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Webmaster’s Corner

May 9, 2008

Time once again for my once every so often rant about something other than radio. But there’s so much to rant about, where to begin…

I’m certainly not an oil expert, just a lowly radio dj, but I have watched very closely what’s going on with the stock market and energy prices. I, like so many of you, am watching in horror, as gasoline prices go through the roof. It’s officially $4.00 a gallon here in southwest Connecticut, even more in and around New York City. Back in January when I was commuting to my radio job in northern Massachusetts, gas was sitting at $2.75. Its only been 5 months since then and gas has increased so much that I could never have afforded to commute… at only 10.00 bucks an hour. Its concievable that prices, in my opinion, could be double what they were at the start of the year by July 4th.

There’s so much speculation by the so-called experts as to where gas and oil prices will be by the end of the year. I’m going to give you my amateur opinion as to where things are headed. Bear in mind, I’ve never been to Wall Street… but as a news anchor and reporter, I’ve had good reason to do my research, and what I’ve figured out about what’s happening is really frightening, and reason to make me angry. It should you, too.

There are many factors affecting the price of oil. Supply and demand, with China just NOW becoming a technologically advanced nation with a lot of automobile useage (they’re communists, right?), and plenty of more developing nations turning into new car users. So, oil & gas are in short supply around the world. Supply made even shorter by the Iraq war and far less oil being produced in that region than before the U.S. invasion. That’s one factor. Another, more important by far, is the increasingly decreasing value of the U.S. dollar. The dollar is the currency that oil is traded in around the world, and as the dollar decreases in value, the price of oil goes up. Well, gang, each day the dollar is dropping amongst the worlds major currencies by leaps and bounds, fueled in large part due to the Federal Reserve’s lowering of the prime lending rate. With interest rates so low, there’s nothing to keep the dollar from being worth much of anything. And why did the Fed drop rates? To try and prop up the U.S. stock market so that investors wouldn’t loose their shirt over the housing bubble burst, which was caused by the bubble which was caused by the LAST round of insane interest rate cuts by former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan.

I know, I’m confusing many of you but here’s the gist of the matter. Oil and gas prices are not and can not drop until the US Dollar begins to rise in value against other currencies. We need to pay down our national debt, stop cutting taxes for the filthy rich and most of all, the Fed needs to raise interest rates about 5 percent to get things back to where they were at the turn of the decade. True, the Fed said that the last rate cut was probably the last, but who knows what they’ll do.

I’ll tell you this. I don’t care what expert spews out that he thinks gas prices will drop by the end of the year, he’s full of bull. Gas is going to $6.00 a gallon by Labor Day and this is a PERMANENT rise, unless the prime lending rate goes up and something is done to prop up the Dollar, that in conjunction with a withdrawl from Iraq and increased oil production around the world.

If that’s not scary enough, imagine what will happen if the oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico are wiped out by another hurricane this Summer? I don’t even want to think about it. I’ll say this much, I don’t know how I’ll heat this home next winter… and I’m not the only one in that boat.

Theres one difference between this gas crisis and the one in 1974. Back then, the middle class, and even the poor, were far better off financially than we are today. If my prediction comes true, we’re looking at a horrible tragedy brewing for those who are low income folks. If you are a believer in any fashion… pray.

The Republicans must be defeated in this upcoming election AT ALL COSTS. This really is their fault and their support for the filthy rotten rich oil executives who cried poverty to get tax breaks, but made more profits off the backs of the rest of us than any company in all of world history. They should be strung up… but thats a discussion for another time.

God bless you all.

Steve West

April 13, 2008

Each month, we’ll have a fundraising goal for those who wish to contribute any amount, to assist in website costs. For the time being, I’ve set the goal at $100.00 per month. If you frequent this site and enjoy what you hear, why not help support it?

Donators (so far) for the month of April:

Pam - Oklahoma

Thanks!

March 4, 2008

EDITORIAL

The news dated March 3 on the website of Radio and Records tells a huge story. “Citadel Cutbacks Continue“…
This is a sad story indeed, but not just for stations of the formerly-great ABC, inc.. Its an indication, the barometer, so to speak, of the state of the industry as a whole.

