I owned a network of radio stations. You're buying a terrible job with a $150,000 radio station (anything sub ~$500,000 actually). You better love radio. You're better off being a software developer above the median ($110,000+ per year with benefits).
You would think so, but a couple of weeks ago I was looking at one of the trade web sites that published a weekly list of radio and television stations shutting down. Not put up for sale, or even going dark. Going away forever, as in turned in their license.
I expected to see lots of AM stations there, but there was also FM and TV stations. Probably two dozen in total, just for that week. Surprising, to me.
I think people on the West Coast have a distorted idea about the quality of radio and TV service in the rest of the US.
In my experience, it's market to market. I move a lot (~15 cities in 14 states in the last 20 years). In spite of all the complaining I read on the internet, almost all of those markets have one or two, or even three really outstanding local radio stations.
Then recently, I moved to a large city with absolutely terrible radio, and I understand all of the complaints. Before I thought it was just that people couldn't find exactly what they wanted. But even when you find the content you want, the presentation is awful.
The common factor seems to be ownership. The more radio stations in a market with local ownership, the better the quality of the content on all stations.
Even New York, which should have the best radio in the country, has gotten really really bad in the last five to ten years. And it seems like it really went downhill right when the big players got bought by out-of-state conglomerates.
"more than 860 live broadcast stations in 153 markets across America"
so that is around $3.1M per station.
I think people on the West Coast have a distorted idea about the quality of radio and TV service in the rest of the US. Around L.A. there are 100+ TV channels available with a modest antenna not just because the industry is centered there but because millions of people have a view of the Hollywood sign or any antenna on a mountaintop.
Starting around Ithaca and going south down to Alabama the terrain is a dissected plain where valleys take the place of mountain and if you are in one of those valleys you are lucky to get FM radio at all. I can't receive anything indoors with a clock radio or home theater receiver and in my car most stations will cut out somewhere between home and work. If they don't cut out there they will cut out when you go down 600 feet to Ithaca. I get the big networks and Fox and some off-brand stations from Syracuse but don't get ABC, I might put up a bigger antenna in the spring to try and get it or point another antenna at Binghamton. (At least I get football and the matchups have been excellent this year)
Driving around upstate New York the one thing you could count on was getting the Rush Limbaugh show at noon, when the sun sets and the atmospheric D layer disappears it is fun to hear the fight between Bloomberg Radio talking about the stock markets about to open in Asia and the Black Information Network from Detroit.
Thus my point of contact with iHeart Media is the streaming service which I usually use to listen to specialty shows on the two college radio stations that I can't get at home despite being 5 miles or so from the sticks.