Good Luck With That, Sherman

Sherman Murdock is out of his mind. The Tennessee State University senior has vowed to stay on-air at the campus station until he gets a job in broadcasting.

Murdock, who graduates on May 9, started a marathon airshift on May 1, and as of this writing, is still on the air. He has been offered a job, but it wasn't the one he wanted. "I've been offered a production job but I want to be a broadcaster," Murdock told The Tennessean.

Murdock hopes to land a broadcasting job in a top 25 market — his first choices being Chicago, his hometown; Los Angeles; or New York, he tells the paper.

Now I'm all for stunts designed to call attention to your hireability (if that's a word)—I once orchestrated a postcard campaign to lobby for what would turn out to be my first job in Nashville—but Sherm, think about what you're doing, son. 

Professor and station manager Joseph Richie has high hopes for Murdock, an honors student. "I think he's going to get a job because he's not going to stop until he gets what he wants," said Richie.

Professor Richie, what are you teaching these kids? Don't you know that a production job is your student's best shot at broadcasting in Chicago, L.A. and New York?

If Sherm can master production, he can write his own ticket. After all, voice tracking, which is nothing more than glorified production studio wizardry, is the wave of the present and future.

Heck, with Sherman's willingness to work hard—as evidenced by his marathon air session—he's already knocking on Ryan Seacrest's door. If he's willing to broadcast non-stop, without even stopping for a shower, he's a future radio star in the making. 

Further sealing his fate, Sherm's LinkedIn profile says he's already interned for Clear Channel in its Chicago cluster. Bada bing!

If I seem particularly critical of Sherman's future, it's only because my first radio job was doing weekend nights at a station in Parkersburg, W.Va. With Clear Channel's recent move to a decidedly less local model—and the rest of the radio business de-emphasizing home grown talent—guess who would still be a speech pathologist in the Wood County, W.Va., school system if it weren't for live and local?

On the other hand, I don't think they're outsourcing the morning announcements at elementary schools. Yet.

Loco, Not Local

I don't know why I'm surprised, but I am, at least to some extent. None of the radio industry trades have offered any analysis of yesterday's announcements by Clear Channel regarding "Premium Choice" programming (sounds like a satellite television menu offering) and increased attention to localism. Each and everyone of them pretty much reprinted the Clear Channel press releases intact.

I take that back. Tom Taylor on Radio-Info.com does seem to view the proceedings with more than a little skepticism. "Now it’s up to the local PDs (says Clear Channel) to select 'large portions, single pieces or none of the offered programming'," Taylor writes. "But if a particular daypart hasn’t measured up lately – do you really think the option would be 'none'?"

The gist of the story is this: local programmers can select from a menu of "premium choice" programming options to fill their local line-up. Morning guy not working out? Plug in Ryan Seacrest. Afternoon guy's ratings starting to fade? Plug in Seacrest (his show apparently fits almost anywhere).

Now, I'm not a Clear Channel hater. I never have been. I have friends that work for the company and there are things I admire about it. These initiatives are not among them. 

Call me old fashioned and out of touch, but when I was a teen I remember driving with a group of friends to downtown Cleveland to see the Sunday night jock on WGCL (G98) do his show through a window that faced the street. He wasn't particularly friendly, but he was there.

I also remember calling in a request to Dancin' Danny Wright, the morning man on that same station, and then listening for him to play it back on-air.

Not any more.

These days the country station in Cleveland, WGAR, only has two local dayparts, mornings and afternoons. Middays and nights are voice tracked out of Baltimore and overnights are syndicated. Cleveland, Ohio. Not Cleveland, Tenn.

CC is also increasing the number of PSAs stations do and making it easier for local officials to reach station management. Go figure.

Dan Miller, a longtime local television anchor here in Nashville, recently died suddenly. Thousands of viewers in the area are still mourning his loss because they saw him as a trusted friend—someone who came into their house every night. Competing stations ran stories about him, and two of those stations even covered news and answered the phones at his former station while his colleagues attended his funeral.

That's localism. A couple more PSAs on a radio station with a few, if any, local talent is not the same thing.

I just don't get how radio station owners can continue to fight calls for localism regulation from Capitol Hill and turn stations into satellite operations.

Gerry House on WSIX has built a large and loyal following and when the day comes that he dies (hopefully no time soon), he will be remembered in the same way as Miller: a trusted friend who was a part of our lives.

Then what? The country version of Seacrest syndicated from Tampa or somewhere else? 

It won't be the same.