Manage Radio Like the Grateful Dead

There was a great piece in the Atlantic Magazine recently about the influence – as unlikely as it is – that the Grateful Dead has had on the business world.

The article was fascinating especially in light of all the Harvard and Stanford grads that are using their Ivy League educations to – well, ruin the media business.

And even if they are not Harvard and Stanford alumni, the Grateful Dead is just a group of stoners who somehow got more things right than the suits running the record industry, radio and even some high powered new media businesses.

Let’s take a look.

The Dead never started out to become the Peter Drucker of the media world. But I believe they would have loved Drucker and he the group. Drucker appeared as keynote speaker at one of my media seminars before his death.

And now Drucker is dead, Jerry Garcia is Dead (I mean, dead) but the concepts that they developed are very much alive and worth your consideration.

For example:

Focus on the loyalist of fans

According to the Atlantic Magazine article, the Dead established phone hotlines to keep fans abreast of their touring schedule, reserved the best seats in the arena for them, held the best ticket prices which the band handled through its own mail order house.

As the article said, “If you lived in New York and wanted to see a show in Seattle, you didn’t have to travel there to get tickets—and you could get really good tickets, without even camping out”.

The Dead was ahead of the business world – even Japan – in treating fans well.

But let’s stop for a second to look at how the radio industry treats listeners.

Well?

Do most stations even care to super serve their loyalist listeners?

I think not. Most -- no.

They are more enamored of getting Arbitron’s People Meter to report as much drive-by listening as they can.

Even at Christmas, a time when listeners can’t seem to get enough holiday music, most stations gladly take the spike of PPM numbers but do not reward their listeners with rich content, community involvement, civic outreach. In many cases, an iPod can do the same thing.

Taking away personalities that fans care about never made sense.

Issuing news releases that sound like bullshit every time a radio personality is separated from their fans is counter-intuitive.

Are station owners watching their loyal listeners’ backs or are they just after an impersonal relationship?

Appoint a board of directors with rotating CEO

Here’s another idea Lew Dickey, Farid Suleman and Lee and Bain won’t like.

According to the Atlantic Magazine article, the Dead set up a board of directors consisting of band, road crew and other organization members. The CEO was not the same person year in and year out – it rotated.

The radio industry is a fiefdom and the boards do not intend to be democratic. How do you think they have made a sham of oversight?

What I am saying is that when you let these poor excuses for business execs take control, they shut down fan focus, the benefits of loyal customers and product integrity.

In the record industry you would think someone would have noticed how Jerry Garcia can run a group from the great beyond better than living label executives. Maybe because Garcia was only one member of a like-minded group that knew putting loyal customers first paid off in business.

Give it away until they buy it

Proctor & Gamble hands out freebies with the hope that consumers will buy their new products. These are called "samples".

The radio industry plays music for free so fans can then buy concert tickets, music, merch. That is, they sample it before making a purchase decision.

To quote the article:

“They founded a profitable merchandising division and, peace and love notwithstanding, did not hesitate to sue those who violated their copyrights. But they weren’t greedy, and they adapted well. They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales.

According to Barnes (Barry Barnes, a business professor at Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University, in Florida), the decision was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time”.

In other words, the RIAA fighting free filing sharing is exactly the wrong model. The one that actually is proven to work is the one that the Grateful Dead taught us – give it away until they buy it.

The Dead’s John Perry Barlow said it best when he said, “the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away”. (Read more here).

The Dead couldn’t control taping at their concerts just as record labels can’t control file sharing on the Internet so they gave fans a place to plug in and record their concerts.

The Wall Street Journal can control who reads their content but they can’t control what happens to it after a paid subscriber reads it and decides to pass it along.

When I turned Inside Radio from a printed publication into a daily fax, subscribers paid $495 a year to get it but one radio CEO (you know who you are and I do too) would have his secretary refax it to all his stations and friends – every day. Inside Radio subscriptions topped the half million dollar mark each year even with sharing and that’s just subscriptions not advertising, employment, conventions or other forms of income.

Stealing helped promote Inside Radio before file sharing set off all the wrong alarms for business executives.

So what can we learn?

1. That rewarding loyal fans and building your enterprise around them is good business that pays great dividends and even allows you to skate through a recession.
2. All good ideas do not come from the CEO or for that matter the board of directors even if they are college educated.
3. In order to buy, you have to try. If you like what you’re reading here, perhaps you’ll buy it if the price is right.
4. You can’t charge for something that you can’t control. So, a CD buyer walking out of a Sam Goody store had to pay for it or get arrested but the Internet is so massive, it is better to cooperate with the inevitable and let music piracy sell music, merch and concert tickets.

Isn’t it fascinating that certified wacky entrepreneurs like Ted Turner knew how to build and run a cable empire and Time Warner couldn’t run it when they bought it? Turner knew the connection to his fans.

Remember what Peter Drucker told my conference attendees.

The seller does better than the buyer in the sale of most businesses. That’s probably because the acquirer forgets what it took to attract loyal fans (never knew or failed to keep the employees who did know) and the sellers couldn’t have built the business without them.

Loyal fans – not PPM numbers.

Rabid music fans – not filesharing pirates.

Let’s go to school on the Grateful Dead. Here’s a link to the outstanding article that inspired today’s piece.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

Cumulus Encouraging Free Overtime

A fired Cumulus worker is providing new evidence that Cumulus corporate leaders are thinly disguising terms such as “if you cannot do the bare minimum you cannot be part of the team” for pleas to work overtime for free.

Some workers are taking this to mean work overtime or else.

One recently departed Cumulus employee who received an email from Cumulus exec Mark Sullivan for “leaving early” on a Friday ties in the poor use of human relations with a bad memory for all the time this employee put in arriving early for work.

It is significant because Cumulus now finds itself the target of a Class Action lawsuit that has picked up support from other employees with regard to state employment law violations.

Have you noticed that not one radio trade publication has carried the news of the Cumulus law suit which was filed in Alameda County, California within the month. Certainly it is important to the real radio industry -- its people.

The email from Sullivan was sent to a Cumulus sales rep who was then fired.

Here are some excerpts in italics with my observations:

“Our company has a standard sales operating system that requires that we make collection calls and market you and our brands to our prospects and clients on Friday afternoons after our one on one meeting”.

Oh boy, we burden you with meetings on our time and make you do the work we are requiring on your time.

“I put together a “marketing workshop” to try to make it fun for everyone and I gave you the assignment of mailing one “marketing tube” to one of your prospects. This was not done on Friday as requested. Frankly, we are to be marketing to all of our clients/prospects every Friday, but nevertheless I thought that asking for everyone to send one tube was a simple request”.

Did Sully say “fun” – that’s not how attendees typically describe these meetings.

“You explained that there was a misunderstanding between you and (name redacted for his protection) wherein you felt that he gave you permission to leave early. Either way, it wasn’t his call to make”.

Wasn’t his call to make?

Who is in charge at local markets?

Corporate?

“We have minimum standards in our company and those minimum standards are working from 8:30 – 5:30 daily (8:00am on Mondays) and following the CSOS schedule and action plan”.

This is the flamethrower.

If minimum standards are 8:30 to 5:30 and keep in mind here that the issue that got this employee fired was leaving “early” Friday night, it seems to be a corporate admission that wink/wink you’d better work later if you want to exceed minimum standards as they seem to be pleading.

In any case, without defining the opposite of “minimum standards”, Sullivan has potentially given the impression (perhaps to a court) that overtime is a requirement for continued employment. And if you’re a sales rep, you’re not being paid hourly.

The question is -- should their sales reps be paid by the hour?


”When you made the request to move from (redacted), you cited your familiarity with the format and the number of great contacts and prospects that you have. We agreed with you that it was a good move for everyone and at the time we put together goals that are more than fair based on your experience and tenure with us. During these meetings we discussed the importance and requirement that you meet your goals in January and beyond or that your employment will be terminated”.

