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Author Topic: Clear Channel lays off 9% (1850) of its employees Josh Jones Redhat Posts: 1207 From: Plano, TX Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-21-2009 09:08 PM                        clicky By R&R Staff As expected, across the board cuts at Clear Channel have begun. R Dub!, an 11-year CC vet, exits as PD of rhythmic AC KHHT (Hot 92.3). Dub!, the creator of Sunday Night Slow Jams, has a place in Brazil, and caught a red-eye there Monday night (Jan. 19). He checked in from his layover in Panama: "Now I pursue my dream of living in Brazil and working on Slow Jams fulltime," he says. "I'm happy to have had the experience, and I leave with so much more knowledge than I had two years ago when I arrived in L.A." Dub!, who previously programmed KOHT/Tucson, can be accessed at rdub520@yahoo.com or rdub@slowjams.com. Louis Kaplan, OM of CC's nine-station cluster in Ft. Myers and nearby Punta Gorda, exits after just over two years. Kaplan was also PD of smooth jazz WZJZ. His previous notable PD stops include five years at KLLC/San Francisco, four years at CC's WLTM/Atlanta, four years at WGTZ/Dayton, and the late, great WYHY (Y107)/Nashville. He can be reached at 239-362-2202 or loukaps2@aol.com. Elsewhere, senior VP of programming for news/talk/sports Gabe Hobbs exits. Hobbs tells R&R his positions as brand manager for news, talk and sports and AM operations person for the Tampa cluster have both been eliminated. Hobbs has been with the company for 25 years, of which 20 were in news/talk. Reach out to Hobbs at pad970@aol.com. Clear Channel/Columbus, Ga., OM Brian Waters has also left the building, along with several sales people. Waters started there in 1994 as PD of WVRK (Rock 103) and worked his way up the ladder, spending the last 14 years as OM of 16 stations in Columbus as well as neighboring Albany and Newnan, Ga. He can be reached at 706-596-9526 or briandwaters@yahoo.com. Diego Ramos, morning co-host/stunt dude at WIOQ (Q102)/Philly is also out. Ironically, he was the lone survivor of the station's last morning show purge that took out Chris Booker. He can be found at diegoatq@aol.com. After several years at CC hot AC KDMX (Mix 102.9)/Dallas, MD/midday goddess Lisa Thomas and morning ringmaster Tony Zazza have both exited. Thomas, who was a nominee for R&R MD of the Year, can be reached at marylisathomas1986@yahoo.com. Zazza can be found at tony.zazza@verizon.net or 214-448-1029. Dave Osborne, online PD for the company's Portland, Ore., cluster is also out. Osborne, who was with the company for 13 years, was also working on national projects for CC and had done online work for KIIS/Los Angeles and WHTZ (Z100)/New York. Hit him up at superdaveosborne@gmail.com or 503-244-8274. Clear Channel/Atlanta imaging director Adam Schneider, who handled rock WKLS (Project 9-6-1) and country WUBL (94-9 The Bull), has also left the building. He can be accessed at adam961@gmail.com or 617-407-7760. Classic hits KLOU/St. Louis PD John Matthews is out. Matthews previously spent more than six years programming KGMZ/Honolulu and can be reached at johnmatthews1079@yahoo.com. John Sterling, general sales manager for Clear Channel/Fresno, exits. He has held positions as director of sales and GM during his 24-year career. He can be reached at js101991@aol.com or 559-246-6562. Peter Kaufman exits as Clear Channel/Charleston, S.C., production director after two years with the cluster. Access him at pkaufman@charlestonlaw.edu. If you have been affected by the cutbacks and would like to share your contact information, please contact R&R at newsroom@radioandrecords.com. Please include your most recent position, your e-mail address and a phone number where you can be reached.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-21-2009 09:17 PM                        I'm surprised Clear Channel has that many PDs and so on....I thought their whole operation was run by computers. Well, maybe it will be in the future. If I had an employee by the name of "R-Dub!" I'd look for a way to fire him.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 01-21-2009 09:19 PM                        9% of their staff is 1850 people? How do they employ over 19,000 individuals in the first place? It's radio! What do all of those people do? Even Warner Bros 10% figure is only 800 peeps, and you know they need more people to do whatever it is that they do.  |  IP: Logged Josh Jones Redhat Posts: 1207 From: Plano, TX Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-21-2009 09:29 PM                        They have people in other avenues of advertising as well, such as billboards and print media. The radio side includes not only on air people, but also engineering, management, PR types, as well as administrative people. Quite the conglomerate. They also have a nasty habit of firing most of the on air staff and PD's when a station switches formats, which at least at home, was about or more often that they change their underwear. JJ  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 01-21-2009 09:49 PM                  Clear Channel deserves to fail...although I cannot understand how... especially if KFI-AM 640 here in L.A. is an example of their biz philosophy. They have 35+ minutes of commercials an hour and minimal program material.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-21-2009 09:56 PM                        Agreed with Mike--I thought that much of CC's radio operation was automated and not so dependent upon local "talent." Having said that, isn't it fairly common in that industry for on-air personalities to change stations frequently? Presumably, Mr. R-Dub would not be interested in continuing in his position if his station changed to, say, a classical music or political talk format. In the Boston market, I know of only one station (WFNX) which produces 100% of its programming locally. To my knowledge, all of the others are at least somewhat dependent upon syndicated programming. There are four CC stations in the Boston area: a hip-hop station, a "Kiss-FM" top-40 station, and two Spanish-language AM stations.  |  IP: Logged Josh Jones Redhat Posts: 1207 From: Plano, TX Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-21-2009 10:11 PM                        Very few stations coast to coast are void of some form of a warm body in the studio. Voicetracking has changed how many hours on air staff have to spend in the studio. A typical 4 hour shift can be tracked in about 30 minutes. Cybertracking is a reality, but not that widely used. Cybertracking is where a DJ in one market can record his shift in his home studio or some other local facility, and have it air in a different market. Usual dead givaways include local points of interest and names that are common to the public that are mispronounced. The main issue I have is the "instant gratification" attitude most management types take toward format changes. They expect instant success or failure, but in reality it takes time to build a solid audience. Most of the stations I have worked for have had their same formats for a decade or more and performed consistanly well in the ratings books. By promoting a "revolving door" of formats also makes people hesitant to frequent a station because they feel if they begin to like it, it will change shortly. Clear Channel seems to be the worst in this regard. JJ  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-21-2009 10:50 PM                     Clear Channel used to own three radio stations here in Lawton, but sold them to another company a couple of years ago. Since then, IMHO, the quality of music as those stations has improved. When Clear Channel had them it seemed like they played the same dozen songs over and over and over and over and over again. And if that wasn't enough they would play those songs even more. Clear Channel has been in the billboard business, but I thought they had or are currently in the process of selling off all those boards to outfits like Lamar, Viacom, Kelleher and others in the "out of home" advertising business.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-21-2009 11:01 PM                        quote: Phil Hill KFI-AM 640 When the hell did KFI turn to the dark side??!! One of Cumulus Media's Eugene stations (KZEL 96.1 FM) dumped most of their canned syndicated stuff about a year ago. The syndicated shows were just not working at all here and the station almost went under due to lack of advertisers and zero ratings. They revamped their format, mixing old and new now (rock) and they're "Live and Local" with local personalities most of the time, very little syndicated material. They seem to be doing a lot better. I stlll greatly prefer the local touch in radio, even if it has to include advertising. Oh yeah, they also went "HD".  |  IP: Logged Josh Jones Redhat Posts: 1207 From: Plano, TX Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-22-2009 01:40 AM                        Ah, surely you mean "high distortion"  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 01-22-2009 03:18 AM                     Bobby, The company that bought the CC stations in your area also bought the ones here in Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene and various places around. They are known as Gap Broadcasting, which is based in Dallas (though they own NO stations in Dallas.) My manager is friends with one of their ad reps, and she admits Gap is better to work for than CC. And to think, CC originally started at WOAI in San Antonio... HD Radio, like digital cinema, is not the draw that the owners had hoped for. Several AM stations that went HD has disconnected it as it distorts their analog signal. Only one station in Lubbock is HD, and it's KOHM, which is owned by Texas Tech , plays classical music and is an NPR affiliate.  |  IP: Logged Joshua Waaland Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: Cleveland, Ohio Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-22-2009 06:50 AM                     We have a radio personality here in Cleveland that used to be at a non Clear Channel station. His name is Rover and he has a group of idiots with him every morning. About the only thing that bothers me more than the retarded things things they talk about is his lisp. I know it's not his fault but how does a person with a speech impetement work in radio anyhow? The show is broadcast to many major cities. In fact, they moved to Chicago for a while but then moved back. They used to be at a non Clear Channel station 92.3 but then switched recently to Clear Channel station 100.7 WMMS The Buzzard. WMMS is well known in these parts and has a very long history here for playing harder rock and roll. I always liked WMMS until he switched over. Now I listen to 92.3 the station he left. I was flipping through the other day and heard Rover bagging on his old station 92.3 and saying that the station is going under and they aren't putting any money into it. Well since he left 92.3 has went to being computer run with no dj's and the programming is fantastic. Hardly any ads and the ones that are on it are short. I listen to it more now than I ever listened to WMMS. The playlist is mostly 90's rock which is my favorite anyways and I don't have to listen to some moronic dj talking about what they did over the weekend or how their last bowel movement was black. I have never liked the whole shock jock thing and thought it was stupid. It doesn't take talent to be a shock jock. Rover has a muscle bound guy named Dieter on his show that is totally stupid. Every Friday they do a bit called dare Dieter. He has eaten live tarantulas, eaten placentas, shocked his balls, jousted on bicycles with cattle prods. The guy is a total moron.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-22-2009 08:52 AM                     quote: James Westbrook HD Radio, like digital cinema, is not the draw that the owners had hoped for. Several AM stations that went HD has disconnected it as it distorts their analog signal. Here in Lawton, Cameron University has the only "HD Digital Radio" broadcast in town (KCCU-FM). Others have considered using the technology, but never moved to adopt it. Overall, HD Digital Radio is a poorly marketed product -starting with the ridiculously misleading brand name itself. People tune in expecting to hear better-than-CD quality digital audio to justify that "high def" name but instead hear audio that doesn't even measure up to the swirling, tinny and metallic sound you get with Sirius and XM. HD Digital Radio operates at bit rates as low or even lower than Sirius and XM while using a compression codec that is not as good as what the satellite carriers use. At least Sirius and XM stressed the angles of variety, uncensored music and commercial free music as marketing points rather than implying they delivered better than CD quality audio.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-22-2009 09:10 AM                     Anybody who works in the on air side of broadcasting knows it not whether but when they'll get fired, even top personalities with good ratings get canned, usually when they come in in for the day or as soon as they close the mike at the end of their show. A while back though a radio personality here was fired on air and they new guy took over.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-22-2009 09:37 AM                        quote: Bobby Henderson swirling, tinny and metallic sound you get with Sirius and XM.  |  IP: Logged

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