AUDIO)Behind The Scenes At Merlin's Chicago News Adventure

9-10-2012

Brendan Greeley was taking it all in on Day 1 of Merlin's female-focused all-news station. Hired without a formal interview, Greeley was one of the first four people hired and he would soon be surrounded by an all-star team made up of some of the biggest names in radio news. All of them excited to be working together creating a format that had never been tried before.

Greeley writes about the year he spent at Chicago's FM News station in an essay on the Steve Dahl website. He resigned one day before the "envelope meeting." Greeley, who's now happily employed by Dahl, details the excitement of the launch, how the idea to focus on females was demeaning, the agony of the non-existent ratings, how the staff was told they had three years to make the format work, the small and never-ending tweaks to the format, and much more. Listen to our interview with Greeley HERE

Read his essay on the Steve Dahl website HERE

(9/11/2012 4:11:01 PM)
Programming entirely for "Susan," a silly, sappy, shallow 38-year-old. Avoiding sports to the point of not allowing mentions of Bears games as the reason for traffic congestion. Putting up a billboard that says "Light's On. News is On." What??!! Tossing Mancow into the mix. If industrial-strength incompetence were a felony, Michaels & Co. would be on death row.
(9/11/2012 1:35:37 PM)
Great article, Brendan! I tried to listen to that station throughout this whole thing and it's interesting to hear the behind the scenes. PS I think you have a career in freelance print writing too.

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Behind The Scenes At Clear Channel

Bob Pittman is the most powerful man in Radio and now he is firmly in charge at Clear Channel and its 750 radio stations. We will feature Mr. Pittman on the cover of our December 5th issue. Changes are being made at radio's largest company, they are in the headlines nearly every day. New ideas are being instituted , new people are being hired and promoted and others are being let go. We've heard a lot about the "reduction-in-forces," and now it's time to hear the vision behind the changes. As Pittman enters his first full year in the drivers seat we'll ask him how expects to lead the radio charge out of a stagnant economic environment and into the digital future. Our December 6th interview will only be available in our print and digital editions.

(11/5/2011 11:39:38 AM)
As much as I resemble the "50+" category, Bob's points are well taken.

The management and ownership of C.C. and so many other corporate Radio business typhoons have completely disregarded the main mandates of Radio: To attract and hold the largest potential audiences while creating and delivering the most effective advertising possible on behalf of its clients.

If not so unnecessarily and obviously tragic - watching these people swapping out the cloth on the deck chairs, watering down the varnish on the frames and using all but the most essential of the remaining furniture as fuel for the fires that keep the boilers just barely making steam... would be funny.

"Funny" - not as in "LMFAO", but "funny" - as in "Call the cops!"

(11/4/2011 2:34:13 PM)
Clear Channel is 20 billion dollars in debt with a horrendous 9 to 1 debt-to-income ratio... much worse, they are run by "old men" (50+) like Pittman and MBA types, with old-school hardwire habits ... such as micro-managing salespeople and demanding they be "at the stations" every morning and afternoon-- why?! - to "make sure they're working?... Gee, THAT'S trusting your people, right??! ..And I guess they've never heard of CELL PHONES!! ... Dinosaurs. And we know what happened to them!

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Behind The Scenes At Clear Channel

Bob Pittman is the most powerful man in Radio and now he is firmly in charge at Clear Channel and its 750 radio stations. We will feature Mr. Pittman on the cover of our December 5th issue. Changes are being made at radio's largest company, they are in the headlines nearly every day. New ideas are being instituted , new people are being hired and promoted and others are being let go. We've heard a lot about the "reduction-in-forces," and now it's time to hear the vision behind the changes. As Pittman enters his first full year in the drivers seat we'll ask him how expects to lead the radio charge out of a stagnant economic environment and into the digital future. Our December 6th interview will only be available in our print and digital editions.

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View the original article here