Q2 Report

"I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob."

So my period of unemployment pretty much lined up exactly with Q2...and you may have noticed, I have been missing a lot of work.

Well, I certainly haven't missed the passive-aggressive, condescending head games that accompanied the home stretch of my previous job. But, it's June 30th and Q2 deserves at least one summary report. Sorry that it's not in spreadsheet form.

2009 Q2 vs. Q1

weight..... down 13%
waistline..... down 10%
sit-ups in 2 minutes..... up 100%
new friends made..... up 400%
stress..... down 50%
PSA..... down ??% (will know soon)
Cholesterol..... down ??% (will know soon, too)
salary (adjusted for cost of living)..... flat (new job)
annual vacation time..... up 150% (new job)
number of people I fired..... down 100%

Not a bad quarter...too bad I was my own boss for the past 90 days...no one to impress with these strong numbers. I think I'll print them off and put them on the refrigerator. With a gold star or smiley face. Or both.

I miss a lot of the people I used to work with. Last week brought some great news for the programming staff of my former stations. The ratings were up significantly. I believe that 6 of the 7 stations (possibly all 7) went up in the just-released ratings (unheard of). I may have had a small impact on that. Also my old group had 6 first-place winners (out of only 11 categories) this past weekend at the Montana Broadcasters awards. No other radio cluster in Montana had even 3 nominees. Angel, Shawn, Peter, Craig, Aaron, Erik, Denny, Jannette and others...a great bunch of talented people who I didn't spend much time with because I was focusing on the "other" side of the building. I think the thing I'm looking forward to the most in my new job is once again focusing on the programming side of the building...and (very rare these days) focusing on just one station.

And with that, my corporate duties for Q2 are finished. If you haven't done so already, please schedule your one-on-one with the Bobs ASAP. The sign-up sheet is beside the copier...right next to the TPS reports.

Found A Job

So think about this little scene; apply it to your life. If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right. - Talking Heads: "Found A Job"


Okay, okay...so I didn't jump; I was pushed. I was fired on March 30th and I have spent much of the past few months finding a job. My goal was to be employed by the time my severance ran out and by the time my radiation treatment was over. Both of those dates pretty much coincide with July 1st. Despite the omnipresent fear of being without work as the unemployment rate inches up to 10%, I resisted the urge to apply for every opening I saw. I came to grips that I may have to leave Montana to find a suitable job...and I realized that this may finally be the time to run screaming from radio - my career of the past 25 years.



(By the way, my former company has since fired two more of their Montana Managers...All three of us were either lazy idiots who were bringing the company down - or - Our 55 years combined Montana radio experience was viewed to be less important than our combined salaries. You decide.)

(new update...as of 6/29...they just fired their 4th Montana manager...70 years of Montana radio experience is now out)


So while I was still receiving severance checks and radiation I figured I could be picky and only apply for jobs that I really felt were a great match for my skills AND would also be personally rewarding. I applied for a few non-profit positions (mostly environmental) in Bozeman. I also found 4 radio jobs that I thought were "right". Three of those four radio jobs were at non-commercial stations. And now I have accepted the position of Program Director at 88Nine, RadioMilwaukee. http://www.radiomilwaukee.org/

Wow...I know what that appears to be on first glance. I've gone from the General Manager of a corporate seven station cluster to the Program Director of a single non-commercial, class B1 station. But if you don't get it, then you probably don't get me. To start with, 88Nine already has nearly the listenership of the combined total listenership of the 7 stations I used to work for.

I have already (at great length) explained the precarious position that commercial radio is currently in (go back 2 or 3 blog postings) so I won't repeat any of that negative stuff here. I'd rather focus on what makes 88Nine such a great station and an attractive job.

