Voiceover Blog

Everytime you see a report of another media sale, it’s always followed by a list of layoffs. Following a recent transfer in an already economically depressed area, I read that one of those let go was afraid to tell his wife.  That probably holds true for quite a few folks who have done one thing for 20 years or more, and now are left with no prospects and nowhere to go.
In the breakup of publically-help Clear Channel, which takes an FCC vote to approve, one commissioner has started to thing twice about the role of private equity groups.  There are still some kind of controls, however lax, that prevent a single “owner” from controlling too many media outlets.  But the same private equity firms have their hand in many,many deals.  Perhaps too many.

The average user of radio or television has no idea what’s going on, except that their favorite stations aren’t as exciting as they once were.  But just as two years ago when the FCC tried to sneak past a rules change on ownership, the media is not covering itself. Last time, it took a PBS story on the cusp of the vote to wake folks up. But the story of the private equity firms has yet to see the light of day.

Thank you, Michael Copps, for having a brain. I’m not convinced that your cohorts on the FCC will be listening to you, but it’s good to know that you’re not going to be driving the steamroller that forces more bland, inane crap down the throats of the American public.

–Thanks for reading.

This isn’t the first time it’s happened.  There are many clients like this, unfortunately.  However this particular client is in the advertising business; he should know better.

I was retained to write a maketing plan.

The product was right on target, the pricing was where it should have been, but no one knew of it’s existence.

“The first thing you need to do is advertise!”, I said.

“Advertising never works for us,” they replied.

“But that’s what you sell!”

“Yes, and we need to sell more of it. How can we do that?”

“Advertise!!”

“Maybe we’ll put it in the budget for next year.”

“At this rate, you won’t be here next year.”

– Thanks for reading.