Radio's Untold Bankruptcy

Did you see over the weekend that Jay Leno is losing his audience not to other television networks but to – DVR machines?

TiVos are eating television alive.

Leno is down 1.8 rating points in his 10 pm (eastern) daily show. You may remember CBS CEO Les Moonves said at the time Leno’s strip was announced that there will be more viewers available for people who put on great dramas -- I assumed he was talking about CBS.

That’s great one-upsmanship but not very accurate.

What is really happening should serve as a lesson to beleaguered radio stations, failing record labels and other traditional media companies who seem clueless about why their world is changing.

The TiVo is winning.

Yet you may remember that the broadcast television industry decided to fight time-delayed rebroadcasting (DVRs) or stymie it as much as possible when consumers began to embrace it.

Too bad.

One-third of America’s TV households are equipped with DVRs and 10 pm is turning out to be a great time for watching some of the shows they’ve been recording. It’s that way in my house – maybe yours, too?

NBC and ABC are also down when Leno is on (with the exception of when “The Mentalist” that was moved into that slot is aired).

The audience will not be denied – any good programmer knows that. I always say cooperate with the inevitable – after all, the inevitable is, well – inevitable. Why buck it?

TV networks are as clueless as radio execs. They would rather have a live viewer than a TiVo watcher, but would rather have a TiVo viewer than nothing at all.

Kind of silly but perfectly understandable when you arrive at the conclusion that traditional media wants time to stand still.

Broadcasting is so – well, 1920’s.

If aliens arrived on this planet (no, not Wall Street bankers), they wouldn't turn around and say, "let's cut down trees and print news on paper". They'd look around and say, "I like that Droid over there, let's use it". I can't imagine someone from outer space saying, "we need more towers and transmitters". But I can hear them saying, "more iPhones would be out of this world".

Before the technology and sociology "big bang", airing a radio signal and decades later the TV transmission was the only way to get the product to the marketplace.

Today, broadcasting is increasingly becoming the least efficient manner of delivering content and the very one broadcasters are stubbornly holding onto. It would be like saying newspaper publishers insisted that their news be printed on paper … oops, sorry about that.

And, by the way, it doesn’t matter if NBC cancels Leno as rumored. The networks hastened the move to indirect broadcasting by pushing the 10 pm Leno experiment in the first place. (Isn’t it interesting that satellite operator DirecTV is really IndirecTV because so many people record content and then replay it at their convenience?)

As a professor I always warned that today's audience wants what they want when they want it. Media companies should know this because they have been pandering to this desire in promos, copy, shows, scheduling and yet somehow they don’t really believe in it.

Look to the record industry.

The labels are going down with the CD and the CD’s successor – streaming audio for a monthly fee. They can see it no other way because at the labels, they want what they want when they want it, too.

In radio, it is even worse.

Radio hasn’t had time to worry about listeners. Too busy cutting costs and avoiding bankruptcy.

Look at the mess they’ve made of local radio. The smaller companies and few medium-sized operators who defy the death of local radio are still outperforming their smartypants consolidated competitors.

Let’s see now … I wonder why?

Radio listeners are having their way and Lew Tricky Dickey, Fagreed Suleman and John Slogan Hogan don’t care. No one at Cumulus, Citadel or Clear Channel is really paying attention to changing audience habits.

Research budgets are slim or none. No major group budgets for Internet -- doesn't that amaze you? The biggest thing since the industrial revolution and consolidators won't even put in a 3% line item for webcasting. No mobile strategy in sight at any major radio group. Personalities are fired. Program directors spread so thin that they are becoming "program facilitators" of outsourced national content.

Talk about bankruptcy.

I don’t know about you, but if you took away my radio I’d live, but take away my cellphone and you die – you get what I’m saying.

We can’t live without a cellphone and increasingly a smart phone like a Blackberry or iPhone. Thus, we deduce that the audience wants their phone to be the center of their communications universe.

I want to listen to my favorite non-terrestrial radio morning show, Dave & Geri, on my phone in the form of a podcast and I want to make morning drive when I want it to be.

Hey, I’m sounding like the college students I taught.

I want what I want when I want it!

Oh, and I’m tried of commercials period and specifically bad ones that are bunched together for five or eight minutes. Tired of hype, bland playlists, talk stations that are only about politics.

Leno is a great teaching lesson because it shows what happens when you put even a well-liked performer on at a time when the audience doesn’t want him.

Technology.

Sociology.

And pathology.

My readers recognize the first two words because I believe that to succeed in content delivery in the years ahead we will have to, as Steve Jobs does, master where technology and sociology come together.

I also added pathology defined as any deviation from a healthy, normal or efficient condition.

And failing to understand and heed the needs and desire of the audience – not investors – is a deadly deviation.

Invest in the consumer’s interests and you get Apple – a hugely popular company and business that has in essence skipped a deep American recession.

Ignore what the audience is telling you and you get NBC, CBS, ABC, Clear Channel, Cumulus, Citadel, most radio groups and the four major record labels.

Bankruptcy -- the kind facing Citadel January 15th and Clear Channel as well as Cumulus later in the year -- comes from bankrupt programming decisions such as not going where the audience is available and not giving them what they want.

Radio people know this.

Bankers don't care because Saks Fifth Avenue, Chrysler and radio groups are all the same to them -- just commodities upon which they make endless fees and profit even when they fail.

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The Next 6 Weeks of Radio Hell

Six weeks and counting until January 15th – the deadline for the first failed radio consolidator to file for bankruptcy.

That’s when Citadel will either throw itself on the mercy of the courts or its lenders will bitch slap CEO Fagreed Suleman into a prepackaged reorganization that will cede operating ownership to the equity holders.

But to understand what will happen, keep in mind the problems at Clear Channel and Cumulus as well and you can see why the radio industry is in for a rough ride.

Its three largest consolidators are on the ropes.

Clear Channel is playing footsie with its lenders in a game of chicken that could backfire. After all, Clear Channel is largely owned by two investment banks and they’re playing too cute for their own good with their brethren on Wall Street.

Meanwhile, take a look at Clear Channel Outdoor stock and see how at least one major investor is buying it up with an eye toward twisting parent Clear Channel harder until it says “Uncle”.

Then, add to that the inept operation of Cumulus over the past few years as the mean get meaner. At Cumulus when the going gets tough, the tough make it tougher on their employees. CEO Lew “Tricky” Dickey is morphing into his father – Lew, Sr who some have nicknamed “The Cougar”. Does the branch fall far from this family tree?

Meanwhile, you should know that while you were preparing for Thanksgiving, radio’s consolidators have been actively at work reducing their work staffs.

Clear Channel’s 30 Day “Action Plan”

That’s another slick description of termination policy.

Here it is from the lips of someone close to a Clear Channel employee:

“It was strange that the employees that are under the 30 day "Action Plan" were all off the CC network over the weekend.....I was at a weekend event as a sponsor with another CC employee that was not under the plan and she had access all weekend. They could be getting geared-up for after the holiday”.

Clear Channel has a sales initiative it has been flying under the radar since late 2007 called “Radio Confusion” – oh, I’m sorry – it’s called “Radio Fusion”. Clear Channel is reportedly still working out the bugs in the program but it is apparently the future as they see it for radio sales – if you want to call it that.