88Nine is already a very solid radio station. It sounds great...no small feat considering that the station is primarily a mix of two very different music formats. AAA (Adult Album Alternative and Urban/Hip Hop). But the music is presented with care by people who are knowledgeable and passionate about what they're doing. Home-grown Milwaukee music is featured...and not just at 3am. A Milwaukee artist is pretty much played at least every hour. 88Nine is not your stereotypical "left end of the dial" non-comm. In fact the presentation and formatics are much closer to commercial radio than you may think. It's, uhm, professional. (Dave, you say it like it's a bad thing! It's not.) I'll be a (mostly) off-air Program Director with a staff of four full-time (mostly) live announcers and 3-4 part-timers. My radio friends will immediately realize that a staff like this is unheard of in commercial radio these days. Your typical PD is now overseeing 2-3 stations and is lucky to have one or two announcers (seldom live outside of mornings) on his or her staff. We also have a Producer who is responsible for the public service segments that are a major part of our programming. Serving the Milwaukee community is a key cornerstone for 88Nine. Public service campaigns are identified well in advance and executed to great depth and detail. They're well-done, entertaining and achieve results.

The staff is (mostly) young. They're smart, talented and generally haven't had their spirits crushed by soulless corporate suits who only view them as a line on a spreadsheet. Unlike much non-commercial music radio, the station sounds consistent throughout the day regardless of who's on the air. That's not to say that the personalities don't come through...they certainly do - and each jock has one or two speciality shows or segments where they can break format and spotlight something they have a personal interest in. The station is tied to the live music scene. There are several awesome live music venues in Milwaukee. Coming attractions include Buckwheat Zydeco, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Tracy Chapman, The Psychedelic Furs, Brett Dennen, Malford Milligan, Mat Kearney, G Love, Earth Wind & Fire, Rusted Root, Buddy Guy, The Fray, Elvis Costello, Kill Hannah, Tab Beniot, Black Francis, Peter Murphy, Sonic Youth, Lyle Lovett, The Bottle Rockets, Shooter Jennings, Social Distortion, Tori Amos, Pete Yorn, Justin Townes Earle and, yep, the Jonas Brothers....all coming in the next two months. As I type this I'm listening online and 88Nine just segued "Jeepster" from T. Rex into Paul Weller's "Sunflower".

The General Manager and Chief Engineer are radio veterans that actually have Montana ties. The new Executive Director has extensive experience fundraising with many successful Milwaukee non-profits. Some people that were associated with the station start-up a couple years ago include Mike Henry and his team at Paragon Research and J. Mikel Ellcessor (formerly of New York City NPR and now GM of Detroit's NPR)... Finally the station is partially funded by Peter Buffett's Novo Foundation (go ahead, Google it)... The outgoing PD (leaving on his own accord as his wife just accepted her dream job) came to 88Nine from "This American Life" in Chicago.

And, by the way, the station is only about 2 miles from Miller Park...the impressive home of the Milwaukee Brewers. That's got to count for something. To make a Montana reference, Milwaukee reminds me a bit of Butte. It's lost some population over the years as it has battled to redefine itself after the loss of traditional industry. Both towns are noted for tough, blue-collar neighborhoods. Each town has an historic ethnic component. Each is the occasional butt of jokes. Milwaukee, like Butte, is a town full of character. Each is filled with proud natives that wouldn't be anywhere else. The main tag line for the station is: Diverse music for a diverse city - 88Nine, Radio Milwaukee.

So I truly think I just got one of the best jobs in all of radio. I'm gonna try not to screw it up. 88Nine is a treasure...a treasure to be cherished and nurtured. Most of the staff thinks that they've just really hit their stride and great things are in the future. I agree.

The Tinkerer

You probably know one. This guy cannot stop tinkering with stuff. Even when there's nothing wrong, he's gotta dive in, tear it apart and build it back up again. The tinkerer is exhausting in his all consuming pursuit of perfection - there's no detail so small that it escapes his attention. Fueled by an over-abundance of hubris, the tinkerer works 24/7....analyzing, measuring, evaluating and (yes) tinkering.

Back when he was just a kid (a loner...promoted ahead a grade and without friends) the tinkerer realized the need to form an alliance with someone that would compliment, but not threaten, his skills. The tinkerer found the stress-tester perfect for this idea.

