Radio Trade Magazine Closes

Michael Hedges June 4, 2009 (follow on Twitter)

Trade publications have a special role within any business sector. At their very best they tell the stories within an industry or trade, giving voice to insiders in their own language and sometimes fighting their fights. As a business trade press is generally considered reasonably recession proof. That’s not enough when an entire industry moves to the other side of the curve.

US radio broadcasting trade publication Radio & Records will cease publication this Friday (June 5) after 36 years. The current publisher, Nielsen Business Media, said music airplay charts would be folded into its Billboard publication. About 30 staffers were given two days notice.

R&R, as it was popularly known, was born as American radio broadcasting transitioned from the last gasps of AM radio to new and, what seemed at the time, quite bold arena of FM radio. The publications’ forte was tracking music played on the hundreds of new stations that had popped up when owners discovered there was considerable audience among Baby Boomers for a new way of playing radio. New formats sprung up with variations on new formats, each high competitive. R&R thrived on that, with generous support from the music industry.

Prior to R&R most radio trade news came from Billboard, the music industries trade magazine, and a handful of tip-sheets. Within five years R&R not only became the US radio industries most influential voice, it drove a fair amount of innovation within the industry. Emphasis, of course, was on music as the essential element for radio broadcasting but R&R established a common narrative for the American radio legions. You had to see it to know the language. At one time R&R had a not insignificant following in Europe, particularly among German radio programmers.

R&R began holding its own conventions, indeed competing with Billboard and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). The R&R conventions, which became integral to the publications’ positioning, poured praise on DJs, music directors and program directors while mocking sales managers and ignoring general managers. An influential DJ or PD could expect “special” treatment from the highest of the high in the music industry. The GMs got their revenge, eventually, and fired all the DJs and most of the PDs.

That faded, notoriety getting the best of the conventions. Harte-Hanks, a publisher and broadcaster, bought R&R in 1979. It was sold again, to Westwood One, and again to a venture capital firm and, finally, to Nielsen Media, division of VNU, three years ago. The print and online versions of R&R will simultaneously closed.

The American radio business has had a dreadful last few years. Consolidation and the accompanying high debt of incumbent owners took a toll. When music players like Apple’s iPod arrived radio broadcasters focused on all-music formats found listeners departing with advertisers close behind. The narrative that had served so well for a generation no longer resonated among listeners, advertisers or broadcasting companies.

Now the once highly synergistic US radio and music industries are at each others throats. Both failed miserably to accurately measure listeners and consumers needs, focusing entirely on share prices and debt service. The music industry stopped supporting R&R with advertising and the few remaining US radio broadcasting companies stopped buying subscriptions. The generation of American broadcasters who started their careers building new and better radio stations to the delight of listeners will keep the fond memories of being profiled in R&R or even that brief mention. Current US radio owners will continue to find all they need to know in Journal of Accountancy.