Look at their description of “Radio Fusion”:

“This web-based CRM and Sales Force Automation tool maximizes radio account executives efficiency by allowing them to strategically manage contacts, create and submit electronic proposals, as well as predict probability of close for more accurate forecasting. ‘The real advantage to Radio Fusion is that all mission-critical data such as avails, rates, and even Arbitron station ratings are conveniently located in one place, the proposal workspace.’ said Ro Catalfo, Director of Customer Relations at LAN International”.

Oh, boy. Repeater Sales using just about everything you can name but relationship selling. Go ask Cox and the other good broadcasting companies. Tools are fine but in lieu of relationship selling it’s folly. Cheap folly, but folly nonetheless.

But there’s more – isn’t there always …

“What’s really cool and unique about VIERO Radio Fusion is that it includes critical information from three or four other systems. Sellers don’t have to go to multiple locations to get rates, ratings and to enter orders…it’s all there in one convenient place,” said Denise Atkins, DOS for Clear Channel Charlotte. “VIERO Radio Fusion is also a great tool for pending business. At any given time, I know exactly where orders are in the workflow, which tells me how much actual revenue is in the pipeline and facilitates much more accurate forecasting.”

Huh?

You don’t need to know what’s in the pipeline, you need to look at your sales at the end of each day. That’s the pipeline. But then again, Clear Channel has an outbreak of Dickey’s Disease – the obsessive compulsive need to reinvent something that would work just find without their input.

Dickey’s Disease

It’s fatal if your last name is not Dickey.

This just in from a fired and angry Cumulus pro. I’m redacting the specific call letters to protect the fired in case they decide to file suit against their former employer.

“I worked for (Cumulus) and there were 8 sellers at the beginning of 2009, all experienced. Three of us were targeted in the beginning of the year and all of us are gone. Two quit, I was fired. Recently they shifted all agency business to 3 AEs. I am hearing that another quit last week and yet another had taken matters to the … Labor board.

Also on our floor was the (sister station) staff. They had 9 sellers at the start of 2009, mostly radio veterans, all mature professionals. They also had 3 AEs targeted at the beginning of the year, 2 quit, 1 was fired. Since then 1 more quit, and I'm hearing another left last week after a dispute about accounts being taken away from him.”

In essence this is information flowing in to confirm what we reported to you recently that the full court Cumulus press is underway to reduce its staff one way or the other.

“Add to that the cluster NSM was fired in late '08 (the DOS handles national!) and both FM PDs were fired (and not replaced) in the first half of the year as well. And that is just part of the carnage! Of course many low level staffers and paid interns were let go, the receptionist (after 20+ years!) was an early casualty. Upstairs … the staff also suffered the same kind of AE defections, plus their promotions director was canned. A traffic manager and an accounts receivable person were hired and fired in 2009. They were there less than 3 months I'd say”.

And their outstanding market manager was fired after nearly 40 years in radio – that’s more experience managing than all the Dickey's possess put together.

One reader related another infamous and insensitive Lew Dickey story that sums up the carnage:

“One thing I will never forget is something Lew Dickey said on a visit … in late 2008. He assembled the entire sales staff in the conference room... close to 30 AEs and 7 or 8 managers. We had never met with Lew before. Early in his speech he says 'we know that sales people only work about 30% of their day'. I was thinking did I hear that right?? And he repeated it. He went on to say that 'we need to change our DNA' and 'we need to transform from order takers to demand drivers'".

Order takers?

Most salespeople at that meeting worked their butts off to make Dickey’s numbers but what he was previewing was the beginning of CSOS or the Cyclops System, as I call it – the one-eyed, no brain system of ruining radio sales.

Honey I Shrunk the Radio Stations

If you’re wondering why the consolidators keep their mouths shut when I expose another new lie, perhaps it's because what I am saying is true.

This from a Clear Channel employee:

“I was appointed the Cluster General Sales Manager (a new position starting in 2004) for our seven station group and I had five sales managers, a DOS, a total traffic/NTR manager and a National Sales Manager from 2004 through 2006. Prior to that I had been the GSM of three of the stations. My "position" was eliminated Nov. 1, 2006, and I was informed that my salary was going to the hiring a number of internet sellers (the new hot plan at the time which of course was abandoned nine months later as no one had a clue what they were doing). This was ordered by a person who I had never met. I had been with our group for over 28 years and five owners.

My point is, tying in with your article today, that as well as all those sales managers, we also had a staff of 35-38 sellers. Yesterday I was at the stations and someone had put the new sales structure in my mailbox…I was actually stunned when I looked at the new set up to see that there are now only TWO managers and 12 salespeople to cover SEVEN RADIO STATIONS, plus National, NTR, Total Traffic, Internet!"

With bankruptcy six weeks away for Citadel, a less than boffo fourth quarter going on the books and a first quarter that could be so bad that 2009 could start looking good in retrospect.

In other words, as sad as it is, the worst is yet to come because the big three are out of options and desperate to cut costs.

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On the Road

Métier recently had a series of three gigs (which counts as a tour these days..........) culminating in an appearance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the London Jazz Festival. I decided to keep a road diary and take some photos and film footage - the results are below.

Limerick, Wednesday


I head off on what can only be described as a dreary drive to Limerick. Driving through the midlands is never a good advertisement for the island of Ireland - the road is pretty featureless and the greyness of the day does nothing to add to its meagre charms. The highight of the trip is when I hear a wonderful malapropism on the radio when one of the presenters describes last year's Christmas party as being a 'damp squid'.

I arrive in Limerick in the middle of a deluge, find the hotel (thanks Satnav!), check in quickly and head over to Dolan's Warehouse at around 4.30 - I'm doing a workshop at 6 with some local kids and I've arranged to meet the band beforehand to run through the material for tonight's gig - we haven't played in a while and we need to chip a bit of the rust off the written parts of the music. Of course as always in these situations the rehearsal starts later than advertised, but eventually we're all there and manage to get through all the material before the workshop starts.

We finish the last few notes of the rehearsal in front of a possibly interested, (it's hard to tell, so blank are their expressions), audience of kids - aged between 12 and 17 or so, who have come for the workshop. Limerick Jazz Society who are putting on the gig, are not only doing a great service in keeping the music alive in this part of the country, but are also doing trojan work in organising workshops for kids and giving them an opportunity to have access to proper instrumental training as well as introducing them to jazz.

Workshop

But though they're not strangers to the concept of jazz, it's hard to know what to usefully do with an unknown group of teenagers in an hour and a half. They're very shy too, as is often the case in these situations, so there's nothing really coming back off them and it's difficult to know whether what I'm pitching to them is getting a response. I've opted for a two pronged approach - talk a bit about jazz, discuss what some of the most common constituents in the music might be, see what they know about the music - and secondly, play with them and see what that brings up in terms of conversation points.

Regarding chatting with them, it's hard to tell what they think or what they know, since my invitation to them to contribute to the conversation is not enthusiastically taken up - shyness gets the better of them and they have the look of a group who have been sentenced by a court to attend a jazz workshop....... As always, there's one kid who's really into it and asks lots of questions, while the rest are content to let him!

Things perk up a bit when we get up to play - I ask the drummer to play any kind of groove he wants since he's a bit self-conscious about playing any jazz things, so he goes into a rock groove played at the most phenomenal volume....... It's extraordinary the tolerance these kids have for volume, the noise he's making is absolutely deafening and my little Acoustic Image amp and acoustic bass wouldn't have a hope pitted against that. So I ask him to keep the same groove, but play quieter, which, he says, makes it much harder for him to play because now he's 'holding back'. But we eventually get something going and I agree on playing a blues with the third member of our trio, a really talented 12 year old who has the most astonishing technical facility for someone so young, and a lot of vocabulary. He's a student of Joe's, living in Limerick, though originally from Slovenia, and, all things being equal, a real prospect for the future.