Man, that’s mean.


"As I told you this morning, if you cannot do the bare minimum you cannot be part of the team. The bare minimum is following the operating system and achieving your goals”.

There’s that “bare minimum” again.

Does Sullivan mean “bare minimum” is the amount of money they’ll wind up with once their employees work 80 hours a week instead of 40 or does it mean the company expects doing whatever it takes to generate sales?

And speaking of that…


”I also told you that the way out is through. What I mean by that, is that the way out of the situation is through sales and those sales will only come by making a committed effort every day to do everything you can. Leaving early and not meeting bare minimum requirements is not acceptable”.

Again, leaving early is Sullivan's fixation here. The employee in question also arrived at work early.

If state law defines these sales reps as inside sales people, Cumulus may have a lot of back pay to make up to everyone.

Quick, warn the new Cumulus hires from Cintas who don’t know what the “bare minimum” is.

"You know that I am here to help, as I have offered countless times. 
Please work closely with (name redacted) as we are already into the third week of the month and you have a long way to go to achieve your goal”.

Another veiled threat?

“You have a long way to go to achieve your goal”.

So what are you really saying, Mr. Sullivan?

Go home “early” means never having to get paid overtime. There are employment laws that govern this.

This disgraceful email was signed by Mark Sullivan, GM of Cumulus Nashville.

Cumulus is arguably giving the impression that invoke the term “bare minimum” it means work over 40 hours at no additional compensation. (Betcha legal will advise Cumulus to stop using the term now -- let's see).

As the fired Cumulus employee puts it:

“My last pay check was $800.00. So while they are recruiting those ‘new PROFESSIONAL sales people’, they (sic) may want to let them know that they will have to pay for all expenses, work 80 hours a week for $800.00 every two weeks!"

$5 dollars an hour!

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

Prediction: Disney to Sell ABC Television

The only nice thing about living through the ravages of radio consolidation is that you get a keen sense of when the next victim is going to be served up to investment banks.

And that’s what’s happening now – in my view – by Disney CEO Bob Iger, owner of ABC.

If you’re reading about ABC News President David Westin’s radical news division cutback – 300-400 people either by buyouts or firing – you’re only seeing the headlines.

Look deeper and evidence mounts that ABC has NBC Universal “envy” and hopes to find a sucker – I mean, a sugar daddy. Sorry, I should say a buyer who will overpay for yesterday’s technology. A buyer so stupid that they are going to let Disney gut operations before any money changes hands and purchase yesterday’s technology, declining audiences and revenues.

Not possible?

Comcast did it when it agreed to purchase NBC Universal.

That’s because the Roberts family long wanted to be a major player in the content business not just cables, wires and Internet broadband.

Screw the timing. They want what they lust after and they can afford it.

Now, the writing is on the wall for Disney.

ABC Television is in play.

As one former insider told me, “ABC's version is baloney” – the facts suggest Walt Disney Company may be positioning the sale of ABC Television to focus on comic books and theme parks. Clearly they have no interest in being in the news business. As the ABC alum said, “Who needs news when you can have super hero's?” (I’m talking about comic book hero's not Iger).

Here are more suspicious moves:

• ABC lets Barbara Walters out of news. I know she is aging but that apparently doesn’t matter on The View, does it?
• ABC is gutting the profitable news division and journalists can agree that these cuts will seriously affect the professionalism and quality of news programming on-the-air.
• Iger wants more fees from cable and satellite companies for carrying the third ranked network's programming – all this as the recession and poor programming are adversely affecting revenues.

The latest “Honey I Shrunk the News Division” memo comes from News chief Westin. Here are the points as he described them in a memo to staffers (my comments follow):

The transformation will have six basic components:

1. In news gathering, we intend to dramatically expand our use of digital journalists. We have proven that this model works at various locations around the world. We believe we can take it much further.

Digital journalists are cheaper than traditional journalists. And in the future when television as we know it today no longer exists, it will be digital journalists who gather, edit, produce and air content. The problem is ABC is in the traditional news business. Their digital operation is basically collateral damage. When Westin says “we believe we can take it much further” that is code for “we believe we can get away with digital journalism on the traditional platform and save even more”.

2. In production, we will take the example set by Nightline of editorial staff who shoot and edit their own material and follow it throughout all of our programs, while recognizing that we will continue to rely upon our ENG crews and editors for most of our work.

See, I told you. One person doing the work of many people. And while it may work for online journalism, why would viewers turn to traditional ABC television news to get what they can get better from online journalists who actually know what they are doing because they are doing it for the Internet and mobile Internet?

3. In structure, we will combine our weekday and weekend operations for both Good Morning America and World News.

So far, it’s all about money – not making the news programming better.

4. In special events, we will rely upon our program staff through the day and night to cover unexpected events and marshal personnel from across the division to cover scheduled events.

This has to cause a warm spot in the heart of Darth Vader or as I call him Lowry Mays. Existing every day to do your jobs and then for special events – more existing every day to do your jobs plus special events. Ingenious. Greedy. Sounds like ABC is carving the turkey before the feast.

5. In newsmagazines and long-form programming, we will move to a more flexible blend of staff and freelancers so that we can respond to varying demand for hours through the year…

Ah ha! Freelancers. Just say that secret word and divide all the dollars in savings. If you haven’t noticed, radio is way ahead of television in the use of freelancers. No health care. No commitment. Plug them in. Move them around. Send them on their way.

6. Overall, we will eliminate redundancies wherever possible.

To me, Mr. Westin, that would be numbers 1-5 above – all ABC is doing is gutting the news division.

So there you have it – probably ahead of everyone else – because we radio and records people know a desperate, greedy media company when we see it.

Here’s what is really telling.

Michael Nathanson, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, happens to be a contemporary of ABC CEO Iger. In fact, they went to the same college – Ithaca – so when he speaks I’m thinking maybe he knows something.

Well, he spoke -- in a Bloomberg article – one of the few that didn’t miss the big story.

Nathanson said this about Disney’s future:

“ABC is a good question … I would ask the company if ABC fits in.”

ABC is the third-ranked broadcast network in Nielsen's.

The company and its O&Os are estimated to be worth $5.3 billion – and to put that in perspective that’s about 14% of ESPN’s value.

Yes, from one ravaged industry to another – one small step for ABC, one giant step for new media which is starting to kill traditional media and force their clueless caretakers to take their money off the table.

In every way and even when it comes to cutbacks and selloffs, television is once again radio with pictures.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

J-Hog's Plan To Downsize Personality Radio

It looks like Clear Channel had a “come to Jesus” moment recently when they rehired their morning show team on WDVE, Pittsburgh.

The Evil Empire didn’t just turn into a bunch nice “guys” when they offered Randy Baumann and Jim Krenn a chance to come back to work.

Turns out for once it was a real layoff -- not really a firing.

Temporary.

You kick the two off the air in January – annihilate them from the station website, allow their loyal listeners to forget that they ever heard them on the radio and then change your mind and bring them back with PR kisses and hugs.

Let’s see, anyone taking bets that the duo got a pay raise?

Okay then, how about a long-term contract?

In this case, you would be correct. Clear Channel locked in the morning team into a new multi-year agreement in a more favorable deal -- to Clear Channel.

Welcome to radio in 2010.

I guess it is becoming apparent even to Clear Channel that they can’t pipe in Prime Chuck repeater radio from Premiere to keep expenses down – at least not in big radio markets like Pittsburgh.

CBS President Dan Mason already knows he’s got to have personalities on in the morning and Mason has the same financial restrictions other operators have.

The bottom line is that a morning show generates somewhere between 40-60 percent of a typical successful radio station’s income.

And being able to sell access to morning shows by forcing advertisers to other day parts – well, it's priceless!

Clear Channel also locked in WDVE morning team members Val Porter and Mike Prisuta which at the very least is fascinating to me.

You see, they are the same company that cleaned out Gerry House's house -- letting some of his popular support staff go in a budget cut. And Gerry House generates local as well as national advantages for Clear Channel.

