Local Media Members Better Change Fast

I have become more and more aware of this over my nine years at WIBC. I was aware of it at the time, but I will tell you when it really hit me right between the eyes. For generations, WIBC had an in-statehouse reporter. When I was there, it was Eric Berman. Eric Berman, who sadly passed away last year, was a phenomenal reporter. He was a great guy, very intelligent, and very good at getting and reporting stories. He did a fantastic job. After COVID, WIBC eliminated that position. I believe it happened while Emmis still owned us, and then Urban One didn’t bring it back. That hit me very hard. First, because Eric Berman was a great guy. But second, because it was a reminder that there was one less set of eyes in the Statehouse covering what these people are doing. I realized that if WIBC was doing it, then other media companies were probably doing the same thing. And then it dawned on me that lawmakers are aware of it too. If I’m aware of it and people in the industry are aware of it, then the politicians know who’s there and who’s covering them. Over the past several years I’ve become more and more aware of, and invested in, what’s happening in our local media landscape. We’ve talked about it for years on the old show and on other platforms. The reality is that terrestrial media has been in a pandemic of its own for about twenty years, and especially the last ten. There has been a gutting of people in our industry and a gutting of the number of bodies assigned to cover local politics and government at the state, county, town, and city levels. I often think back to a conversation I had a year or two after COVID with a very respected member of Indiana state government. Not an elected official, but someone deeply involved in state government. This person said to me, “Rob, the politicians have figured out after COVID that they can do whatever they want and the people won’t push back. Now they’re realizing that in many cases there isn’t even anyone there to cover them doing it.” That conversation has stayed with me. And they’re right. So yes, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the RTV6 purchase and what the fallout might be. Some people asked why I didn’t take the side of the people who got let go. I’m not taking sides. What I’m trying to do is work through the reality of what’s happening. What’s happening now is that more and more people are being told their services are no longer needed in the terrestrial media world. And if you’re still in that world, eventually the bell will toll for you too. I said this for nine years on WIBC. I said the bell would toll for me eventually, and when it did I’d find something else to do. Thankfully I had been thinking about it for a while and had an idea of what I wanted to do next. And thanks to you guys, it has worked out great. People crave good local content. You guys are proof of that. In one month we’ve done numbers that take many podcasters years to reach in terms of views, listens, and engagement. The people still in terrestrial media are eventually going to go off the edge of the cliff and into the volcano. Television and radio still matter. They still have influence. They still have a place. This isn’t an indictment of their existence. But the space they occupy is not what it once was. When for-profit megacorporations own these stations, there is no mathematical way to keep the same number of employees they once had. So my conversation about the people at RTV6 wasn’t about sympathy or lack of sympathy. I feel terrible for them. I was messaging with someone who got let go just the other day. But you have to have a plan for adapting to the reality of the business. The way it used to be is over. It’s done. It’s not coming back. You’re not going to have local merchants buying television and radio stations and rebuilding the industry the way it existed in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The megacorps own them now. The FCC and the federal government allowed it, and that’s the reality. Someone commented on one of my posts who had worked at RTV6. They said, “Well, you’re a commentator. These people are journalists. You can just flip a switch. They can’t go do opinion-based content.” I started to write a response and almost hit send. Then I thought, why waste it here? I’ll just talk about it on the show. I found that response fascinating. The idea that journalists can’t pivot or do opinion-based work doesn’t make sense. If you’ve been let go and you’re free to work elsewhere, you can reinvent yourself however you want. Unless you’ve signed something that restricts you, you can go to the internet and do whatever type of content you choose. We do it here all the time. The show is opinion-based, but I also interview people and do journalistic-style interviews. There’s no rulebook that says media has to be done one specific way. Everyone has opinions. Every journalist has opinions. Some hide them well, some tuck them away so they don’t appear in their writing, but everyone has them. If you’ve been let go and you’re free to work, you can do whatever you want. Look at what we’re doing here. Part of the reason people are getting let go is that reading a teleprompter isn’t unique anymore. It doesn’t give owners something they can’t get somewhere else. Look at who stayed at RTV6: Kara Kenney, the investigative reporter. I don’t know the terms of her deal, but her institutional knowledge and ability to dig into stories clearly made her valuable enough to keep. The work Kara Kenney does is something