Mean Genes: Cumulus Stops Its Fired From Taking Radio Jobs

What's happening to radio employees at the hands of the three biggest consolidators is bad enough, but now we get evidence that at least one of them is getting mean.



And one former Cumulus employee is going on record about it.



Darren Tandy was fired by Cumulus in Indianapolis -- or should we say "laid off" because they were cutting the budget.



But when he landed on his feet and got another job in the market, the mean gene reappeared in the Dickey Dynasty.



Let me let Darren tell it:



"After a sixteen-year run at WFMS/Indianapolis, I was laid-off permanently "without cause" by Cumulus in March.



I had signed a "contract" that was to run until January 2010 back in late '07. They told me there was language in the contract that allowed them to dismiss me without cause (turns out they were right).



BUT the Market Manager was going to release me from the non-compete after my "four weeks" of severance was up (I believe Clear Channel was MUCH more fair to their riffed employees).



Emmis hired me to work in Indianapolis. I was set to go in and start traing (sic)....when Cumulus sends a threat of a "cease and desist" and Emmis had to withdraw the offer because Cumulus changed their minds over the non-compete.. This was after the release of the Winter Book which showed my evening show had its best ratings in years I'm more upset/hurt over that than I am the actual termination.



I was so embarrassed for myself and Emmis. Cumulus is truly the worst".



I do not have all the facts in this case, just this heartfelt representation by Darren who seems like a pretty sincere radio guy. Nonetheless, he remained out of radio even when Cumulus didn't need him and couldn't afford him.



Even when he was hired when radio jobs are hard to come by -- in his home market.



The Cumulus "mean gene" at work again?



I'd like to think that this was an isolated case, but unfortunately that's not so.



A Cumulus employee from the South got his pink slip this year after reportedly improving the ratings by what he calls "almost doubled". Of course, Cumulus was said to be down to one live morning personality in the market as they don't seem to care about live and local that much anymore.



Here's this victim's sorry tale -- preferring to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation:



"After I went on the air with another radio station two months after I was fired, I got a call from the GM saying she was going to enforce my six-month non-compete.



I told her that my attorney had advised me to work because no court would uphold it since the company laid me off, and I also said if you want to tell (the market) that you want to actively try to keep a guy from supporting his family during a recession to be my guest.



She told me that Cumulus' non-compete had been upheld by the... state supreme court and that Cumulus Legal would be sending me a...say the magic words with me...cease and desist.



I very nicely said she could send me whatever she wanted. My "non-compete" expires in seven days, and I will let you guess how many cease-and-desists I have seen so far from the brave Miss Piggy (the nickname for their General Manager-ED)".



Again, this is one person's description of the events but keep in mind people are stepping forward to tell their stories in spite of a Cumulus crackdown on free speech and threats of termination if they do -- a level of hardball that makes Clear Channel's John Slogan Hogan look like Mister Rogers.



If Lew Dickey would like to deny it and answer the allegations, I'd be happy to pass his denial along to you.



Say it ain't so, Lew?



What is mind boggling to me is that the radio industry has been reduced to civil war because of a handful of consolidators -- the big boys whose companies start with the letter "C". (For the latest real time Inside Music Media poll results on which groups are considered to be the worst, click here).



Management is turning on its employees somehow seeing them as the enemy.



Take Cumulus.



They hitchhiked on Clear Channel's mass extermination of employees to save money, but unlike Clear Channel, started hiring new people.



In others word, they wanted it both ways.



Layoffs for economic reasons and hiring to improve the work force, I guess.



I'm sure if you've read this space over the past few weeks, you've heard of all the Cintas employees that Cumulus is recruiting. Apparently working for a uniform company gives you better credentials than a proven record in the radio industry from the very people Cumulus is pink slipping.



I'm wondering what Cumulus recruiting prospects would think if they knew the rest of the story.



When you fire a worker -- especially a competent, successful and well liked person -- you are sending the wrong message to the rest of your employees -- if you care.



It seems from anecdotal evidence that Cumulus is hell bent to replace people rather than rehire them.



That the mass firing was only partially for economic reasons.



The other was apparently personnel cleansing.



Many of the Cumulus brain trust (if I may bend the meaning of that imagery for a moment) are in over their heads. They have a proven record of driving their company's shareholders into the area of penny stocks (Cumulus closed at $1.38 a share Friday and even lower in after hours trading).



Debt that can't be managed even by a Harvard genius.



And the warped view that radio works the way Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Arizona Tent City jail works.



Arpaio is a local hero or villain, depending on your point of view.



He makes the incarcerated prisoners wear pink underwear, live outside even in the 115 degree Phoenix summer, serves them baloney sandwiches (some say they are moldy) and basically gives new meaning to the term "doing hard time".



It's sad when some radio companies conjure up the image of one of the toughest prisons in the country.



But even when you finally get out of Tent City's jail, no one stops you from getting a job.



