TORONTO – We know you’ve heard this before, but Canadian radio executives believe that they are well-positioned to weather – and then quickly recover from – the recession, because of… their local focus.
That was the message Thursday afternoon during the radio executive session at Canadian Music Week at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. On the panel were Denise Donlon, CBC’s executive director of radio; Paul Ski, head of Rogers Radio; CHUM Radio EVP Chris Gordon; Newcap CEO Rob Steele; Corus Radio Ontario head Chris Pandolf; and Ian Lurie, who oversees Astral Radio’s English language stations. CBC journo Heather Hiscox moderated.
Some might quibble with that local focus statement, since many hours on Canadian radio stations have become filled in with syndicated programming from the likes of Ryan Seacrest, Perez Hilton and John Tesh, but there are still many “community cruisers” and the like roaming Canadian cities covering the latest polar bear dip, charity walk, or new car dealership openings.
In fact, Corus stations are reminding people that this is a good time to buy a new car, in support of their local businesses – and key clients.
But, the economy has impacted radio across the country – not evenly, mind you, but the primary station groups have certainly been hit. Most of the big station groups, as you’ve read here on Cartt.ca, have been hit by layoffs and other cutbacks.
“There’s been a deceleration of revenue creation at most of our radio properties,” said Paul Ski, head of Rogers Communications’ radio division. “But radio has always been a very resilient medium.”
Ontario has been hardest hit so far, agreed the panel, while some pockets continue to do well (in fact, we sat beside a group from Regina-based Harvard Broadcasting at lunch, who said they were still seeing good results in their home province. Their biggest complaint was the wickedly cold winter they’ve been suffering through).
Astral’s Lurie noted that for his company, Vancouver is the market under a lot of revenue pressure right now (with sales down 16% in February compared to last Feb.) – then again, Quebec is “up by a similar amount,” he said.
CHUM’s Gordon didn’t deny it’s a tough slog right now for salespeople (“the weather is really lousy for sailing right now,” he said), but added “this is the most exciting time to be in the radio business.” With competitors like local newspapers and local TV suffering “systemic issues” he noted, it’s local radio which will pick up the opportunities upon which newspapers and local TV can no longer capitalize.
Steele picked up that baton and noted that Newcap Broadcasting hasn’t laid anyone off yet. “Our strategy is to keep people employed and motivated,” he said. Plus, “our sales are almost on par with last year right now.”
But, thanks to the credit markets, Steele did acknowledge, on Hiscox’s prodding, he didn’t really want to walk away from the purchase of a number of Haliburton Broadcasting radio stations in Northern Ontario. What the banks want now in order to access credit made the deal impossible, said Steele.
Radio’s revenue salvation is local businesses. While TV is being hammered by the pullback in national advertising – as is radio (to a lesser extent), the creativity of each local ad salesperson becomes even more crucial. “Innovation and creativity are the name of the game today,” said Lurie, talking about programming and advertising. “At the local level (stations) have much more ability to affect the market.”
Even though these execs say radio is keeping its bow above the thrashing economic seas, that doesn’t mean the crew isn’t getting a little seasick. So, Hiscox asked, what about morale?
“This is a time where there has to be more communication,” said Ski. “We have to let our people know what’s happening.”
“I’m more attuned to what people are feeling right now,” added Gordon.
But, it can’t be denied that more stations are going with syndicated programming (like Astral’s new Virgin-branded stations, which feature the 21st century’s Casey Kasem/Rick Dees, Ryan Seacrest) and that limits opportunities for Canadian broadcasters.
“Those programs tend to be in off-prime hours,” noted Pandolf. “We spend our money most, at the time there are the most listeners.”
Hiscox, who was pretty good with the follow-up queries, recalled her days in local radio in Owen Sound and London and noted that these off-prime hours is where new talent traditionally got their feet wet on air. Not to mention the now voice-tracked times like overnight and weekends.
“There are fewer opportunities to develop new talent,” she said.
None of the executives directly addressed the issue, however as the execs steered the conversation in other directions, even when it went to how the new portable people meter measurement is showing much more listeners during times that have been voicetracked of late – like weekends.