The stress-tester was always seeing how much he could pile on before something gave in. The tinkerer observed him stress-testing ants under a magnifying glass, kittens reaction to a lighter and smaller children and their reluctance to part with their lunch money (until the stress-tester found the necessary amount of pressure to apply). The stress-tester had friends...but these were just boys who were weaker and whose friendship earned them protection. This would be the start of a productive relationship.

Even the stress-tester knew that he needed an accomplice. Deep down, he knew that he wasn't too smart. He was receptive to the tinkerer's overtures.

They're into adulthood now and making their mark. The tinkerer shows the stress-tester just where to apply the pressure. Sometimes the flaw is obvious and the faulty part is quickly exposed. More often though, the tinkerer has to tinker a bit...and the stress-tester has to apply firmer and more constant pressure. This sometimes takes months, but the tinkerer is never wrong, and the weakness is always eventually identified. The good news is that the tinkerer has found that these weak parts can always be replaced by cheaper parts. These parts seem readily available these days.

After all, life in the business world is all about getting the right people on the bus. First, of course, you have to get the wrong people off the bus. Through the proper application of stress and careful, constant tinkering, this can be accomplished. But head's up...it's easy to drive the bus off the road while you're having so much fun tinkering around. Have a nice ride.

The Proton Experience

Now that I'm in the middle of my treatment I get questions from friends about it. Specifically the daily ritual. I often say, "it's nothing" or, "piece of cake". I wonder if they think I just don't want to discuss it, but the truth is that it is so mundane and non-invasive that there is really very little to discuss. I'll give it a shot.


First I guess I should explain why I chose Proton radiation. Prostate cancer, unlike many other diseases has several treatment options. You can make strong arguments about the effectiveness and side effects of each. The fact that a disease has a half-dozen treatment options probably means that none of them are great. Most people choose surgery. Within the surgery category, you have two choices: conventional "open" surgery or (in theory) less-invasive robotic surgery. And right there you could have a heated discussion about the pros and cons of each surgery type. No surprise, but the best surgical outcomes seem to be directly tied to the (significant) experience of the surgeon. It is a extremely challenging procedure. The urethra is clipped - as it runs right through the prostate - and then sewed back to the bladder. The nerves that allow for erections run along both sides of the prostate. If either of these nerve bundles cannot be saved or is damaged in surgery the patient will almost certainly experience ED issues. Some people are not even candidates for surgery. If it is determined through tests that the cancer has escaped the prostate capsule surgery is not usually recommended (what's the point?) Most of those guys are treated with a combination of hormone therapy and radiation.



Many men chose radiation. Conventional radiation. Guided radiation techniques are improving, but I did not seriously consider this option because a lot of the radiation is spent entering the body and in exiting the tumor area. Some men have radioactive seeds implanted in the prostrate (usually about 100 seeds, each the size of a grain of rice) This is Brachytherapy. A very few choose "freezing" or Cyrosurgery. The latest "new" technique is HIFU. High Intensity Focused Ultrasound. It is not approved yet in the USA, but is available in Europe, Japan, Canada and Mexico. I really think there is a lot of promise for HIFU as a high-success, low side effect treatment. I wouldn't be surprised if it became the preferred standard in 10-15 years. But for now there are two competing machines being evaluated and doctors are still perfecting their skills with HIFU. I read of a couple guys who had the procedure in Canada with less than wonderful outcomes.



I chose Proton therapy because it seems to offer cure rates on par with surgery and it seems to have fewer side effects. I liked the physics behind it. With protons, the technicians can deliver the majority of the energy directly to the prostate. (I won't even try to explain it here... Google: "proton Bragg Peak" for more). I was pretty sure that my small and modestly-aggressive tumor would be killed by the radiation. Surgery just seemed so medieval. Not all insurance pays for Proton radiation, but mine will. And being temporarily unemployed I had the time to travel to one of the 5 proton centers for treatment. I also chose a clinical trial where I receive a larger daily dose of radiation and have fewer total sessions. This will make my stay in California one month shorter and (in theory) get me back on someone's payroll a month sooner.

