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"The Future of
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"Net radio frontier:
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From an article by Tom Gorman in The Cleveland Free Times:
"Tom Owens smells the odor of an unclean rodent. He’s the  supercilious
senior VP of programming for Clear
Channel’s beleaguered 1,200-plus radio stations... Now, he’s
getting a whiff of cruel reality.
"A few weeks back, Owens heard the future of Clear Channel’s
radio division and it wasn’t pretty. Ratings
aren’t important. The ghost of the ’70s Detroit automotive
industry has returned in a corporate radio disguise...
"John Hogan is the CEO of Clear Channel radio and Owens’
capo. His job is to reverse the division’s revenue performance while
eliminating internal corporate featherbedding...
"Hogan now claims that ratings
have nothing to do with a station’s revenue and that market share
does not automatically equal more profits. 'One of the
things long important to and characteristic about
radio has been market share,' said Hogan in a recent statement. 'But
while we want to be focused on competing against other radio stations,
we want to be even more focused on profitability than market share
now.'
"The obvious comparison is the
automotive industry in the ’70s, best chronicled by author
David Halberstam’s The Reckoning. In it, he says, 'The public
was not the people who bought the car, the public was the people who
bought the stock.' Substitute the word car
for radio. Detroit automakers were convinced that no one
would ever buy a car that was labeled 'Made In Japan.'..
"Detroit automakers assumed that its customers were trapped.
They could use cheaper materials and cut corners to produce inferior
products without affecting sales. The automakers also shortened their
products’ planned obsolescence. Build a car that will fall apart in
two years so it could be traded in for a new one.
"Clear Channel views radio listeners as a captive audience.
In their world, since the majority of radio
listening is done while commuting, people have no choice but to listen
to their product — good or bad.
Their hubris blinds them to the fact many vehicles are equipped with
CD players and cell phones and satellite radio and Internet radio
via Wi-Fi, all offering significant alternatives
to their insipid fare...
"Hogan’s right to reign in Owens but wrong to assume that
the poison will be out of the radio division’s bloodstream by ignoring
ratings."
Read this entire column online here. |
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From Motley Fool News: "Are you tired of having the
option of only one cable Internet provider and needing to pay $49.95
a month
for services? There's no other choice for many homes in the country,
but yesterday's ruling by a San Francisco court could change this,
increasing cable Internet competition and
bringing lower prices. Eventually.
"A U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) and its plan to allow cable
companies to exclude competition from cable networks. The new
ruling demands that cable operators allow competitors on their networks,
something many Internet service
providers (ISP), including Earthlink,
have long sought...
"Legalities aside, yesterday's ruling is a positive
public relations step for ISPs seeking access to cable, and it may
encourage cable owners to start accepting more competitors, setting
up their own partnerships rather than risk being told later what
to do."
Read this full story online here.
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