'Power Player' Alpha's Larry Wilson Profiled By Time

Larry Wilson

Former CITADEL Founder-turned-APLHA BROADCASTING Owner/CEO LARRY WILSON deservedly gets the full-court press TODAY, as he's profiled in TIME magazine -- and is this week's POWER PLAYER Interview in ALL ACCESS.

The TIME feature, called "Rescuing Radio." discusses WILSON's return to radio ownership in the wake of personal loss and his reasons for returning. After the death of his wife and while he was recuperating from a fall that broke several bones, WILSON noted, "I saw the industry make knee-jerk reactions -- eliminating programming and salespeople. Going after the talent. Research was gone and external promotions were gone."

Explaining his strategy -- keeping local and well-capitalized -- WILSON said, "When you cut the costs out of this business, you cut the product. Then you don't have anything to distinguish you from iPODs or anything ... People say, 'We'll program five markets from X city and we'll have one team doing it, and we'll save all this money.' Doesn't work. Listeners want to talk about the mayor, the new light rail that's going in, the local sports teams."

Read the whole thing by clicking here.

A 'Power Player' Perspective

In this week's POWER PLAYER interview, WILSON touched on the changes in the changes in the business over the last seven years. One of them is the introduction and proliferation of PPM data, which he considers to be plagued by under-sampling. Yet he also criticized simply using ratings data to determine success in radio.

"We're not just about ratings and selling spots. We're about getting results for customers as we build relationships with them," he declared. "If I had my druthers, in a heartbeat, I'd say let's go on without [ratings] and just go mano a mano on who can give the best results for our clients. Over a period of time, the best will survive."

Read the entire POWER PLAYER interview here.

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