The same apparently cannot be said about some ex-Cumulus employees that are trying to stay in the radio business.



Imagine if Lew Tricky Dickey, Other Brother John, Jon Pinch and a few of their minions were laid off (don't get excited now). And say they wanted to work for the Cintas uniform company but their board of directors didn't want them to work there because Cintas is Cumulus' underground pipeline to cheap workers, where would they work? What would they do? What could they do?



See guys -- play nice.



Well, thank God there are still a lot of great people in radio -- and I remind myself of this all the time.



Occasionally we must have the courage to stand up in solidarity with good people who have apparently been mistreated and say not just "let my people go" but "let my people work".



The jock blocking must stop.



Mean genes are bad for business.



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Dickey Do Cuts Cumulus Sales Commissions

Here's another reason why Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey has earned the nickname "Tricky".



When he revealed Cumulus cash revenue is off 21% for the quarter, he waxed eloquent about all the reduced operating expenses.



By turning attention to EBITDA, he’s patting himself on the back for cost cutting. This amounts to an “atta boy” -- a self-serving tactic employed by public figures to win kudos for simply doing what is expected of them.



Dickey's job is to grow shareholder value and in one day he turned Cumulus into a "gold mine" that had been trading for about two quarters and a dime and then skyrocketed to one piece of paper money with George Washington's picture on it and two quarters.



Lew Dickey has failed at growing shareholder value by allocating capital appropriately.



What Tricky Dickey should be doing is drawing a map for shareholders on how he plans to recapture that lost value.



I didn't hear that.



Nor did you because all he talked about was cutting expenses -- his forte.



Great EBITDA margins are meaningless to shareholders if all that cash flow is being diverted to debt service. Capital structure matters.



And Cumulus has been irresponsible about piling up debt like there would never come a time when their cash flow couldn't adequately cover its loan covenants.



If you want to paint EBITDA numbers in a more realistic light, Lew, just look at the trend of Total Debt/EBITDA for the trailing 12 months. This is a more accurate measure of a company’s ability to service its debt burden. Trend higher = bad news. Above 6 times is approaching distress.



Cumulus is way above 6 times.



As usual, what Cumulus says is not at all how it performs.



And get this -- since Dickey's only redemption is that costs declined at a faster rate than revenues -- he's already taken his next step to do what he does best.



Cut more costs.



And he promised to do just that in his Quarterly Conference call.



But you won't believe how Tricky Dickey is going to do it.



By cutting skilled and seasoned sales management's commissions.



That's right -- sales are down so Tricky Dickey cuts sales management.



And it's not likely to be a little nip and tuck here and there, we're hearing that this is a massive Cum-u-mess.



A company with strained employee relations at best is getting ready to put the screws to more of the very people it needs to overcome the 21% financial deficit it just posted.



In fact, in our ongoing poll of the Best & Worst Radio Groups, Cumulus is way ahead of even The Evil Empire as the worst -- check the up-to-the-minute results here.



Dickey is hiding behind his EBITDA numbers but financial people know better. The press and laypeople may not fully understand, but -- you do, now.



Here's what I'm hearing about what The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is inflicting upon what's left of its company and its shareholders investments:



1. Agency accounts have been pulled from local sellers. To some senior account executives that's a 50% decrease -- in some cases 70% decrease in income. I hear this is effective immediately!



2. The agency business either goes to the "house" or in some cases The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants will choose a local account exec to handle all the agency business. Of course, that local account executive loses their local accounts to the "house" in most cases but they will make, I'm told, a 4% to 6% commission for turning states evidence -- I mean, for taking the Tricky Dickey challenge. But as those huckster's say on TV's infomercials, "but wait -- there's more" (or should I say less). All these deals will be reviewed by the benevolent Dickey Family Dictators when the 2010 budget is assembled. Translation: don't look for commissions to go up. Some people familiar with Payuless -- I mean -- Cumulus say it could actually go down to 4%. Gotcha!



What the Dickey's are telling their able employees is to invest in Vaseline.



It's almost like the boys are at odds with the old man (Lew, Senior) and they are panicking into doing the one thing they actually do well -- sell less advertising and fire more people.



But, to continue with our huckster imagery, "you don't just get one screwing, Cumulus gives you two for the price of one if you buy into it now".



3. Account executives will forego the usual pat on the back and will be sent to the street to find some new local direct billing. If they want a job, they have no choice -- but after all, that's what the Dickey's do that good companies don't. That's why I call them Dickey Do and the Don'ts. In some small markets successful account execs hold lists that are 60-40 local/agency. Under the Dickey Do Sales Commission Act of 2009 this is a significant loss in business that cannot be replaced even by The Fairy Godmother. This move to put the squeeze on local account execs even at a time when the company's ad revenues are in free fall is tantamount to a mean-spirited, misguided and self-destructive ploy.



