Are Program Directors in Sports Radio’s Future?

Middle management isn’t a term of endearment. People in that position often draw more blame and ire from employees than respect. Even as a department head, in radio, isn’t a program director just another middle manager? 

I don’t listen to every episode of The Journal. It’s one of those podcasts I subscribe to and if the topic interests me on a particular day, I might throw that episode on if I have nothing else in the cue. 

Recently, the show discussed Bayer’s goal of eliminating middle management entirely. The pharmaceutical giant wants to put fewer bodies between top-line decision makers and the workforce. It’s the result of a new CEO hearing from employees across multiple divisions of the company that things at Bayer move too slowly because it’s bloated with too many layers of supervision.

The rollout of the idea could be bumpy, but the new CEO, a guy named Bill Anderson, says that the company has no choice. It’s time to start doing business differently. It’s losing money as the result of lawsuits and bad investments. If Bayer is going to survive, bold action is required.

Doesn’t that sound a lot like radio?

Jason Barrett has discussed the business evolving to the point the program director role is eliminated for years. He has suggested new ways of looking at the job, wondered where the next generation of leaders are coming from, and even posited the theory that it’s a role no one aspires to anymore. 

Revolution in programming’s corner office has been the subject of columns on the site and of sessions at the BSM Summit. So could it actually work? Maybe. Bayer has given the world a model. We just have to determine whether or not it could be adjusted for our business.

We do a lot of biting back at the idea that radio is dying, but look around. Music formats are on life support. I grew up on the grunge and alternative of the 90s. I love Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Green Day. I really hate Bush. In a world where Spotify exists, I’m not sitting through “Machinehead” because maybe a radio station will play “Welcome to Paradise” next. I’ll just pull up the song I want to hear right now on my phone. Radio can’t compete with that. 

If I’m tuning into my local urban station, I’m there for Kendrick Lamar and Future. Even local personalities just feel like they are in the way. I don’t want that interrupted with a story about someone’s day.

Talk formats are going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting for companies that own more stations than they can afford to effectively operate. Shouldn’t the business think differently now that the goals and expectations for its stations are different?

Don Martin, EVP of programming for iHeartMedia Sports, has a proverbial doctorate in the basics of this business. He’s always been bullish on producers. He says there is nothing a station can do that is more important than “hiring damn good producers.”

That has to be where this revolution starts. Bayer is still assigning team leads for every project. Isn’t that what a producer is in radio? In a business where everyone is trying to stand out, doesn’t it make sense to have someone with the express task of making his or her show sound the very best it can? Why can’t we empower producers to do some of a program director’s talent coaching tasks? Why can’t the producer be the one fighting for and explaining the show to sales? 

Anderson’s vision for Bayer is built on two observations he made after conversations with employees across multiple divisions. First, even the people lowest on the corporate totem poll are capable of being responsible for themselves. They do it every day in multiple areas of their lives outside the office. Second, people and situations standing between a person and their goal is what causes burn out. Trusting people and eliminating some of the bodies standing over their shoulders should lead to better output.

It’s not an idea that will work at every sports station right now, and there are plenty of truly talented programmers – people like Rick Radzik, Chris Kinard, Ryan Haney and others that have a clear vision and a plan to execute it.

But there are also plenty of examples where this makes sense. Al Dukes has worked behind the scenes keeping Boomer & Gio on track for years. Why does WFAN need to give him a new boss to report to? Matt Moscona is the program director of 104.5 ESPN in Baton Rouge and the host of a popular, regionally syndicated afternoon show. Can he really give both jobs all of his attention all the time?

Right now, 40,000 Bayer employees are working under what Anderson calls “dynamic shared ownership.” It’s a new way of thinking about restructuring – don’t just cut salaries, cut barriers. He trusts this new idea can lead his company to a brighter future, but he isn’t unrealistic about what the process will look like.

“The first go round, it’ll be a little messy, but that’s okay because the thing is, the thing we’re comparing to is a system that doesn’t work very well,” he told Chip Cutter of The Wall Street Journal. 

I’m not the first person, nor will I be the last, you hear say that radio is at a critical juncture and there is a lot about the business that the people at the top are going to have to rethink in order to secure a better future. Our business has become too risk averse in recent years. Big companies rely on cookie cutter decisions across multiple markets to shape clocks, promotions and content. “If it worked in Buffalo, why shouldn’t it work in Miami, right?” Growing pains are seen as signs of failure and justification for avoiding innovation.

Bill Anderson’s approach to management is one that still has some rough edges right now. As radio and other industries try to figure out if it can work for them, there will undoubtedly be a few stumbles. Maybe eliminating program directors is an idea that is just flat out foolish, but if eliminating them forces us to think about how we can make our shows sound better and how we can get the best work out of skilled, creative people, isn’t it something radio has to consider?

Demetri Ravanos

Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.

You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.