The radio biz is huge egos, and hardly any money. Syndication is where the money is.
My wife worked in radio for decades. Every couple of years the stations would get sold. Entire departments would get fired. Formats would change over night.
The first episode of WKRP was pretty accurate in terms of how things change. One minute playing golden oldies and the very next, Top 40 or talk.
Anyone in the business for more than a few years could tell you horror stories about owners.
Yes re WKRP.Mrs Carlson owns the station
and hires a new program dir, Andy Travis, who changes
format to top 40.She comes to the studios
and tells him, “Young man, this radio
station is a business.It is not here for your personal listening pleasure!” Andy
says he knows it’s a business.That’s
why he changed the format.
He says it may take awhile to make profits
but they will. “Too little, too late!”
she replies, adding she wants a faster
turnaround.She could just sell off the station...
Les Nessman:”But there are already a lot of rock and roll stations here!”
Andy says yes. Rock is where the money
is.
In Boston, the left wing Boston Phoenix
owned WFNX.The paper was among the “Occupy” type attacking huge corporations.
So the company owner winds up selling it
to the biggest radio company out there,
iHeart, for big bucks! Money changes
everything.
A couple years later iHeart changed the
format to country after running variety
hits, then elec. dance music.
Greater Media/Beasley owned a country
station in town that did very well.Did
Boston need another country station? As it turned out, iHeart’s country station
would later do very well, too. That’s part of the business.