Loma Linda has three proton treatment gantrys (the 30' rotating "cone") You are assigned a gantry and always are treated in the same one. This leads to affectionate referrals to being a "gantry 3" graduate just as someone might refer to the "class of 1995" or "Pi Kappa Alpha". Prior to beginning treatment your "pod" (what I'm laying in above) is crafted especially for you. Liquid mold is poured into the pod shell while you lie still. This way your body is always in the same position for each treatment. Also prior to the first treatment a CT scan is taken and the doctors use that to design unique apertures for each patient. These apertures guide the proton beam even more directly to the precise area. Patients receive radiation each weekday. You're supposed to drink 2-4 glasses of water 30 minutes before each treatment. This helps to lift the bladder up and out of the way of the radiation beam. I'm not sure some guys always drink the water but I was lectured that it was especially important for the clinical study, so I am very faithful with my water intake. I cannot tell you how many times my bladder has been ready to burst toward the end of a session, but it is a minor inconvenience. Patients are called into a changing room and we don our hospital gowns...no reason to tie them closed...we all just flap open in the back. When the guy in front of you is done, he comes back to the dressing room and sends you in. You climb into your pod and the first thing you do is turn on to your left side for your "balloon". It's the necessary evil of Proton treatment. A technician inserts a condom-like balloon into your rectum and inflates it with 2 ounces of water. The balloon remains inserted for the next 10-20 minutes of treatment. The purpose of the balloon is to protect the rectum from the radiation. The pod is then positioned exactly using laser beams. The patient-specific aperture is loaded, the technicians leave the gantry for the safety of the control room and the radiation is delivered. And now through the magic of copy and paste, here is how it happens:

Each proton begins its journey at an injector located within an electric field. In the field, hydrogen atoms are separated into negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons. The protons are then sent through a vacuum tube within a pre-accelerator. This process boosts their energy to two million electron volts. The protons continue in the vacuum tube and begin their high-speed journey in the synchrotron. They travel around the synchrotron about 10 million times per second. Each time they circulate, a radiofrequency cavity within the ring delivers a boost of energy. This increases the protons' energy to between 70 and 250 million electron volts. The voltage achieved is enough to place them at any depth within the patient's body. After leaving the synchrotron, the protons move through a beam transport system, continuing in the vacuum tube through a series of steering and focusing magnets that guide them to the four treatment rooms. (A fifth room, used for beam calibration and basic research, contains three additional beam lines.) One treatment room has a stationary beam with two branches. One branch is for irradiating eye tumors and the other branch is for central nervous system tumors and tumors of the head and neck. The other three treatment rooms have gantries. Gantries are wheels 35 feet in diameter and weighing approximately 90 tons, which revolve around the patient to direct the beam precisely to where it is needed. From the patient's perspective, however, all that is visible is a revolving, cone-shaped aiming device. Each treatment room has a guidance system to direct the beam that treats the patient. The guidance system monitors the beam until it enters the patient and positions the Bragg peak to conform to the size and shape of the tumor and the immediate volume at risk for tumor spread, according to a plan designed by the physician. Field sizes to accommodate regional spread of tumors can be as large as 40 by 40 centimeters. The beam delivery system, or nozzle, is the last device the protons travel through before entering the patient's body. The nozzle shapes and spreads out the proton beam in three dimensions. When calculating the number of protons to be delivered to the designated volume and the velocity and shape of the proton beam, radiation oncologists take into account the location and shape of the target and the tissue density and depth through which the protons must travel to reach their target. After leaving the nozzle, the protons enter the patient's body. The entire proton facility is controlled by computers that are equipped with safety measures to ensure that patients receive proton radiation treatments as prescribed. Three host computers control the accelerator and beam transport system. A second set of computers, located in each treatment room, controls the beam guidance system and all other treatment room systems. These computers verify patient identification, set operational parameters for each patient's treatment plan, and direct the host computers to deliver a specified beam.