After this trio I get another group up to play and we again do a blues (the true Lingua Franca of contemporary music), and this time the volume is being blasted out from both drums AND guitar! We eventually get that under control and then form issues raise their ugly head. It is always interesting to me when I hear people just play their licks, but don't notice that said licks don't work over the form they're allegedly playing. It's a really common problem and comes from the typical rock way of learning to play - attack the instrument first, learn some licks, and no matter what the context, get those licks in! It's a very instrument-driven way of learning, and uses the eyes as much as the ears, but it's hard to get the kids to let go of the safety net of what they know works technically, and just play by ear. To paraphrase the old saying, there's nothing to fear but ear itself.............

As always with these things, when the workshop is officially over and the kids are released from the dread of being asked to play in front of everybody, the atmosphere palpably relaxes and chatter breaks out for the first time.

It's hard to know how much the kids got from the workshop, but hopefully there'll be something in there for at least some of them which might spark their interest in investigating jazz a bit more.

At least one satisfied customer........

One great thing about playing in Dolan's is that they have a 'band menu' down in the restaurant section, a good variety of stuff, well prepared, and all for a tenner - the best deal in town by far.It should never be underestimated how large looms the importance of having somewhere to eat and a good hotel when one is on the road. Promoters often don't get this, and are surpised at the vehemence of a band's reaction when they're offered substandard accommodation or if no consideration is given to how, when or where they're going to eat before or after the gig. What people forget is that when you've spent all day travelling in an enclosed space, with the same people, what you want at the end of the day is something decent to eat and a decent place where you can have a rest and get a bit of privacy for a few hours.

The gig itself is fun - as always with these things, all the other stuff you go through, the driving, the hanging around, dealing with the little and large annoyances of being on the road, all fade into the background once you start playing, and suddenly you remember why you play this music in the first place. Since Limerick Jazz Society is a dedicated jazz organisation, you're always playing to a jazz audience there, which is nice. There's a decent crowd (for a jazz gig on a Wednesday evening when it's lashing rain outside.......), and they give us a good response.

We've opted for one long set rather than two shorter ones - this 90 minute festival-style set is one I'm a big fan of. I think it's just long enough for the band to really get going, yet not too long where you get into the situation where it's too long for the audience and musicians alike and where both lose focus. I like this long set format both as a listener and as a player. Sometimes the two-set format makes for too long an evening, unless the band plays a 45 minutes first set, followed by a 2nd of roughly the same length. Often jazz groups play for an hour, then take an interminably long break and come back and play for another hour or so. By which time some of the audience have left to catch buses etc, some have drunk too much and are noisy, or are suffering from too much music fatigue. I'm not sure that more music is always better - for example how often have you listened to all 70 minutes of a contemporary CD? The older 40-50 minutes format of LPs definitely made it easier to assimilate a whole programme of music - to me 'A Love Supreme' or 'Kind of Blue' would not necessarily have benefitted by having another 25 minutes of music tacked onto them........

So, the gig is fun, though we were a bit dodgy on some of the written material - when you've five people in a band playing challenging music, and especially when it's challenging music you haven't played for a while, or very often, you've five possibilities of something going wrong at any one time. So inevitably there will be a few hiccups, and indeed there were on this gig. But nothing major and the improv sections were all really strong. Everybody in the band is both a strong soloist and has a strong personality and this makes for very satisfying music. The group's been together with just one personnel change for nearly three years now, and it shows. We played some pieces from our CD Cascade, and from the recent suite of music I composed, about contemporary Ireland, called 'Fiasco', and the balance of the material works quite well - I think I'll keep this set list for tomorrow night's gig in Wexford as well..........



Musician, film thyself.......

Wexford, Thursday

Leaving the hotel the next morning I misjudge the exit from their underground car park and give my car a good scraping on the left rear of the vehicle - nice! Another campaign scar earned in the cause of jazz..................



According to the AA Routeplanner Wexford is only 189 Km from Limerick, yet according to the same source it will take me almost three hours to cover that distance. On setting out it soon becomes obvious why this skewed distance vs. time ratio is suggested - the road between Limerick and Wexford is completely shite! Single carriageway for much of it, infested with agricultural vehicles of all kinds, peopled by overtaking maniacs who refuse to accept the limitations of driving on such a road and who thunder past in a homicidal manner, and intermittent showers all make for a testing drive. At least the newly opened Waterford bypass has saved me from the hell of entering Waterford city during rush hour.

The roads in Ireland are definitely getting better, but there are still rogue sections like this one, which are completely motorway-free and would probably be recognisable to someone who'd driven these roads in the 1930s. But one of the few nice things about driving on Irish roads is that you often come across many unexpectedly picturesque and beautiful sights. The quality of the light is kind of unique in this country and even in November you can come across sights like this:




and this:




Great town names like this:




and even evidence that great jazz pianists have been reincarnated and are now making a living in the construction industry in Tipperary:



And, coming through New Ross I came across the 'Dunbrody Famine Ship' - a restored ship of the type that took many Irish to America during the Famine in the 19th Century - its masts silhouetted against the evening sun........



Eventually I arrive in Wexford, where we're playing at the Arts Centre. I decide to check into the hotel first - the Maldron - but on arrival in my room I find it's not very promising. The room is cold, there's a fair bit of traffic noise outside and the wireless internet (that indispensable aid to travelling musicians these days), is not working in the room. Wexford is only 90 minutes away from Dublin, so I decide that I'll just leave my suitcase and computer here, do the gig, pick the stuff up and drive back home after the gig. A lot of musicians I know are quite into driving home after out of town gigs if it's at all feasible - but I'm not one of them. In general I like to relax after a gig and not get into the car and drive while tired, in the dark and on roads often unsuited to night driving of any kind. But this room seems so uninviting that I decide I'll just split after the gig and get a comfortable night's sleep at home.

Wexford has a world famous Opera Festival, and through this has a reputation for music and cuture. But strangely enough it's never been a regular stop on the jazz circuit in Ireland, neighbouring Waterford having much more activity happening in the jazz field, mainly due to the pro-jazz leanings of the Garter Lane Arts Centre there. So up to fairly recently I'd hardly ever played in Wexford. However that changed recently with a more pro-jazz policy emanating from the Wexford Arts Centre, and I'd already played two very nice gigs there earlier this year, one in January, playing the music of John Coltrane, and one later playing in a trio with Tommy Halferty.

It's a good place to play, audiences are enthusiastic and the management are cool - however before getting to play one has to negotiate two flights of stairs. So often jazz gigs are upstairs - or downstairs - as if the music wasn't difficult enough to play, rhythm section players have to add the skills of a stevedore to their portfolio if they're to make it in the jazz world. It's at times like these that I give thanks to the people at Acoustic Image who at last have figured out how to make a small bass amp that sounds good..........



(Setting up in Wexford)

We carry the gear upstairs and get set up, (one thing I find incredibly wearing - musicians practicing on stage while everyone's getting set up, maybe I'm becoming a grumpy old man, but it always seems so inconsiderate to be blasting through your shit while people are all around you trying to set their gear up), run through a couple of things that were untidy the night before, agree on the set list and soundcheck. We're playing mostly acoustically, with only the tenor going through the PA which always speeds things up. Michael discovers a piano in a cupboard and plays some true upright piano........



