One Station Lays off 47 People

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One Station Lays off 47 People

Postby jon » Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:06 pm

I realize that most U.S. radio stories are just not very interesting for a Western Canada audience, but this one really caught my eye:

Radio Station Lays Off 47 People, Replaces Them With Beyoncé
by Jessica Goldstein
thinkprogress.org
Posted on October 9, 2014 at 4:26 pm

Houston radio station News 92 FM is transitioning from a 24-hour all-news format to a 24-hour all-Beyoncé format. Nothing but Beyoncé. Pure, unadulterated, straight-shots-no-chaser of Beyoncé.

As PR stunts go, I have to say: I am impressed. Nothing like a little (or a lot!) of Beyoncé to distract people from the issue at hand. Houston is Bey’s hometown! Sometimes she sings things like “I’m out that H-Town” because her love of Houston is so real. She shot the video for “No Angel” in Houston. They should just rename Houston after her, honestly.

The issue at hand, by the way, is the station’s owners, in the face of low ratings, laid off forty-seven employees. Forty-seven humans, none of whom are Beyoncé and, I imagine, will probably not want to listen to their old station even though they will have unlimited amounts of time in which to do so, because they will be unemployed.

Houston is the fourth-largest city in America. News 92 FM was Houston’s first, and now last, all-news radio station. That such a vast metropolis could not sustain a 24-hour all-news radio station is a sad fact to consider, even though of course there are all the obvious times-have-a-changed arguments to be made about people getting their news, at all hours, from numerous other, digital sources. In a statement, the station explained:
This difficult decision is a result of sustained poor ratings performance and significant financial losses over the past three years despite the substantial financial and human resources we invested. Unfortunately, the market hasn’t shown a sustainable appetite for news radio, but each of you motivated us daily to produce a high-quality news program.

The station, rebranded as B92-FM, aired its last regular broadcast yesterday.
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Re: One Station Lays off 47 People

Postby ThisIsNotCBC » Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:06 pm

Stunting for a format change. The all-Beyonce format sounds like it's just transitional before the real new format is introduced.
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