If you are a radio historian, you know the name of Billy Bass, who, with the likes of Jack Armstrong, Bob (Bassett) Charles, and Wild Child took serious rock and roll radio at WIXY 1260 and made it part of the national idiom. Billy was returned to Cleveland in 1997 as part of a WMJI (105.7) attempt to connect with it's past (they have ALL of the WIXY archives), and had reestablished himself as a first tier radio voice. Billy was informed 2 hours before his show last night that his services were no longer required. Billy was one of the leading black personalities in main stream rock radio in the late '60's and early '70's.

Billy's departure from the admittedly cuthroat competitive radio scene in Cleveland follows in less than a week the departure of long time radio voice and voice over artist Larry Morrow, known for a smooth and impossible to be offensive voice and delivery. Larry, a main staple at WQAL, a soft rock station in Cleveland was informed immediately before his show last Thursday his time had come. Neither of the personalities were allowed the priveledge of saying goodby to their loyal followings. Both dismissals were ascribed to the "economics of radio in the market" according to one industry insider.

I am certainly going to miss them here in Cleveburgh.

Chuck

PS The ONLY thing this has to do with Y2K is the fact that the times they are a' changin'

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), June 03, 1999

Answers

Anytime I've managed a station, the number one requirement for anyone I hired was that they had to LOVE radio. :)

Used to be, the FCC rules only permitted you to own so many stations, you had to do a large percentage of local programming, and you had to keep each station for 2 years before you could sell it. When those rules were relaxed, the speculators jumped in, prices skyrocketed, and everything began heading downhill.

A group of investors goes in and buys a station; because they don't know what they're doing, they'll pay three prices for it (the standard base point used to be 2.5 times annual billing) and run it into the ground with astonishing speed[g]. They'll find themselves strapped for cash and start cutting corners.

(10 years ago, it was ENGINEERING -- my department -- that got whacked. When it got to the point that nothing worked and they couldn't stay on the air, they finally wised up on that one; people like me are in HEAVY demand again -- finally[g].)

It's very tempting for a struggling station (and you'd be surprised; it's not unusual for a 100KW FM in a very large market to be "struggling" against a huge debtload) to fire the staff and replace them with a satellite receiver and some automation equipment.

The other big move is toward HUGE groups of stations, all being programmed from a central location. Before moving here to Birmingham, I was offered a job with one of the largest groups in the country; they needed help to set up a massive WAN that would control 100 stations from a central location. A handful of announcers in Texas could take care of all air talent needs.

Can't say what happened to your two boys up there in ColdLand, but jobs in announcing are getting scarce -- just as bad as, say, starvin' actors and actresses in Hollywood trying to get bit parts in the latest flick or TV sitcom. Didn't used to be that way.

Talk stations are the few exceptions; they'll pick up, say, Rush, Dr. Laura, the G-Man and Art Bell (you know, the Big Names), but they'll have at least one or two locals covering the city/county angle.

Man, I've known some really talented guys who've dropped out of the business in the past 15 years. It's sad, really.

Maybe things will turn around one day, and local stations will start hiring local talent again. We'll see.

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), June 03, 1999.

Stephen,

I believe in giving credit where credit is due. So, you may be surprised to see me say this, but that was a very nice post and certainly interesting information. Since you didn't slip any Y2k stuff into it, neither will I. ;-)

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), June 03, 1999.