4. Look for sales recruitment that will either make you cry or laugh -- Cumulus is looking for hunters (are you laughing or crying yet?). Hunters? Are they kidding? Uniform companies like Cintas which are supplying a lot of untrained labor to Cumulus is their only hope because if anyone in broadcasting went for their bait, they've been taken away to the insane asylum in a straight jacket. The only way Dickey Do can get away with this is to inflict it on the people who are already in bondage and need a job in a bad economy. Only outsiders who don't know better would want to work for a company that will do Instant Training and Motivation by the Three Blind Mice -- and all this under the watchful eye of spy cameras and corporate over-involvement in local selling.



5. Putting all the Cumulus corporate bullshit aside, we're talking about people's lives here -- let's face it and say it. Fine people who were making $80,000 or more a year will be lucky to make $50,000 -- and all this inflicted by a group of brothers that probably don't know what a car payment is or what it is like to be unemployed. Time to show solidarity with our fellow radio people. This is not radio. It's legalized torture.



So now we have Dickey Do turning capable salespeople against each other.



As one Cumulus employee (apparently not scared of the wrath of the Dickey's) says, "The announcement was made this morning (Thursday). Now we have reps attacking each other like rabid dogs vying for one of only two positions available... Kind of reminds me of the scene in the "Dark Knight" when the Joker breaks a pool stick, throws it in front of three goons, and says last one standing lives".



Cumulus is the US Airways of radio.



Always in debt.



Pissing off employees and customers and not caring about what anybody thinks.



I'm told the initial announcement will take place in almost all markets today (Friday).



The Dickey's dicking with sales now -- when they're down over 20% year to year and 21% for the quarter almost makes you think they've gone off their rockers.



You don't risk losing qualified salespeople by cutting commissions when you need to increase sales.



And Lew was puffed up in the trade press recently saying the radio industry needs to grow a backbone in dealing with advertisers.



Huh?



What the hell does Lew Dickey know about selling or -- a backbone for that matter?



Everyone makes these guys look like model managers -- saying, in this case, that salespeople have to stop the bid/acceptance process from this buyer's market. I'm not willing to give them a free pass.



Lew even said radio people would have to learn to say no and walk from business.



I'd like to see where he got that sales wisdom -- from years of selling?



I'd like to see when Cumulus walks from any business.



Lew's gone off the track.



He's a man I knew for years as a nice guy, but you'd never know it from the brutal way he's handling his best assets -- his employees.



People inside Cumulus tell me Jon Pinch and/or Other Brother John are behind this smashmouth, in-your-face management style.



Forced sales meetings every week via spy cameras.



Local sales procedures dictated from Atlanta.



Recruiting ads going on in a company that is laying off -- to fuel employee paranoia.



I have an idea.



Lew, get a job where you're not working for pop.



John, get a job where Big Brother is not watching your back.



Find out what it is like to work for a company that puts threats on corporate email to gag and threaten employees (other than family members and chosen minions) with immediate dismissal if they mention Cumulus to anyone else (presumably me).



Hell, even Clear Channel doesn't do that.



Here's it is for all to see. I'm trying to help you keep your mismanagement secrets in the family -- if you know what I mean.



PLEASE NOTE: This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual(s) named. Employees of CMI and CMP (and their subsidiaries) are prohibited from forwarding this email or otherwise disclosing the contents of this email, or any portion thereof, to any third party, including any non-employee of the respective companies. Failure of an employee to comply with this policy will result in disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination of employment.



Whoa! Does that mean Lew Dickey gets fired because he sent me an email a few months ago? Just askin'.



Three consolidated radio companies have ruined it for everyone else.



Clear Channel -- first to put the screws to its employees and make a living out of it (two paydays for the Mays family). Hell, at least they made a profit for themselves before they suckered Lee & Bain into taking it off their hands.



Citadel -- The radio company that can't shoot straight. History will remember them as the radio group that reduced one of radio's best assets (that they overpaid for) -- ABC -- to rubble by its not ready for prime-time management.



And, Cumulus -- Lew Dickey, Senior's Excellent Adventure -- planning the world around his children -- the ones he hopefully didn't treat the way they treat others.



One of my readers and a former employee told me recently that USA Today once wrote an article about "successful family businesses". The most memorable quote from John Dickey was "Anyone who works for someone else is stupid".



He said it way back then, but maybe it gives you a hint as to what Cumulus thinks of their employees.



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Film Music

Well, to drop into horse racing parlance for a moment, I'm in the final furlong of my film music project – the film, Dun Laoghaire – Life in the Day, made by my good friend and colleague in several bands, Ellen Cranitch, is a representation of Dun Laoghaire, the town where I live, and have lived all my life. It’s been a really interesting process – I’ve written for film before, but always in the more traditional way, i.e the music was written, recorded and added to the soundtrack. In this instance we will be performing the music live, with the film.

