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Clear
Channel clueless about what listeners
want
Austin
Lewis
The
largest radio broad cast company in the
United States, Clear Channel Communications,
announced Monday that 15 percent more
listeners are tuning in to Clear Channel-owned
radio stations in the top 25 radio markets
in the country compared to last year.
The next day, Clear Channel issued a press release reporting its profits had
fallen 13 percent in three months.
According to Clear Channel, the losses are a result of their “Less Is
More” program. Introduced at the beginning of this year, the program’s
purpose is to decrease commercial airtime on Clear Channel stations in order
to attract more listeners.
Just what, exactly, is Clear Channel’s real goal here? Losing money won’t
do the company any good in the long run. Clear Channel will either have to
increase commercial airtime once its listening audience grows, or it will have
to start charging advertisers more money for less airtime.
Both of these options are in the best interest of Clear Channel, not the public.
Airwaves have long been considered a public resource, so Clear Channel should
act in the public’s interest.
“Less Is More” is not enough. As a popular (albeit fictional) radio
personality, Frasier Crane, once said, “If less is more, just think of
how much more ‘more’ will be.”
Clear Channel needs to change with the times. The company seems to think the
length of its commercial breaks is the problem, but is it really? What about
the watered-down Clear Channel-provided play lists local disc jockeys are forced
to follow while on the air?
Can a company that owns roughly 1,200 radio stations across the United States
really keep track of what certain listeners in individual markets want to hear?
The music world is different today than it was nearly a decade ago when the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, deregulating media companies and
allowing Clear Channel to grow to its current size.
Today, music fans are their own disc jockeys. Downloading music — both
legally and illegally — allows people to seek out only the songs they
want to hear. If that’s not enough, people can take these songs by the
thousands and load them onto a portable MP3 player, effectively carrying their
entire music collection with them wherever they go.
Now that music is more portable and accessible than it used to be, people no
longer need to rely on radio stations to hear the songs they want to hear.
Clear Channel’s recent move to reduce commercial airtime may have attracted
some new listeners, but they won’t stick around for long.
People might not be listening to the radio as often as they used to, but the
popularity of portable MP3 players has shown that people definitely haven’t
stopped listening to music.
Clear Channel needs to change.
The company doesn’t understand that today’s listeners want to be
involved with the music they listen to. Others get it — and have been
getting it — for several years now. The best example is Jim Ladd, who
has been a radio legend in Southern California ever since his first broadcast
in 1969.
He is best known for his unique style of free-form radio. Just as his audience
listens to the music he plays, he listens to the requests of what they want
to hear; he follows no corporate play lists, and his show works.
His refusal follow a play list has at times left him without a job, but for
the last eight years he has been on air at 95.5 KLOS-FM. He currently brings
his listeners free-form radio every weeknight from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Jim Ladd listens to his listeners — maybe Clear Channel should as well.
Austin Lewis is a fifth-year print journalism major and the managing editor
of the Daily Forty-Niner. |
