Webmaster’s Corner for May 20, 2010

Well, the weather’s warming up nicely just a week away from the start of Summer and a picture from one of my many Radio Station gigs in Winter seems nice in the 85 degree weather.

Its been a while since I wrote about the state of Radio but I had a few thoughts about things after reading many posts on Facebook recently.

You know, about a year ago, I wrote a blog in which I said that you don’t need Facebook or any social media, for that matter. I’ve since found that it’s not only a good thing to use Facebook, it’s damn near essential for any air talent to even get looked at by potential employers. But beware, what you post and what employers can dig up on you can be either an asset or detriment. And remember that your privacy is most important, and its all too easy to give out too much information for your own good. So as all the experts say in so many instances… let the user beware.

I’ve been thinking about the state of our economy lately. I started paying attention again when the Dow dropped nearly 1,000 points last week. Scary thought, and I had backed off watching the various business channels because it was raising my blood pressure. However, I’ve taken a liking to Bloomberg Eleven Three Oh (WBBR New York) due to their comprehensive and relatively balanced reporting on Wall Street. What I hear really alarms me. For instance, today, they featured a guy from WSJ Accounting (or something close… ) who said that the next correction right around the corner won’t be in the hundreds of points lost in one day, but thousands.

Thinking about things logically, with our US Dollar pretty strong, one would think that we should continue in recovery. I don’t believe that thinking however. There are too many negatives weighing in on the economy to sustain further growth. First off, today (5/10/10), the unemployment report from the government came out and showed that we lost 25,000 jobs in the previous quarter, when Wall Street was expecting a jobs gain. Not good. European markets are in a deep slide as they try to bail out Greece and it’s failed economy. Then, there’s the Euro. Once thought to eclipse the US Dollar as THE world currency, the Euro is faltering and may completely collapse. European Debt is out of control and in many ways, things are really far worse than they were in the Fall of ’08 at the height of the US Bank failures and subsequent government bailout. Then, there’s the run on Gold that’s taken hold. While Gold didn’t rise much in ’08, it’s gone through the roof, currently over $1,200 an ounce as investors run from risk for the safety of precious metals (we saw this in 1929 after the stock market crash). Runaway inflation surely can’t be far behind, although the only thing that’s saved us from it has been the aforementioned crash of the Euro. With other currencies in worse shape than the Dollar, even with the Federal Reserve printing money at a record rate (thus devaluing the currency), its still leaving the Dollar stronger than other world currencies. One day, world markets are going to realize that the US Dollar isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and that’s when inflation will hit us in ernest. Till then, we’ll have our problems but we should be able to weather the economic storm collectively.

Where does that leave the Radio industry? Well, it’s a mixed bag. Some companies, the ones who didn’t lay off a lot of talented people, are in a great position to recover this year, providing we don’t have a second market Crash. Others, who will remain nameless, who laid off a lot of talent, will have a more difficult time. It wasn’t just talent that was fired in these cases, often, good sales reps were thrown out with the bathwater in the process.

Someone asked me recently, “how do you get into the radio industry”? My response was basically, “Why do you want to do that?” I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. After all, if you get into a line of work because you love it, shouldn’t that be more important than how much money you make? If you’re single, the answer is probably, yes. Married folks should think twice about a radio career, unless they are prime morning talent worth 6 figures. Because the disparity in pay is a great cavern, as wide as the Grand Canyon. Either you’re in the 6 figure club or you’re scratching at 25,000 – barely above the poverty level. That’s not a great choice but it’s reality.

One doesn’t really know for sure how the economy is going to fare by the end of the year, but it’s late in May, and the stock market has already erased all it’s gains for the year. And broadcasters still have far lower levels of revenue to deal with not to mention the fight to not have to pay royalties to the recording industry, ingrates as they are. My advise to you unemployed radio people: find a REAL job unless you’re THAT good. Do radio part time just to stay in it. Your dependents will thank you for it.

Steve West
Webmaster