This has brought up several interesting technical problems, not least how we would keep the each piece synced up with the film. A very common modus operandi for jazz musicians working with film in a live context is to have the musicians improvise with the film, taking their cues from the visual. This makes cueing etc. very simple. I’ve taken a different and more risk-laden route, by writing most of the material and having the solos emerge out of the written music. If we were recording this it wouldn’t be a problem – we’d just record to a click and everything would sync up – but we’re doing it live without a click, so it’s vital that a) we start off each piece at exactly the right tempo, and b) that we don’t rush or drag – a tall order! The film is in eleven short sections and is scored for trumpet, saxophones, two keyboards, guitar, bass and drums and is very challenging for the players. Fortunately I have the services of Métier at my disposal with the addition of Paul Williamson and Izumi Kimura, so if ever there was a band made to play this music it’s this one. We’ve also managed to obtain the services of the live sound wizard Paul Ashe Brown, so I’m confident that we’ll have a good night.

As long as the weather is kind to us – we’re performing outdoors, next Thursday (13th) in Meeting House Square at 10pm – the film will be projected onto the wall of the Gallery of Photography and we’ll be performing on the stage. If you’re in the area and fancy seeing and hearing something different please come down – admission is free and you don’t need to book, just come along - as they say in Dublin, you can’t say fairer than that!

Drive-by Radio

The radio industry is about to do it again -- ready, aim, fire -- shoot itself in the foot.



For an industry that used to do research and presumably knew how to read it, many radio groups are now overreacting to Portable People Meter (PPM) dynamics by cutting the talk and playing more music.



It's never wrong to play a lot of music.



But when there are iPods and cell phones, laptops and WiFi why is radio trying to do less personality?



Two reasons:



1. It's cheaper (music played with voice tracking is downright cheap and boring radio). When was the last time anyone ever requested a voice tracked radio station? Listeners tolerate it, but in fewer numbers every month.



2. Radio execs think because music intensive stations seem to do better in PPM ratings, that talk needs to be cut back even more.



Both of these excuses are related to the other.



If playing constant music gets better ratings, why foot the expense? Or, if we have to cut expenses, it won't cause a loss of listeners.



When WCBS-FM sounds like an iPod, you know you've got trouble. Their Bob Shannon is a certified musicologist -- a good thing for CBS-FM listeners. Who gets to hear him musicologizing (just made that word up because it sounds so good)?



And they are not the only ones.



Look at PPM results and you'll see stations that play music get numbers. AMP in LA got two million cume (or whatever you call it) virtually overnight leading some radio optimists to say, "see, radio can't be dead if there are two million listeners to one station".



Of course it is dead.



Strategies like this are what's killing it off.



Go to the streets.



See how many people you can find listening to a radio.



Sit in some cars -- is it radio they are listening to because if it is, you've just turned your station into a mini-iPod.



That is, until you decide to run commercials.



And there you go again. Long commercial breaks so that you can have an excuse to run long music sweeps and get better results from the People Meter.



So, let's get this corporate think right.



Music intensive stations are good -- especially when you shut your jocks up and prevent them from being personalities (which, remember, is cheaper for you).



Except when you need to stuff all the commercials in two or maybe three stop sets without regard to the poor suckers who are paying you to run their ads in a virtually unlistenable scenario.



I get it -- radio as usual.



This business of using the People Meter as an excuse to do cheap corporate radio is really the final nail in big radio's coffin. What makes consolidators think that making radio even more vanilla is going to build loyalty and drive listening?



Isn't it true that with PPM, any sound that is encoded will get recorded as listening even though -- forgive me for this -- it is not really listening?



I can walk into Pep Boys and someone can have the local voiced tracked hip-hop station on and that station gets credit for my "listening" and projects thousands of more like me.



Only a fool would believe that trying to program radio for people who do "drive-by" listening, if you will, is smart strategy.



Jim Owen, of KSLX in Phoenix, quoted in Tom Taylor's Taylor On Radio-Info is closer to the truth when he says:



" Lots of music is very important for a music station in PPM, with lengthy sweeps and two-song segues within. But let’s not lose sight of what they come to us for in the first place. Live breaks must be part of the music sweeps – put a person in there along with the voice guy. Tighten up all the production. And yes, there needs to be ‘less talk’, but that primarily means you need to make sure you’re doing ‘right talk.’"



And Paragon Research's Mike Henry is more direct when he adds:



"Based on how most radio companies are reacting to PPM, the headline could have been ‘Surgeon General finds that many radio companies are addicted to PPM; shorter life spans expected...'"Tell me another industry that would completely change its consumer proposition, not because of changes in the consumer, but simply due to changes in the way their consumers are surveyed...It’s ridiculous to watch radio companies and programmers change their strategic tune about what PPM really means, every time a new pattern emerges. "



Meanwhile you see interlopers trying to fill the vacuum radio is leaving.



