As if one needed more reasons to hate ClearChannel
Posted by Scott on January 23, 2009
Earlier this week, ClearChannel pulled the plug on the local on air talent at WDFN 1130-AM. Shows that had been on the air for a very long time such as Stoney & Wojo (14 years), and It Is What It Is (6 years) were just gone in a moment as part of ClearChannel’s “cost cutting” methods that resulted in over 1800 jobs nationwide being pink slipped, primarily in their sales departments. Situations like this really should make a 90 day no compete clause null and void.
My first grievance with ClearChannel is that well, their programming on music stations sucks in the first place. And their proclivity to change format on a station multiple times within a 5 year span is borderline ridiculous. People dislike the product that ClearChannel provides because if the product was any more generic and sterile it would be wrapped in medical packaging and opened at a doctor’s office. Continually killing any life and flavor a station may have in a certain market might make some sort of twisted “financial sense”, but a sense of the community in which the station broadcasts should come into play.
It’s no mistake that a majority of the quality talent in the radio market has been making a transition to putting their shows exclusively on Satellite radio. The mere existance of ClearChannel is akin to CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and PBS all being bought out by one conglomorate and showing essentially the same programming around the clock. Why would anyone watch network TV if “Lost” was going to be on every station at some point during the week? Where would the creativity for new shows come from if it became bland genericness for broadcasting standards?
Personally, I think the biggest insult is not only did ClearChannel basically kill what was a fun Sports Talk station, but they replaced that programming with the mental abortions that Fox passes off as Sports radio. Seriously, if you are going to kill our market, at least give us programming that we don’t get locally. I’d rather have someone find a way to pipe in Chicago’s ESPN-1000 than to listen to this tripe that Fox considers entertainment on the radio.
