Clear Channel Has Budget Cuts, XM 142 Hit Hard

[flap_jackson]

Well, I turn on Fox Sports Radio tonight, and after a little research, apparently Clear Channel had some budget cuts they wanted to do, so they're reorganizing/merging Fox Sports Radio with KLAC L.A.

Here's the schedule I can gather so far...

6 AM/3 AM The First Team on Fox with Steve Czaban
9 AM/6 AM The Dan Patrick Show (produced by The Content Factory)
12 PM/9 AM The First Team Reloaded
3 PM/12 PM The Drive with Chris Myers, Steve Hartman and Vic Jacobs (former two hosts brought in from 570 KLAC)
7 PM/4 PM The PMS Show with Petros Papadakis and Matt “Money†Smith (brought in from 570 KLAC)
10 PM/7 PM J.T. "The Brick"
2A-6A ET Fox Sports Rewind (clip show of various interviews throughout the day)

That means that Craig Sheamon and James Washington are gone.
Andrew Siciliano, with Krystal Fernandez are gone.
Ben Maller, the overnight FSR host, is gone.
Jorge Sedano from weekends is gone.
Sean Farnham moves to weekends.

Still have not found out much about the other weekend hosts/guests/experts the network employs.

Sources:
CC cuts deeply into Fox Sports Radio
A 570-AM merger with Fox Sports Radio: Hello, kiddies - Farther Off the Wall

 

[flap_jackson]

Well, J.T. The Brick is still on the air, and Steve Czaban is still the same as always, so all is not lost. Overall, not too distraught about the changes, as Siciliano was the only great personality they let go, and he'll get a good job somewhere because Jim Rome likes him. I however still do not get why Clear Channel doesn't let Rome on XM, but why would they put Dan Patrick on? Will DP be heard 2 channels on XM? :scratch:

I also forgot to mention it in the original post, but the unfortunate hosts were fired yesterday, apparently out of the blue. Nobody's really saying how it went down. But the changes are effective immediately. The manager of KLAC is also managing FSR, taking over for the former program manager that died late last year.

Overall, FSR was the first Sat Rad channel I got into back in January of 2005 when I got my first XM. So since then, I've been a loyal listener, literally waking up and going to sleep to the station. Just one of the many reasons I love Sat Rad, because it inspires this type of passion and loyalty.

 

[flap_jackson]

Wow, it's worse than I thought. Clear Channel cut 1,850 jobs, across the board, mostly in the sports talk area. That means that sports talk stations all across America have now lost their locality (no loss there really), and it's all simulcasting the national FSR feed.

 

[Kryptonite]

Wow, it's worse than I thought. Clear Channel cut 1,850 jobs, across the board, mostly in the sports talk area. That means that sports talk stations all across America have now lost their locality (no loss there really), and it's all simulcasting the national FSR feed.

If FM radio wants to survive, it's going to have to be local. Everything else (satellite radio, slacker, pandora, etc.) is national. Why should FM radio join them? They need to focus on what the local markets want in terms of sports, traffic, news, and especially music.

The tastes of Dallas may not necessarily be the tastes of Seattle. Give Seattle what they want and give Dallas what they want.

 

[ctkatz]

andrew is gone? that's sad. he was the last on-air person that they still had from when fox sports radio first launched. maybe he will hook up back up with tony bruno and they can bring the tony bruno morningERRRRRRRRRevening extravaganza back.

honestly this brings fsr to the level of espnradio, and from me this is not a compliment.

as for xm 142 not having rome on air, it actually makes some sense to me. when they brought mad dog russo to satrad, they made sure that he was on both platforms at the same time. bringing in rome to satellite radio (something that he is really big on) only makes sense if they either find space for him on two seperate channels, one xm one sirius, or clear out some space on one of the sports channels both services carry from 12-3 east. i'm not knowledgable on what is on each service at that time but i do not believe there is something that can easily be cleared (otherwise known as not satrad exclusive or recently signed) to make room. and i already know that his show isn't going to be on satellite radio unless its all three hours live.

 

[flap_jackson]

If FM radio wants to survive, it's going to have to be local. Everything else (satellite radio, slacker, pandora, etc.) is national. Why should FM radio join them? They need to focus on what the local markets want in terms of sports, traffic, news, and especially music.

The tastes of Dallas may not necessarily be the tastes of Seattle. Give Seattle what they want and give Dallas what they want.

Reading some of the articles released today, some of the local newspapers are mourning the loss of their local talk. The LA paper for example liked to hear national sports every once in a while, but said it's nice to hear about Kobe 24/7 also. I personally hate it, but there is a market for it. Whether localized radio will go the way of the newspaper now seems to be suddenly up in the air, at least for sports.

 

[Vols44]

Same Results Different Place

Clear Channel owns five radio stations in Springfield, Missouri. The local paper said it was letting go of employees, didn't specify who or how many and mentioned the company's intention of reducing payroll by 9%.

 

[almaniac27]

andrew is gone? that's sad. he was the last on-air person that they still had from when fox sports radio first launched. maybe he will hook up back up with tony bruno and they can bring the tony bruno morningERRRRRRRRRevening extravaganza back.

honestly this brings fsr to the level of espnradio, and from me this is not a compliment.

as for xm 142 not having rome on air, it actually makes some sense to me. when they brought mad dog russo to satrad, they made sure that he was on both platforms at the same time. bringing in rome to satellite radio (something that he is really big on) only makes sense if they either find space for him on two seperate channels, one xm one sirius, or clear out some space on one of the sports channels both services carry from 12-3 east. i'm not knowledgable on what is on each service at that time but i do not believe there is something that can easily be cleared (otherwise known as not satrad exclusive or recently signed) to make room. and i already know that his show isn't going to be on satellite radio unless its all three hours live.

If Jim Rome comes to satellite, it will only be on XM. His show is syndicated by Premiere Radio, which is part of Clear Channel. Channel 142 is owned by Clear Channel, so if they put him on, it'll be there. 12-3 on 142 is just a replay of the morning show, so I wish they could put Rome there. The only way Rome could be on both XM and Sirius is if he leaves terrestrial radio like Mad Dog did, but since SXM seems to have invested in building around the Mad Dog brand, I doubt they would bring in Rome, who is a much more high-profile host. They would have to rename Mad Dog Radio into "The Jungle" or something, and the Mad Dog himself wouldn't like that.

 

[i-l-l]

FSR was the only reason I got XM back in 03-04.

It was so good back then. Now it only has 1 show worth listening to and that's in the morning when I'm sleeping.

The days of Tony Bruno, Mark Patrick, Jim Daniels are all gone....well not really since the 1st 2 are on satellite....but you get what i'm saying.

 

[Kryptonite]

Reading some of the articles released today, some of the local newspapers are mourning the loss of their local talk. The LA paper for example liked to hear national sports every once in a while, but said it's nice to hear about Kobe 24/7 also. I personally hate it, but there is a market for it. Whether localized radio will go the way of the newspaper now seems to be suddenly up in the air, at least for sports.

If localized radio dies, then radio is dead.

Imagine if SiriusXM was free, but had commericals. That's what you'd get with national FM radio.

They NEED to have a focus on local content. It's just about the only good thing that seperates them from the national providers like Slacker, iPods, SiriusXM, and the others.

FM Radio: "We have things that Slacker and SiriusXM can't provide. Local hosts, local talk, local news, local traffic, and shows featuring local music."

FM Radio: "We don't have much local, but we can give you the same music that SiriusXM gives you, only we give it to you censored, and with commericals every 10 minutes."


Honestly, if I was running a FM station, the first example would seem much more appealing.