The actual delivery of the proton radiation takes about a minute. As a patient you feel nothing. There is a flywheel that you hear once the beam is into your gantry...this is followed by a smoke-alarm (though not as harsh) type beeping...it's just the radiation detector in the gantry. Usually there is a CD in the boombox...something soft like Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow or James Taylor. Since I'm in the clinical trial I get radiation on both sides each day. So the gantry rotates 180 degrees and the process is repeated for me. It adds 5-10 minutes to each session for me...but I'll be done five weeks sooner than patients in the standard protocol. I roll back over, my balloon is removed and I'm on a beeline for the dressing room bathroom.

That's it...kind of boring, but not much to it. Certainly nothing like the chemotherapy my wife suffered through three years ago. Possible side effects during treatment include fatigue, urinary frequency/urgency and some urinary difficulties. I'm not experiencing any fatigue, but I'm noticing some of the plumbing issues. The long-term side effects of Proton radiation could possibly include rectal bleeding and a degree of erectile dysfunction. Long-term proton side effects usually do not appear for 6-12 months post treatment - if at all. Of course I hope to be in the "if at all" category.

Turn and face the strange

Ch-ch-changes...look out you rock n rollers - pretty soon you're gonna get older.


Terrestrial radio - the venue where I have made my living for nearly 25 years - is in a world of hurt. Some of its problems, to be sure, have been self-inflicted...other challenges to radio have simply come along with technology and innovation. Greed, iPods, the economy, the internet, and satellite radio have all contributed to the fall of terrestrial radio. Some people will tell you that deregulation/consolidation was what really precipitated the fall. Others will argue that consolidation has saved radio. For sure, it ain't what it used to be - nothing is. The last thing I want to do is to come across like Andy Rooney. I really don't like people who live in the past and struggle to embrace change. They end up looking like weak and helpless victims of that change.



Radio will never be the same. As a general statement, its quality and relevance will never approach what it once was. There can however be isolated bright spots. These bright spots may be one personality on a single station, one station in a market or one ownership group among many. The remaining listeners that have not left terrestrial radio will learn to pick and choose their shows and stations...and the employees that are still left with a job in the industry after this "adjustment" is over will hopefully still have the spirit and the opportunity to make a difference.



I've now been unemployed for more than two months. In that time I have only applied for three radio jobs. Not only did I think that all three were a great match for my skills, I also believe that all three are unique and special jobs where passion and quality are expected, and where potential personal rewards could be great. Sit back, pour yourself a drink, and I'll tell you what went wrong with radio and where the bright spots still exist. This could be painfully boring if you are not a radio geek....fortunately a good percentage of my friends already qualify.

We'll start with consolidation. Rules on radio ownership were first eased in the 1980's and then really relaxed in the mid-1990's. Generally, prior to consolidation, a company was allowed to own two stations maximum in a given market. After consolidation that number increased to as many as eight stations in a market (depending on market size). In a medium market you may have had a dozen stations and six different ownership groups. Under consolidation those dozen stations could now be owned by two groups. The argument here was that Mom & Pop were having trouble making a profit...so where it used to take 6 offices and 6 receptionists and 6 engineers and 6 traffic directors and 6 business managers...you could now run those dozen radio stations with only 2 offices and 2 total of each the above employees. This would (in theory) allow Mom & Pop to survive and thrive with a smaller payroll needed per station. In reality, consolidation pretty much pushed Mom & Pop right out of the radio business (don't shed too big a tear, many made out like bandits in selling off to larger companies) because the larger companies with the greater resources gobbled them up. Not all larger companies are inherently evil...but the loss of Mom & Pop spelled the beginning of the end of local ownership ties to the communities served by these stations. Mom and Pop were usually playing with their own money...they realized that there would be good years and down years and tried not to overreact to either. Larger companies are usually not playing with their own money - annual expectations from lenders must be met...and in lean years they would be met by expense reductions (translation: people's jobs). Consolidation did not kill radio. In fact radio THRIVED in the early years of consolidation (just about any endeavor thrived in the late 1990's). But consolidation did sort of kill the spirit of radio in many cases. Consolidation apologists say that it added more choices and formats to the airwaves. For example they would argue that the previous six owners in a 12-station market would all be trying for the most popular formats, so you would have 4-6 rock or country stations in that market....after consolidation, the remaining 2 owners would be free to explore other formats. Maybe, maybe not. I believe that consolidation took a lot of local control away from radio...and also took away much of the risk-taking. We eventually ended up with more format choices, but it was due more to greed than to consolidation.

