It’s Not Personal, Sonny. It’s Strictly Business

Well, we can't say we didn't see it coming.

What happened this week was just another step in the progression that started many years ago. Dayparts began to be automated. Voice tracking replaced live and/or local hosts. Newsrooms shuttered. Those, you noticed. And when stories surfaced about clusters where the doors were shut and the building empty at 5 pm on Friday and closed all the way through 5 am on Monday, maybe you realized what was happening. Surely, stations that had one or no local personalities caught your eye, the stations operating off a Windows XP PC in a back room. Or you saw the word "programmatic" for the first time and asked someone what that meant. You had to know what was coming.

It's still a shock. You still don't want it to happen. And when it happens, it hurts.

Many people, myself included, have offered advice and support to those caught in the layoffs. I did a brief repeat version of that on my podcast earlier this week. I'm not going to direct this column at those people; this one's for the "survivors."

If you're not one of the people laid off this week, or already "on the beach," here are a few things that you should be thinking about:

1. Be prepared. You made it through this round. You might make it through the next round -- there WILL be a next round, regardless of what company you're at -- but you might not. It's become very hard to spend an entire career at one company or in one job, the way our parents and grandparents did. In 2020, they don't hand out too many gold watches for long-term, one-job-one-company employment. Think about what your next move will be BEFORE your name ends up on the laid-off list. Will it be in radio or in another profession? Are you looking to stay in radio in a larger market? Do you want to go to a smaller market and smaller company? Do you want to gamble that there will be ANY jobs in the business? The time to decide isn't when you suddenly find yourself on the street. It's now, whether you aggressively network to grab a radio job or go back to school to kick off Plan B. Whatever your plan, network, network, network.

2. You will see a lot of CEOs and managers talk about things like how THEIR companies are like family, how THEY do things differently. It is important to remember that even if you have an ownership stake in the company, even if your parents founded the place, it is not family. That's not to say that the people telling you that you're family aren't being sincere and don't think of it that way at the moment, but you're an employee, and finances come before family in most cases. You might be the exception, but don't count on it. It's one of the reasons they advise you never to work for friends; at some point, business will come before the personal. So, no matter how collegial and warm and great-place-to-work your workplace may be, and how long you've worked there, don't let your guard down too much. Because....

3. It's the way of business. Automation, the replacement of humans with technology, the eternal seeking of ways to squeeze more dollars out of a business that's maxed out... it's not just radio. It's not just the media. Walking around the floor at CES, I see all sorts of stabs at automating things that really don't need automating. Sometimes, they work. And when they do, you can bet someone will try using it to maximize their profits. You would, too. We like to tell ourselves that if WE owned iHeart, or Cumulus, or any other radio company, we'd be different. But if you owned those companies, you'd have debt. You'd be looking for ways to pay the debt service and please the hedge funds from whom you got the money to buy the stations. You'd be facing an advertising industry that's increasingly putting the money that used to go to traditional media into Facebook and Google, and is using programmatic -- automation -- to buy it, untouched by human Account Executive hands. You'd see the people controlling the money, investors as well as advertisers, insisting that you be "digital." You'd have to do something. Maybe you wouldn't do what iHeart did this week, or you wouldn't do it in the way they did it, but you'd need answers when the bills come due. And that's why we are where we are this week. It's why retailers are cutting back or dropping like flies. It's why we see robots all over CES. It's not ideal for us, but as I said before, we did see it coming, even if we might have had the timing wrong.

4. But. Yes, there's a "but." There's always a "but." In this case, "but" is this: But you're still here. If you're still employed in radio, you may face increased work without an increase in pay. You may face -- no, you DO face a lot of uncertainty. But you're still here, and while it may seem like the apocalypse, radio still exists, there are still places where you can do great, creative work, and if the future doesn't look as bright as you'd like, there IS a future, because radio, despite what some people will say, isn't quite dead yet. Maybe it's not as rosy as the "93% reach!" people will want you to think, but there's still a large audience, still revenue, still a business. If you're still part of it, that's not a bad thing. Just remember to take the above advice and be prepared in case of emergency, not just by having a podcast -- although that's a good idea -- but in every way.

And one more thing. If you're still in the game, if you weren't among this week's layoffs, if you're not among those out of work for longer than that, be supportive of those who are looking for work. Remember that they're hearing the same thing from everyone about what to do and how to feel. Just assure them that you'll keep an eye out for opportunities, and then do exactly that. Someday, you might need that, too, and they'll return the favor.

Okay, then, can this week just end now? Thanks.

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If you have a show to do, and even if you don't (be prepared!), Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, has material for every show with commentary and jokes and that kind of thing. Just click here and/or follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item..

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Schedule stuff: I'll be at Podcast Movement Evolutions, coming up February 12-15 in downtown Los Angeles; the BSM Summit in New York February 26-27; Talk Show Boot Camp in Cincinnati March 5-6; and All Access' own Worldwide Radio Summit in Burbank March 25-27. If you're attending any and/or all of those, I'll see you there. Probably. You never know what mood I'll be in, especially after this week.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
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