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ONE OF MY FAVORITE RADIO MANAGEMENT MOMENTS EVER

radio managerPrelude

I’m about to share with you a story about the same Los Angeles radio general manager who once explained in a newspaper interview that he had fired the station’s morning show host because the jock just didn’t have the talent necessary to succeed:

“I’ve taught him everything I know about radio, and his ratings haven’t improved at all.”

But That’s Not the Radio Management Moment. This Is.

Years ago, the general manager of that large Los Angeles radio station spoke up at a broadcast convention session devoted to ratings research.

“Arbitron ratings are worthless. They’re completely inaccurate.

“And I can prove it:

“According to Arbitron, my radio station has had lower ratings for 12 consecutive quarters. How can that be? We haven’t changed a single thing on the station during that entire time!”

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Mark Barron November 26, 2014, 10:27 am

    See, you don’t have to be in a smaller market to have no sense of reality…. actually sounds like something that Yogi Berra could’ve said!

  • Ben Johnson November 26, 2014, 12:57 pm

    Wow! I mean…just….WoW!!!

  • Bob / Toms Lake November 26, 2014, 2:31 pm

    Years ago I was the PD at a station in Nottingham, England. The station manager (who was an idiot in soooooooooo many ways) told me if our ratings weren’t good, he would “have a few words” with the boss of the ratings company, and fix the problem.

  • Dan O'Day November 26, 2014, 2:44 pm

    @Bob: Rajar must’ve been shaking in its boots.

  • Tom Bass November 27, 2014, 5:27 am

    I’ve never worked in LA but I’m pretty certain I’ve worked for that guy