None of this makes any sense unless you are John Hogan or J-Hog as some of his employees call him (behind his back, of course).

Could this be the start of a new trend – recognizing that morning shows have production costs?

Or is it that WDVE couldn’t go without their star personalities another month without calling the year a financial disaster?

You be the judge.

Now that Clear Channel got its way the horse shit is flying.

Like Market Manager Dennis Lamme’s spin in the publicity announcement welcoming back Baumann and Krenn (warning: you are about to feel sick to your stomach -- remember, this is the guy that took them off the air).

"Randy and Jimmy are a great duo … with WDVE being the heritage station and the guys being together for 10 years, we thought it was important that they stay together…”

Told you it was B.S.

If they were so great, Mr. Lamme, then why did you take them off the air?

So allow me to re-write the news release in Inside Music Media style which is direct and honest:

“Randy and Jimmy were a great duo on-the-air but not at the price they wanted to renew their contract. These selfish bastards are making it hard for me to suck up to San Antonio by forcing me to show increased operating expenses for my morning show. It wasn't my fault. I had no choice. Even though they have been together for 10 years, we at Clear Channel broke their will and got them to come back at John Hogan prices”.

Now that's better.

In the past six months, radio has been seeing morning shows disappear faster than the Health Care Bill and Clear Channel has been an industry leader in firing talent and disappointing loyal fans.

They did it in San Diego not long ago to an uproar of protests.

The new Clear Channel plan to downsize the costs of personality radio is to play "you're fired" and "never mind" or at least threaten it so they can get personalities to work cheaper.

Wait a minute.

I get it.

What's the worst thing you can do to a radio personality?

Take away their show, right?

Then, when they can’t get another job in the same market, you go back in and offer them a cheaper deal. After all, they get paid too much anyway, right?

Wrong.

Morning shows have more than delivered their return on investment because without a morning show you’ve got a pretty unremarkable radio station and not a very profitable one.

You think Clear Channel is beginning to figure it out?

And while Citadel rolls out Donny Osmond as a bean counter’s dream, you and I both know the show will be a stiff. Nothing against Donny.

Radio loves their local personalities so if Donny wants to move to Cleveland I think he can be a radio star -- in Cleveland.

Personality fan-based radio is the one thing an iPod can never be (unless, of course, you transition these personalities to podcasting).

It’s the only thing that radio has left that breeds loyalty and return visits.

Back in Pittsburgh, the Post-Gazette reported that:

“Mr. Lamme said he has been e-mailing listeners who had contacted the station with questions to let them know that Mr. Baumann is back. He said the team plans to work Mr. Baumann's disappearance and return into their morning show comedy routines, and the station is referring to it in promos. 'They're going to have fun with it.'"

When a Clear Channel market manager uses the word “fun”, start worrying.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

Judge Jerry Settles Piracy Case for $29.70

Boston grad student Joel Tenenbaum is trying to get the damage award in his music piracy case reduced from $675,000 to $29.70.

Tenenbaum is a smart alec but you know, he has a point – a good point.

Tenenbaum, who if memory serves me, was pretty arrogant in dealing with the labels in his piracy suit is now trying to be a smart ass.

Here is his math.

He shared only 30 tracks on Kazaa so, he argues, the labels have no right to get $675,000 in damages. Tanenbaum simply cheated them out of 99 cents a track – using iTunes as the gold standard for digital music.

I think he’s got a good case and if I, acting as Judge Jerry with Tenenbaum standing before me, would likely grant his appeal and let the matter go on to a higher court if the labels protested -- which they most definitely would.

Of course, the labels do math another way – fuzzy math.

Tenenbaum put the 30 cuts in his share folder and millions of people then screwed the record industry out of 99 cents a tune. Or to put it like the drama queens record labels have become, “incalculable” damages.

In his latest papers, Tenenbaum argues, "This is completely false hyperbole. Not a single person who downloaded these songs using Kazaa would have been impeded from obtaining them had Tenenbaum blocked access to his share folder."

As presiding judge in that case, I’d be inclined to award Tenenbaum damages because he was not paid for all the publicity he provided the labels that probably resulted in hundreds of thousands of downloads at 99 cents a piece.

While I am half-kidding, I can’t figure out which half of the issue I’m kidding about.

Without fans getting to sample music before they buy, labels can sell nothing.

Radio sold records for decades and all they got was the ability to play the music for the labels who have a proven record of screwing artists. We tend to forget this, but the labels who now embrace these poor starving artists, are the ones who helped make them poor and starving.

I should mention that federal copyright law provides for damages from $750 to $150,000 per infringement but could sharing 30 tunes really do $150,000 worth of damage?

Only in the fantasy of a lawyer or legislator's mind could anyone come up with such arbitrary and meaningless numbers.

Well, you now know how Judge Jerry would rule, but the real Judge Shorty Long in this case is U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston.

There is a similar issue before U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis who already put a knife to piracy damages in the Jammie Thomas-Rasset case in Minnesota. He cut the award from $1.92 million to $54,000 drawing the ire of the RIAA and an appeal.

In the Boston action, the labels say Judge Gertner doesn’t have the authority to reduce damages.

Sounds like the lawyers are having fun with this issue while music industry sales continue to decline steeply.

The RIAA just can’t get out of its own way.

A few years back, it said no more suing consumers. Suing music pirates didn’t work anyway and if Jammie Thomas-Rasset actually has almost $2 million to repay the labels in her case, then I want to talk to her about investing in a growth business of mine – not the record industry.

Some 18,000 captured pirates later, the labels get chump change from scared students and parents (usually between $3-4,000) to make the lawsuits go away or in the case of Tenenbaum, Thomas-Rasset and a handful of others – a load of bad publicity and no money and exposure to a possible embarrassing legal loss.

And no deterrent to stop pirates in the future.

All risk. No benefit.

And no plan to go out and find new artists and make them rich which is apparently what the labels tell the courts they want to do.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that not much is happening right now in the labels’ attempt to get the performance tax exemption repealed for radio stations. Congress, a group of spineless poll readers, is divided on the issue.

Now maybe I’m missing something but everyone knows radio is in trouble. It’s likely never to be a growth industry again and while radio stations still help expose artists at no cost to the labels, why would you charge them taxes for helping you sell music?

I was enjoying playing the judge there a few paragraphs back.

So let me end with a final ruling.

Record labels have to pay radio stations and their present or past owners (or their estates) for all the free publicity they derived by getting so much airplay focused on so few records that the repetition alone harmed the radio industry.

I order costs and damages.

A percentage of every piece of product – single or album – that radio stations helped the labels sell.

Make it retroactive to 1945.

Case dismissed.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

Radio's Employee Uprising

There is a new spirit I am feeling lately that a movement is underway to take radio back – back from the consolidators who have pillaged it.

But when I say take radio back, I don’t necessarily mean by putting groups of investors together to attempt to buy failed stations from failed consolidators.

It’s more significant than even that.

Friday I shared a story with you about fired San Francisco Cumulus sales rep Brian Mass who was not only shown the door but had it slammed on his attempt to seek unemployment.

Mass eventually sought the services of a New York employment attorney named Robert Ottinger who recently filed a class action suit against Cumulus for employment law violations.

That is, Cumulus did not pay Mass (and apparently others in California) overtime when their sales jobs were allegedly categorized as outside sales when he is alleging that the job by state law definition is an inside sales position. There are also issues that expose Cumulus on expense reimbursements that are tied to the status of an inside or outside sales person.

If Mass prevails in court or through a likely settlement, every Cumulus worker in California affected by their company’s violation of employment law will receive some form of compensation automatically.

And, Ottinger is looking for employees from Cumulus and other consolidators for lawsuits and class action initiatives from additional states.