Goom Radio, all that and more in the trade press lately, is simply an attempt to sound like radio stations when they actually entertained. We link, you decide.



Nothing against Goom, the European entry headed to our shores, but didn't radio used to do this act -- better?



I mean, hell -- when the icon of Repeater Radio, Ryan Seacrest speaks out about having his tongue tied by corporate poo bahs, has radio finally gone too far?



Nah.



It's more of the same.



They are just going to continue to see the world through the eyes of radio.



You know, everyone listens to radio.



Hundreds of millions of people listen every week (forget that they keep listening for shorter time periods).



If you're not for what we do in radio, you're a radio hater.



Who needs research?



We're smarter.



Personalities are a problem and they cost too much -- people don't want to hear them anyway.



A great, slick and deep voiced LA talent is better than that stuff you call talent in Nashville (sorry, Nashville, I'm with you on this).



So Einstein is out of his box again.



Radio CEOs and their minions are doing what radio has done for the past 15 to 20 years, making up the rules as they go.



That's why radio people love the Arbitron "diary".



It is so easily manipulated -- you can almost make it turn out anyway you want. But now that they've fought the good fight and have to accept the People Meter -- watch out, to them it's still going to be the diary (only different).



Enough about these fools.



For those of you who think programming to the People Meter is a mistake:



1. PPM is a great excuse to do local, personality-based radio. Listeners like personality and you will get credit for more listening if you can make your listeners like your station better.



2. Your aim should be making local programming innovative and compelling. PPM will likely give you credit for more "listening" than a diary -- even though it's not really listening.



3. One commercial and then music and on and on with four smaller sweeps an hour will work just fine on PPM. In fact, it will do better than two or three overweight commercial clusters that waste your advertisers' money.



4. Better playlists -- more variety, some non-licensed music carefully picked will endear you to the audience that many radio people still assume will tolerate repetition.



5. One thing PPM can let you do is stop sounding like a broken record -- saying the call letters every chance your jocks open their mouths and saying absolutely nothing.



6. I'm with Alan Burns, the consultant who got the industry's ears recently, when he said stop making radio about you -- make it about your listeners. Actually, great entertainers do this instinctively. Only the faux personalities that corporate radio has cultivated make it about themselves through the use of Repeater Radio or voice tracking.



So, as PPM gets rolled out to more markets, the audience will continue to get rolled by their favorite radio stations.



Stop and think.



In this world of iPods and WiFi, why do listeners need radio when they can bring their "own" radio with them everywhere they go?



The deepest cut of all is the notion that gagging a personality in an era that has so few left anyway will work in the long run.



My guess is that you don't program a radio station by the rules of the ratings methodology you are using -- that's far too ego-driven.



You program radio for the audience and when you can make listeners crave you -- the People Meter will finally give you the credit the dairy method never could for more realistic listening levels.



Without listener loyalty radio is just -- another "drive-by" medium.



Don't confuse being in the same room with an encoded signal for listening.



And don't program for an encoded system or you're doing drive-by radio.



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Radio Shack's Shocker

Looks like the folks who run Radio Shack have all of a sudden inherited the terrestrial radio dumb-dumb gene some of the "C" list consolidators have.



They are going to drop "Radio" from their name -- making them known as simply "The Shack".



This all happened after a new ad agency got its hands on the Radio Shack account and decided to make the brand more now sounding.



He's a bunch of bullshit:



The Chief Marketing Officer Greg Stern was quoted in Inside Radio yesterday as saying, “This creative is not about changing our name. Rather, we’re just contemporizing the way we want people to think about our brand.”



Does anyone tell the truth anymore?



Of course it's about changing your name and running away from who you are or better yet -- what you've unfortunately become.



Radio is no longer cool so it is getting the heave-ho from The Shack. That name sucks. Even the real Shaq won't like it.



Radio is apparently so toxic to the new Shack that they are going to leave radio out of the buy for its repositioning campaign -- you know, the one that doesn't use the word "radio". So if 230 million people listen to radio (albeit for significantly decreased time periods), maybe they should go elsewhere for their electronic needs.



Like online where everybody else goes.



It's cheaper.



Faster.



Better.



You can read reviews and you don't have to suffer fools when a salesperson doesn't know what he or she is talking about.



Maybe that's their real reason for the name change -- they don't like who they are?



Since you put your boots on for the previous b.s. quote I cited, let me throw a little more you-know-what on the floor:



“Everything about the advertising — the media, format, style, music and tone — will contribute to a new interpretation of the brand.” Somehow Radio Shack thinks it is like Coke or FedEx.



Well, there are a couple of problems here -- and as Barack Obama would say -- it gives us a teaching moment.



The Shack is nothing without Radio in it.



They'll find out -- too late.



What would OfficeMax be if their honchos thought offices were passe -- The Max?



If the Cheesecake Factory suddenly felt diners thought its cheesecake desert was causing an outbreak of adult onset diabetes, would it hire this ad agency to rename it -- The Factory?



