As a long time listener, I regret the continuing elimination of local content.  Friday afternoon, I noted that NW afternoon World Today interviewed a prof from McMaster U. in Hamilton about Superbowl advertising.  I wonder why a Vancouver station calls an academic 4,300 kilometres from here to discuss a subject that requires no particular expertise.  Are there no marketing experts at UBC, SFU, UVIC, UNBC  or one of the many community colleges?

Or is this, as I suspect, a sign of radio's centralization? Perhaps Corus HQ pays appearance fees to a small stable of regular experts, then spreads their presence across the network?

By itself, Vancouver radio using an expert from Ontario is no big deal.  But, gradual elimination of programing that reflects the local community is a major issue.  Can anything stop the trend from accelerating?

It could be done if the message is put out to the public that Big Media is destroying radio as we once knew it, then make it clear to Rogers, Corus, Astral, CTV, etc. that we won't tolerate the dismantling of local radio.

What it's going to take is an entrepreneur who will program that to which an audience will respond and support. Whoever does it will have a free ride in any market they work for years.

This, as the corporates will a.) at first, deny anything of value is happening. b.)justify any success as merely a blip or anomaly and c.) take years to respond in any meaningful way.

It would be be-yooteeful!

A broadcaster committed to local programming would be competing against low cost networks who sell advertising packages from one desk in Ontario for every market in the country.  They create cookie cutter formats, duplicated for every city, and eliminate creativity at the local level.  The last person wanted is someone who thinks with originality.  The suits want cost cutter bosses at the stations - people who prefer a fresh young face at $10 an hour to a pro who wants double that amount or - egad ! - even more.

National broadcasters are like fast food chains that design a menu, write a detailed procedures manual and send it from HQ to the operations, complete with product photos.  They say, "Duplicate this repeatedly.  Don't change a thing."  A steakhouse operator once told me, "I don't hire chefs, I hire cooks.  It's cheaper."

If Corus ran the Canucks, they would keep the Sedins and Luongo and staff the rest of the team with graduates of the North Shore Winter Club who would stay until dreams of the big leagues evaporated and then be replaced by new starry-eyed recruits.

Chain stations consolidate everything, from engineering to purchase of bathroom paper.  Traffic reports are pre-recorded.  Program material runs multiple times, even syndicated American content that has no relationship with or concerns for Canadians.

Administration and operating costs go down.  More efficient?  Yes.  More profitable?  Yes.  Advantageous for Canada and Canadians?  No!

The certainty is that radio will be of decreasing value to Canadians unless we regulate chain operations and multiple station ownership out of existence.

Of course, there is another way of looking at it: If the topic was Superbowl advertising, shouldn't the station have contacted an American marketing expert? We are not even allowed to watch many of the ads here.

Quoted from 654

They create cookie cutter formats, duplicated for every city, and eliminate creativity at the local level.  The last person wanted is someone who thinks with originality.  The suits want cost cutter bosses at the stations - people who prefer a fresh young face at $10 an hour to a pro who wants double that amount or - egad ! - even more.

lots of great points interactbiz... but I disagree about the the "new manager" thing.  I have lots of friends and collegues that are at the point in their career where they are stepping into their first management roles and if there is one thing most of them have in common, its that they are fire cracker creative types.

And we're talking guys and gals working for some of Canada's bigger compaines.

Yes, they have some strict budgets to work with, but their mandate tends to be "kick as much ass as you can (with in this $$$ budget).

And as someone that worked for an indie that got bought by a big guy, I can offer this story.

Three things happend after the purchase:

1) I got a raise
2) I got improved benifits
3) I got an RRSP plan that the company chips some $$ into

***

and if you can save some cash cutting back on the quality of toilet paper to run that killer promo... all the power to the bean counters (because even the bean counters in radio... count radio's beans because they love entertainment).

Hey interactbiz, where have you been???  Brace yourself for some snot-o-grams from the corporate media lovers in here.  Oh yeah, that's being negative.  There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with the state of radio today.  Kids, continue to spend 10-grand on post-secondary studies in broadcasting.  The sky's the limit...go for it!  

CRS: " There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with the state of radio today.  Kids, continue to spend 10-grand on post-secondary studies in broadcasting."

Yes, and have you listened to the quality of radio lately. Excluding the CBC, which still maintains standards Corus, Rodgers, Pattison & others have long abandon, radio in Metro Vancouver could easily pass for the Gong Show.

umm.

I love a good conspiracy theory, but… Here’s a more likely scenario…

Talk show host/producer gets e-mail from “marketing expert” who’s pitching a book or wants to up the hit count on his/her website… host/producer bites on an easy half hour segment and surfs facebook for an extra hour instead of tracking down the local angle.

We love to think we’re all pro’s, but I’ve seen it go down like this a million times.  It’s a Super Bowl bit, not the Mulroney inquiry folks.

Dummy, you're probably right.  It pains me how many of us take the easy and lazy way out.  I know a lot of people around here like to fling the blame on management and owners.  In some cases it's justified but just as often it's lazy on air people.  The hunger is gone and the passion is gone and no amount of coaching from management is going to bring that back.  My wish for the new year is that anyone who doesn't absolutely love what they're doing and are committed to constantly improving and learning, leave, quit, walk away.  Do yourself and the medium a favour.  Some businesses can survive on those going though the motions, a medium that is in such a crucial point can not.  The last thing we need is more people holding us back.  Please leave.  I have no ill will towards those who have left the industry piping in on here.  Good on you, obviously it wasn't for you and that's no character flaw or failure.  Radio just isn't for everyone and if you've come to that conclusion I applaud you for getting out.  You'd be doing more harm than good by staying in radio.  Sorry for the harshness, just something I feel strongly about.

Radio is a mess. That position is useful only to those who a.) agree and b.) are willing to do something about it.

Given that, "Radio is a mess" becomes an opening statement and presumes there are more exciting, more compelling, more interesting and more profitable opportunities for participation in the business.

Remember also, there was a time when Radio was a vocation for thousands of people.

Radio exists. It has an already-existing infrastructure. The technologies are fine. Only the Programming suffers.

Opportunities are rife.