In the first 24 hours after my story ran, 15 other Cumulus employees contacted Ottinger about either joining the class action suit or seeking to start a separate action of their own. And that’s just the first day’s response. Judging from the email I am receiving, others are preparing to contact Ottinger because he appears to be willing to help them without upfront money or undue risk.

That’s what convinces me that radio people are beginning to take their industry back.

There are plenty of lawsuits-in-waiting for Citadel and Clear Channel as well because mean management is not limited to Cumulus – although they are the industry leader. This Brian Mass may have awakened the people who actually know how to run the consolidators’ radio stations and presented them with the most effective tool to fight back.

The courts.

But now, it’s different.

Clear Channel, Citadel and Cumulus have run roughshod over their people and because the recession and downsizing made it hard for good folks to seek other work in the industry they loved, the “lucky” ones had to put up with it.

Everyone else was laid off – a term that still rankles me because the dictionary defines it as “to dismiss (an employee), esp. temporarily because of slack business” when radio consolidators don’t take this action temporarily.

In fact, some companies, like Cumulus actually have been rehiring on a massive basis – they even brag about it. To them, it is their version of ethnic cleansing except there is no discrimination – Cumulus is an equal opportunity firer.

But now, I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end for radio consolidators especially Clear Channel, Citadel and Cumulus but I’m not leaving out NextMedia or other pretenders who operated from the 3C Playbook.

Think about it.

Cumulus will be tied up for the entire year and maybe longer if more people come forward and sue them. Initially, they don’t have it in their DNA to settle.

This is the start of consolidators on their heels in an area they never saw coming – employment abuses. They got away with it because people needed work.

Now, these same radio people have had it. They are stepping up. I am privy to legal actions being considered by some wronged individuals that are potential major problems for consolidators if they file actions.

So, consolidators may have stolen their licenses from the public interest, convenience and necessity and they may have turned radio into a commodity at the exact worst time possible, but now they will be hamstrung in court by the average Janes and Joes they abused.

In fact, the only way out is to settle class action suits out of court and for those brave souls who will start individual lawsuits, settlement money. If I am seeing this right, in another year or two, the 3Cs will be looking to settle everything in site – lost will be the bravado that comes when the Complaint arrives in the mail.

But there are more changes ahead.

While radio advertising revenues should increase in 2010 and comparables between this year and the abysmal 2009 fiscal year will look favorable, new media will eat up more advertising budget than radio consolidators anticipated. After all, they are the ones who decided to sit out the Internet revolution.

Flat growth – if there is such a term. Well, there is irrational exuberance, isn’t there?

Stations will come on the market again and sell at 1-3 times cash flow – that’s my prediction and you’ve got it in writing.

And why would stations sell so cheaply?

Because consolidators have run radio into the ground, driven listeners and advertisers into the hands of digital media.

And, after all, the equity holders that have taken ownership control in lieu of debt payments cannot make their money unless they generate more fees and you generate fees from selling assets.

One more thing.

Radio people are beginning to move on.

I saw that at my Media Solutions Lab where impressive radio execs and talent were hot on the trail of new media. Paths to new media will become more apparent as the next year or two unfolds.

So you see radio people are beginning to believe that they can have a management, sales or programming career in digital media at the same time failed consolidators get bogged down with a flat-ad market and an increasing docket of employee lawsuits.

My mother used to always remind me that “every dog has its day” and for talented and loyal radio managers, programmers, sales people and talent, I am here to tell you I see signs that your day is coming.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Service does not begin until you go to your email or spam filter to activate.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

Steve Coleman and Dave Holland - The Two That Got Away

{Although Dave and Steve played together in several other incarnations other than the ones mentioned here, I wanted to confine my discussion of their music to the recordings where they both played on the entire albums}

Steve Coleman and Dave Holland playing together was a musical marriage made in heaven. I can remember the first time I heard them together on Dave's Jumpin' In album in 1985, and I knew immediately there was something new going on here. As a bassist I was of course familiar with Dave's playing, in fact I was a huge devotee of his, but I'd never heard Coleman before - he was relatively new on the scene, at least as far as international recognition was concerned - but I was immediately struck by both his sound and his harmonic/melodic approach. I'd never really heard anything like it - he seemed to be both inside and outside the tonality at the same time, and his sound had a unique wiry quality with very little vibrato - it struck me as being quite a 'pure' sound for some reason. And the wide intervallic leaps and unexpected twists and turns of his lines made for really refreshing listening - there were no cliches in his playing, and no obvious antecedents that I could discern at the time. Later I found out the provenance of at least some of his concept, but at that time it seemed like he'd come from a completely different place to anyone else I'd heard. And the combination of this skittish sound and approach with Dave's propulsive lines and incredible rhythmic depth and weight made an immediate impact on me.

But impressive though 'Jumpin' In' was, it was really just a prototype for what was to come. I'm still very fond of this recording even though it's not typical of the later music by the quintet. It has an almost traditional jazz quality about it - the melodies are played, the three front line players solo collectively before two drop out leaving one soloist, who is eventually rejoined by the others who in turn take their own solos. Of course the music sounds nothing like traditional jazz, but it has that collective ethos about it, rather than the relentless linearity of bebop soloing practices. Steve Ellington's drumming has a much different quality to that of his successor in the group, Marvin 'Smitty' Smith - it has none of the rhythmic complexity that Smitty demonstrated, but then again the music on "Jumpin' In" didn't demand that either. Ellington's bouncy swing feel would never have worked on the music that was to come in the next album, but here it meshes perfectly with the compositions, providing space and a nice sense of propulsion for the soloists. I love the drum sound too, and the sound on the recording in general, which is spacious with a very nice reverb that does justice to the great sound of the band and its stellar front line soloists - Coleman, Kenny Wheeler and Julian Priester - and to the resonance and depth of Dave's bass sound.

This fresh approach to soloing conventions, the balance between open playing ('Jumpin' In') and playing over form ('You I Love'), the combination of strong and original soloists, and the sheer rhythmic virility of the music all pointed to this being one of the great new bands in modern jazz. But with the next album Seeds of Time, the band and the music went to another level of invention, creativity and originality.



When 'Seeds of Time' came out the band had one new member - the precocious drummer Marvin Smitty Smith, and good though Steve Ellington had been, Smitty's phenomenal rhythmic skills allowed the music to enter a new world of rhythmic complexity unknown to jazz at the time. The opening track, Coleman's 'Uhren' sets the mood immediately with a spare bass and drum line announcing a highly unusual piece of music whose pulse is clear but whose metre is not. At around this time (1986, a while after 'Seeds of Time' was released), I had the great good fortune to be a student at the legendary jazz summer school at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, where Dave was the head of the programme and both Steve and Smitty were teachers. If it hadn't been for me having direct access to the concepts and ideas of Steve and Dave's music, I must admit I wouldn't have had a chance of figuring out what was going on on 'Uhren' or many of the other tracks on 'Seeds of Time'.

By this point Steve was already developing his very original rhythmic concept, and 'Uhren' demonstrates his originality perfectly. In Banff he explained his idea of metres possessing the possibility of having half a beat in them. In other words he would describe some tunes which would have a metre that would be conventionally called 7/8, as being instead in 'three & a half four' - the argument being that the music did not have an 8th-note feel but rather had a feeling of three long beats and one short one. This is very hard to explain in words, but notating the rhythmic cycle of 'Uhren' demonstrates it very well - it being in three measures of 'four & a half four', with the half beat being added to the third beat in the first two bars and to the second beat of the third bar - as follows:



The piece not only has a written melody and bass part, but has a completely composed drum part also. This is something Coleman calls a 'drum chant' - a kind of rhythmic melody written for the drums and which forms an integral part of the composition. This drum chant idea is something Coleman has used extensively ever since and is an idea he freely admits he got from the innovative if little known drummer Doug Hammond, with whose trio Steve worked in the early 80's. One of Hammond's pieces, 'Perspicuity', which clearly outlines the drum chant concept is also included on the recording.