If Apple someday saw digital downloads as yesterday's technology, could it rename the iTunes store -- The Store?



And what about Burger King -- take away the Burger because the fats are contributing to heart disease and this agency would rename it -- The King. Even Larry wouldn't eat there.



And if you think these examples are just me fooling around, did you see what Pizza Hut did?



They dropped the Pizza and kept The Hut. No kidding.



Back to Radio Shack -- and I'm going to call them that just for spite.



I get that they don't sell many radios these days.



I understand that their help doesn't know what an HD radio is -- after all, most radio CEOs don't know either not to mention consumers. Maybe that's why radio groups never adequately programmed their subchannels.



And my readers have told me they have tried to buy HD radios just because they are in the industry and have had a Radio Shack sales associate walk them over to the satellite radios -- which they knew nothing about either.



Maybe Radio Shack should have been renamed Radio Hack for the low level of product expertise some of the stores' employees have. I'll bet they couldn't even sell a popular item like an iPod or an iPhone if Apple let them.



Notice Apple doesn't let them.



So, let me contain my outrage.



No one knows better than we do that radio has seen its better day, but when a company that has "radio" as its first name and then decides to leave out the most important word -- and replace it with nothing -- either we're real uncool or they are.



How about both.



I've got some pretty smart radio friends who I could have invited out to Scottsdale for a brainstorming session (pizza courtesy of JD and The Hut), and we could have come up with something a lot better than -- The Shack.



How about Digital Shack.



Or a totally new name that somehow means as much as Radio Shack did for decades.



Or at least some word modifying the word Shack.



Caddy Shack would have been better than nothing -- at least it conjures up some strong imagery of the Dali Lama. (I call my driver "the lama" cause its a big hitter).



How about Radio Shack -- there's a good name.



Now comes the teaching moment:



1. Radio Shack is the radio Shack just as the radio industry is still the radio industry. Trying to be that which you are not will impress no one. The new imagery is not more contemporary as their agency argues, it's actually less meaningful.



2. Radio executives should learn as well -- taking personalities off of the radio (something listeners have loved for decades), is our version of a screw-up the size of Radio Shack dropping its first name. Sorry, but we're guilty here, too.



3. Offering the most compromised programming in the history of the radio industry is tantamount to the all-new Shack opening for business without putting their best products on the floor for sale. Terrestrial radio has been doing this for a long time. Repeater Radio. Voice Tracking. No local news. No local anything. No live people. No contests, promotions or excitement. Bland, compromised programming.



4. Radio can't seem to get beyond Cousin Brucie or Gordon McLendon. It can't rise above programming to people instead of to People Meters. The concept of radio isn't what's uncool -- doing yesterday's formatics without much music discovery is what young people will tell you is very uncool.



5. Podcasting is the new radio but 98% of the radio industry doesn't know it. They think it's a hobby. Podcasting is more radio than radio is because it is about one-on-one relationships the way radio used to be. Personal relationships never go out of style. Talking about your interests and not your listeners interests is lame no matter what you call that type of communication. (I'm in the midst of writing a book on success, happiness and people power skills in which I note that Dale Carnegie used to say if you want someone to like you, get them to talk about themselves. Talking about you is a no-no).



One more thing.



The coolest product to come along for the next generation is called Pandora.



No, I'm wrong.



It's called Pandora Radio and founder Tim Westergren wears the name "radio" like a badge of honor. Even when young folks have challenged him about the use of the name, he embraced it.



Did someone forget to tell Westergren that radio was passe -- damaged goods, yesterday's news? Or does he know something Radio Shack doesn't?



So the lesson for the radio industry and its electronics buddy Radio Shack is clear.



It's not the word "radio" that is uncool -- it's the stuff that passes for local programming these days on terrestrial stations.



And the reason Radio Shack is too embarrassed to use its real name is because they too have lost site of what is cool -- like knowing lots about exciting electronic products.



If Pandora wants to be called radio -- what's Radio Shack's excuse for not?



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Here's a Fix for the Music Industry

Have you seen JK's Wedding Entrance on YouTube?

In an odd way, it is the most dramatic proof of the kind of thing it will take to turn around the record business.

The video, recorded at a real live wedding, is not your usual "Always and Forever" marriage ceremony.

Instead, the wedding party gets down like a dog and -- well, they dance down the aisle of the church (that's right -- church) to Chris Brown's "Forever".

Get a flavor of it here and then return if you will to my wake-up call for the record labels and the RIAA.

As my reader pointed out, someone had brains for a change "rather than sue for unlicensed usage...the label put up a link to purchase the song... and put "Forever" into the top 5 purchased downloads over a year after its release".

The bride and groom -- or someone -- also made a plea for donations against domestic violence -- after all -- the music was supplied by Rihanna's ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown.

