Retirement

Outside of radio, not many people would know the name Mel Karmazin.

Inside radio, we know it.  And we know it all too well.

Briefly put, he was the guy who discovered (and ultimately syndicated) Howard Stern, who ruled terrestrial radio for more than two decades before moving to Sirius XM.

Mel, whose claim to fame was WNEW in the 60s, gradually moved up the ranks with Metromedia and Infinity Broadcasting, turning the latter into one of the most profitable radio enterprises in the United States, before leading it into a merger with CBS and Viacom.

His support of longtime shock-jock Stern led him to lock horns repeatedly with the FCC, when the agency tried to levy fines for indecency-related allegations against the company.  Mel successfully appealed every fine, resulting in reduced judgements or negotiated settlements.  Investors fondly looked upon him as someone with a license to print money.

He announced his retirement in early August.  It was the second go-round at such an attempt, as he retired from CBS/Viacom after one too many skirmishes with aging company chief Sumner Redstone.  He then was lured back into the radio business by officials from Sirius Satellite Radio, and led the company through its merger with XM Satellite Radio.  He fought every monopoly-antitrust allegation against him and his new company.

For someone well-positioned to chart a course for radio's future, he may instead be remembered for its demise.

Mel was one of many broadcasting executives who championed relaxing the then-stringent ownership rules for broadcasters.  Until the summer of 1992, no company could own more than one FM and one AM station in a single market, and no more than twelve nationwide.  That restriction was lifted, allowing companies to acquire a third and up to a fourth property, depending on the market's size, and the fourth property had to be equally in line with the other three.  The new rule was called "No More than Four".

Four was just the beginning for Mel.

"I don't see why we can't own more than three FM's in a single market", he was once quoted as saying.

He continued the push for the FCC to relax the rules even further, to the point where a single company was limited to a percentage of market share, which was more abstract and could easily be manipulated by ratings. In short, you could fire a successful program director for doing his job.
Commercial-per-hour limits were all but eliminated.  Especially on fragmented niche-driven formats like decade-based Classic Rock or Pop.  Song. DJ chatter.  Commercials.  More DJ chatter.  More Commercials.  Song.  This was especially prevalent on stations in the nation's Top 10 markets.
As radio turned more and more into commercials with music in between, this gave birth to another market: Satellite radio.
Research showed that people were willing to pay a subscription to hear music without commercial interruptions.  Simply put, it was bringing services delivered to cable television via Digital Music Express and Music Choice, but this time through one's car.
Because I don't spend this much time in my car, I can't justify the expense.  But my own listening habits have changed over the years.  Today I listen to music through my iTunes application on my iPhone, which holds about 800 titles.  Most of the tracks are stuff that were hits back in the day, but are today all but ignored by program directors.
Or I listen to other radio stations from far-away markets that can't be heard over-the-air here in western Pennsylvania.
Enjoy your retirement, Mel.
At least you're a radio guy who has something to depend upon for the future.
I'm not so sure about the rest of us.


NEXT WEEK:  The Hot Seat