I remember Tom Rainey saying to me on a gig that the four most important words at a soundcheck are 'sounds great, let's eat!' - and how right he was. Another nice thing about playing Wexford is that there's an excellent Italian restaurant right across the road - 'La Scala' - a very unprepossessing looking place but one that nevertheless serves really good and different Italian food - wish it was in Dublin............



So, food eaten, (Papardelle with porcini mushrooms and truffle oil - result!), we head back to the venue for the gig - the usual stage wait in an ante-room, though this one is a cut above the normal dressing room since it's also part of an art exhibition at the Centre. It's very true to say that being on the road is like being in the army during a war - lots of travelling, boredom and hanging around followed by forty five minutes of fear, confusion, and chaos!



(Joe, Sean, and Justin contemplate the infinite while waiting to go over the top..........)

The Gig

Definitely better than the night before - playing music properly has so much to do with just playing it enough times. Compared to our jazz ancestors we play hardly at all - one can never underestimate the effect that the number of gigs that earlier generations of jazz musicians played must have had on their techniques, their stamina, their ability to play at a consistently high level and of course, by extension, the quality of the music that they produced. I notice immediately the difference in my own ability to play when I have the chance to play a few gigs in a row. It has something to do with the physical technique becoming more lubricated, and this has a knock-on effect on the creative mind. With the fingers working better you become less distracted by the physical and the instrument seems to play itself somehow.

And of course playing a series of gigs with a band has the effect of both tightening up the ensemble passages and at the same time (in a creative band at least), making everything looser. Because the band members are more immediately comfortable with what comes next in each tune - where the backgrounds happen, how the tune ends, who solos where, what the cues are etc. - everyone feels freer to take chances in the full confidence that if something doesn't quite work out the music won't fall apart. Tonight's gig definitely feels like that - there's more confidence in the band and having a second go at the same set definitely helps in freeing any creative shackles that may have been there previously. Since we have a fairly major gig in London coming up on Saturday, having these two gigs has been really useful to us and I feel we're more than ready to play the London Jazz Festival.

On arrival back to the hotel I find that the heating is now on, the wireless now working and the noise from the road has disappeared - I reconsider my decision to drive back to Dublin.................

London, Saturday



The ‘Red Eye’ is well named — those flights that leave at an ungodly hour, and that seemed to make up 90% of all flights that musicians are condemned to take. Red eyes are not the only thing that you suffer from on these flights, I always have a feeling that my eyes are about to drop out of my head when the alarm clock rudely interrupts what would otherwise be a perfectly satisfactory sleep. Those first 20 minutes are the worst, after that it kind of becomes okay to the point where I often arrive at the airport terminal and am actually surprised to realise that it's only 5:30 AM. This flight is not too early - 9 AM, but that means being at the airport at 7 AM, which means leaving my house at 5:45 AM, and getting up at 5:15 AM. Such is life — or at least a musician’s life.

Having made all that effort it’s a little bit irritating to find that the airport is half empty, and that we could have come a half an hour later and got an extra 30 minutes of valuable sleep — it’s November and serious low season for flying, so the usual early morning chaos is notable by its absence. We check in — I’m the only one checking in any luggage because my bass is too big to go in the cabin, and therefore has to go in the hold. Fortunately I have a custom-built case that can pretty much withstand everything except US Homeland Security..............

A quick coffee before we board the plane, (a quick tip if you’re passing through Dublin Airport — Butler’s has the best coffee not only at the airport, but possibly in Dublin too), we meet up with Ronan from IMC (who have hooked up the gig for us), who will be riding shotgun with us, and we’re off.





50 minutes later we’re in London, where we meet up with Joe, who is that most unusual of Irish Jazz musicians in that he doesn’t live in Dublin, and so has flown to London from Shannon in the west of Ireland.

We’re picked up by the festival driver and head into London, then check into the hotel. For once we actually have time to have a small bite of lunch before going to the sound check. We are immediately reminded that though Dublin may be expensive, it can’t hold a candle to London — I buy a cappuccino at the hotel and it cost me the equivalent of four euro — you would be hard-pressed to pay that at the Four Seasons in Dublin, but even in a bog-standard London hotel like this one they can demand this astronomical figure without a blush apparently.

On to the South Bank Centre where we'll be playing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall opposite Tomasz Stanko. It's good to have Ronan with us to organise the logistics of the trip - no matter how many times I do this, I always find the logistical chore of being a bandleader, (calling cabs, dealing with the hotel, telling everyone where to be at what time etc.) to be a drag, and I find it difficult to switch that tour manager side of my brain off when it comes to performance time, and concentrate solely on the music. But for once I don't have to do it and so I wallow in the luxury of being the band leader yet not having to deal with all that logistical shite.



The weather's really crap - we apparently are arriving in the middle of the 'worst storm for 30 years', but it doesn't seem to have dampened the enthusiasm of the London Jazz Festival audiences - no less than three of the major shows are sold out tonight, including the one we're playing.We get our passes and enter the bowels of the QEH, find the dressing room and calculate that since Stanko is only just finishing his soundcheck and they have to reset the stage for us, we have enough time for a coffee - the trick with soundchecks is to be prepared for interminable bouts of hanging around, especially if you're soundchecking 2nd, (or even worse - 3rd!), either have a book with you or be good at estimating how much quality time you can squeeze in before you're really needed to soundcheck. The experienced soundchecker will arrive at the appointed time and then immediately find out what stage the sound crew/other band are at in their soundcheck and make their plans accordingly. So, over to the Royal Festival Hall's café which seems to have all its tables taken up by people taking advantage of the free WiFi rather than actually buying any food......... A quick exorbitantly priced coffee later, it's back to the QEH to find that they've somehow mislaid the bass amp and there'll be a delay while they find out what's happened to it.


The QEH is an impressive looking space with raked seating and a large stage - we find that the audience will be sitting behind us as well as the in the more usual frontal position. It's been a while since I played 'in the round' but it shows the pulling power of Stanko, that despite the fact that Sonny Rollins is playing at the same time a few hundred yards away, he can sell out the QEH to such an extent that they have to open the seats behind the stage. Apart from the missing bass amp, it's a quick enough set up and the sound guys are very good - it doesn't take long to get a decent sound once all the equipment is in place, and that's another thing to be grateful for. A quick soundcheck with an efficient sound crew is a pearl beyond price, it helps so much. The alternative - an interminable sound check with nothing working, punctuated by howling feedback - can be such a downer before you play, cheating you of valuable eating or rest time. Actually good soundmen/women who take care of business quickly and efficiently are rare - it always baffles me why so many sound people are so crap at their job - especially given they're usually dealing with the same equipment every day. Yet time and again they seem to forget that if you press THAT button, you get THIS deafening noise............................................

The gig will start at 7.30. so we decide to eat afterwards, and hang around in the Green Room, snacking on cheese and fruit - more waiting! Eventually it's showtime, and I'm asked to have a chat with Jez Nelson, the BBC's jazz guy who will be introducing the concert - basically what this means is that I have to tell him who the hell we are! A festival worker asks me how long the first piece will be so they can tell latecomers how long to expect to wait before they can take their seats. When I say 10 minutes at least, she seems surprised and says 'oh, that seems a very long time' - really? When was the last time you went to a jazz gig and the first piece was shorter than 10 minutes?