If you read the YouTube comments, they are positive and inspiring. Instead of discouraging people from hearing the music, they have stimulated (or should I say re-stimulated) sales of "Forever".

In other words, they made more money.

Some 15 million plays and growing!

Isn't that called record promotion?

Wasn't that what radio used to do for the record industry? Play its music and the labels benefited by keeping all the money.

Isn't that why label PR people promote acts?

Why they appeared on Leno and now still show up in the final minutes of Conan, Letterman and Kimmel?

This YouTube video far exceeds what appearing on all these shows would have done for the label and artist in terms of audience reach -- and with YouTube, you click and buy if you like.

The same promotion that the labels couldn't get enough of.

The problem is that the labels only know one way to do things -- their way -- and their way went bye-bye about ten years ago.

They don't know what to do today.

That's why they sue listeners and illegal downloaders. And no matter how moronic the downloaders they snag are, it is a failed strategy for turning the music industry around.

But cooperating with the inevitable -- now that's a fix for the ills of the record labels.

Actually promoting viral use of their artists' material and work to find ways to legally sell downloads, merch, and ancillary types of income.

Isn't that the lesson of radio -- MTV -- concerts -- magazine and media promotion in days gone by?

You increase legal demand for the product the more ways you find to expose it -- even and maybe because of free viral distribution.

Isn't that what I'm doing here -- 130,000 visitors and subscribers read Inside Music Media every month now. If I started by charging, say, $50 a year for it -- maybe no one would try. Now that many have tried, others would likely buy something -- a subscription, a seminar, services -- something. Giving it away promotes viral.

The labels need to get over the misconception that the Internet is the enemy.

It's your friend.

JK's wedding entrance is just a small example (at 15 million views) of what the world wide web really means to the music industry.

Loosen the grip on webcasting.

Make it easy for podcasters to use music in an equitable way that promotes success for these podcasters.

Stay away from taxing radio stations -- they might have a little promotional juice left.

Hell, in an era of free promotion, only the record industry could have a nine year recession.

Put these record industry relics in a room and make them watch and listen to JK's wedding entrance over and over again until they get it.

Five years later, after young people have figured out how to do their own outrageous wedding events, the record industry will then be "only" five years behind instead of nine.

Now, that's progress.

That poor misguided record company felon Joel Tenenbaum arrogantly (in my opinion) stuck his nose up at the court in his Boston piracy case recently and the judge punished him with $675,000 in penalties for stealing music. Arrogant Joel is now saying he'll file for bankruptcy.

Ya think?

And the labels proved absolutely nothing as they did when they "won" the Minnesota piracy case (and I use the word "won" loosely).

Piracy is increasing faster than the labels can win lawsuits.

Look what viral video can do for you as witnessed by JK's wedding entrance.

My wife is talking about renewing our wedding vows (didn't they take the first time 11 years ago?) -- hell, forget the society orchestra, dj or someones best friend who has a band. I want to do J.D.'s wedding entrance. "Play That Funky Music White Boy" is so -- well, Nineties.

Then, we'll put it on YouTube and challenge Lew Tricky Dickey, Fagreed Suleman and John Slogan Hogan to meet me on "Dancing with the Consolidators".

It's all good when your customers promote your music -- just as it was good for the labels when radio stations promoted their music.

To the labels I say, get out of your own way -- and help them help you.

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The Best & Worst Radio Groups

I've been polling my readers for the past week or so to get their thinking on which radio group is the best and which is the worst.



The voting has been ongoing -- and will continue until the end of the year.



You see, unlike New Jersey, Chicago and Florida, you get to vote only once here.



I'm kidding -- I'm kidding.



But unlike those places, my readers can change their votes based on current events.



Unfortunately current events in radio fail to bring any good news.



For context here, we pulled our candidates from the BIA list that is readily available on the Internet. We combined the two Cumulus companies (Susquehanna and the original Cumulus mess) together to reside as one on the ballot.



You can see the voting up to the minute by clicking here.



Inspired by the late NBC newsman Tim Russert who used a simple chalkboard to explain presidential elections, I'm going to give you my interpretation of how the industry is voting for The Best & Worst Radio Groups on my digital chalkboard.



THE BEST RADIO GROUPS



Cox is first with around 18%, Bonneville running a close second at 15%, Greater Media (at 10%), CBS (at 9%) and Saga (8%).



There are no surprises here.



These groups have generally been acknowledged as the best -- and I concur. The best way to think of it is -- which group would you like to work for if you had a choice? And Cox, Bonneville and Greater Media always show up.



Saga is interesting because I hear increasing complaints from some Saga people regarding the cutbacks, and CEO Ed Christian's compensation. But then again Saga is probably the best company at managing its debt service and I think people must be giving them credit for that in this poll.



CBS is run by a solid radio man -- Dan Mason. He knows how to do good radio but unfortunately he also has the pressure of meeting corporate cutback levels. And although I have never asked him about it personally, I just know he must hold his nose every time he has to cut a morning show, dump a format and go with a cheaper one and do all the things all the rest have to do.



