When Jason Goff told his podcast listeners that he would not be joining 670 The Score, he said something that genuinely made me furious. Audacy, The Score’s parent company made its position clear to Goff. If he wanted to be on their radio station, he would have to work only for them. His podcast on The Ringer would have to come to an end.
Audacy isn’t alone. Plenty of radio companies demand their talent work only for them. It’s spelled out in their contracts.
“It’s an old-school way of doing things that I can respect,” Goff said on the most recent episode of The Full Go. “Business is business.”
Well, I respect that Goff can respect doing business in an old-school way, but I’m sorry, I can’t. This isn’t the time for radio to be proudly out of touch with reality.
The medium is trying to figure out where it’s going to find its next generation of listeners. Now is the time to re-evaluate what matters and what we’re doing just because it’s the way we’ve always done it.
This is an issue that Barrett Media has talked about and asked about for years. If a radio station sees a difference maker that can grow and retain an audience, why aren’t station and company leaders exhausting every option to get those stars on their airwaves instead of making take-it-or-leave-it offers?
ESPN decided it needed more stars, so the network got creative, signing non-exclusive deals with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, Shannon Sharpe, and Monica McNutt among others. It allowed Stephen A. Smith to seek out his own podcasting deal. To make its biggest splash, it completely broke tradition to find a way to bring Pat McAfee into the fold.
Not every radio company or leader in the business is so close-minded but over and over again, we see this play out. While ESPN is trying to figure out how to give people making millions what they need to feel valued, radio is making sure it completely controls people making a single-digit percentage of that, shutting off their ability to supplement meager incomes by doing what they do best.
It sucks, but it makes sense that if revenues are down, then salaries will be down too. But too often, lower salaries are presented as something hosts and producers just have to accept.
That attitude is going to drive talented people out of the industry. The best-case scenario is radio loses great content. The worst-case scenario is those talented people realize that with just a few loyal sponsors and the ability to pursue other opportunities, they can make as much or more on their own than they did being locked into a restrictive contract.
I do understand Audacy’s point of view. If Goff’s audience could still find him on The Full Go, what incentive would those people have to listen to him on 670 The Score?
I just don’t think it’s good business. Hell, that attitude is the polar opposite of what we say defines stars in the radio business. If Audacy sees value in bringing Jason Goff back to The Score, it’s at least in part because they believe he has an audience that will follow him anywhere.
Keep in mind that the stories that get the most attention are in major markets. Even if Jason Goff didn’t think Audacy’s offer was good enough, there are people in much smaller markets who would kill to have his paycheck. The salary range Meruelo Media is advertising for KLOS’s afternoon opening drew mockery from the Los Angeles Daily News, but $70-90K per year is unimaginable to someone in a market outside the top 50.
That isn’t me saying that Goff or candidates for the LA job should shut up and be thankful. That’s me saying that if these companies are willing to short-change talent in markets where you have to make 90 grand per year just to afford an apartment, imagine how little they are asking their talent in smaller markets to sell their souls for.
Audacy isn’t alone. I know people who have turned down offers or had negotiations fall apart with Cumulus, iHeart, and multiple locally owned companies because the amount of money being offered and the restrictions put on their ability to make more money by making great content meant they would be changing jobs or relocating for a paycheck that wouldn’t be enough to keep them from having to deliver Door Dash orders or drive for Uber when they weren’t on the air.
How do leaders of this industry’s biggest companies think that is okay? How are they not embarrassed by the thought of one of their anchor personalities delivering pizza to listeners or even right to a competitor’s front door? I know someone that happened to. How do they expect the industry to survive if this is the norm?
Radio isn’t special. That has nothing to do with fewer people regularly listening to the radio or the rising popularity of various forms of digital media. No format is inherently special. Content is what is special.
It’s never been easier to create your own content and get the reps you need to be a viable option for a radio opening, but honestly, that radio opening may not mean anything to the people finding the most success in that way. Why is radio still operating with so much arrogance?
As a generation for whom radio has never been top of mind comes of age, why wouldn’t radio companies bend their own made-up rules to make sure nothing gets in the way of securing content special enough for anyone to seek out?
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.
