I Told You So: Big Corporate Radio Is Broke

iHeartRadio parent warns it may not survive another year

I have been saying for years that my former industry is committing suicide. Five companies own 80% of the commercial radio stations in this country. They are all programmed by a small group of consultants and they nearly all suck.

This company's debt began back in the 90's when the government erased ownership limits. They WAY overpaid for stations as they built their empire. At the time, stations were generally worth 2.5 times their trailing cash flow, which was the total gross revenue for the previous 12 months. If a station had a trailing cash flow of $2 million, it was worth no more than $5 million.

This and some other companies paid WAY more than this. I remember sitting around with a bunch of radio friends in Florida, including a station owner, wondering how in the world do these companies plan on making money? In a steady market, they couldn't. Then thanks to the coming digital age and the Internet, the radio advertising pie began to shrink.

Things starting getting tight. I began thinking about what life would be like after radio. Then this and other companies started WAY overspending, including over-paying marginal talent. (yes, I'm talking about you WSIX) So they went more in debt.

I'd love to talk about the stupidity of bringing in an over-hyped country radio "personality" to take over for a retiring radio legend. You brought in a guy from Austin and hyped the hell out of it. Umm..... if you knew anything about Nashville, Big Corporate Radio, you would have never mentioned this guy came here from Austin. You see, Nashville doesn't like Austin. Austin presents a threat to Nashville. A major threat, You turned off half the market before the guy even got here.

Now, several years later, look at your ratings, WSIX. YOU SUCK. You're a middle of the pack station that is getting killed by other stations. That's how a company gets to be $20 billion in debt.

I told you so...

Bugging Trump: Again the media is missing the mark

President Trump blasted a tweet Saturday morning accusing Barack Obama of bugging Trump in Trump Tower. This is a very strong statement. If true, this would blow past Watergate for presidential corruption. That scandal brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Of course the media has jumped all over this. That is what they're supposed to do. But much of the media attention is focused on how outrageous Trump's claim is. Real reporters would be investigating the accusation to determine if it's true or not. That cannot be completed in a weekend.  It would involve actual work, which many in the media try to avoid. Yes, there are a handful of reporters who are digging to find the truth, but the overall message from the media is outrage at such an insane allegation.

Real reporting is dying a slow, agonizing death.

Of course the overwhelming anti-Trump bias of the media is driving this diversion. Edward R. Murrow is spinning in his grave.

That's my opinion...

Trump is Right: The Media is our Enemy

Events of the past few weeks have proven that the media most loves themselves. President Trump is not afraid to say what many of us have known for years. Much of the mainstream media is biased to the left, and have no problem making stuff up and putting out fake news. CNN, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, among others, published fiction last week.

There has been a lot of blowback from Trump's comment.  Of course most of that has come from the media. They are so offended, they have pushed aside real news to continue whining about the mean, bully president who insulted them.

They like to tell us about freedom of the press. Indeed, the First Amendment helps make the United States the greatest country in history. But freedom of the press means ALL press, including fake news, biased news and complete fiction. We the people are not guaranteed a fair and truthful press. It is buyer beware.

There was a time when the most important thing a news reporter needed to be was accurate. Speed was no good if the report wasn't factual. Reporting fake news could be a career-stopper for the guilty correspondent. But then more and more media came into existence. Competition became more intense. Accuracy took a back seat to speed. Fake news began to increase,

Edward R. Murrow is spinning in his grave.

As accuracy became a secondary priority, bias also crept into the news. Today, "news" is slanted by the prejudice of the reporter. "News"is primarily slanted to the left.

So now Donald Trump has been elected President. The media clearly wanted Hillary Clinton to win, despite her constant lies, corruption and criminal behavior. The far left in this country are by their nature, intolerant and hateful. They have taken their anger beyond protesting to rioting. Big difference. And the media fuels the hatred with their heavily biased coverage.

The media has a right to report what they want, within limits. But when the public is fed a steady diet of lies, and the media cannot be trusted, the media has become our enemy. The media has become focused on their worldview, not the truth. We all lose.

The question is, how long will the companies that own the media put up with this crap?

That's my opinion...

Flippant Stray Thoughts for Wednesday, 2/8/2017...

