Posted by Analysis on June 07, 2011 at 11:51:24:
In Reply to: Re: To no one's surprise, John Sebastian is leaving posted by Outtie on June 07, 2011 at 11:38:05:
There's no doubt that John knows a lot about programming a radio station and he does have a pretty good track record behind him.
That said, I think it's funny that the first really good book Q has, he exits. I've seen this play out with the "Stellar PD's", the ones who have a stellar track record of being at a station for one big growth book and then leave. They get all the glory, get a great mark on their resume, and the coming bad books are "not his fault". The really good PD's are the ones who can get a station successful and keep it there for the longhaul.
Nevermind that his "secret sauce" for Q has been in play for two years with modest results. That, and this was just a good book overall for country. Star had a pretty big bump too. I'm not trying to downplay the success of Q, I believe the numbers are true, but I think it has way less to do with Sebastian's work and more to do with better sampling this time around. The true success of Q is going to be how those numbers look over the next few books.
Personally I think Q sounds horribly sterile and impersonal at a time where radio needs to be MORE personal and one-on-one.