Death By Mail

So this is kind of weird. 

A week and a day after word came down that Radio & Records was being shut down, I received the last issue in the mail. Tucked inside the front cover was a letter from a Nielsen Business Media senior VP explaining the decision to shutter the publication. (Since R&R was printed on a Tuesday night and shipped to subscribers on Wednesday, the letter was probably being inserted in the magazines at roughly the same time the last group of R&R employees were being informed of their fate.)

It's strange and a little creepy to look at the magazine as a snapshot in time, knowing now what most of the employees didn't know then. It's sort of like walking through a house after its occupants die in a car crash. There are reminders of the deceased everywhere. 

There's so much unfinished business in its pages.

In what may one day be the answer to a radio-phile trivia question, financial guru Dave Ramsey has the distinction of being the last cover advertiser in R&R history.

Inside there are three full page house ads promoting the now cancelled R&R Convention '09, which was to take place in Philadelphia in September. (Consultant Jaye Albright, who recently received a refund of her R&R Convention registration fee, shares her thoughts here.) 

There's also a full page ad for another cancelled event, the 2009 R&R Triple A Summit in Boulder, Colo.

In a telling statistic, of the 21 ads in the final issue of R&R, 10 are house (read: not sold) ads, promoting everything from the convention to free job listings to the recently relaunched Web site. One full page ad, which bills the now-defunct magazine as "the industry's most comprehensive format analysis resource," strangely includes in its list 10 feature stories written by editors who were axed in the last round of budget cuts in March. 

The magazine's lone two page ad wonders "who will be this year's R&R industry achievement award nominees?" I guess we'll never know.

The End Of An Era

Radio & Records is no more. As someone who spent seven years at the publication during two different stints, I have mixed emotions.

When I moved to Nashville in 1990 to work for R&R I was certainly familiar with the weekly newspaper from my days in radio. It was the publication for the radio industry and working there was a great entry into Nashville and the music business.

After four years in editorial and sales I moved on to Warner Bros., but R&R was still a daily part of my existence since it was my job to get records up its airplay charts. 

Three years ago R&R once again became part of my life when Nielsen, the company I was working for, bought it and closed Billboard Radio Monitor, the industry magazine I was writing for at the time. In March I was laid off from R&R in what was apparently a pre-cursor to today's news. 

There's a lot of speculation about the "whys" and "wherefores," but my own take is this: the editorial content that R&R offered, particularly on its Web site, was really no different than what could be found elsewhere. For readers and advertisers alike, there are simply more choices these days.

With few exceptions, the news that was on radioandrecords.com was the same news that was on allaccess.com and all the other radio industry-specific Web sites. With slight modifications, the "news" was simply a re-write of a press release. There was no further investigation or insight, which is something competitors Radio-Info.com and Inside Radio do very well.

As for the weekly magazine, the charts that were included were old news by the time they reached subscribers a week after they were first distributed via e-mail. Back in the day, before electronic distribution, I remember grabbing the magazine when it came in to A-B it with the station playlist. We didn't have local research and that was my way of finding out what was happening nationwide.

It's cliche to say that information moves faster these days, but it's the truth. I read more about the demise of R&R on Facebook in the minutes following the announcement than I did on any industry Web site. I'm sure Twitter and plain old texts spread the news quite quickly too. That's a fact that all newspapers and magazines face on a daily basis.

Is there a need for a weekly radio industry trade magazine anymore? My gut tells me there's not. Especially not at a time when information flashes past us in bite-sized morsels and radio programmers are stretched so thin that they don't have time to sit down.

New Kid In Town

I just got back from an event that used to be commonplace in Music City: an over-the-top label launch party.

One Revolution Entertainment—not a country label, by the way—threw a big ol' party at ICON in the Gulch, a new, near-downtown Nashville condominium complex. The gala included multiple bars, young women circulating with hors d' oeuvres and live music. Oh, and goody bags!

A few of us that have spent some time on the Row reminisced about the old days when such parties were regular occurrences. We also marveled at how refreshing it was to be part of a proper launch. "This sure beats bag of stale Cheetos," one woman said to a group of us. We heartily agreed.

Warmer temperatures and a less windy evening are the only things that would have made the roof top soiree any better. Still, hundreds of guests seemed to enjoy it just fine.

The label's first two acts are Rob Blackledge and Nathan Lee, two immensely talented performers. (Disclosure: I wrote Rob's bio.) While Rob is a singer/songwriter (in the best sense of the words), Nathan is an intense performer. Publicist Kissy Black warned me before his set for Nashville Film Festival VIPs that since I was in the front row, I should be prepared for a shower of sweat from the energetic Nathan. While that gave me momentary pause about my choice of seats, I stood (or sat) my ground and was glad I did, right up until he flipped his keyboard rig at the end of his set.

Rob meanwhile, offered his own well-received set, comfortably moving between keyboard and acoustic guitar. Both men's performances reminded me once again that there is more going on in Nashville than just country music.

If there's one thing that my current situation has afforded me, it's the opportunity to go out and hear some great music. What a concept! Over the last years I've worked so hard (and been worked so hard) that I rarely got to enjoy what brought me to Nashville 19 years ago: music.

It's Not Just The Music Or Radio Business

I know this may seem obvious given the current state of the economy and the mega-mergers of the last few years, but music business and radio folks are not alone in their frustrations with the current state of corporate life.

Yesterday afternoon I attended an introductory seminar at the local office of Lee Hecht Harrison, a national "career transition" firm. In my class were former employees of Sprint and AIG, among others. Amidst the bitterness and head-scratching of my fellow unemployees (is that a word? Probably not), I found an almost universal shared experience when it comes to the lack of creativity, fun and inspired leadership in their respective businesses.

"The two cultures never meshed," I heard from one classmate describing the few-years-old merger of Sprint and Nextel. 

"No red flag was raised with management when a seven person department overseas accounted for 42% of our division's revenue," another executive said of the eventual fallout that occurred when financial markets fell considerably.

Another classmate shared frustration about the revolving door of management one level above her.

Suffice it to say that the refrain sounded in the room sounded eerily familiar, which was both comforting and disconcerting.

There's no moral to this story, at least not from me, but it does make me wonder about re-entering the corporate world that has been home for pretty much all of my adult life.