I think they should put in railroads wherever liberals are trying to stop pipelines from being built. Then run every oil train in the country over them. After all, trains must be safer than pipelines...

Am I the only one pissed because ESPN schedules college basketball games to close together? Unless your team is in the first game of the day, you never get to see the beginning of your team's game. They need to budget an extra 30 minutes between games. If they come up short, go to a talking head to read sports news to fill in any extra time...

Does Channel 5 have the most biased local news in town?

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall was in Washington for a law enforcement pow-wow, but refused to see President Trump. Hall feared he would hear support for the President's temporary immigration hiatus. I guess Hall isn't tolerant or mature enough to entertain views different than his own...

Americans elected Trump and they support his immigration review. But Hall apparently chooses to join Mayor Megan Barry in harboring illegals who commit murder and rape. Shameful...

Hall is the same idiot who addressed a white supremacy group a few years ago. He claimed he did not know it was a white supremacy group. I typed the name of the group into Google, and in less than two seconds I discovered it was a white supremacy group. Is Hall so damn busy running his jail and serving summons he can't punch something up on Google himself?

The ACME Feed & Seed building sat vacant for years on a highly visible corner downtown. So somebody comes along and fixes up the joint, and puts in a bar, restaurant and club. And now a dude breaks in and smashes things all to hell. He did get caught...

Jerk...

Speaking of a jerk, the human debris for whom Metro Police Officer Eric Mumaw gave his life trying to save, has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide. A 44-year-old, 18-year veteran of the department is dead because of' her actions...

Mumaw's funeral was held in a 4,000 seat church, and it was filled. He will be buried in Ohio...

People get shot, and killed here, everyday. But every once in a while a story brings Nashville to its knees in horror. This is one of those stories...

R.I.P. Officer Mumaw. You are a hero...

Metro Police Officer Eric Mumaw

'Till next time, see ya...

Trump said he'd run the country as a business, and he is!

Politicians running for office too often say whatever you want to hear. All many of them care about at that time is getting elected or re-elected. I once ran for office against someone like that. I knew this person and I knew his politics. But once we hit the trail, he suddenly changed. Some of his new positions were 180° opposite of what he really believed. So one day I asked him what was up with his new positions. He said he had taken advice from a career bureaucrat, whom I also knew. The advice was he can't change the world if he doesn't get elected, and he was willing to lie to the voters to get there. That just wasn't my style.

Americans were getting tired of the crap in Washington. Barrack Obama was a continuous train wreck. Republicans ran several good candidates for President, but voters had become so jaded, they all appeared alike to them. And then there was Donald Trump.

The Donald was a successful businessman and not a politician. As a developer, he had a reputation for getting things done.

BINGO!

He was what Americans were waiting for. Not a politician, Trump was a successful businessman, experienced in running a large, prosperous organization. Including running it efficiently, without excessive waste. I spent 10 years working for a municipal government, and trust me, waste is embedded in all levels of government.

Trump wants to Make America Great Again. Not losing jobs to other countries. Not strangling businesses with excessive regulations. Repair our healthcare system that Democrats destroyed. No more throwing away money at the man-made climate change hoax. Get people good full-time jobs, not low-paying part-time jobs that had become so common. Stop the corruption and stop bypassing congress and issuing illegal executive orders,

In other words, drain the swamp.

Expect Trump to be quick and decisive. Don't look for him to telegraph his moves. He is a businessman and will act like one, so much as government allows. Businessmen get rid of cancers, so disloyal employees better get their resumes updated. It's no different than being a head coach of a professional sports team. If any players are not supportive of the coach, they have to go.

This is what the voters wanted. And it's what they are getting.

Liberal media wanted Trump to investigate, so he's gonna do it and liberal heads explode

It is commonly known that the overwhelming majority of voter fraud is propagated by the Democrat Party. They must not believe they can win elections fair and square. The Project Veritas videos and John Podesta leaving his emails unguarded was an eye-opener to those who were still skeptical of Democrat cheating.

Running up to the election, there were some governors and mayors who encouraged illegal aliens, who are not U.S. citizens, to vote. These governors and mayors were all far left-wing progressives who have no respect for the rule of law. 2016 was not the first election in which illegals voted.