If you’re a radio person who still loves this business, I have to ask you? Why haven’t you sought medical attention for this mental condition? Literally, I have to wonder why any of us would take the plunge when I see the implosion of our radio industry before my very eyes. What do you mean?, you’re probably thinking. Let me tell you a story of a small broadcasting company and what I took from my short stay in the building. I’m not going to tell you a story about sour grapes, because there are none. I want to give you an objective look at what I saw and thought about one company, Northeast broadcasting, and how I think this bodes for the rest of the radio industry.

One day after the New Hampsire primary in January found me in a hot, stuffy conference room at a major hotel in Manchester, as the staff of the Democratic candidates and the general news media including FOX News and CNN were packing up and leaving. Gathered were the various program directors of our stations in Burlington VT and Boston, me and my little cluster in Gardner MA, the VP of programming and the company’s director of operations. The main focus on the meeting was to discuss ways that the company could improve the way it does business, specifically, how to fight the onslaught of internet radio, the company’s new website initiative and what the company president felt was the main issue facing radio today.

I came away from that meeting, which I can’t make specific quotes about here, with a confirmation of everything I’d suspected about the state of radio today. Mainly that, among other things, it’s become almost impossible to turn a profit, given competition from the internet, advertisers seeking to find new and better ways of peddling their wares in new emerging and alternative media, and the ever-increasing cost of simply maintaining radio stations.

Folks, you must understand whats happening here. Our radio audience is evaporating. Radio is no longer relevant to persons under 25. Maybe I should capitalize that. There’s no new blood listening to our radio stations. The very kids who are supposed to be radio’s P1 listeners at revenue heavy AC’ish stations will NOT be there when they get into the 25-54 adult demo. CHR is already feeling the effect of this. Add to it the fact that agencies simply will NOT buy radio anymore, except for News/Talk above age 50. They feel that those listeners are no longer purchasing anything substantial, thus, why waste their time.

But it’s not just those formats. Radio listening is down some 14% in just two years, a trend that’s been increasing every year since 2000. Why is that? Ask yourself that question. Better yet, go ask your kids where they listen to music. As if you didn’t already know, the music is on Myspace, AOL, Yahoo, and illegal downloading via the various file swapping services.

So, the audience is going somewhere else, and the advertising is drying up. You tell me where we’re going to be in radio in another 5 years. Better yet, how about the next year? Surely, this is a self-eating cycle. The audience went away because radio became bland, lost its cutting edge with respect to the music (who actually BREAKS new songs/artists these days, eh?), and the dirt cheap no-talent that radio has on the air today doesn’t excite ANYONE.

When one person is hired to maintain, image and voicetrack five radio stations, two of which are satellite fed, one could argue that it’s hard to get passionate about one’s work. Add to that, a shortage of engineers, whom stations don’t want to pay crap for, even though its the engineers who keep the stations on the air, the satellite receivers in working order, etc… and you might figure out that there’s a problem. How can we execute flawless radio when the tools to do the job are not there?

This business of ours, radio… it’s supposed to be about people. But radio is in survival only mode and with few resources, huge financial losses every year, a dwindling audience, competition from file sharing services, internet broadcasters, satellite radio and little desire from corporate execs to do much other than cut the bottom line for Wall Street investors, the party’s over. But then again, many of us knew this the day Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. 12 years later, radio is a shadow of it’s former self.

Now tell me, why, again, are you working in radio?

March 1, 2008

Thanks to those who helped out over the past 2 weeks. It was a blessing indeed.

Thanks to the following individuals for their timely contributions:

Jeffrey - MA
Steve - TX
John - CT
Frank - OH
Brady - AZ
THANK YOU!

If you can, please help out by sending in a small contribution. You’ll be helping me keep the site going. Besides, any good content usually comes with a price… it just so happens that your favorite radio is free and I’m only asking during these hard times. Use the link below for any amount you wish.


Humbly,
Steve West & family