Dan Mason, tied and gagged, is more radio smart than Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey with his Harvard ring.



And there is another good point -- these top groups are winning by small margins.



Some 18 or so percent for the best radio group.



Look closer and you'll see most radio groups don't even get 5% of the Best Group vote. And Clear Channel with John Slogan Hogan ordering all his minions to vote CC as often as possible has not been able to garner even 2% of the vote.



That says it all -- most people are not impressed by radio operators and why should they be? These are the devils who have dragged the radio industry into the toilet.



And speaking of toilet...



THE WORST RADIO GROUPS



Breaking News...Cumulus is out Clear Channeling Clear Channel 43% to 30%.



This may be the surprise of the polling unless you work for Cumulus.



The Dickeys have gone and done it. Maybe they can't drive their stock prices up beyond 63 cents but they have finally managed to beat Clear Channel at something!



And that's remarkable because Clear Channel, like Bubba the Love Sponge, is the "Original" Evil Empire.



Apparently the spying, hard knuckle tactics, institutionalized paranoia, centralized command run by dodos (pronounced dough-doughs), and ineffective human relations has caught up with Lew Tricky Dickey because Dickey has done for Clear Channel what they could not do for themselves -- make Clear Channel #2 in the "Evil" department.



By the way, the Wiki definition of dodo birds is:



"The phrase "dead as a dodo" means undoubtedly and unquestionably dead, whilst the phrase "to go the way of the dodo" means to become extinct or obsolete, to fall out of common usage or practice, or to become a thing of the past".



Just sayin' -- if the shoe fits, wear it.



This just in -- Developing Story ...



Citadel is the third worst group at 10%.



Again, thank you once again Mr. Dickey.



Citadel's Farid "Fagreed" Suleman has clawed his way to the bottom of his industry as a bean counter turned radio CEO. He's fired, cut, nipped, tucked -- emboldened the anti-Dale Carnegie Judy Ellis and somehow -- Citadel's public image got away with it all if you believe the voting.



Either that or Fagreed is hiding under his desk calling Mel Karmazin on his Blackberry and asking him what to do next.



Or, Cumulus and Clear Channel are literally so bad that even China looks better when it comes to human rights violations.



What's significant also is that hardly any other radio group on the ballot got any significant voting for Worst Group.



I'll say that again -- after Cumulus, Clear Channel and Citadel -- no other radio group got any statistically significant voting support for "Worst Radio Group".



Either these three are so bad that they pale in comparison to the others or voters think the three bad guys start with a "C".



Here's where we stop having fun ridiculing the Worst and feel the sadness and perhaps outrage.



Could it be that a handful of despots tanked the radio industry because of their own greed, ineptitude and arrogance? Well, if you've been reading me for any part of the past almost three years you know that is my take.



You see (here's the sad part), this could have only happened with consolidation.



The same consolidation your NAB fought for and sold mom and pop down the river without a life raft.



The same consolidation that has killed the U.S. economy in many other sectors.



Hell, a recession is only part of what is wrong. When a handful of guys lead good people to walk the plank for their own personal gain, then you see what has happened to radio.



Because while these "C" level CEOs have been playing in their sandbox supplied by your elected officials and government bureaus, the world has changed and the radio industry has failed to keep up.



Failed to keep pace with the Internet, mobile devices, social networking, podcasting, a new on-demand generation that wants more than "teen" radio formats -- you get the idea -- because you know what is wrong.



Just as The New York Times (as good as it can be) is clueless about newspapering in the Internet space, radio execs have no idea what the audience wants, what to do -- or even who the audience really is.



Can you say HD, Repeater Radio, tight playlists, less local involvement, no live personalities?



Just as Yahoo blew it.



AOL lost it.



Radio has let it all slip away.



What do these three have in common?



So, the voting will continue day-by-day -- and unlike Iran, there is no Ayatollah to speak to the disgruntled voters -- this vote is real.



And while I can't call a projected winner in the "Best & Worst" election, I can predict a projected loser.



The American listener who has radio available for free everywhere and still wishes they had WiFi available everywhere.



The destruction of radio could not have occurred if realistic station ownership limits had been retained. I know the FCC is reading this so please take this as another plea that we want re-regulation.



No, not the kind that tells us what to do or say (like "equal time" Fairness Doctrine laws).



Just keep order.



Keep the playing field fair and level.



Don't give anyone too much power.



The Mays family is the poster child for what happens when all the power goes to only a handful of people.



And if you want to get America working again, how about giving the radio industry a fighting chance -- not against competitors -- but against its own kind that decided to eat its young and get rich at any cost.



For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for free, please click here. IMPORTANT: Your subscription will not become “active” until you open an email from Feedburner immediately sent to your email inbox or spam filter.

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