(The QEH from the stage)



(Sean plays tandem drums)

The Gig

So on we go eventually and it all goes very well. We play a truncated version of the set we played in Limerick and Wexford. We only have 40 minutes to do our stuff, and in a situation like this you really have to stick to the schedule - if you bogart the gig everyone gets pissed off - the radio people (the BBC were recording this), the organisers, the headliners. I've seen situations where bands get an opportunity to play a big gig as an opener for a famous act and think that by playing really long people will see just how great they are - WRONG! The audience are really there to see the main act, and in an ideal situation you can add to their enjoyment and do yourself some good by providing an unexpected extra musical treat for them, but unless you ARE actually the main act, you should never lose sight of the fact that you're not the main reason the audience is there.

The sound was good, for me at least, on the stage - though Michael said afterwards that he couldn't hear some things well at all - it's often the case with these big stages, you can have a very different aural experience to the guy standing only a couple of feet away from you. But for me, I enjoyed the sound, though it was different to hear the music played with the thicker, richer texture of the grand piano, rather than the Fender Rhodes we'd been using on the other gigs. I really like the Rhodes, I like the transparent texture it gives to the music and its percussive nature, but it was nice to hear the music with the big sound of the grand piano on this occasion. The band sounded really good too - the previous concerts having honed our set into something that could be shown to maximum effect in the short time we had and in the big space we were in.

But of course there are certain things you can't legislate for, in this case Joe breaking a string in the second piece! He had to go off and get a new string, while I tried to fill in time on the mic - not very successfully! Eventually we just started the next piece without Joe, though he did manage to join us half way through. The audience were terrific - I wasn't sure how we'd be received because we were definitely an unknown quantity. As always with a Stanko concert there were a huge number of Poles in the hall, and there we were - an unknown band of Irish guys taking up space and time which could have been filled by their hero and compatriot - it could have got ugly! But it didn't, indeed it went even better than I'd hoped and we were warmly received on entering the stage and even more warmly applauded at the end of the last piece.

So everyone was happy - the promoters were happy, the audience were happy, the band were happy, even the man from the BBC music blog was happy!

So that was that - there remained only one last piece of road duty to fulfill - and we did it - we had a great meal in a Persian restaurant. It may be true, as Napoleon said, that an army marches on its stomach, but it's even more true of a band.............



Something attempted, something done................

Thanksgiving With the Dickeys

If radio had human rights violations, the government would eventually be forced to investigate Clear Channel, Citadel and perhaps the worst offender of all, Cumulus.

These three radio consolidators – the largest in all of radio – share a common disrespect for their employees and a blatant disregard for their careers.

What’s worse is that these are the leaders – like them or not – from whom other smaller radio owners take their direction.

So if Cumulus cuts its way to “success”, then they will as well.

If voice tracking makes it possible for the three “C” consolidators to reduce on-air expenses, then the other smaller groups almost always follow suit.

That's how important these three companies are to the health and vitality of the radio industry.

In the past two years the ranks of the radio industry have been decreased by thousands and thousands of excellent, loyal and talented employees in management, sales, programming, on-air, engineering and in office support roles. It is obvious that the three “leaders” in radio are going to become the smallest big time operators out there by keeping this trend up.

A radio executive wrote to me yesterday and said, “One of the first things one learns in business is you can't shrink yourself to profitability”.

He knows that.

You know that.

I know that.

So what is their problem?

Another reader wrote what he thinks is the Cumulus mantra, "The floggings will continue until morale improves".

So, on the occasion of Thanksgiving, a traditional time for family, friends, turkey and being grateful, I thought it would be useful to see what Thanksgiving is or should be at the Dickey households – that of big brother Lew and little brother, John.

How can they even live with themselves especially this time of year after they’ve ruined careers, fired employees needlessly (and as an act of self-destruction)?

Families have been thrown into crisis and, even as I write this, Cumulus plans to keep cutting its ranks until one master control spews out national radio to local markets while inexperienced new salespeople chase phantom accounts to sell them increasingly cheap advertising.

I’ve often wondered how Clear Channel patriarch Lowry Mays can live with himself.

Good karma comes back as good and bad as bad. But this man more than any epitomizes the Evil Empire he created in his image. In my opinion, Mays sold his soul and will be remembered for that -- and probably not much more.

The other day when I heard of the death of programmer and air talent Dene Hallam or last December when we lost the programming icon Bill Drake, I remembered again how most radio people held them in high esteem. Even if you disagreed with their approach to radio you knew they loved the industry.

Thanksgiving is a scary time at the Dickey households because if they have no trouble enjoying their turkey then they truly have no feelings. When I ran into Lew last September in Philadelphia I got the feeling that the man I knew ten years ago had become bitter, haggard and frankly uncaring about people.

It’s my feeling.

I could be wrong.

But let me tell you why.

Dickey was dismissive every time I said you are being brutal to people. He didn’t deny it. Dickey countered with, “You’re killing me, Jerry” to which as I reported earlier I retorted, “No, you’re killing you – I’m just telling everybody”.

The idea of forcing salespeople to quit rather than pay them unemployment. The farce of telling the happy talk trade press that Cumulus is going to hire more salespeople when he neglects to add how many he is firing or forcing to quit.

Let me say this loud and clear.

Dickey, Fagreed Suleman of Citadel and Lee & Bain, equity owners of Clear Channel have the right to do any damn thing they want with their companies. I don’t have a say and you don’t. Their shareholders one day might have, had they spoken up. Now it’s too late.

But all three companies have been mean-spirited and overly hurtful in dealing with the human aspect of consolidation. Ironically enough, the pain that they are instilling on the folks who rely on them for a living are the only ones who can help them return to profitability.

You don’t cut your way to success.

You cut if you want to run – and that’s what they are going to do.

Run skeleton operations. Dodge the debt mistakes. Wait for the economy to get better and sell the shells to people who will make them rich all over again even at much lower multiples.

If Dickey has a wishbone this holiday and makes a wish for the future, it would be to get out of debt and see his company return to profitability. That wishbone isn’t going to break his way.

If Fagreed makes a wish at his turkey dinner it would be that lenders keep him around after the company files for a pre-packaged bankruptcy on or before January 15 – write that date down on your calendar because as sure as I’m typing this, Fagreed is going to make bankruptcy sound like a growth business when it is announced.

If John Slogan Hogan speaking with the ventriloquist voice of Lee & Bain could grab that turkey bone and yank on it, he would hope no one discovers that he doesn’t know what he is doing. He’s an Atlanta market manager at best and a yes man at worst.

If Mark Mays is enjoying his family this weekend and we sincerely hope he is, one would hope that he had an ounce of decency to remember the people who are in a bad hurt this holiday because of his decisions. Mays forgot that the right thing for his business was to do is to employ not destroy.

These culprits are not going into the radio hall of fame any time soon. They will be remembered for the turkeys they are – the ones who did in a good industry by trying to leverage lives for their own increased compensation.

What makes me proud as the Thanksgiving weekend comes upon us is that there is a lot to be thankful for even if you work for or were even fired from one of the major consolidators this past year.

Beyond unemployment or reemployment, we have the digital future which as it unfolds will present many new employment possibilities and entrepreneurial ideas of ex-consolidation workers. I promise to give you the down low on these opportunities over the year ahead. The path to new media is not clearly defined like leaving one station and taking a similar job across the street.

