Top 10 Reasons Why Radio is Going Bankrupt

The titans in corporate radio are finally going bankrupt (like we predicted).  Here’s why.

1. They failed to bring new relevant content. They pushed listeners to the internet in search of the new music that radio abandoned.  If radio does play new music now, it’s from corporate playlists.
2. They failed to feature their local communities.  Corporate radio can’t promote a local community when nobody is live in the studio to interact with the locals. Furthermore, DJs are restricted to endorsing the corporate script, which leaves little time for local music, local charities or local businesses.
3. They succeeded in fooling the financial press. Consolidators bought healthy stations at such high prices that firing the staff was inevitable.
4. Private Equity (PE).  When a holding company (PE) puts debt on an industry but is not responsible for that financial burden, bad management can be expected. To be fair, PE does not own all of radio, but they own enough of it to have artificially inflated the prices of radio stations across the market.
5. They increased commercials.  This doesn’t mean radio increased revenues because they also made those commercials cheaper.  More repeat commercials per hour now grate on our nerves. Thanks.
6. They fired all the DJs. Ok, there are still some DJs but they’re overworked and they can’t pick music. Live DJ’s were the heart and soul of local radio.
7. They elected to buyout the competition rather than be better than it.  This is actually a paraphrase of something that DJ/host Mancow told me. “When you buyout the competition there is no incentive to be the best”.
8. They divided listeners instead of uniting them. They stopped broadcasting and started narrowcasting.  The corporate owners divided us into narrow demographics to advertise to. Most people are more complex and nuanced than this.  Dividing us up has also had a damaging effect on our nation’s politics.
9. They gutted news departments.  Imagine a time when rock stations had their own reporters and you will get a picture of a much more informed and civil society.  Cutting the news department also made it harder for the station sales staffs to sell station ad time. They can’t brag about the stories that they broke or the audiences that they mobilized.
10. The telecom act of 1996.  What? Yeah something that congress did in 1996 ultimately is behind all of these reasons.  This is what changed radio from a locally owned business into a high finance trading chip.  Thanks Bill Clinton / Newt Gingrich Congress of 1996.

Cumulus / Clear Channel / “I Heart Media INC” want their killing of radio to be swept under the rug.  We can’t let that happen, or they will repeat the cycle. They’ve done this before. This is why we put Corporate FM on Amazon Prime.