From ???@0x000011CD Tue Jul 09 13:32:54 2002 Path: pitt.edu!newsflash.concordia.ca!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!newsfeed.stanford.edu!xuxa.iecc.com!not-for-mail From: Jake Brodsky Newsgroups: rec.radio.broadcasting Subject: Re: A "Clear Channel" bill? Date: 9 Jul 2002 16:31:46 GMT Organization: Airwaves Digest http://www.Airwaves.com Lines: 72 Sender: sjsobol@shell.nacs.net Approved: Sure, why not Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: shell.nacs.net X-Trace: xuxa.iecc.com 1026232306 7993 207.166.192.99 (9 Jul 2002 16:31:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Jul 2002 16:31:46 GMT X-Original-Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2002 11:08:55 -0400 X-FilterIt-Version: 0.6nacs X-Moderator-Address: sjsobol@JustThe.net X-Submission-Address: articles@Airwaves.com Xref: pitt.edu rec.radio.broadcasting:87242 Status: N On 5 Jul 2002 03:19:42 GMT, "Ray Collins" wrote: >A wise old CEO (had a engineering background) once told me that he saw the >bean counters taking the business over, with no real understanding of the >business, other than the marketing of it and the sale of commercial time; >He felt in the end they would lose the battle and put their companies into >bankruptcy. He then felt that people who love the medium would pick up the >pieces and get it going again. And another wise old CEO with an accounting background once told me that when the engineers are left to themselves, they'll almost always run out of money too soon. Let's cut the crap. Businesses are three legged affairs: You need marketing, you need accounting, and you need product development. These elements may be called different things in different businesses, but the fundamentals are the same. And the Radio programming business falls squarely in to those parameters. When marketing oversells something, it fails. When accounting tries to run things based only on cutting costs, it fails. And when engineering runs rampant trying to eek out too much performance with no ROI, it fails. The job of management is to organize these elements so that everyone wins. So much for management 101. In case you're wondering, I'm an engineer. >They may also not understand the concepts of "Fun" and "entertainment". BINGO! You stumbled on the crux of the problem. It has nothing to do with production quality, it has nothing to do with management style, the excess or lack of venture capital, or being funded by bankers looking for ROI. The problem is one of innumeracy. You'd be amazed how few people really understand the art of statistics. The problem, as I see it, is that radio stations use statistical feedback in their productions. Over a long term this effort is doomed to failure. This is why so many educational institutions are finding the SAT less and less useful. The ubiquity of the exam and the excessive introspection of this exam is destroying it's utility. Statistics can be used to evaluate performance, but once they're used to guide the performance they're evaluating, you reach a problem that Heisenberg quantified very nicely with the Uncertainty Principle. At one extreme you can know how popular your overall station programming is; at the other extreme, you can know how fast certain hits move in or out of fashion. BUT YOU CAN'T KNOW BOTH WITH GOOD CERTAINTY AT THE SAME TIME BECAUSE THE VERY THING YOU'RE USING TO MEASURE YOUR PERFORMANCE AFFECTS THE THING YOU'RE TRYING TO MEASURE. Ladies and Gentlemen, IMHO, this is why most radio station programming sounds so bland. They're chasing their tails, trying to find the freshest dog crap. Yes, sometimes it really works. However, these dogs have no idea what's going on where or who's really making it and who isn't. I have this to say to you program directors: get out of your offices, go to some nightclubs, live performances, talk to people, and most of all, develop a nose for someone else's crap. When you're constantly smelling your own, it stops being so noticeable and becomes a background smell. Understand? For further details on this concept, I suggest reading an introductory book on quantum mechanics. It's well known among physics students. Jake Brodsky, mailto:frussle@erols.com "Nearly fifty percent of all graduates came from the bottom half of the class."