GaryAllyn's RadiOpinion

      THE MEDIA MORASS-WHEN MORE IS LESS


The trend is clear, the die is cast. Corporate media is growing bigger and bigger each day. Is this
a good thing?  There are many who say "No"! More, does not necessarily lead to more revenue or
larger ratings numbers. In areas such as interior design, it's accepted that "Less" is generally "More".
Not so for the Media. Corporate takeovers usually result in staff members being eliminated and
melded into one small staff to do the work of what may have been several media entities in a market.


When a corporate giant merges what was once several entities, they normally eliminate up to 80%
of the total staff members it took to run them separately. Makes good business sense they say. Yes,
good for them, not so good for the industry. It's been estimated that more than 35,000 jobs have
been eliminated in just the last few years. Forbes magazine put out a list of the "Bottom" five jobs
in the marketplace, and Broadcasting was in that dubious grouping. Thanks to de-regulation, what
was once a good paying profession, has now been driven to the dregs of the societal workplace.
Now, for some unknown reason, the FCC has released 750 more low power licenses. I guess the
Federal Radio folks won't be happy until all of the dial positions and frequencies will be in use.
No more room, and no more people coming in to run them. A sorry looking future as I see it.


Remember when there used to be three hour radio shifts? When there used to be six to eight D.J's
or announcers on a radio station? Now, these have been replaced with "Voice Trackers" doing most
of the work of many. To me...this is going from more to less in a big way. Having several stations
in one building also reduces internal sales, traffic, and management people needed. This media
centralization has led to de-localization as well. What was once more...is now less. Much less.


Just read last week that USA Today(Gannett) plans to merge with another large  chain of almost
120 newspapers. Look for the same condensing of personnel. Again, more outlets run by fewer
people..thus less human contact. The listening and news reading public is the loser in each and
every local area served by these centralized power grabbers. But they are finding out that more
entities don't lead to higher numbers in either their ratings OR their corporate bank accounts.
AND, in the local marketplace, people are finding out that they're definitely getting Less from
what they perceive is MORE...more intrusion into their lives from afar. MORE intrusion from a
large power structure can be expected to offer LESS. As for our government officials? Well they
are "more or less" disinterested.  That's my RadiOpinion...what's yours?