But these are just two tracks in an album of amazing creative richness. The band strikes a wonderful balance between using different types of material while retaining a unified group sound. So pieces as different as Kenny Wheeler's 'The Good Doctor' with its typically rich Wheeler-esque harmonies, sits comfortably alongside Coleman's breakneck tempo, harum-scarum 'Gridlock' - his musical depiction of New York's traffic system. "Walk-a-Way' - a bass and percussion duet based on a bass excercise of Dave's and completely improvised in the studio - complements Holland's 'Homecoming', one of those dancing-around-the-Maypole English folky pieces that Dave used to write, that leads into some wonderful time-no-changes improvising.

There is a real sense of excitement about this recording, and about the music that Dave and Steve were playing together - the younger questing musician inspiring and being bolstered by the slightly older and more experienced musician, the incisive linearity of the saxophonist finding the perfect foil in the depth and weightiness of the bassist. And the newness of so much of this music! Coleman's harmonic sense that allowed him to seem to be both in and out of the tonality at the same time (for a partial explanation of how this is done - and be warned, it's not for the faint-hearted - have a look at Steve's explanation of his Symmetric System), and Dave's similar ability to explore tonality and seeming atonality simultaneously. And the rhythmic constructs were so new! I remember seeing them perform at a faculty concert at the Banff Centre with Smitty on drums, and I, along with pretty much much all of the audience, was simply dumbfounded by what was going on musically on the stage.............

'Seeds of Time' was followed by Razor's Edge, an album with equally interesting music on it including one of Steve's most popular tunes 'Wights Weights for Weights', based around an equally killing bass line and drum chant. Steve was at the same time also recording with his own '5 Elements' band that had a more electric instrumentation, but that Dave also guested on from time to time.


The next full album in the Dave/Steve continuum, recorded in 1988, was Triplicate, a departure from the previous recordings since it was a more free-wheeling saxophone trio recording with the great Jack DeJohnette on drums. It's very interesting to hear this recording because we hear Coleman in a very different setting to the previous recordings mentioned. DeJohnette's presence ensures a much more loose-limbed approach to the rhythmic aspects of the music than were heard from Smitty, and on Coleman's 'Games' for example you can hear that Jack is not entirely comfortable with the unusual form of the piece. However there are some real highlights on this recording not least hearing Steve's approach to traditional harmony and the swing idiom on 'Take the Coltrane' and Bird's 'Segment'.

As far as I know this is the first recording of Steve playing 'standards' and many musicians of my generation point to Steve's and Jack's alto/drum duet on 'Segment' as being one of the real highlights of contemporary standard playing. I think this trio, which was under Dave's name, only did a couple of tours and was never the kind of group fixture the quintet was. Which is a pity - Dave and Jack have one of the greatest bass/drum hook-ups in jazz history, and with Coleman's highly original playing skittering along on top of this amazing foundation one can only wonder if they'd played together longer what they might have achieved in terms of setting a new benchmark in how contemporary swing can be approached.

Next up was the seminal Extensions, still spoken of with awe by musicians of many generations. This unveiled a new line-up, dispensing with the trumpet and trombone but adding Kevin Eubanks (in his pre-Tonight Show incarnation), on guitar. Sometimes it surprises me that an album like 'Seeds of Time' is so little known in some circles, but the same can't be said of 'Extensions' which is widely known not just by musicians of my generation, but many younger musicians also. It's hard to say why this album gets a higher profile than the others - maybe the presence of the guitar on it makes it more accessible to many rather than the 3-horn, chord-less format of the quintet. One other reason could be the absolutely devastating opening track - Eubanks' 'Nemesis', an 11/4 workout with a great vamp which contains what is for my, and many other people's money, one of Coleman's greatest recorded solos. His playing on this track and indeed throughout this album is extraordinary, so inventive, so rhythmically complex and with a much bigger sound. It's mature Coleman, showing him at this stage to not only be one of the real theorists and original minds in contemporary jazz, but also one of its greatest soloists. The material on 'Extensions' may not be as interesting and varied in itself as on the Quintet albums, but the playing is of the highest level. I'm not a huge fan of Eubanks' playing, especially his soloing, but I really like his comping behind Coleman's solos and the quartet's sound has a lightness about it that's very transparent and attractive.

I saw this band in London in 1991 over a couple of nights at Ronnie Scott's club and I still regard it as some of the greatest live music I've ever seen - Dave, Smitty and Steve's hook-up was SO strong and the things they were doing with both original compositions and standards were extraordinary both in imagination and execution. I remember coming home completely fired up and enthusiastic, full of ideas of stuff to try and stuff to think about. Little did I know that I'd seen Dave and Steve play some of their last gigs together.

1991 proved to be the last year they recorded together and (probably, though I'm not 100% certain about this), the last year they played together. For reasons best known to themselves two of the great accomplices in the creation of new ways to play improvised music never played again together after this year. But before they were finished, they recorded two more albums, one a masterpiece and the other something of an oddity.



Recorded in January 1991 Phase Space is a monument to the connection between Dave and Steve, a bass and alto duo recording that shows all their great qualities - a fearsome command of time and rhythm, an ability to negotiate the most complex forms at speed ('Cud Ba-Rith'), real swing ('Ah-Leu-Cha'), and a kind of astringent lyricism that had been a feature of their playing together from the earliest recordings ('Straight Ahead'). "Phase Space' is a testament to their musical relationship and the understanding that existed between them - here it's pared down to its essentials, just bass and alto, no overdubs, playing together with a synchronicity and intuition that's only given to rare combinations of players - Elvin and Trane, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro, Clifford Brown and Max Roach - these seem to be hook-ups that go beyond just compatibility and into the realms of telepathy. It's clear that Dave and Steve, and I know this anecdotally from both of them, that they worked on a lot of stuff together and talked about music incessantly, but there's also a natural fit to the way they play together that goes beyond mere calculation and intellectual discussion.

It would have been fitting if 'Phase Space' had been their Swansong as a recording team, but there was one more album to come - Coleman's Rhythm in Mind, a rather odd collection of musicians and music. The music on this recording ranges from straight readings of some Thad Jones pieces ('Slipped Again', 'Zec'), to more typically angular M-Base compositions ('Left of Center', 'Vet Blues'), to 'Pass it On' - a Holland flag-waver of a tune. The personnel is equally mixed with veterans Tommy Flanagan, Ed Blackwell and Von Freeman mixed in with Coleman, Holland, Smitty, Kenny Wheeler and Kevin Eubanks. The mixture of music and musicians makes for a very puzzling recording that seems to be neither one thing nor another. There are some nice moments on it but it doesn't make anything like the unified statement that 'Phase Space' or indeed any of their other albums together did.

And that was all she wrote so to speak - they never recorded or played together again. And this is really a shame since I think they made some of their most vital work together. In fact I'd go as far as to say that together they recorded music that had elements that are missing from their work apart. The acoustic linear quality that Dave brings to their music together is missing in much of the more densely layered music that Steve plays these days, and Dave's current and highly lauded quintet is to my mind, though featuring great musicians, much more formulaic than the great quintet of the 1980s. Both players are in good health and working and playing, and living in the same corner of the US, so it's almost tragic, given their amazingly creative partnership, that they haven't played a note together in almost 20 years. Let's hope that situation gets rectified soon. In the meantime here's a clip of the quintet in all their glory - check out Steve's solo from about 8.20 on the clip - this was the stuff that turned us all around back then...................

Employee Class Action Suit Filed Against Cumulus

I’ve felt this coming on for a long time.

Employees who feel they have been wronged by the three major radio consolidators (Clear Channel, Citadel and Cumulus) are madder than hell and are not going to take it anymore.

Then, it happened.

A Cumulus employee named Brian Mass out of San Francisco did his homework and found what he thinks will be The Dickeys’ Achilles heel – employment law violations.

And, he not only retained a big named New York and California attorney specializing in employment law but he and his attorney are looking to grow the movement in other states where Cumulus may also be in violation of employment laws.

