What’s up with WJBO? That’s the question a lot of loyal listeners of the AM talk-radio station want answered. High-profile afternoon drive-time host Bill Profita is gone. Popular morning-show host Matt Kennedy has resigned as program director, though he continues his AM gig behind the mike, and there are lots more commercials than there were before.
The short answer is that the local Clear Channel Communications station is responding to corporate pressures to cut costs and increase revenues. The long answer, however, makes you wonder if station brass has any idea what they’re doing.
Since Profita signed off in late April, someone different has hosted the 5-7 p.m. show every week. First, it was Richard Condon, the afternoon drive-time host from sports-talk station WSKR-AM. Then it was John Osterlind, whose program was simulcast from New Orleans sister station WRNO-FM.
“We wanted to try it,” Clear Channel’s local general manager, Dick Lewis, says of the decision to air a New Orleans show on Baton Rouge radio. “But the two cities are still distinct enough for talk radio they need to be more focused.”
Former insurance commissioner-turned-pundit and blogger Jim Brown also has been filling in. He’s a regular substitute on the station and has his own weekend talk show on WRNO. While he’s naturally gifted on the air, his federal conviction for lying to the FBI might preclude him from permanently getting the gig.
Lewis says the station is still trying to find the “right fit” to replace Profita and hopes to have the position filled by the end of this month. He also says he’s had lots of interest and isn’t worried about losing listeners during the transition.
Perhaps he should be. The carousel of afternoon talk-show hosts and the layoffs that precipitated it are outward manifestations of the inward turmoil San Antonio, Texas-based corporate parent Clear Channel is going through. It’s not a good time to be a station in that family, and there are five here locally—FM stations WFMF, WYNK and KRVE and AM stations WJBO and WSKR.
Consider, for instance, that Clear Channel stations nationwide are now airing as many as 11 consecutive commercials twice each hour, according to the national trade press. A casual listen to any Clear Channel station confirms that’s the case locally as well.
Now, 11 commercials on average amounts to anywhere from four to seven minutes of paid air time—way more than is considered typical or prudent in the industry. In recent years, research has shown that airing fewer, shorter commercials is a more effective way to reach your audience. Clear Channel itself was big on that concept with the “Less is More” ad campaign it unveiled in 2005 and has promoted heavily for the past several years.
Clear Channel executives did not respond to requests for comment but local advertisers are not happy with the situation, especially when their spots air at the end of an 11-segment rotation. Listeners no doubt dislike it as well. The question is whether the next book of Arbitron ratings will reflect their displeasure and trigger yet another change.
Advocate lays off 49
Another media outlet experiencing turmoil is The Advocate, which late last month laid off 49 employees. The layoffs didn’t come as a surprise; earlier this year, the daily newspaper had implemented several cost-cutting measures that, at the time, were seen as delaying the inevitable.
Still, that didn’t make it any easier on the approximately 10% of employees who were let go, some after years on the job. For two days, the staff was on pins and needles; layoffs were announced on a Tuesday, but the affected individuals didn’t get their pink slips, two weeks of severance pay and a box to clean out their desks until that Thursday.
For those left behind—which includes most editors—there might have been silent sighs of relief. But no one is celebrating. Morale is low, and fears are persistent that another round of layoffs is in the offing.
How The Advocate ultimately handles the painful realities of a changing landscape remains to be seen. It’s a situation newspapers around the country are facing. Ultimately, a new model of viable journalism will emerge, but the transition is painful for those in the industry and also for the readers.
