When Corporate FM won the AMC Documentary feature award, I was very proud and shocked at the same time. I didn’t feel like the film was completely done. One of the judges (Rudd Simmons, The Life Aquatic, High Fidelity) gave me this advice: “Tour with this film for a year, and sit with every audience who sees your …
FULL TEXT: CUMULUS MEDIA MEMO TO EMPLOYEES AFTER KGO RADIO, KFOG LAYOFFS From: Justin Wittmayer Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 10:40 AM To: SFO_Allstaff Subject: A new direction for KGO and KFOG “new direction” = loss of jobs Team, Today, we have set in motion new programming strategies for both KGO and KFOG that will …
When I heard about the latest Cumulus bloodbath in San Francisco, I had to make this logo. About 20 staff were fired at KFOG and KGO. The financial press often ignores the real reason for these mass firings. The layoffs are part of the plan and not a freak result of a competitive market. Quite …
Jim Ladd’s book Radio Waves, is part memoir, part historical narrative about the rise and fall of freeform FM radio. If you don’t know what freeform radio is, you will certainly recognize it in this book, as the very soul of radio. It’s the ability of a local DJ to pick music that they love, …
Book Review: Jim Ladd’s “Radio Waves” and freeform radio Read More »
High finance is secretly getting rich off of Radio while ordinary investors (and the tax payers) are stuck with the bill. Private-equity firms load tons of debt onto radio while hand-picking the management and skating with fees. It is no wonder that commercial radio is dying. Those in charge are not radio people. The film CORPORATE …
Radio (like the United States) is the most relevant and vibrant when it is of the people, by the people and for the people. The out-of-town owners have no personal stake to make it live again. Lincoln might say…
Radio, the experts say “call it media”. Those experts are wrong and this is why it matters. Many well-meaning radio consultants are afraid that emerging technology will destroy radio. These consultants even swayed the former head of NPR “National Public Media?”. Ask anyone on the street what it is; they call it Radio. Even at …
The century old National Press Club is a couple blocks from the White House. It refers to itself as “The Place Where News Happens”. After a crazy subway ride in rush hour DC, Jill and I emerged in the “Edward R Murrow” room of the epicenter of establishment-journalism. We were in DC to show the …
A good talk-show host will… Show that they are personally interested in what the listener has to say (or many will not call in). Make the guest feel comfortable. Love their listeners and community. Be comfortable with the conversation going in directions that they did not pre-plan. Walt Bodine was one such individual. He passed …
What is Private Equity? How do they make their money? The answer to this mirrors the answer to “Why does commercial radio suck?” The way a firm makes profit can say much about how it behaves. For instance, Private Equity makes money off of fees taken from investors and from maintenance fees from the companies that …
In 1955, the government convicted the Kansas City Star (newspaper company) with monopoly charges. The Star had abused their power with the ownership of two newspapers, a TV station (WDAF TV) and a radio station (WDAF radio). They forced advertisers to buy ads for all 4 properties, and also punished advertisers for utilizing other media …
The podcast “Sound Track of the Week” (SOTW) has announced that they are starting “Radio Diversity Day” to take place on December 5th 2012. They say they were inspired by the movie Corporate FM. The idea was born during an hour long interview that they did with Jill and me late one evening. On Radio …
They lump debt on the station but do not share in the risk. I find myself explaining Private Equity this way. Many ask “How is this even legal?” The consequences are hidden from the financial reporters (who often report the mergers as a good thing) because the firings happen over time as the debt matures and …
A possible new radio station called “Fayetteville Community Radio” held a screening of Corporate FM to motivate supporters behind the venture. The station is possible because new low power FM frequencies (LPFM) were legalized by bill in congress in 2010. “It fired them up” said organizer Joe Newman about the film. “It was a very …
Consolidation has displaced so many DJs from serving their communities. When SHORTY AND THE BOYZ worked at the Cumulus owned VIBE they were prohibited from playing local music or using speech that sounded too “urban” (a code word for black). Now gone from Cumulus, they have begun their own venture. Their internet show does not …