My day began with the sad news that Radio-info.com as we know it is going away. The owners are retiring and Tom Taylor (my main source for radio industry news) is leaving to pursue other interests. Radio-info.com is going to be run by Michael Harrison, who currently runs Talksers magazine. Talkers is focused on a narrow part of the radio business. The consolidation of radio into Clear Channel, CBS and Cumulus, and the decision by Arbitron to stop publishing ratings for non-subscribers makes covering radio a lot less interesting.
As previously announced, today is the final day of the Mark and Brian show on KLOS-FM in Los Angeles. KLOS-FM is owned now by Cumulus, and just think of all the money Cumulus will be saving!
My move to Chicago is all on track. My “Stuff” is being picked up on Monday, so at some point between now (Friday) and Monday, the web site will go down while the server is carefully packed and put into the trunk of my car. Probably around a week from now, it should reappear online, but there are no guarantees in life. I’ll still have internet and email access via my iPhone no matter what, and I have internet service working at my new place in Chicago. It could be up as early as Wednesday.
I hope to see you in a week, but if not, thank you for your support and interest in what I’ve done here for the last 8 years or so.
Fred (aka Art Stone)
Best of luck with the move and my fingers are tightly crossed that you will be able to continue operating the site from your new base!
Always a pleasure. This is the only site I post my opinion on, since this is the only site I’ve found with signs of intelligent life. See you on the other side of your move.
I sincerely hope you will be able to continue your valuable service to us, and to the world.
Having been born just outside of Chicago many many years ago, and having watched Chicago slowly deteriorate from a safe and functional city, albeit with a few warts, to its present third world condition, I worry about whether your sojourn there will match your expectations.
I also concur strongly with magnusphi’s comment above.
Mark & Brian are “running long” saying all their goodbyes. I’ve not listened to the show, but I know it is a powerful force in Los Angeles, and least the portion that still understand English
God speed – I hope your expectations are exceeded. Pleasant trip.
Enjoy the ride over to Chicago, stop and smell the roses a little on the way. Hope to see you back up and running again next week.
Same sentiments here, Fred. I hope we’ll all be back in a few days. If not, many thanks for a great resource and thoughtful blog over the years.
Tom
Good luck , Fred. Off topic and maybe i missed it- Clear channel stations no longer available on tunein?
That’s news to me – I don’t follow what tunein is doing very closely. It makes all the sense in the world that CC would shut out tunein now that iHeartRadio has most of the operators joining them. One of the sticking points for some radio station owners was Clear Channel wanted exclusivity- that the only way you could stream the station(s) would be via iHeartradio
I can’t understand why Cumulus would allow CC to control their digital destiny like that. Even overlooking the issues about content and ads, Clear Channel is going to know in real time how many people are listening to Cumulus stations using streaming. That’s very valuable infornation if you know how to use it.
I unsubscribed today from the newsletter. After two weeks with the lead “story” being the newsletter patting itself on the back about its 6 part series on the State of Rock Radio, my finger was near the unsubscribe button. Then came the “news” story that was nothing more than repeating some opinion from some random anonymous person in Buffalo about his NPR station was being sold to a religious broadcaster as some sort of Conservative conspiracy. Click,
Here is a clue – a wide swath of Christianity is NOT Conservative.