According to a study by Old Dominion University professors Jesse Richman and David Earnest, up to 2.8 million non-citizens voted in the 2008 presidential election. This study was published in 2014 in the Electoral Studies journal.

According to The Daily Caller, Harvard political scientist Stephen Ansolabehere said "the likely percent of non-citizen voters in recent U.S. elections is zero."

???

This guy must be on heroin. Zero? Really? Remember, this is the esteemed institution that employs fake Indian Elizabeth Warren. Harvard is a volcano of kooks.

Then, just before the 2016 election, Virginia Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe released 60,000 felons from prison and restored their right to vote. Hillary Clinton handily won the state.

Donald Trump easily won the election, although Hillary had more raw votes. California alone gave Hillary the raw vote win. That is why there is an Electoral College. So during Trump's second full day, the liberal media climbed all over spokesman Sean Spicer about Trump's claim that a few million non-citizens voted in the election. They asked why the President isn't trying to prove his comment, which the liberals do not believe.

So Trump said he will investigate and determine how many illegal votes were cast. So now Democrats are whining about how the election is state-controlled, and Trump has no jurisdiction. Never mind that on his way out the door, Barrack Obama illegally federalized the Presidential election.

Of course states that encouraged illegals to vote aren't going to investigate illegals and other non-citizens voting. The lawless Democrat governors of those states do not believe they did anything wrong. After all, Democrats must win elections!

In order to root these problems out, the feds must go in and determine what happened in the latest election. Cheaters are very opposed to this. The left doesn't want the truth to come out. That is why this must be investigated.

Flippant Stray Thoughts for Monday 8/22/2016...

A local TV news observation: I record the 6 am news from Channels 2 and 5 every morning. It is fairly common for Channel 2 to have overnight news items that Channel 5 missed...

Channel 17's Jen French has left for greener pastures in Albuquerque NM. Best wishes to her...

Channel 4 to 23-year veteran Dennis Ferrier: Get the hell out...

Channel 4 to Nancy Van Camp (22 years): Ditto...

Ferrier was tossed immediately after returning from his father's funeral. Broadcasting is a tough business. Trust me, I get it. But WSMV is obviously having some serious financial issues. Van Camp was replaced with an obviously cheaper replacement. When I worked in broadcasting, I referred to this as the 50/50 rule. No matter how good you are, if they find someone half your age willing to work for half of your salary, you are history...

Rudy Kalis shared his thoughts on this cowardice via social media...

They probably spent six figures (at least) to erect a free-standing tower with a radar ball on top of it. Head south towards Nolensville and you'll see it in Williamson County. They could have just as well taken that money and thrown it in the street in front of the station and gotten the same result...

As I commented earlier, if that money pit made any difference, then when Channel 4 shows their radar superimposed with the National Weather Bureau radars everyone else uses, the blobs should jump forward whenever the Williamson radar passes, then jump back when the next government radar passes. That doesn't happen...

If you're Joe Nashville sitting at home watching this, you probably don't understand the significance of "middle Tennessee's only live radar." That's because there isn't any. They piss away all that money, then subject a 22-year meteorologist to the 50/50 rule. And Ferrier was one of the best they had...

Channels 4 and 5 are like the U.S. and the Soviet Union back in the day. The Soviet Union eventually fell apart after spending themselves into oblivion trying to keep up with the U.S. Channel 4 is the Soviet Union. They are a sinking ship...

I stopped watching Channel 4's news, and discovered Channel 2 does a helluva good job. Without all the expensive gimmicks...

Channel 2's new chief meteorologist, Danielle Breezy, who came here from Boston, is doing a great job. Welcome to Music City! It's always tough following a legend...

For example, that whiny over-hyped morning guy on WSIX-FM...

Big lib Bill Freeman is hosting a Hillary Clinton fundraiser tomorrow. They expect to raise $1 million. Tim Kaine will be in town for the event. Freeman has already raised untold millions for Hillary...

 Hillary tried to throw Colin Powell under the bus, but Powell is having nothing of it...

Clinton and Obama: it's always somebody else's fault...