But we're at least there is a growth business ahead and radio people are the best qualified to be in it. Now we must concentrate on doing our homework and checking out challenges and opportunities. No looking back unless you want more heartbreak.

That radio people – even faced with the cruelties that we could have never predicted ten years ago – never turned on each other -- also makes me proud. In fact, I know of multiple cases in which employees were willing to take less to work or to keep associates from being fired.

Showing up and doing more work then they were compensated for – that makes me thankful to be in an industry of fine people who care about their audiences, their advertisers and their local communities even when the employers have forgotten.

Each year I am not grateful for having a multifaceted career in the radio industry in programming, on-the-air, as a publisher and now -- advisor to the digital future.

Unlike the consolidators and like you – it’s radio people that warm my heart.

Resourceful.

Creative.

Independent

Hard working.

And ...

Honest.

This holiday season I’d challenge the major consolidators to look at the man in the mirror and ask if they have the qualities that their fired employees maintain through good times and bad.

There is another way to handle a recession, over leveraged debt and the attack of new media.

With a conscience.

A few of our radio leaders have lost their way and I, for one, hope that one of them will reflect on their unfortunate legacy.

That is my wish – with or without a wishbone.

To the great people of radio, don’t lose heart – 2010 may be a bad year for mean radio but it is going to be a new beginning for your careers, lives and families and we’ll talk about it here all year.

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Who Should Attend The 2010 Media Solutions Lab.

January 28 at the Westin Resort, Scottsdale, AZ. Individuals who work in radio, television, publishing, the music industry, new media, social networking or mobile content who want to see the future better and enhance their core skill development to achieve outstanding results. This is not a convention. It’s a one-day interaction lab with 14 modules taught by Jerry Del Colliano whose background includes an appointment as professor at the University of Southern California. Topics range from reinventing radio, identifying the best new media initiatives for the year ahead, the new webcasting business, how to build a podcasting franchise that turns a profit in the first year. Learn three new technology media businesses you can start the day after attending this lab. Plus, brainstorm the next media growth business. Leave with an action plan. There are no sponsors, no pitchmen or special interests. It’s private. It will not be videotaped, webcasted or available in audio. It's about reinventing you, the media business and your career. Get the details on all 14 modules and register here.

Clear Channel’s Frightening Plans for 2010

I want to show you the future of radio – Clear Channel style -- for the year ahead.

The pieces have been coming together in the past few months like a complex puzzle but now it is evident what investment bank owners Lee & Bain have in mind for the largest radio group in the world.

What I am about to share with you is significant because when Clear Channel burps you can imagine what Cumulus and Citadel will do.

That’s right, the other failed consolidators take their lead from the Evil Empire.

First, let me get this out of the way, Radio President John Slogan Hogan is not calling the shots here so you can't blame it on him. This plan came from the Wall Street banking firms themselves that own Clear Channel.

Hogan is the dummy and Lee and Bain are the ventriloquists.

They put the words into Hogan’s mouth.

Another caveat is that some localities may be different but increasingly during the year ahead, you are likely to see this scenario unfolding at Clear Channel stations and clusters.

1. Virtually no local management.

Regional offices will increasingly dictate what will be done in local markets in spite of all Clear Channel's hype about local radio. It's exactly the opposite. Fewer market managers. Managers are and will continue to be fired. You may even see some clusters that report directly to Centcom circumventing the need for more bodies and more salaries. Rest assured that at Clear Channel when it comes to management as well as talent -- less is still more.

2. Local clusters will be handed their target numbers and they will have to make them.

This should not be confused with that old management tactic called – budgeting. It’s now a one way street from Lee and Bain to you. Increasingly as the year goes on, Clear Channel will be run from headquarters and now that includes management and budget.

3. Skeleton staffs at local stations.

Local sales staffs will increasingly consist of a an ever decreasing staff of survivors, remaining professionals or inexperienced hires. This means buildings that have the minimum number of employees in them -- entire markets run by a handful of people. Even worse than currently.

4. One sales manager per cluster.

To handle the local direct selling effort (overseeing a reduced staff, of course). There may be exceptions to the one Sales Manager per market rule but you will be noticing how few people will be selling direct at the local level. Look to regional and even so-called Yield Managers in the new Clear Channel playbook.

5. Unbearable pressure to make sales numbers.

Local account execs will find it hard to make their numbers because advertisers sense the pressure on radio to make their numbers and have discovered that driving down ad prices even lower is not that hard to do. Lower rates for inventory – bet on it. The first clue you have is all this talk of the 15-second commercial – a supposed byproduct of Less Is More. These new 15-second spots where purchased are cheaper for advertisers and generate less for the stations.

See what I mean, another way to compromise the rate card.

6. Program directors will become extinct in all but the largest markets.

You already have observed that most consolidators have PDs doing double-duty or more. What’s next is the Program Facilitator who acts as a traffic cop and sends national Repeater Radio programming and voice tracked shows to individual conduits formerly known as radio stations.

7. More Non-Local Content.

These Program Facilitators will get to choose from the Clear Channel menu of cheaper national “local” programming alternatives that they call “Premium Choice". I call it “Ground Chuck” because it is Hamburger Helper for formats. Live morning shows will be gone in all but the most important and/or largest markets. Clear Channel is already famous for voice tracking its stations.

8. Automatically-logged national business.

National business will go directly into local programming logs – in fact, I’m told that this is happening now in some Clear Channel locations. No need to pass go, collect $200 or even check with anyone local. Radio is not local at Clear Channel. This is another example.

9. Regional business will be “checked” by so-called Yield Managers.

This is also happening right now.

When regional business is written, so-called Yield Managers are responsible to see that the “local” Clear Channel stations are getting a good price. Keep in mind that many of these Yield Managers are former hotel managers and have no idea what a good price is. They may know what rack rate is good but not a good regional buy.

Sounds like a corporate brainstorm.

No matter.

Someone at Lee and Bain thinks this is really a good way to run the radio business – like Motel 6.

Clear Channel’s apparent plan for 2010 is to cut expenses – again.

Well, there really isn’t any place to cut expenses at a radio station other than – personnel. And in spite of the fact that Clear Channel has been responsible for large scale termination of talent, it has one place to look for further cuts.

More staff reductions.

Big decreases in sales regardless of how badly the company needs to write more business.

Largely national programming to save personnel costs.

Now, Less is More when it comes to market managers and station executives.

This all sounds insane to most people, but not to my readers who know that cutting programming, sales and management is good for radio – that is, if your intention is to cut costs and eventually sell off the properties for whatever the market will support and whatever additional fees the sellers can earn.

Radio consolidators are not operators as I have been insisting for ten years now.

They are owners, investors, speculators.

So if you and I occasionally fantasize about how radio stations could improve their programming, sales and lead the way into the digital future, we can be forgiven.

But the consolidators who are gutting radio stations year after year to wind up with a license to sell and very little overhead cannot be forgiven.

Their intentions are increasingly transparent.

No Internet strategy – forget budgeting for digital – none of them do.

No mobile strategy.

No podcasting or webcasting strategy.

No social networking platforms.

No concept of the importance of local radio.

While I was attending the Flyers game out here in Phoenix over the weekend, a sixty-something man sitting in the row in back of me was showing another over 50 fan what Pandora was on his cell phone.

He played it – loud enough to be heard in a hockey arena (albeit it an empty one) – and went on and on about how great Pandora was.

These older Pandora lovers are radio listeners – or were.