Greed. The second thing that brought radio to its knees. It happened in a couple different ways. First was owner/operator greed. From the mid to late 1990's, radio was on a roll. The competition from internet, iPods and satellite was still a couple years off. The new, larger companies created from the deregulation/consolidation legislation were growing their profits nicely. And what is expected after a year of 15% profit growth? Certainly nothing less in the following year. For a bit there in the late 1990's broadcast groups were able to grow the profits 15% every year in part due to a strong economy, in part due to the expense reductions enabled by consolidation, but truthfully due in large part to the simple addition of more commercials. Fueled by greed and by corporate demands to grow by 15% every year, managers and companies simply loaded up on commercials. Why not? Radio had no real competition at the time. In the 1990's commercial loads went through the roof and challenged the patience of most any radio listener. Clear Channel and others figured it out. Eventually. But many loyal listeners were driven away to those "new" options (iPods, internet, satellite, non-commercial radio)

Greed part two was a joint effort between the FCC and many radio broadcasters. In the old days, getting a commercial radio license was a lengthy legal process....a process not unlike that cliched radio contest where you have to be the last one placing your hand on the new car to win the vehicle. Only instead of taking hours, this licensing process often took years. You would have to submit paperwork to the FCC stating why you would be the best license holder for the new frequency in your community. Usually you were up against several other applicants. The FCC would then (eventually) decide who "won" the license. Often times behind the scenes, competitors would pay each other off to drop out of the process. Finally the FCC realized that people who wanted a radio license were paying their competition to withdraw. Smart FCC. They revamped the entire process and now auction off new radio licenses without any pretense on who'll best serve the community. Highest bidder wins. Some sharp broadcasters also figured out how to stretch the intent of the FCC rules to allow a station licensed to a given community to be engineered to actually serve a much larger market. All of the sudden these tiny communities, often mere wide spots in the road, became potential hot properties for a new FCC radio license. And the commission was more than happy to now auction them off to the highest bidder. In the past 15-20 years, the number of FM radio stations has probably grown to a figure beyond what the economy can support. Metropolitan areas with barely 100,000 people now may have 20 commercial radio stations. Greed was building an industry that was not even strong enough to support itself. (Disclosure: I personally have benefited from this as I have worked for two of the best-known and pioneering move-in specialists).

All of this was just the set-up for the perfect radio storm, and it is crashing down right now courtesy of the recession of 2008/2009. Let me explain how radio works now that Mom & Pop have long since exited.



