For me, Cleveland has always been an interesting radio market. My friend Mike McVay calls Cleveland home and that is where McVay Media is headquartered and staffed by several well respected radio consultants. Mike McVay is not one of them these days because he is now VP of Programming for Cumulus but does get back to Cleveland on weekends. McVay did have a hand in the success of several Cleveland stations as PD, GM and then Consultant.
I was, therefore, somewhat surprised to read an online story about the state of Cleveland radio. The writer did not get all his facts 100% correct, and this may be a case of a newspaper journalist putting the knife into radio. But I decided to post his story because he does discuss some of the issues that many radio markets are facing in the USA because of consolidation and changes made to the business to keep shareholders happy. So here is the story written by Lee Chilcote of the Cleveland Scene.
There was a time when Cleveland radio was the soundtrack to people’s lives and, for a subset of music fans, the soundtrack of rock across the country. Anyone over 30 remembers a time when some song, and some DJ in an actual room spinning it, rocked your world by introducing you to new bands, new sounds, new ideas; and the lore of WMMS runs straight through the middle of any conversation about radio in Northeast Ohio.
Those days, of course, are gone, replaced by repetitive playlists and scripted on-air talk. Across Cleveland’s radio dial, the same songs are played again and again, and then again ten more times this hour. There are fewer DJs keeping us entertained, a lot less new music to listen to, and more ads touting the latest breakthrough weight loss pill and miracle laser hair removal.
Check out the full story here