Nobody Loves You

1/17/1997

“You’re nobody ’til somebody loves you…”

This week’s interview is one of the most riveting in Network 40’s history.  Gary Stevens, who has been involved in more major station sales than any other broker, speaks candidly about the realities of mergers, swaps and sales.  It is a must-read for all radio programmers who will be effected by a station sale.  It is also important that all in our industry read this interview to gain an understanding about how the current climate causes reactions from those within the radio community.

Gary shares the back-room strategies among those who buy and sell radio properties, but he also touches on the human aspects of these mega-deals.  Gary is in a unique position to discuss how these deals effect the day-to-day lives of those in radio.  He has one of the most respected resumes in broadcasting.  Gary was a big-time deejay back in the days when being a deejay was the ultimate pinnacle of success.  He was one of the WMCA “Good Guys” in the glory days of radio in the 1960s.  He became a general manager in the Doubleday chain and later was president of Doubleday Broadcasting.  I was fortunate enough to work with Gary twice—in Phoenix at KRIZ and later in New York at WAPP.

Gary is one of the best management executives I’ve ever worked with.  He was one of the few managers who put talent on the same level as sales…in many cases, even above.  Gary always recognized the importance of people in this business.  He was quick to point out that it was the talent of the people inside the walls that made the building worthwhile, not the paint on the outside.  I learned a lot about managing people from him.  He was as quick to praise as he was to blame.  He worked hard on creating a family atmosphere and fought hard for his people when company edicts from the home office tended to ignore the human element.

Indeed, Gary Stevens was the first “Human Resources” person I ever met.  So I felt a great degree of pain when I read his perspective on the current climate of station group owners.  According to Gary, most owners are looking only at the hardware when contemplating future purchases.  Whether a station has talented people or even whether it is successful ratings-wise has less to do with the potential purchase than the hard worth of the station.

“Love is here and, oh my baby, now you’re gone.”

Ouch!

The main reason that drives people into our business in the first place is love.  Nobody becomes involved in radio because it’s easier to achieve big success and extraordinary money than in any other business.  We all began because we loved it.

Why?  Who really knows.  Why was I staying up all night, listening to distant stations from across the country while my peers were getting up at the crack of dawn to fish?  Why was I drawn to the station promotions, so I could meet the deejay, when most of my friends were going to a movie?  Why did I think the deejays on my favorite station were so cool?

I have no idea.  I only know that the love of radio drove me into the business.  In my career, I’ve had the opportunity to program a lot of great radio stations.  Not a week goes by without a couple of programmers telling my they used to listen to KFRC San Francisco, WAPP New York or KHJ Los Angeles or another station I programmed—and they fell in love with radio because of it.

We began because we fell in love.  Unfortunately, the reality today is that the lady we’re  in love with has a heart of stone.

“You broke my heart, you made me cry, you dropped a bomb on me.”

Decisions inside radio stations are made for reasons that have nothing to do with a love of the business…most of the time the decisions have nothing to do with the radio business.  Many companies are buying stations as commodities…as far removed from human reality as trading for sugar futures.

Does this mean that we, as programmers, should develop a hard attitude in our approach to our jobs?  Yes and no.  We should face reality.

This isn’t a mom-and-pop business any more.  When someone speaks to you about a “family” atmosphere, be careful.  The “radio family” of today is mostly dysfunctional.  Daddy might be too close to that chainsaw and mom’s spending way too much time with those clothes hangers.

We still should work in this business because we love it—mainly because we have no choice.  You can’t snap your fingers and fall out of love any more than you can change your feelings because the one you love doesn’t share your emotion.  But our love of doing a great job should manifest itself within each of us.  Do not expect that love…the attention to detail…that willingness to work long, hard hours…the ability to be there until the job gets done…don’t expect that to be rewarded in kind by most managers or owners.  They don’t have the liberty to share the emotion.  They are driven by other forces.

Do your job and derive your pleasure from what it gives you inside…not what it gets you from others.  The truth of the matter is that most times, they don’t care.

There was a time when a station’s worth was judged by what it accomplished.  Today its worth is based more on its location and how it fits with others in a future chain than its success.  This can make it extremely frustrating for those who work to make their place of employment a winner.  But fear not.  The time is coming when stations will have to begin paying off.  The prices paid will then be judged on actual worth rather than what someone else wants to pay for them.

That’s when talent will again become the important commodity.

Until then, “Love Stinks.”