Consolidators are used to having their way with talent, management, sales and staff ever since consolidation but the buck may stop in court.

I’ll tell you how you can become part of similar lawsuits if you’d like, but first – let’s look at what Cumulus allegedly did to Brian Mass that made him stand up and fight.

Cumulus terminated Mass who worked in sales at KSAN, San Francisco Monday November 23rd alleging poor performance and unprofessional behavior. Mass said Cumulus never cited examples.

Mass sucked it up and filed for unemployment online the same day.

He waited for the employment board’s decision only to discover that his unemployment claim was denied (I’ve heard other employees complain about Cumulus fighting their unemployment claims after they have been fired).

Mass alleges that Cumulus told the unemployment board that he performed poorly on purpose and that he had weekly coaching meetings with management (Mass said the “coach” only had five meetings with him because she went on medical leave for cancer).

Cumulus apparently poured it on some more claiming Mass had accounts taken away due to poor performance. This could turn out to be very tricky for Cumulus as Mass says these accounts were taken away because Cumulus reassigned accounts of four sales people when they created the Key Account Manager position.

It gets worse.

Cumulus claims Mass asked to be fired so he can – you guessed it – claim unemployment benefits and that he was written up for violating corporate rules and on and on. You get the drift here.

After Mass reportedly complained to Judi Ratto, GSM of sister station KNBR that his accounts were taken away she, according to Mass, ratted him out for speaking his mind and said Ratto told the local sales manager.

Then Mass went to HR. Mass was accused of spreading rumors and gossip. Received a formal write-up that smelled, tasted and looked like a death sentence.

(Can you imagine a Cumulus recruit seeing these allegations? Would they want to work for this company knowing how far they went to deprive a fired employee of his or her benefits?)

The final blow was when Mass sold a promotional event to Goosen Tutor Promotions for boxing tickets and autographed boxing gloves. Mass collected the $7,500 charged upfront via credit card, the promotion was approved and put on-the-air.

Then, Mass alleges that Sheri Nelson, Marketing Director, threatened to pull the promotion in mid-stream already having the client’s money in the station's bank account because she, according to Mass, thought that Mass sold the promotion too cheaply.

The promotion eventually ran – Cumulus was not apparently going to give back the money when clients who pay in advance are hard to find – but Mass was fired not too long afterward.

Despondent, Mass started looking into California law only to discover that employers have to indemnify all of an employee's expenses and pay overtime under certain situations.

For example, outside sales reps do not have to be paid overtime but if their employer does not reimburse them for their sales-related expenses then they do have to pay overtime. Cumulus pays neither according to Mass.

And an outside sales person is defined by California law as one who spends 50% or more of their time out of the office. But Cumulus may have screwed themselves through their CSOS system that requires sales reps to be in the office more than 50% of the time making cold calls. Mass has the work charts to prove it, he says.

So, all time spent working weekends or nights on client/station promotions should be compensated.

Driving the station van on the weekend – ditto.

Cell phones, mileage, gas, parking, meals, entertainment – all need to be compensated according to California law because the sales people were inside sales staff.

That's what this suit alleges.

It’s going to be interesting to watch Cumulus now argue that their sales force is an outside staff in light of its CSOS policies.

Apparently Mass must have come up with something because he retained The Ottinger Firm – employment lawyers based in New York and it just so happens they have a San Francisco office.

It gets more interesting because, Mass filed a class action suit on behalf of all Cumulus sales reps in California who may have been deprived of overtime pay or who have not been compensated for business expenses they incurred in connection with company business required by state law.

Robert Ottinger, a principal in the law firm, would like to speak to other Cumulus employees in states like New York, Texas, Connecticut, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan or any other major Cumulus market. Ottinger says “Federal law prohibits the failure to pay overtime in all states across the nation and each states has its own law that also prohibits the non-payment of overtime as well as the non-payment of company expenses”.

All names will be kept confidential and no fees are ever charged to clients in these cases according to Ottinger. Ottinger is looking for Cumulus people to simply supply him with information that may help the case and they will keep it confidential.

Ottinger’s toll-free number is 866-571-5010 or view their web access page here.

Ottinger was a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice and after that, an Assistant Attorney General in New York City handling civil rights cases. Ottinger claims his law firm has successfully brought employment suits against some of the largest companies in the world.

The Ottinger law firm website is available by clicking here.

Ottinger has two blogs: New York employment lawyer blog and California employment law advocate.

The class action suit against Cumulus was filed in Alameda County, California #10494862 for inquiring minds or interested participants. The Complaint is public.

So there it is.

I know of numerous people in various radio jobs who have been thinking about fighting back when they feel they have been wronged by the major radio consolidators.

Not only did Cumulus, Clear Channel and Citadel take their eyes off of local radio in favor of Wall Street, they may also have gotten loose with the law.

That is for the courts to decide although most of these cases get settled out of court and then the participants are sworn to swallow their tongues. But right now, it appears I am reading it right – 2010 is going to be a tough year for radio consolidators.

The recession, you say?

That, too.

If this Cumulus class action suit gets legs, it could put a noose around the necks of consolidators who mishandled their human resources and ran afoul of employment laws.

All of this, of course, was not necessary – as Cumulus will find out.

It’s much kinder and cheaper to help the employees you fire by not fighting unemployment benefits than to have to pay the legal bills (and potential settlement costs) for being mean.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

CHIN04 - Oblivian Substanshall "The Greatest Hits of Oblivian Substanshall, and So On"

Chinstrap proudly presents "The Greatest Hits of Oblivian Substanshall, and So On", three versatile volumes of audio delight from a fine gentleman's imagination.



Volume 1: "If You Can't Help It"


Twelve slices of off-kilter pop from Mr Substanshall's prolific oeuvre. Imagine the worlds of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear & Vivian Stanshall colliding with the spirit of 50s rock'n'roll, who's just taken a crash course in musique-concrete and sound-art. This brings us somewhere close to where Oblivian Substanshall is leaping off from, let's complete the picture with words from the man himself...



"The so called pop and cutting-edge cultural approach I most definitely give a good straddling too. Indeed, it gives me a lot of freedom to exploit and play around with these idioms to my hearts content. And like you pointed out, it's the fragments of these styles of expression which one can re-work, and try and achieve something fresh and amusing with, and hopefully interesting to listen to, or view. It's this looking back to move forward approach that I enjoy or, perhaps that's all there is anyway. It's nostalgic to some extent with a hint to the homage with an idiosyncratic slant. Some people may call this approach post-modern, but I see it as, yes, mixed up alright, and a little schizophrenic, but at the same time, entirely 'contemporary' in its make over, boasting no actual and definite rules to hold you back... It's an elastic art form that can be stretched and stretched and so on... But in saying all that, I don't really like to analyse things too much, I think its better to just get on with it and play,play,play, happily immersing oneself within this 'contemporary landscape', and to be as creative and as inventive as one can possibly be within it."

And .... download a PDF of Oblivian Substanshall's rather smashing drawings, selected for the "If You Can't Help It" release RIGHT HERE.

Volume 2: "Tengemort & Other Absurdities" - Monologues by Oblivian Substanshall







Volume 3: "Let's Talk Art" - Oblivian Substanshall takes on the history of 20th century art









And if that all wasn't Substanshall enough for you, find out more at ....

www.myspace.com/obliviansubstanshall
www.myspace.com/tosstossos

Radio's Latest Believe It Or Not

Look what the Three Stooges of radio consolidation are up to.

These are things that have happened within the past few weeks at Citadel, Clear Channel and Cumulus that will make you laugh out loud (if not shed a tear or two).

Cumulus Pays $500 If You Refer an Employee and They Stayed Employed

Stay employed?

Are they kidding?

Arguably the most employee-unfriendly company is asking the employees they have left to actually recommend new ones -- you know, maybe their cheaper replacements.

