Comments on: Infinity Broadcasting & Corporate Hari Kari

By: hank

hank — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 00:36:06 +0000

I’ve become a huge fan of listening to audiobooks on those days when I actually have to show up at work. They do cost a fair chunk of change, but the San Mateo County library (and based on your pictures, you’re probably near there if not actually a resident of said county) has (last time I checked) 3000+ fiction titles on CD.

By: James Huston

James Huston — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 02:52:37 +0000

I personally prefer more talk and less music. Personalities build listenership more than music itself.

By: Dan Grassi

Dan Grassi — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 19:09:51 +0000

What has happened is that the ownership restrictions have been reduced by the FCC to the point that many stations in the same market are owned by the same company. The vast majority of stations in larger markets are owned by only a couple of companies. So when you change stations you are still listening to radio from the same company. During ratings weeks it does not make any difference which station of a particular company you are listening to. Thus there is really little to no competition.

Back in the day, when I was in the radio business, a company could only own a maximum of one AM and one FM station in a market. Thus in larger markets there was substantial competition. It was not uncommon for a station that had changed ownership or wanted to pick up it’s ratings to advertise: “More music, less talk”. I haven’t heard that in ages.

My personal peeve is the lack of music. At times I hit six station buttons in my car and not one is playing music. No wonder why the iPod is such a success–if only I had an iPod jack on my radio.

By: James Huston

James Huston — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 14:01:29 +0000

What really turns me off about Stern is how he has sold Sirius during this run on Infinity after he anounced his deal. He claims they have 3 million subscribers, however that is their projected total after the 4th quarter of this year, yet he has claimed this for months, when in reality the official number was less than 2 million. Considering he owns a piece of Sirius I wonder what the FEC would think of this act of overselling the network.

Also, he has never invented anything in radio.

By: James Huston

James Huston — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 13:54:45 +0000

I’m not sure Infinity has removed him from any markets either. What they have done is anounced his replacements for when he moves to Sirrius. Maybe one or two smaller market stations have removed him, I’m not sure, but the major markets still carry him. Many radio industry “experts” believe Infinity should just drop him now, release him from his contract and start the switch to new talent as soon as possible.

Another thing about Stern and how he messes up radio is how most radio shows do have commercial blocks, usually two 8 minute blocks every hour or something close to that. For the longest time Stern has broken this rule and run his show on his own schedule. It’s gotten so bad in the past that his show, which is scheduled to end at 11am has run nearly an hour over as he has caught up with commercials during Robin’s news.

By: Fish

Fish — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 07:02:19 +0000

Oh, and as for what to listen to instead of craptastic HS: the Blues!

Or have you forgotten SRV and Buddy after all that hippie shit!

Can you say BitTorrent to a portable or a CD…so many recent discoveries…there are even new talents to bring pleasure…Los Lonely Boys, Eric Bibb, Johhny A, Jason Ricci,

And if you’d rather have more brain cells ‘On’ at drive time - try Podcasts of NPR or the BBC or how Marx wasn’t that far from some of near future (really odd! and true!) or distance learning subjects, or anything else…

But low-brow ranting about T&A on some 2-bit attention whore in his studio, or if you are ‘lucky’ the perhaps some form of bigotry and ignorance of most anything as a chorus of sycophants fight for pole position behind his asshole?

Well, that is just time you’ve wasted you’ll never benefit from in any manner ever.

By: Fish

Fish — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 06:47:29 +0000

I can’t believe you’ve stooped to Stern - that’s below mindless!

Give me a shout - I can’t believe we’ve not talked in forever…

All because I saw this
http://www.complexification.net/gallery/machines/buddhabrot/
and thought of you

Ask me about your Zoo halloween pic on the net thanks to C Saum…

By: John C. Randolph

John C. Randolph — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 03:20:44 +0000

I think it’s pretty clear what’s going on. They’re acting in desperation to prop up sagging revenues by overselling their ad placements.

-jcr

By: James Huston

James Huston — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 01:52:55 +0000

As far as I know Stern is on zero CC stations and Infinity Broadcasting is under the CBS umbrella.

By: James Huston

James Huston — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 22:49:05 +0000

Stern is moving to Sirrius not Clear Channel. Also he is currently employed by Infinity Broadcasting, it was just that in a few markets he was on a CC station

Stern may make stations #1 for a specific demo for a specific time period, but any large urban areas will most likely have a hip-hop or R&B station at the top, and many times will have a news talker near the top. A similar thing happened in the DC area. A local radio team went to do the morning show on a rock statiob from doing the night show on a talk station in an effort to raise the ratings at the rock station. It failed. They greatly outperformed the rest of the station, they were consistantly top 5 in the mornings while the station was consistantly ranked in the low 20 ratings wise, and it switched over to Spanish music format. Another thing not really known is that Stern is typically outpreformed, or competed with, in many markets by local talent.