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Nobody is safe.
Okay, we’ve known that all along, but we – radio people – have tried to remain optimistic. We told ourselves that we matter, that nothing can replace the engagement, community connection, and intimacy that a human radio personality can provide. We’ve insisted that radio’s chief strategic advantage is its local nature, that if we talk about local topics and local news and local weather and local everything, we win. We’ve almost convinced ourselves that the corporate overlords and private equity investors understand that.
Oh, well.
Last week’s layoffs and departures, and others over the past few months, included some people who were previously thought of as irreplaceable. Veterans all, pillars of the industry, the last people you’d think would be swept out the door, now gone. Stations thought too big and revenue-rich to be affected were indeed included in the carnage. If Audacy leasing out WCBS wasn’t enough of a shock, KFI tossing one of its keys to success – most of its local news department – speaks volumes about what’s coming.
It’s not good, at least for people working in radio.
Say it works. Say regionalizing programming works. You don’t need local hosts, local news, a local studio, just a contract engineer in case the transmitter blows. Hey, it works for EMF, right? What about AI? You can have radio programming, scheduling, even sales untouched by human hands. Efficiency! Expenses approaching zero! If you ran a radio company, you’d want that, too, as long as it didn’t involve replacing YOU.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve tried to maintain optimism about the radio industry despite it all. I’ve written about things radio can do that other media can’t replicate (at least as well), how podcasting might be a lifeline for the industry, how radio still has ubiquity and community going for it, how a breakout personality could still change the industry’s trajectory. I’m not all that optimistic anymore.
That tracks with the decline of radio as a glamour industry. Howard Stern used to call radio “the lowest rung of show business,” but at least it WAS show business. Now, it’s… I don’t know, a vessel for music and talk that you can get elsewhere in more consumer-friendly ways (customized, time-shifted, on the device in your pocket). Having a radio show is nothing special anymore when it seems like everyone has a podcast. Tell someone you meet that you’re in radio and they’ll shrug and move on as if you told them you work the drive-thru at Culver’s.
And that’s why I wonder whether it’s fixable. The owners think that the only fix is to reduce expenses by eliminating positions (that’s corporate-speak for firing human beings) to eke out a profit each quarter and keep the investors at least silent for another few months. They can’t do that forever, because companies can’t slash their way to success. It’s kicking the can down the road the same way they always have, cutting jobs and refinancing but never really explaining the end game.
Okay, you’ve fired every local staffer, reduced programming and marketing to a small national or regional crew, closed or leased your AMs, sold your real estate and towers… what then? Because that’s not going to improve the product, unless radio is no longer your product. Maybe you’re now really just a live events producer, which should be interesting if the radio stations you once used to promote the concerts aren’t good at that anymore. Let’s see how many labels and managers are willing to let you have their artists for free if you don’t have anything of value to offer them.
Or maybe someone will come along, acquire stations without incurring too much debt, and operate them with a focus on local service and actual human staff on hand to create community and engagement. After all, how many times can a company declare bankruptcy before creditors realize they probably need to do something different? In the meantime, though, for anyone whose career is in radio, take the hint from the wave of layoffs: your future may have to be in another business. Good thing that there’s life after radio. You might even like it more.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