While Lee & Bain, Lew and John, Farid and Judy and Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice are skinning the hide of the radio business, they may be winning the numbers battle but they are losing the war.

Radio is in big trouble.

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Cumulus Invents a New Way To Fire

The three major consolidators – the ones who have made the biggest mess of things in the radio industry – don’t have to come up with ways to avoid firing people.

That’s what they do.

Citadel, Clear Channel and Cumulus have been ridding themselves of talented and loyal employees for years now. But in the past two years the firings – or “layoffs” as they like to call them have been extraordinarily massive.

And more cutbacks are happening now.

A major group in Tucson has only one operations manager for seven stations. Other properties are being gutted of able employees for the fewest number possible and nationally produced “local” content.

Now we hear that the mad scientists at the Cumulus Reinventing the Wheel Project in Atlanta have found a way to fire people without really firing them.

They get them to quit.

That’s right.

They make them miserable (of course) and have added a new element – make it impossible for them to earn their commissions so they eventually have to quit.

Why, you ask, would Cumulus do such a thing?

One reason is that when employees quit on their own volition, Cumulus is not responsible for paying the increased unemployment taxes that are charged to them and with so many Cumulus employees biting the dust, the company is paying a lot in increased unemployment taxes.

You might say, what kind of cheap bastard would be that heartless to rob good people of a career and then try to cheat them out of their unemployment lifeline – especially in tough economic times?

How about a company that reportedly contested even one week of unemployment benefits filed by their own employees who were forced to take mandatory time off without pay. I guess the Cumulus brain trust decided employees would take a bullet for Lew. But some marched to their unemployment offices or went online and filed claims for benefits for the week they were forced to miss work without pay.

Here is how the current screws are being applied to Cumulus salespeople.

Salespeople are reportedly getting accounts taken away from them to the point where they can’t make a living – some are quitting and Cumulus is hiring replacements without radio experience.

Here’s what one of my readers says:

“ALL of their experienced reps are being pushed out the door and all the agency accounts are going to the "K.A.M." (key account manager)position. The KAM gets a low salary and 1.5% override on the net dollars”.

KAMS are supposed to handle only agency accounts in an effort to get the rest of the remaining sales force to focus on direct business.

An insider tells how the amazing scam apparently works:

“…the KAM in our office was allowed to keep all of their largest direct accounts, meanwhile being literally handed hundreds of thousands of dollars of agency billing from the rest of the sales team. This person will make money on months and months of work done by other people...it's simply outrageous”.

In other words this Dickey brainchild is pushing the envelope of unfair practices in the work environment.

The KAM basically has free reign and does not have to attend spy-in-the-sky meetings (an obvious benefit right there).

KAMs do not have to dial for dollars under the watchful eye of big brother. I actually heard salespeople were forced to call on cobblers – that’s right, shoe repair businesses. Hey, that’s not what Lew Dickey told me in Philadelphia. You know, when he said they needed new people to go after health care business and accounts that AEs resist.

Cobblers?

He’s kidding right?

The KAM is also immune from doing his or her own paperwork as some have assistants to do all of that and help with traffic. KAMs get to call on direct as well as agency business.

Meanwhile, the remaining minions get to call on cobblers and other accounts that have never used radio.

As one Cumulus worker said:

“I realize the commission percentage is lower for agency accounts for these salespeople, but what does it matter when their billing increased exponentially overnight, and they are no longer subject to ridiculous CSOS schedules put in place by the increasingly moronic Dickeys”.

To make matters worse the KAM position was apparently not advertised in some local offices meaning existing employees never got to interview for it. The job was handed over to the account exec the manager chose.

In one market, a Cumulus source said:

“Several people in the office I work in had as much, or more agency experience as this person, and were never even considered for the position. Again, it begs the question of fairness and ethics in the workplace”.

How serious is the latest Cumulus move to inflict pain on its people in the name of economy?

Some salespeople relieved of their best accounts are making up to 75% less than previously with no way to make up the difference because of low rates, mundane programming that lacks personality and the continuing recession.

Look, the Dickeys own the company and they can do with it what they want – nobody denies that.

Their record is pretty poor even though they spend a lot of time massaging the press into seeing Einstein when they print Dickey.

What is wrong – dead wrong and this needs to be said – is the hurtful, malicious and premeditated way the Dickey family is playing hardball with its employees.

Hurting them – their careers, their families – all because it’s their company and people are apparently not important to them.

CSOS (their sales system) is.

Local programming that emanates from Atlanta is.

Reinventing the wheel is.

I’ve got some news for Lew "Tricky" Dickey and "Other" Brother John – it isn’t working, won’t work and will ultimately fail.

Fortunately for the Dickeys, failures don't go broke when they are playing with other people’s money.

(Special note: We lost Dene Hallam over the weekend. He was a good solid radio programmer and talent who I have known for years. In recent months Dene would write to me about ice hockey and the state of radio today. When I wrote about the radio industry inviting listeners to go elsewhere with some of the shenanigans consolidators are pulling, Dene would shoot me a note that said "You are so right, professor". I am proud to have known Dene and to work in an industry with so many people who still care. Dene will be missed -- Jerry)

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The ABG

I got my first Acoustic Bass Guitar in 1983. From the beginning of buying my first bass – an Ibanez electric which cost me £49 – I was listening pretty much exclusively to jazz which of course was pretty much exclusively played on upright bass. And I’d have loved to have played an upright bass – virtually everyone I was listening to was an upright player – but I couldn’t afford a good one. I got an opportunity to play an upright bass when a friend of mine loaned me one, but it wasn’t a good instrument, was physically difficult to play, and I hated the feel and sound of it. So going on the basis that I’d rather have a decent electric sound than a crap acoustic one, I persevered with the electric and just tried to make it as acoustic sounding as possible – flatwound strings, fretless, using the left hand (the plucking hand – I’m left handed) close to the end of the fretboard in order to get a softer sound, using the side rather than the tip of my finger to get a fatter sound etc. All my efforts were directed towards making the electric instrument sound more acoustic.

Then a student of mine arrived at the house one day with an Acoustic Bass Guitar – must have been one of the first ones manufactured around that time – an EKO, an Italian factory built instrument – not a very good one but it was a revelation to me. It had the acoustic property I’d been looking for, but had the physical characteristics of the bass guitar – I’d seen the future, and it worked! I had a bit of work done on it to customise it for me, and from then on I gave up the electric bass and focussed exclusively on the ABG.

And have been doing so ever since. I’ve been exclusively playing ABG for the past 26 years with a few returns to the electric bass for gigs of Brazilian music, or occasional other situations where the electric is more suitable. But in general it’s been the ABG all the way since then, and I really love it. I love the fact that it blends well with other acoustic instruments, I love the way it can sound so good in the traditional role of the bass in jazz. I love the way you can manipulate the sound with your fingers rather than through electronics, and I even love the fact that you have to fight a bit harder to get the sound from the instrument than you do on an electric – there’s something about that little bit of extra work you have to do that is more satisfying than the instant touch response of the electric, on the ABG I feel more connected to the resultant sound than I do on the electric. I got a custom-built instrument in 1993, with a deeper body and longer scale neck, and a double cutaway, and I’m still using this instrument – as the wood has matured and settled the sound has got better and better.