As Cumulus said in their recruitment piece:

“We understand our success is driven by the quality of our people. We want to reward YOU for assisting us in identifying exceptional individuals to join our organization by your recommendation”.

Here’s how it works (and yes, I'm not making this up -- I couldn't -- it's too bizarre).

Current employees are asked to review the openings on the Cumulus CSOS website. Then, recommend someone that Cumulus should contact (would you really set up a friend to get that call? Friends don't let friends get recruited by Cumulus).

The employee gets a $500 referral award --- but don't start counting the money so fast.

Let’s let the Dickey Nation tell you in their own words:

“A $500 Referral will be rewarded to any Cumulus employee that nominates a person who a) gets hired and b) that stays hired through the standard probationary period of 4 contiguous months of employment. We appreciate your referrals as they will enable us to build upon the reputation as THE broadcast company where exceptional people aspire to have a prosperous and rewarding career”.

Oh, you must also turn over your second born child to the Cumulus family. Okay, I made that up, but the rest is real even if it is a way for the Dickey Doos to dream on.

The fact that the Dickeys actually think employees would recommend people -- good people -- to work for a company that has a reputation for being so mean and vindictive shows how out of touch with reality they really are.

It's like asking your friends if they'd like to be kidnapped and held against their will.

No More Paper at Citadel

And when I say "paper" here, I'm not talking about the term used when some lenders make loans although there is plenty of that at Citadel.

Their company is going to hell in a hand basket and what does the ultimate bean counter, Farid “Fagreed” Suleman do?

Not hire more salespeople.

Not improve local programming.

No, he hires vCreative to take Citadel’s six Knoxville stations paperless.

Nothing against vCreative, but really ...

Now these stations are both gutless and paperless. I mean, what kind of move is that when you’re in bankruptcy? I know. It’s saving on paper clips. But if they really wanted to save money, cut the corporate compensation to $1 a year until the bankruptcy judge approves the transfer of equity for debt to the lenders.

I know I am not a bean counter but doesn't that sound like a lot more savings than going paperless?

Clear Channel’s Do-It-Yourself W-2s

One of my Repeater Reporters tells us that at the Evil Empire, even IRS rules don’t apply:

"Here's something for you... Clear Channel Radio San Antonio did not mail out ex-employee's W-2s. They are making us call in and beg them to mail them out. I am going to the IRS office tomorrow to report them."

Well, here’s what the IRS reportedly said:

“They told me there was nothing they could do about not getting my W-2 until after February 15th. That right (it) is crazy because they give employers a cut off date of Feb 1st this year and they won't enforce it until February 15th!!!??? I was also told one of the guys that didn't receive their W-2 was sent a link to retrieve it off the Internet”.

I guess with Uncle Lee and Uncle Bain, less means never having to say you got your W-2 on time.

Cumulus Brags About People Who Work Overtime Without Pay

Talk about asking for a lawsuit.

Lost in a news release that was widely regurgitated in the happy talk press last week was this apparent admission by Cumulus that it not only allows but rewards employees who work seven days a week without receiving the appropriate extra compensation:

“JEFF ANDREWS has done an absolutely fantastic job with the launch and ratings growth of the new i94/INDIANAPOLIS. His dedication as PD and air talent have included 202 days on the air (including weekends) out of 206 days on the job. Congratulations, JEFF. Your dedication represents the CUMULUS Gold Standard. JEFF looks forward to joining heritage Top 40 WHHY (Y102)/MONTGOMERY as PD”.

This is a promotion?

It probably will help a lot of ex-Cumulus people in their lawsuits for back pay. Many states including California have tough laws about allowing employees to work without commensurate compensation. The courts order back pay in cases where employees file suit.

What speaks volumes is that Cumulus is asking for a lawsuit by seemingly rewarding such behavior and bragging about it in a news release.

(TiVo and DVR Alert: Tomorrow I will tell you about one of the big consolidators that is getting sued by -- sit down for this -- a terminated employee who has hired a major law firm. Oh, and they want you to join in).

Robbing Peter to Pay Lew

An ex-Dickey Nation employee sheds light on how corporate allegedly uses local stations to generate income that goes directly into the Atlanta coffers – bypassing market manager budgets and therefore avoiding compensation:

1. "Corporate Allocation charge--It was a line item under G & A to 'pay for corporate's services'. I managed (several) markets for them) and this expense was about $1600 per month per market.

2. 'Independent Music Promoter Money'. As a PD in the 1980's I REFUSED to work with Indies--I thought it was shady and illegal. In the late 90's people like Jeff McClusky made arrangements with stations in writing, above board. There was no telling stations what to add, but rather exclusive reporting to McClusky and based on the market and your station averages adds per year, they would pay for promotion, billboards, etc. When I went to work for Cumulus, McClusky had a deal with ALL of Cumulus markets--although the $$$ was never shared with the markets. It went straight to Atlanta. As time went by and the markets saw decline or down years, the promo slush fund we enjoyed at (my previous employer) was not available with Cumulus. And of course Tricky and his brother Abel, I mean John, cut promo dollars out of your budget first. Crazy huh?"

Consolidators have long since abandoned “legal payola” since an attorney general named Eliot Spitzer began going after them.

These are just a few of the many outrages that, in my opinion, have contributed to the demise of a great industry.

Lack of respect for people, their working hours and family.

Dirty deals that bypassed station coffers to enhance the corporate pot – especially when the corporate pot was ransacked by family members.

Petty savings such as cutting back on paper when that and a million cutbacks like it are not going to equal cutting executive compensation.

It’s all very sad, but sadder yet if radio consolidators got away with it without anyone shedding light on another installment of Radio's Believe It Or Not".

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

The Stoopidity of Warner Music

It’s hard to believe that an established record label could be – to use a term we made famous in Philadelphia -- so stoopid!

I don’t mean to disparage any individual here, but to comment on what looks to me to be a real bad business plan for Warner Music.

And knowing the lemmings in the music industry, I would expect at least one of the other big four labels to catch Warner’s Disease.

Edgar Bronfman, Jr is claiming Warner Music Group is making money and if so, it is not due to anything he has done. If I am a shareholder, I’m either taking an Ambien and joining Rip Van Winkle or I’m selling.

Let’s dissect Bronfman’s Folly:

Against Free Streaming

That means Spotify and every other free streamer hoping to get consumers to pay monthly fees in return for all the music they can consume – and eventually on a cloud without having to wait for it to download.

Bronfman doesn’t bother to address the issues of whether Warner is going to try and get out of its existing free streaming licensing agreements or just wait for them to expire. He also doesn’t address the Lala inspired initiative that Apple is said to be working on.

The labels hate Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs.

Forget the consumer.

This is personal.

For Making ISPs Their Toll Collector

Like other label execs, Bronfman can’t get beyond the model that would have your ISP charge you a monthly fee to license all the music you don’t even want to hear. The only people this plan works for are the big four label execs.

Ever try to get hundreds of Internet Service Providers to agree on anything?

It’s like trying to get the big four labels to agree to even one thing. It isn’t going to happen. And neither is bundling this music into a mobile device.

Nonetheless, this is a major record exec with his head up in a cloud -- the wrong cloud.

Bronfman is one of the reasons there is so much piracy. Who wants to pay monthly fees – unless it is part of a cool Apple system, but then again you already know how he feels about Apple.

For Warner Monetizing Its Acts

That’s why he’s against VEVO which Universal is embracing (told you these guys can’t agree on anything except suing consumers). Bronfman wants to sell his bands' music and that’s just ducky – except, that’s not how consumers work.

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free – so to speak.

Against Cherry Picking

Looks like the music industry has to get rid of all these old guys who still think they can sell entire albums in a consumer world that only wants what they want when they want it.

Just because they could force baby boomers and Gen Xers to buy entire albums for one or two cuts doesn’t mean Gen Y is that foolish. In fact, Gen Y buys Lady GaGa when GaGa entices them and not before. Otherwise, they cherry pick.

Looks like Bronfman is in for a big disappointment.

