When a radio station changes formats, who decides it?

Question

Her's something I've been wondering - when a radio station, owned by a company like ClearChannel, Citadel, Cumulus, or Entercom flips formats, who usually decides it or has the final say? The Operations manager, program director, general manager, or who?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Great question - a star for U!

"Outside" does a good job. I'll tighten it up a bit.

The FCC has nothing to do with it, it's completely up to the owners. I did it once, but rarely does a PD suggest a format change 'cause he's the first to go.

Usually the GM or Owner (sometimes the same person) starts getting word from the street (advertisers), or sales dept. (Sales Mgr.) that they're not happy. And the numbers (ratings) are not growing. OR another station in the market makes a change that opens a format "hole."

The GM will propose his plan to the owners or corporate/regional folks (depending on the corporate setup) and they talk about it and make a decision. This can happen over a few weeks or months. Or tomorrow - been there, done that, didn't get the new T-shirt, 'cause I was gone.

The GM - the old PD's best buddy yesterday - is so busy saving his butt today, he's glad to see you "take it like a man," and wonders how much less he can pay your replacement.

They may bring in a consultant who specializes in the new format to help with the changeover and hire them a new PD. They'll probably try to nail him too, eventually.

They try to keep everything super secret, but that rarely happens. People have relationships, families are affected, word gets out... the smart PD gets wind and starts looking for another gig.

That's really about it. No mystery. No government approval. Sometimes the exact right thing to do. Sometimes the dumbest mistake of a person's career. Radio is amazing in it's usual lack of planning and research. I could go on forever, but this ain't the place.
-a guy named duh

Answer 2

Another reason a station could change is to mess with a competing company's ratings. Say there is a rock station owned by bob and there is no other rock station in town. Jerry also owns a radio station and has an oldies formatted station not doing well. Since Jerry's station is already a flop, they will change it to a rock station temporarily to mess with bob. It used to be pretty common when gorilla radio was more of a gloves off attack than the PC paper pushing it has become. Even though Jerry knows his rock station will never beat Bobs rock station, it could take enough people away from it to hurt that company and send advertisers to Jerry. its all about the Benjamin's baby. :) Everyone else here is right too, just one more reason it could happen . . .

Answer 3

The short answer:
Whoever is the main holder of programming power at the particular station. It could be any of the GM, OM, PD or paid consultant. Generally a PD won't make a change because when a station "flips" the PD is probably gone with the old format.

The longer answer:
In a corporate environment any format change must be "run up the flagpole". Depending on whether the GM is sales or programming oriented indicates their role. I have worked in situations where the GM focused solely on sales and was not allowed any input in format changes and the OM was responsible for identifing when or if a station needed to flip. I've worked in situations where the GM was 50/50 sales/programming and worked closely with the OM for all programming, including changes(occasionally the OM has no input and is simply carring out the programming wishes of the GM. This is not as common but does happen).

Most often format changes happen when a new GM, OM or both have been hired due to poor ratings, poor revenue or both(or previous the GM or OM have accepted employment elsewhere but flips in that example are rare because the previous management likely received a new job based on good performance and new management would hopefully want to contiue to capitalize on established success for as long as possible) and as such the new GM or new OM or any combination of new/old will lobby together for a change with the corporate home office. The corporate parent often is prepared to make these changes or they wouldn't have "cleaned house" in the first place. Even if the corporate parent is adverse to a change, more often than not an out of market consultant is retained to asses which change if any is needed. The new format is usually based on either market or fiscal needs and occasionally the kickback the consultant garners for programming central to a format(i.e. "Bob & Tom" or "Lia") plays into the decision.
And a consultant often weighs heavily into the decision to flip or not.

The chain of events usually begins with hiring new management who in turn retain a consultant, oftentimes one they have utilized previously and one who shares much of the same radio philosophies as the new management.

The other chain might have management in place for six to twelve months lobbying a obstinant home office for change with the corporation sending their national or regional format programmer(a consultant with a day job) who will usually make changes to the current format in an attempt to retain the old format. If the national or regional programmer happens to agree change is needed it will be kicked back to the corporate level and then the initiation or hiring an overall consultant begins and the ball gets rolling.

The exception to all of this is the rougue and mistakenly overconfident GM or OD or both making format changes based on emotion or misinformation. These stations usually lie outside the Top 100 markets and often have been forsaken by their corporate parent. The tale tell sign of this is dramatic cuts in budgets, massive staff cutbacks and habitual draining of the station(s) resources without putting any investment back in them. This forces less talented local people to make less informed decisions up to and including an ill-advised and often doomed change. This is usually exacerbated by the inability of the management to afford a competent consultant.

And finally in the rare instances of a non-corporate family with only one to a few stations the decision could be made by anyone the boss thinks can get the job done but these stations don't last long because they won't make money and can ill afford the cost associated with hiring a good and well regarded consultant.

Answer 4

Clear Channel or the owner of the radio stations can change it. Program Directors could also change it depending on if everyone is for the switch of formats.

Answer 5

I think the FCC may have a part in this. In Canada it is the CRTC. I could be wrong