Station Owners' antics vs. Real Programming

Recently I read an article regarding the actions and antics of the Zwerling family, Michael and his mother, Kay, regarding programming changes they made on their station KOMY-AM. Without repeating the entire story, it seems that basically they changed their station from progressive talk to oldies after giving progressive talk a half-hearted attempt, mixing in a hodgepodge of station advertorials, infomercials and the like.

I'm no fan of talk radio, period, but I do understand business and the principles of supply and demand. What I don't get, however, is why radio station owners are so quick to jump on formats that they either a.) don't believe in or b.) don't know how to make it work.

Having been employed in commercial radio for the better part of the last 15 years, I learned several things in relation to sales in particular:

1.) Many local advertisers buy on emotion rather than results. They either like the station and
its programming, a personality on the station, or have some other personal reason for making the buy. These business people aren't looking at Arbitron ratings, for the most part.

2.) These same advertisers will pull quickly if you change things around too much.

3.) The real business in radio comes from relationships. A bond of trust needs to exist between the business owner and their station rep.

4.) The station must broadcast a format that people will listen to, because with no audience, your entire broadcasting enterprise is rolling along on a roller coaster, and a fall is somewhere down the path.

I could not sell a format that I didn't personally believe in. I successfully sold thousands of dollars a year of advertising on a local Christian station for several years. Every one of the four items I mentioned above came into play during this time period. One of the owners' changes
cost us an advertiser that had been with the station for over 20 years. Nothing would get him to come back, nor did I blame him.

Many owners do not know how to make their format work..for them. This includes adding local elements, interaction with the listeners, involvement in the community, and many other things.

Also, formats that are a result of owners' whims generally cannot sustain themselves over the long haul. Why? Because if you are going to broadcast a format to yourself, it is much cheaper - and better - to buy an iPod or mp3 player, or CD player - and listen to that. Why waste a broadcast signal?

Here's an analogy to another business model to put things into a different perspective:

Suppose Mr. Brown owns a gas station. He's done very well with it, and earns a good living. He has expanded through the years and has several loyal employees now working for him.

But one morning, Mr. Brown has an idea. The previous evening he watched a John Wayne move, and the idea of cowboys comes to mind. He doesn't tell anyone, but a few weeks later, when the customers drive up, they discover not gasline pumps, but a store selling cowboy boots and saddles for horseback riding.

Mr. Brown may still have some customers - maybe even a couple of his gas customers - but he has totally changed his business - its product, its target, and his employees - have now all been affected. Maybe he'll succeed selling cowboy stuff, maybe not - but it was a whim.

Maybe the FCC should just issue the calls WHIM to every station that's operated this way, so we'd know which ones not to be loyal to.