In general (and in a "normal" economy) a radio station is worth about ten times its profits. No one buys single stations any longer, so the rule is that a radio cluster of 5 or 6 stations is worth about ten times cash flow. Now, this is an example of what's been happening all over radio for the past ten years. You find a group of radio clusters in several markets that may be for sale (you either build them up one at a time, or you might pry them away from a larger company)...Say you end up with stations in ten communities and say that those stations have revenue of $25 million and profits of $5 million (a modest 20% margin). You take those numbers to the corner capital management firm. You ask for $50 million (ten times cash flow) to buy those stations. You tell the capital firm that with your management and synergies you can grow the revenues to $35 million and the margin to 30% in 2-3 years. That would make the group of stations worth $105 million. Not a bad return on that $50 million investment. They happily put up the money. Examples similar to this have played out in radio in the past, but they ain't happening now. The recession has driven radio revenues down 25% and has caused trading multiples to fall to 6-7 times cash flow. Uh, oh! That example above just went from a $50 million profit to a $25 million loss (assuming you could find someone to even take it off your hands). So radio panics and cuts, and reels and cuts even more because someone who was promised a nice return is actually losing their ass. There's no more risk taking, no more money for interesting formats...the final irony is that many terrestrial, commercial stations are just cousins of the iPods that helped kill them. A few years ago I was forced to change an interesting format with strong community ties to a generic jukebox programmed 2,000 miles away and then received via satellite. During the community outcry our corporate president remarked that our company wanted to be "the McDonald's of radio." He really thought that was a great thing (it probably was music to the investors' ears) but it didn't sit too well in my unique community.

Finally I offer one last item that will certainly drain more value from radio. It's the new way that radio ratings will be figured with Arbitron's "Personal People Meter"

In the past people would receive a diary from Arbitron and write down their listening habits. Now, as the people meter is rolled out, people wear the device and it will detect which station is being heard. So what's the difference? The people meter seems to give different results than the diary. I'm not saying it's wrong, but this new data is already causing the radio Lemmings to race each other off of the nearest cliff. It seems that the people meter favors stations with high cume (highest number of listeners) while the diary seemed to give better results for formats and stations that may have smaller, but more loyal listenership (they listened longer). Radio ratings should factor in both the number of listeners and how long they listen on average. This means that under the diary method, station A could have half the listeners as station B, but the same ratings share assuming A's audience listened (on average) twice as long. Again, the people meter seems to favor the high cume, independent of TSL (time spent listening). So what? Well, in markets where the meter is in use radio companies have already jettisoned heritage formats in favor of formats playing more popular music. New Age/Jazz is nearly extinct after losing its radio home in Chicago and San Francisco. You're telling me that this format cannot survive as one of 50 commercial stations in the Bay Area? Now KKSF is just one of several flavors of classic rock available. The people meter will bring us more stations playing the same popular hits. It will reduce the exposure for new songs and new artists - as the familiar is again emphasized over the unfamiliar. And God forbid a jock talks longer than 10 seconds...in fact, let's just get rid of more announcers as the people meter seems to show they are a detriment. Once again radio is programming TO THE RATINGS SERVICE and not to the listener. Once again there will be a painful lesson learned from all this...give it 3 or 4 years.

Okay...I DID promise a ray of hope. Here's what I believe: I think that now is a great opportunity for some smaller operators to get back into radio. maybe some Mom & Pops here and there...or maybe some people who sold stations for big money in the 1990's (and did not lose it all in the past 12 months) will put together small radio groups. Now for the first time ever I believe that it is possible to go into a market with just 2 or 3 FM stations and wreck havoc on a heritage operator saddled with 6 or 7 stations (probably including 1 or 2 worthless AM's) and saddled with the failed math of trying to appease the bank or the capital firm (described above) and kick their butts. Someone with their own money in this game will be able to attract the best (remaining) people and will be able to ride out the occasional bad month or bad ratings book without overreacting (or being forced to overreact to appease the lender)... In the Hare and Tortoise race, I've always been the turtle. It's a great time to be a Tortoise (with your own cash)!!

I also believe that there are a handful of non-commercial stations doing a fantastic job of radio. I don't just mean NPR stations, although many of those do a fine job. Most larger communities now have a station at the left end of the dial that is still committed to their community, still plays new artists and local artists and is still creating fans. (BTW, when was the last time you saw a commercial radio station bumper sticker displayed?) I know, I know...there are challenges in that world as well. The Board of Directors can be a blessing or a curse....and non-profit gifting is way down in this economy. But I think I'd rather take my chances in the non-comm arena. Besides, there are no guarantees, and should it end badly I'll just bet the journey would have been more interesting and personally rewarding. So, I have a job interview at one of these stations soon. Wish me luck!