audiences find compelling. Reading a teleprompter is different. I’ve done television before. When Hammer and I had the betting show at Wish TV, I walked in and they said, “Look there and read that.” After a few practice takes and learning the studio layout, you get the hang of it. Am I as good as the top news anchor in the city? No. But could I be passable? Sure. That’s what these corporations have figured out. Does the person look good in a suit? Can they read the prompter? Okay, that’s worth forty thousand dollars a year. I’m not trying to be callous. I’m trying to explain the reality of the landscape. What we need is more people doing what we’re doing here. We’re proving it can work. James Briggs mentioned this on the podcast we did together and on social media. He said what’s happening here is working because we filled a vacuum. Nobody can do it exactly the way I do it. Someone who has spent twenty years reading neutral news scripts probably can’t step into this format immediately because they haven’t built those opinions or that institutional knowledge. But they could create their own newscast if they wanted to. Independent journalists make it work all the time. Look at people like Abdul, Adam Wren, and organizations like the Indiana Capital Chronicle, which operates as a nonprofit. You can do your own thing. And look, I loved my time at WIBC. I’m grateful to Emmis and Urban One for the opportunities and the relationships we built. But from a professional standpoint, what I’m doing now is the most rewarding media work I’ve ever done. We may not have the audience size I had at WIBC, but the people who are here are engaged. They’re watching or listening for forty-five minutes or more at a time. They want the content. That means I can talk about the things I care about. We can find sponsors who help keep the lights on. And people who enjoy what we do voluntarily support it. It’s a simple concept. If you like something, you support it so it can keep going. This model works. But people in media have to rethink everything about how they operate. We’ve been in our own pandemic for more than a decade, and many people either didn’t realize it or chose not to acknowledge it. The old system is over. Some people will survive in it, but not many. It’s like the Stephen King story The Stand. A few people make it out. Most don’t. Even the syndication industry is fading, especially in radio. There are still megacorps keeping some of that programming alive, but it’s not building empires anymore. Some people have spent years chasing syndicated radio success. They’ve devoted every hour of every day to it. How many stations are they actually on? When are they on? That’s the reality. It’s not an indictment of their effort. They tried. It just doesn’t work like it used to. This is where it works now. I’ll admit that I resisted it for years. Jason and I had countless conversations where he told me I needed to move in this direction. I thought everything would be fine at WIBC. I looked at the ratings and assumed they’d never get rid of me. Of course they did. I wish I had started this years ago because we’d be much further along by now. You might be wondering how this connects back to Jacob Stewart. Well, Stewart has a column in the IndyStar about what might happen next after the RTV6 layoffs. According to Stewart, another station could be next: Channel 13, WTHR. Here’s what’s happening. Nexstar owns Fox 59 and CBS4. Nexstar is attempting to buy Tegna, which owns WTHR, the NBC affiliate. So Nexstar already controls two major stations in the market and wants to acquire another. The proposed purchase is valued at $6.2 billion. The FCC approved the merger, but a federal judge temporarily halted it due to antitrust concerns. There’s a hearing on the matter soon, and many people in the industry think the merger will eventually go through. Court filings revealed that Nexstar had already begun what they called “cost reduction initiatives” ahead of the merger. That phrase means layoffs. According to Stewart, Nexstar sought permission to proceed with workforce actions tied to a $90–$100 million cost reduction initiative, which would eliminate newsroom and support positions. In other words, the same thing that happened at RTV6. This is the future. It was a great run, but the old system is over. If you’re in these industries, they’re coming for you too. Radio is already there with voice tracking from people who don’t even live in the state they’re broadcasting to. Television is now heading down the same path. My challenge to people who are losing their jobs isn’t to hate DuJuan McCoy or Nexstar or Tegna. It’s going to happen. Instead, figure out what you uniquely offer that goes beyond reading a teleprompter. Find your niche. Build something independent. Independent journalists often produce better work because they have to earn their audience every day. I’m telling you honestly: I’m doing better work now than I did during my last two years at WIBC. I’m able to do things I always wanted to do but couldn’t. That’s not a criticism of Urban One or anyone else I worked for. It was their company, and I did the job the way they wanted it done. But now I can give the audience what they want, the way I want to do it. I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. I want to prove that this model works for the audience, for the consumer. Corporations can’t deliver the same thing anymore. And if you’re someone who just got laid off in media, think about what you can offer on your own and bring it directly to the people.