Donald Trump will bring millions of new voters to the polls in November. People who have never voted before, or haven't voted in a long time. Are those folks represented in the gazillion polls that are out there? I ask because I have a funny feeling they are not...

OMG! A black female Republican Vanderbilt professor was on Fox News over the weekend. Didn't know such a person existed...

Why do people try to swim across the Cumberland River? There is a high probability for a very bad outcome...

Till next time, see ya...

I swear to God, if Hillary...

...was walking down the street during a rally and pulled a hand grenade out of her pantsuit, pulled the pin and lobbed it into a crowd and a dozen people are killed, Loretta Lynch would look the other way and say 'nothing to see here.' Why not? Hillary already has the blood of thousands on her corrupt little hands.

This woman can do NOTHING to get indicted by the Obama administration. I don't need to reset everything here. RedState readers are fully aware of the corruption, which has trickled down to the Department of Justice, the FBI, the State Department, the IRS and who knows where else. So now we learn the DOJ has declined the FBI's request to investigate the corrupt as hell Clinton Foundation. The only way they could make it more obvious is if they came out and said, 'Yes, we are corrupt and we're getting away with it'.

I blame the Republican majority in congress for doing NOTHING to stop this monster in the White House. Obama could have been impeached for any number of things, not the least of which is treason. Obama released POW's to the battlefield so they can kill Americans and our allies. The penalty for treason is death.

But since the congressional Republicans have sat on their hands, Obama sees a green light. He knows he will not be challenged, so the corruption gets worse and worse. And trust me, he's not done yet.

The mainstream media is a co-conspirator with House Republicans. I've been watching CNN lately, and their spin is beyond belief. No matter what Hillary says or does, CNN stays focused on what Trump said. DOJ refuses to investigate the Clinton Foundation, and they obsessively focus on Trump. The Donald says maybe 2nd Amendment supporters will be enough to keep Hillary out of the White House so she cannot appoint any Supreme Court Justices, and before you know it, Trump was endorsing violence and possible assassination! 

???

Where in the hell did that come from? Seriously, where does that crap come from? Comprehension is a major part of journalism and communications, yet the media has no ability to understand words. For crying out loud, they blamed Sarah Palin for Gabby Giffords getting shot, because Palin had an image of a cross-hair in an ad. You can't make this stuff up.

I don't know if it's a mental health issue or what, but the wild claims coming from the left and their media buddies are preposterous.

Banning Assault Weapons: Would that work like banning Heroin?

There has been a lot of discussion about gun control since the Islamic Terror attack in Orlando. A lot of that talk has centered around banning so-called assault weapons. CNN's Don Lemon, instead of reporting on the tragedy, has chosen to become an activist for an assault weapon ban, doing some of the most biased "reporting" I have ever seen.

Democrats tend to think in a vacuum. They are all about passing laws, then patting themselves on the back for a job well done. Sort of like Obamacare. They're not very big on solving problems. Nothing works in a vacuum, except for vacuums.

The want to make assault weapons illegal.

???

What the hell would that accomplish? You'd have to be pretty high on the "kook" scale to think that would eliminate these weapons. Has the heroin ban eliminated heroin? Has the meth ban eliminated meth? How about cocaine? Black market pain medication such as Oxycontin?

Banning assault weapons would only accomplish disarming law abiding citizens, while criminals, including Islamic jihadists, will continue to have them. The very people Democrats want to disarm will still have assault weapons.

How many assault weapons are in the country? How would rounding up all of the assault weapons work? Like rounding up illegal Mexicans? How would you know when all of the assault weapons in the country have been rounded up?

How would you keep assault weapons from entering the country? Would that work as well as keeping drugs and illegal aliens out of the country?

If politicians want to accomplish something, they would stop illegals from entering our country. Democrats want to keep the borders open so that illegals become Democrat voters. Don't believe me? San Francisco is currently considering allowing illegals to vote.

Then get rid of political correctness, so the FBI can do their job, instead of letting aspiring Islamic terrorists go. Twice.

The problem is not guns. It is Islamic terrorists. But our treasonous President can't even say the words. He will not identify the true enemy. Instead he blames guns, Republicans, the weather or anything else he can think of.

It's time to toss failed liberal policies into the trashcan and start actually accomplishing something.