Jay Mitchell on "The New Language of Radio"

28° - light snow at 8:53am

Yesterday's news of mass layoffs at CBS Radio that followed action earlier in the week by Emmis gave me another uneasy feeling in my stomach about this industry and where its future.

Consultant Jay Mitchell wrote early this morning on the latest round of layoffs - highlighting the CBS cutbacks. Caution: you might not want to start your morning this way:

"First Clear Channel, then Emmis et.al., slashed jobs to appease stockholders, who usually have jobs (or don't need them). This week CBS, um, released a bunch of good radio people. Here's the way CBS described it:

"With these actions, we continue to build on our strategy of deploying our assets to best grow our ratings and monetize the results ..."

"CBS Radio also ... considerably strengthened our digital assets in order to distribute our content on all available emerging platforms."

Yeah, that's the way I talk, too ... all "deploy" and "monetize" and "aggregate" and "assets.""

Jay adds:

"I guess it's easier to shit-can people if you think of them as "assets." Except if you shit-can them, they're "liabilities," aren't they? Even program directors are talking that way nowadays, in the spirit of joining them in lieu of licking them.

But really, which gets you more excited, doing great radio or monetizing assets?"

Thank you Jay. His complete post here.

In Chicago - the CBS cutbacks could mean change for AAA WXRT.

Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder is reporting this morning that the station could move "from its longtime home at 4949 W. Belmont and squeezing in with the company's other properties downtown, WXRT stands to lose the last vestiges of its rebellious roots." Feder's column here.

That could forever change WXRT's culture. In Denver - after Clear Channel built a giant complex to house its cluster, it left heritage AAA KBCO with stand-alone studios in nearby Boulder. As I was told, it was done to preserve KBCO and "not let it get polluted".