What is scary is that Warner makes the most money from digital of all the labels and look how their CEO is seeing the future. He either doesn’t mean it or doesn’t get it.

For 360 Deals on the Cheap

So what did you expect? A label that will pay artists what they deserve? That ain’t gonna happen. As I have said in the past, it is the labels who put artists in the poorhouse, not consumers stealing music.

Bronfman dearly wants 360 deals where they in effect get a piece of everything – now follow this – but they don’t want to pay crazy money to sign them. And there you have the problem. Why should artists do 360 deals with labels that – if you’ll pardon me – aren’t really that good at – well, doing 360 deals?

I’d hire GaGa first. I’m only half kidding.

If an artist goes with Warner, they get screwed (surprise/surprise).

They could agree to do a set number of albums for the label but the 360 money and all the merch could extend beyond the album stipulation.

For Labels Not Managers

Bronfman sees Live Nation and Ticketmaster as being in different businesses than record labels.

But wait.

Why do you need a record label if these venue operators can handle everything else?

Look, Live Nation is reaping the results of its own stupidity (not just the recession) therefore, neither the labels nor touring companies look very smart right now.

For a Warner-EMI Merger

I hope he gets it. Then two clueless labels will be one. And neither will be relevant beyond any interest in their catalog.

When has the music industry gone on a discovery binge – instead, they cutback expenses and staff?

When has the music industry offered a legal alternative to iTunes that had any heft other than moan about having to sell the cuts consumers want – when they feel like paying?

So here we are – ten years after the labels got taken by Napster and blindsided by Apple and they still look stoopid.

Against free streaming when Apple is about to get into that business with or without them.

Against file sharing which is the new radio -- that’s the music discovery replacement for djs and stations.

Against fair deals with bands and acts --- without even acknowledging that labels are not really good at 360 and acts don’t really need them.

Against motherhood.

Okay, I lied. But they are against anything consumers want and technology can give them and that's almost as sacred as motherhood in the music industry.

Music is one of the few things people cannot live without. How do you screw up the music business?

Ask Edgar Bronfman.

He’ll tell you.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.

In the February 16th post, “Why Radio Will Only Be an $8 Billion Business by 2016,” there were several references to BIA/Kelsey data and a reproducing of a BIA/Kelsey chart. To set the record straight, BIA/Kelsey projects radio industry revenues of $14.6 billion from the over the air advertising sales and an additional $749 million in online sales in 2013. At this point in time, BIA/Kelsey does not have an estimate for radio industry revenues for 2016. Additionally, the projection lines included in the chart are those of mobile industry sources, not BIA/Kelsey projections. I appreciate BIA helping to set the record straight. While BIA/Kelsey does not project more than five years out, I agree with mobile execs who believe on the present path radio will be an $8 billion business by 2016. Sorry for any misunderstandings. I wanted you to have all the facts.

Why Radio Will Only Be An $8 Billion Business by 2016

It’s easy for the traditional media business to take its eyes off the prize.

Since 1996, radio has been all about consolidation, cutting expenses, what turned out to be the myth of shareholder value, Wall Street, debt and refinancing, downsizing, mass firings and the dilution of local radio.

These are emotional issues for sure and because of the clusterf@#ks running the three largest consolidated radio groups it is easy to think of radio as a figment of their imaginations.

But there are more serious issues coming to light.

One of them is that according to BIA, the radio industry will be just a $14.6 billion industry by 2013 – three short years from now.

And only an $8 billion business by 2016.

These are not my figures. They are BIA/Kelsey's 2009 estimate which is considered the gold standard for the radio industry. That means an industry that was hovering around $18 billion in 2003 (way before the recession), would lose more than half its value if BIA’s projections turn out to be correct.

Other things get lost when we think of how foolish it looks when the bean counter mentality takes over.

For example, the fact that radio showed no growth as an industry the year before the recession – presumably when things were good. And that in 2009 barely one billion in online revenue contributed to the total production of radio revenue.

That's not going to work in the mobile Internet world that is developing thus the battle of radio vs. online when it really should be radio driving the online revolution.

To put things in perspective, one private company, Apple, is larger in total assets than the entire radio industry combined.

While Farid Suleman, John Hogan and Lew Dickey are playing monopoly as the three largest radio consolidators, they are missing a major point.

Radio sat out the Internet expansion.

And ignored the cultural revolution that transformed 80 million members of Gen Y to mobile and Internet.

They missed the iPhone, iPod, downloading mavens who only used radio when there was not something better available.

They missed that changing formats and mixing up the playlists was no longer enough to appeal to an entire lost generation.

And how sociology evolved at that time so that consumers would rather look to each other through Internet-based social networks for tastemakers rather than traditional djs or radio djs who were being replaced by voice tracking and generic national substitutes.

As a former radio industry and now mobile executive puts it:

“100-million smart phones and universal 4G data service will change OTA broadcasting forever. Don’t think digital can do that? It only took 10-years for digital to totally replace camera film. Kodak went from a Dow Jones member to a KKR borrower. Smartphones inform, entertain, and personalize the user experience. One-way, untargeted broadcasting offers reach but lacks targeting.

Hoping for 2nd half 2010 turnaround is dreaming. Get online or get out quickly … for your family’s sake”.

It is too late to put the genie back in the bottle. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is.

Radio is not going to attract 80 million young people who grew up without the passion their parents once had for radio. Instead, here is a prescription for curing the ills caused by radio consolidation and clueless bankers.

Radio talent must be redeployed to the mobile space and mobile Internet which is the new frontier.

As long as attention spans are declining, 24/7 broadcasting will not be necessary.

Content, brands and personalities who once worked in radio are valuable in the mobile Internet space but not in the traditional long-forms radio owners are stubbornly clinging to.

The all-news station of the future is the cellphone with options to connect consumers with video, audio and text on demand.

When the earth quakes in California or the weather service issues a blizzard warning for the northeast, one tap of the smart phone puts a consumer in the know.

Therefore, radio companies that want to avoid becoming antiquated will have to reinvent themselves using their talent, marketing and sales abilities.

But wait.

The radio industry is squandering this talent. The best managers in communications are radio managers.

Local media salespeople are critical to the future -- didn't Google prove that you can't make a commodity out of radio advertising whatever radio is or will become?

All the on-air personalities who have been dismissed or bought out were just assets-in-waiting for radio companies if they could have seen the future.

Terrestrial radio will not go away anytime soon but the industry's reliable metric is projecting that radio will be producing half of what it now bills even with their version of online services.

That's just not going to be good enough.

BIA is saying that each year radio will decline and by 2016, radio will be half of what it is today. In other words, if radio CEOs don’t want to believe me, believe BIA.

Let me whet your appetite as to what growth could be ahead in digital content:

1. Radio shows could be as short as 15-25 minutes (remember declining attention spans) and delivered on mobile devices over the Internet or cellphone network as podcasts or content modules. Because owners are not limited to "shows" that go on-the-air through traditional means, they can offer hundreds and monetize them all.

2. There may eventually be no need for 24/7 programming so if I want the latest in electronica, I may subscribe for a micropayment to a two-hour timespan of content that would repeat and reside on a web stream. Discounting this model is spitting in the face of what Apple is already working on -- streaming music for a monthly fee.

3. All news radio would be – tap and see, tap and hear, tap and read (especially dramatic when people understand the full potential of devices like iPads.

4. Mobile Internet will be available everywhere with cloud computing and WiFi, phone or WiMax links thus rendering radio’s safe zone – the car – no longer safe.

While this is disturbing to people who insist on doing radio the way it has been done for decades, it is very exciting to those of us who can see new challenges and opportunities ahead.

Do radio companies get this warning?

If you think spending zero – or less than 3% of their annual operating budgets on Internet and mobile initiatives is a rallying response then I’ve got a glass of Kool-Aid for you.

By their actions, radio groups are headed into the history books unless they open their financial books and wake up to the mobile future.

For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.

Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.