RE: RE: Labor Board Issues Three Complaints Against WW1

[Ron Bello <RBello@BelloAssoc.com>]

With consolidation, automation and less "service" there is
less demand for "skilled labor" (announcers).  There has
always been an abundance of supply of media want-to-be stars.
Glamor industries tend to attract more people than can ever
be employed.  Remember that even at $25/hour 20 years ago,
that part time job at WHDH was just that with no benefits.
Not a living wage.  Broadcasting has always been an industry
where few made "nice money".

Economics 101


At 02:31 PM 8/4/02 -0400, Bill O'Neill wrote:
>It's basic supply
> >and demand.
> >
> >-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine
>
>Dave Faneuf:
>
>The days of
> >"If you don't like what they're paying you then get another
> >gig" are gone, there is no other place to go. <snip>
> >and are paid not as if they are working in a top 10 market in
> >the country, but as if they are middle market novices.  Go
> >somewhere else, okay, where?
> >df
>
>I agree with Dave on this.  WW1 has carved out a niche to be the only
>game in town.  And they were able to do just that with cash largely
>borne out of margins out of sync.  I recall WHDH's mid/late 80s
>part-timer jock rate as $25.  15-20 years ago!  Adjust that for
>inflation, factor in the multi-station and municipality comittment
>benefit generated by that WW1 staffer and it doesn't add up.  And just
>because staffers with take the $13 bucks should not infer that it is
>fair and reasonable.
>
>How ironic that anti-union industries don't even attempt to make it such
>that no one would want to join one.  OTOH, ask staffers (albeit the
>supermarket industy, not radio) who work at Market Basket stores in New
>England.  Non-union, but with a profit sharing program and benefits
>package that has kept any organizing attempts out of the picture for
>over 40 years.  And the fact that the privately held business (even with
>it's internal issues) has held-off takeovers by conglomorates speaks
>volumes as well.
>
>The best thing that ever happened to radio was next generation
>automation.  Voice tracking more than digitized audio, it did the same
>to people and their jobs.  It devolved paychecks into virtual ones.
>Boston's market rank artificially inflates the damage that industry
>patterns have caused.  Once out of the top 50, it's very clear that
>satellite radio and other options will make local radio even less
>relevant than it already is.  I guess it all started with conversations
>in management(s) that resulted in things like decreasing news and other
>"relevance-imparting" services without a remedy for how to make it up to
>the listener.  And then the idea of sharing services among an entire
>marketplace seemed like as good a remedy as ever.  Interesting that $13
>an hour for a staffer in drive time would cost much less than the rates
>that the stations are paying now.
>
>I guess you can write-off such things....
>
>Bill O'Neill