for those who didn't see this article

[Donna Halper]

Christian Science Monitor, 23 January 2009 (and I 
guess the author interviewed Gabe Hobbs before he got fired...)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0123/p13s01-algn.html




Your local DJ – a few time zones away






Radio stations are axing staff and subbing in syndicated hosts to cut costs.

By Randy Dotinga | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

from the January 23, 2009 edition

You could call it the culling of the heard.

In Boston, a popular AM station has stopped 
broadcasting live overnight for the first time 
since 1952. In San Diego, the nation's 
ninth-largest city, just two major local 
talk-show hosts remain on the air after cutbacks. 
And across the country, stations are banishing 
local disc jockeys to the unemployment line in 
favor of nationally syndicated hosts like Ryan Seacrest and John Tesh.

There's a common theme here: With all of its 
costs, live and local radio programming is in 
decline. In essence, many in the radio industry 
are concluding that it doesn't matter if the 
voice introducing the next "seven-song rock bloc" is in the same time zone.

But observers fear radio is dooming itself to 
irrelevance in a world full of rivals like satellite radio and iPods.

Local programming is the only thing that sets 
radio stations apart, says radio consultant Donna 
Halper, an assistant professor at Lesley 
University in Cambridge, Mass. "I want something 
I can't get anywhere else," she says.

The radio industry, just like newspapers and 
books and other forms of media, is facing an 
unprecedented financial crunch. Radio advertising 
revenue dropped by9 percent in the third quarter 
of 2008 compared with the same period in the 
previous year, and many radio companies are saddled with huge amounts of debt.

Just this week, the giant Clear Channel 
Communications company, which owns more than 
1,200 US radio stations, laid off 1,850 workers, 
many of them radio personalities and executives. 
The cuts account for 9 percent of the company's employees.

Then there's the matter of precedent: Radio 
stations have been moving away from live and 
local programming for more than a decade without 
falling apart. Owners have centralized 
operations, leaving many smaller stations with 
few – or any – local radio personalities. Live 
request shows and call-in contests have become 
rarer than ever; in some cases, disc jockeys try 
to fool listeners into thinking they're local 
even though they prerecord their between-song patter in faraway cities.

Still, many stations tried to remain local, at 
least during daytime and evening hours on 
weekdays. But then the economy slumped in 2008, and more cuts came.

"These are tough decisions people are making in a 
real scary time," says Charlie Quinn, a CBS Radio 
executive who works at KyXy, a soft-rock station in San Diego.

The station is one of only two in the city of 1.3 
million that airs live and local programming 24 
hours a day. But Mr. Quinn acknowledges that his 
station may soon begin airing a syndicated show in the evening.

Quinn has plenty of company. More stations are 
turning to syndicated programming. Radio stations 
typically can broadcast syndicated shows at no 
cost; they just have to allow a distributor to 
sell some of the commercials on the show. In some 
cases, it's cheaper for a station to air 
syndicated programming than to hire a local disc jockey or talk show host.

As a result of cutbacks, national radio 
personalities such as Mr. Seacrest – who hosts a 
weekday music show in addition to his duties as 
host of "American Idol" – are now heard in cities 
like Atlanta and San Diego, where local disc 
jockeys lost their jobs to make room for him.

Talk show hosts are suffering, too, finding 
themselves replaced by national hosts who only 
talk about national issues. Boston's WBZ, for 
instance, dumped a local overnight host earlier 
this month in favor of a syndicated show.

Some listeners were unhappy. One online commenter 
said the show was an oasis amid shows that have 
"no connection to life in Boston, or New England, 
for that matter. Not local; not relevant; 
annoying; boring; repetitive; disconnected. That's the bottom line."

But some argue that radio doesn't need to be 
local to be compelling. "I have a very simple 
philosophy ... put the very best product you can 
on the air, regardless of origin," says Gabe 
Hobbs, a senior vice president for programming at Clear Channel.

That may be a wise strategy, but a heavy focus on 
national shows creates another problem: The next 
generations of Rush Limbaughs and Ryan Seacrests 
won't have the opportunity to learn their craft 
at small radio stations if there are no on-air shifts for them to take.

For now, the radio industry seems likely to 
continue what a San Diego radio executive calls a 
"terrific experiment" in moving away from a local focus.

"There are a couple of us left who will continue 
doing it the way it's always been done," says 
Darrel Goodin, general manager of three San Diego 
music stations that retain a local focus.

"It's what I'll call the right way."