeling the revenue pinch just like smaller stations nationwide are undoubtedly seeing. Combine that with the drive to make a profit, you get layoffs, more consolidation, more computers replacing people, more AI, more centralized operations. Eventually, some believe, radio will all be online, and by 2050 there may be no stations on the airwaves.
It's very sad for someone who grew up with the medium, and lived and worked in it for a 20 year swath.
If anything, it makes me appreciate the fact that when I switch on any of my radios, I'm actually hearing something coming out of the speaker -- be it sports, news, talk, or music. I'm certain that radio will still exist in some form during the rest of my stay here on this Earth. But it won't be the same. It really isn't the same now.
Tonight I'll fire up my Panasonic RF-B45 -- a terrific MW performer, probably my best -- and tune it to 760 KHz. Most nights I hear at least a whisper of San Diego's KFMB, and sometimes it comes in loud enough to kill the splash from 750 KXTG Portland and local 770 KTTH.
San Diego holds a place in my heart, albeit a bittersweet one: My dad was ill at UCSD Hospital there in 1984, and he also died there.
But while visiting the area to see him before he passed, I got a taste of the SoCal experience. Seeing the surfer dudes out on Mission Beach. The women wearing makeup at the beach (something one never saw here in Seattle at the time). The bright, balmy sunshine. Ice plants. An overall atmosphere of happiness. Sometimes when I hear KFMB phasing and wafting over those thousand miles of ether those memories come back -- of a sunny place, where all seems OK.
Of course, that may not be the reality -- after all, I don't live there. But it's usually in the back of my mind when I hear a lot of the SoCal stations on my radio, including the few I've heard from San Diego.
Some day the MW band will be nothing but static. I know that some of my DXer friends are inadvertently hoping for this: they say "the band needs thinning out." With this round of layoffs, cuts in revenue, and with AM stations cutting power and even going off the air, those who wish for "the band to be thinned out" are apparently starting to get their wish.
As for me, I'm just going to continue to listen as I have in the past, glad that there is something to listen to. There is nothing I can do to turn back the clock to 2005, or earlier. Life goes on. You learn to count your blessings.
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MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL, NON-RADIO WORLD... SLIDE GUITAR
In non-radio related things, life had been fairly standard since my last post here on my blog. I notice that the Blogger comment function is now working better -- I can reply back to those who take the time to comment about my posts. I do appreciate comments from readers, and try to reply when I can.
I have been aiming to finish a couple older posts that I never published. They will come later this year.
My main guitar, which I set up for Open-G and stability back in 1996 or so. Ironically, at the same time I had inadvertently set it up as a perfect vehicle for slide guitar playing.
I have been creative writing, working at my job, and also playing a lot of slide guitar, something I started learning in earnest in 2011 or so, and since then I've been trying to improve at it and build on my library of standby riffs -- relearning old lead riffs of mine, listening to slide guitarists like Mick Taylor (and non-sliders like Alvin Lee and Eric Clapton). In December I had an opportunity to try out for a local band, which was a fun experience. In the meantime, I have started recording my own stuff again, and some of my newer songs will have slide guitar on them, as I stopped playing lead, for the most part, in 1990.
For those interested, a large swath of my music is on my Soundcloud, ChrisCampbellRock. On my Soundcloud are excerpts from all of my four demo CDs, and a few tracks that didn't make it to any of them. There's rock, pop-rock and acoustic stuff, a little bit for everybody. Here is the link:
https://soundcloud.com/chriscampbellrock
All of them should be available for downloading.
Until later, my friends, happy 2020. I hope this new decade is even better than the last one.
C.C.
February 2nd, 2020