One thing that’s always surprised me about the ABG is how few jazz players have taken to it. There are many electric players playing jazz these days but the instrument is problematic when playing with acoustic instruments, and especially in a more traditional jazz setting. The electric’s sonority is very prominent and it tends to stick its nose out of the ensemble too much and rudely draw attention to itself. The upright bass lends itself better to blending into the ensemble while proving the essential bottom to the music in an unobtrusive way. The ABG has this quality too and although it has a smaller sound than the upright, it has a similar sonority and tonal character. So it's ideal for acoustic jazz, and is an ideal vehicle for bass guitar players in that idiom, but it has never taken off for some reason. Apart from myself, the only other person I’m aware of playing the ABG exclusively is Jerome Harris – and even he plays regular guitar from time to time. The great Steve Swallow, who of course pioneered the electric bass in jazz, has also recently taken to playing an ABG of his own design , but that seems to be pretty much it for ABG players in jazz – I’m sure there are more I’m not aware of, but there’s no doubt that it’s still a rarity in jazz. Which is a pity because it’s a great instrument, with lots of potential for expressive and diverse playing.



Over the years I’ve made several solo recordings of the ABG, though I’ve never released any of them, (strangely enough the jazz record companies have not been beating a path to my door or squabbling among themselves for the privilege of releasing an album of solo ABG improvisations..........). I love making these recordings as I can utilise the natural sound of the instrument without pickups (essential for playing with a band, since the ABG’s sound is not loud enough to compete with drums or piano for example), and feature its full sonority. I recently recorded a few pieces and put them up on Youtube – I wanted to capture various aspects of the instrument in an improvised setting. So I recorded some different types of pieces – such as Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ in 7, (below), a piece featuring walking bass, an exploration of the sonic possibilities of the instrument, a piece based on traditional bebop bass soloing techniques, a classic ballad standard, and Ornette’s classic ’Round Trip’


I met the legendary Muhal Richard Abrams over twenty years ago and he did a double-take on seeing the instrument and immediately said ‘Wow man, with that you’ve got the portability and facility of the electric cats, but the sound of the acoustic cats’ - exactly! So why don’t more people see that as quickly as Muhal did............?

Radio: Next, It’s Repeater Sales

Clear Channel’s encore to Repeater Radio (local radio dressed up as national or syndicated programming) appears likely to be Repeater Sales.

They fired 1,300 sales people within the past 18 months and vowed to hire 40 so-called regional yield managers although no one can seem to figure out who these 40 people are.

You notice how Clear Channel hasn’t done 40 follow-up announcements after revealing the strategy.

In theory these Yield Managers are going to bypass local salespeople and become a clearinghouse for spot radio. They are not going to do a lot of relationship selling or cross-platform sales. Forget prospecting. Who is left to do that?

Repeater Radio is the term I coined to describe the slight of hand trick Clear Channel President John Slogan Hogan tried to pull a year ago when he talked "local" but meant "corporate".

Anyway, you’ve got to wonder if Hogan is really in charge of this process.

Insiders say Charlie Rahilly is parent company Lee and Bain’s man. He was the guy who took Kraig Kitchen’s place at Premiere – a move that was designed to help along the nationalization of programming. No matter who is in charge or who isn't, the die may be cast – Lee and Bain are investment banks and they are cutting costs.

Next – Repeater Sales.

This has ugly repercussions beyond Clear Channel because underachievers like Cumulus CEO Lew "Tricky" Dickey and Desperate House Cleaner Fagreed Suleman of Citadel look for Clear Channel cover on cost cutting.

Translation: if Clear Channel does it, why not us?

Remember I mentioned a few weeks ago that 2010 would be open season on radio sales. That’s because there’s no one left at home in programming thanks to Repeater Radio.

You can see how Clear Channel is working this.

It takes Tampa’s Director of Sales Chris Soechtig and promotes him to Senior Vice President of Sales Operations reporting to none other than Hogan.

Then Hogan created Clear Channel’s so-called “Sales Operations Center” which will focus on all facets of sales strategy, communication, training, sales material, technology – I’m reading here from the Clear Channel press release.

Wonder why no one is connecting the dots?

Soechtig oversees sales in 150 markets and supervises everything – that’s real local, isn’t it? Same footprint as Repeater Radio.

The reason these guys never learn is because they don’t have to. They just have to cut costs and there are not enough programming cuts to make to deliver the economies of scale that the investment bank owners are demanding.

As one of my readers put it:

“So now they have (a) guy whose sole purpose in life is stealing ideas from one market and making sure every other market does the same exact thing. Here's how (one market) did their One Day Fire Sale and it generated X dollars. Please let me know when you plan on doing the same thing...If you don't plan on doing it let me know and I'll post your job."

“This sounds like a "Gary Pizzati" lite. Someone who will cherry pick ideas/packages/categories etc and then inflict them on the rest of the group, demand implementation, then write the success story for Hogan to publicize”..

Radio could grow sales by hiring people like Jim Taszarek, Gerry Tabio or Steve Marx and Jim Hopes. They are a threat to Hogan because their approach is local because Lee and Bain just want cost cuts – don’t get all warm and fuzzy on them.

But there’s more … at lightning speed:

The Chicago Tribune reported recently that Clear Channel intended to unify three stations there under one single urban banner to be known as the Urban Network. This is a cross-platform, single approach to reaching the African American market by targeting different parts of the group.

Or as I call it, trying to force advertisers to buy three for the price of one.

In Los Angeles, Clear Channel is morphing to Repeater Sales as well.

Combining sales operations for their spoke word formats under one staff a few months ago. This is a predictor of the future. After all, what makes sense in LA must work in Chicago, right?

Wrong.

Nonetheless you’ll see fewer sellers.

In the Midwest region recently, a Clear Channel manager told a staff meeting that he was going to hold a positive meeting – no bloodletting.

The attendees were dubious.

They were reportedly told that Clear Channel is not going bankrupt (amazing what market managers know, isn’t it?) and that Clear Channel had a billion dollars in cash on hand.

Pay not attention to the press or bloggers – Clear Channel is in great shape -- they were told.

Then he made the mistake of telling those attending that their success was due to great programming and a great sales department. In other words, you have done a fantastic job.

So during the Q&A that followed, this former cluster manager was asked if he was going to free up any of that money for promotion?

Nope.

He said the company is willing to spend money if the local cluster can show how it will make money!

Huh?

How about this exchange: “What if an advertiser told you his business was great and didn't need to advertise?”

"That's different. Promotions is different than Advertising."

Or, the inevitable question to a blowhard that is bragging about a one billion dollar booty.

Well how about raises?

They were reportedly told that while we have done exceptionally well as a company and a cluster, there is still a long way to go.

We have to recognize our priorities.

Meeting adjourned.

When privately questioned about how discouraging it is to hear that Clear Channel is getting so rich while employees make less and don’t have the resources to adequately compete, one person was reportedly told:

“They'll just have to get used to it or go do something else. That's the way the business is now. They should be thankful they have a job. If they leave, we'll get someone better for less."

Less. Less. Less.

The company of Less is More really means it so if you’re wondering what chance Clear Channel has with a wholesale reduction of account execs under a national model akin to Repeater Radio, don’t take the over.

Take the under.

It’s baaack!

From the people who failed with Repeater Radio, Repeater Sales at a market near you.

In the near future I am going to tell you about the new model consolidators will be installing at their stations for 2010 with details about programming, sales and management and a separate piece on a Cumulus tactic that enables them to hurt employees financially to make them quit and avoid having to fire them and thus subject Cumulus to unemployment tax increases.

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