Another Clear Channel Faux Pas?

Time once again to open up our morning show e-mailbag…

(insert the CBS orchestra singing that “Letters” song here)

Well, for once, no slams against our on-air folks or the substitutes thereof. But, whether the writer realized this, the writer probably slammed our favorite peon here at Doug’s Place, Clear Channel Radio. Let’s see what this person writes — and again, the writer’s identity’s withheld…

My (spouse) went to the career fair after work and arrived at 5:50 pm, along with about 40 other people, as suggested by your coverage. The only businesses with representatives still there were the MS National Guard and one other business. Needless to say, all were disappointed. The businesses that left failed their part of the bargain with the community for this job fair. Many people wasted time and resources to go there for nothing, not a good way to build a positive relationship with the community which their businesses depend on.

Wow! I *am* protecting the writer’s ID. Not even saying if he’s a he or she’s a she.

OK, time to set the record straight. I’ve responded to the writer with a few questions since I was unclear on a couple of things. Actually, I “acted” unclear and gave the writer a chance to clear up stuff the person wrote.

With regard to “as suggested by (Channel 7’s) coverage”, we never did a news story on the Clear Channel career expo, held Thursday at the convention center. Plus, to the best of my knowledge, we never had any representatives from the expo appear for a live, sit-down interview on our morning or midday shows (definitely wasn’t in the morning since I produce it…or else I would’ve remembered…spot check of the midday guest registry had no Clear Channel expo references).

However, the TV station aired *several* commercials plugging this expo. I asked the writer, “Is (the advertising the TV station produced) what you meant by our coverage?” I’m waiting for a response — but I’m sure the commercials are what the writer meant.

With regard to “the businesses that left”, who knows what happened. I wasn’t there at all and the writer’s spouse wasn’t there for the whole thing. Why did representatives from participating businesses leave early? Were the crowds low in number as the expo continued? Perhaps. If memory serves me right, this expo was supposed to start at 10:00am and end at 7:00pm — a bit too long for my taste (10am-4pm would’ve been more like it). I checked the only two area CC radio station websites for exact start and end times and — well — their sites haven’t been updated in several weeks (yoo-hoo, let’s get on the stick!!! and yes, you read that right…out of 7 CC stations in the area, only 2 have a website).

But, the writer notes “all were disappointed”. I suspect — notice the emphasis I place on “suspect” — the disappointment was based on poorly planning by Clear Channel. As I’ve noted here earlier, CC did a terrible job in promoting their stealing NASCAR radio coverage from Rock 104 — or else, why do I *still* have people calling me asking when is Rock 104 going to carry the race? Plus, this was their first career expo and the first of anything’s going to have its problems (I should know, the first RockTrax show I did on Rock 104, I accidentally called it SL-100’s BackTrax…referencing my previous employer, now a CC radio station, and the show I hosted for 3 1/2 years).

“The businesses that left failed their part of the bargain with the community for this job fair.” OK, how do we know this? The writer’s basing this opinion on the final hour or so of the event. Hell, I’ll give CC the benefit of the doubt — for once. The place could’ve been packed in the middle of the day. By about 4:30pm or 5:00pm, some exhibitors may have noticed the crowd was dwindling and it was time to go home.

Bottom line: The jury’s out on this one. I’m waiting for the real story to come in. And I’m pretty sure what the real story was. CC was in this expo just to find new clients and bill ’em to the fullest extent. I could be wrong — and for once I’d like to be proven wrong. But, I’m pretty sure I’m right.