Once again, they don't really care about you. It's really a form of outright contempt. They demonstrate that on a daily basis with no regard for consumer loyalty and embracing their brand, whatever the hell that means today anyway.
Just as soon as you think things couldn't get any worse, they do. They have a bottom line and you, the public, be damned. They control the little people at their little radio stations and the little people there; most of'em just trying to make a buck, soldier on, as if maintaining the "we're just following orders" mantra that has overtaken the industry.
I know--I'm repeating myself. But every now and then I get feedback--e-mail, comments, etc, that are from people who are frustrated over the whole manner in which a company can come into an area with wanton disregard and take apart an institution that many of you thought was simply impossible to even think of happening. No, in fact, that's just the point. They have no feeling nor emotion. To borrow a phrase, they just do it.
And it's only going to get worse. And it doesn't involve just the main player--newstalk, sports, contemporary music--they have much more radical plans. Folks, it's a new era. The human element is but an afterthought. They just stand in the way of more greed. It really is a case of contempt. Who needs microphones anymore, why not just utilize a machine. You don't have to pay a machine. It's not 1985 anymore.
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Sad to hear that the Zwerling family has decided
ReplyDeleteto keep Rush Limburger on their station, KSCO.
Michael, half owner, went back and forth with his
loyal listeners on Saturday Special radio show.
I think his Mom would have a lot to do with the
decision. Her commentaries are all Rush copies.
So much for progressive radio in Santa Cruz.
I don't think KSCO represents itself as a "progressive" station at all. Actually keeping rush on the radio through November and beyond...doesn't hurt Democrats. It mobilizes all those young women who now realize the burden of defending women's rights has been pased to them.
DeleteKSCO is a disaster! I'm a liberal myself, but I can't listen to KSCO. Every five minutes they have a sound problem, etc.
DeleteI realize that running a professional station isn't easy. That's one reason I used to like KGO.
The problem goes beyond just the media. It's epidemic in corporate American. In my years of working in the corporate world, I was laid off three times. In each case, it was due to a corporate takeover of a successful business that led to reduction in headcount (redundancies of function). That was immediately followed by the previously successful company heading off in a new direction, with a new corporate "vision." The new direction in each case took a circuitous route to a cliff, off of which the redirected company eventually plunged. None of those three companies I mention even exists anymore.
ReplyDeleteAs long as our society allows any rich psychopathic knucklehead, or cadre of said psychopathic knuckleheads, to come along and deep-six a successful business venture to suit his or her own misguided "visions," this problem will continue.
As a society, we need to figure out some way to keep psychopaths from migrating into positions of wealth, power, authority, or political influence. Until we can do that, these sorts of problems will continue to percolate to the surface.
In my opinion, the Koch brothers and the Dickey brothers are all poster children for callous knuckleheaded psychopathy.
And as long as the only solution proposed for getting our country back on sound financial footing is for consumers to spend more (on stuff they don't really need with money they mostly don't really have), I don't see this trend ending anytime soon.
DeleteMaking money at the expense of anything else has become the goal of American business and politics. It all has to end sometime, but who knows what the damage will be by then.
Mr. Del Thomas hit it on the head. I was a victim of a layoff necessitated because some $$$ idiots wanted to save money and "head in a new direction" -- the safe buzzwords to use to avoid being sued. Their moves haven't proven it yet, but their moves have caused people to look over their shoulders in the office, show no loyalty and have people just come in to do their jobs and go home. Thank you for sapping the energy out of your poorly paid employees. All in the name of the almighty dollar.
ReplyDeleteThese pinheads forget that PEOPLE make the business go. Their personalities, dedication and drive. These pinheads (who have been successful in other fields, but have no clue about this business venture) don't care. It's all about saving and making money to them.
As Hank Hill would say, "What in the wide world of sports is going on here?"
They've pretty much only been successful because they inherited a large sum of money.
DeleteCouldn't agree with the above post more. All of us who have been downsized out of jobs because we were not considered 'valuable' enough for companies going 'in another direction,' have a bone to pick with the current system. Sure, these companies have every right to hire and fire anyone they wish, but sometimes their methodology is convoluted to say the least! Bringing in younger, less experienced people who are cheaper and will do whatever they're told doesn't exactly make for a positive work environment, nor does it add much of substance to the business.
ReplyDeleteRadio unfortunately is dying; at least the kind of radio that existed for the better part of 50 plus years. Now you get a lot of syndicated nonsense like Limbaugh, Hannity, ESPN, etc with no local focus. These programs don't serve the local communities, but they allow the mega-media companies that own the radios on which they're carried to keep their overhead low. And hey, that's more important than providing a service to the community, right?
Radio is the only medium that is still free, yet the people who are running the radio business these days are destroying it for two reasons: 1.) they don't care because they're not 'radio people,' and 2.) they lack any kind of bold imagination.
Very sad!
C'mon. Let's not act like these are publicly owned infrastructure. If locally owned stations decide to sell out to conglomerates, that's their decision whether listeners like it or not. If local stuff is popular and profitable enough, management won't sell. If it doesn't, they will sell. And when a locally owned station is sold to a conglomerate, their product will become a commercial formula clone.
ReplyDeleteLoyalty? Geez, grow up. Loyalty to listeners who want a return to '50s style radio where you get the corn and pig prices every morning (updated today to the price of iPods and weed), and you see the local OAPs at strip mall openings, giving out signed 8x10 glossies? Sor-ry, WKRP was fiction then, and it's fiction now.
Geez...you really are a cynic 8:32pm, and I thought I was down on the current state of radio. But I guess you're right.
ReplyDeleteRadio is being run into the ground by bloodless corporate weasels who are not interested in delivering quality service (few American businesses are anymore!) or serving the local public.
How did this happen? How did we suddenly find ourselves in an Anti-American world which has turned this once proud nation into a Third World Country? (I know that I'm asking a rhetorical question here, because we all know the answer!