The use of an out-of-state disc jockey to replace a laid-off on-air personality at KOST-FM (103.5) sparked a dispute between the station’s owner and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which filed an unfair labor practices charge against the company a filing AFTRA later said it would retract.
The replacement of 18-year KOST veteran Bryan Simmons and the layoffs of other DJs at L.A.’s Clear Channel Communications Inc.’s stations is part of the company’s “rightsizing” policy, which involves more sales and less operations people.
Simmons was among the DJs from KOST and sister station KBIG laid off on Sept. 28. The station then filled Simmons’ weekday afternoon slot with a DJ from Portland Ore. Among the others laid off were local DJs Todd Baker, Christine Martindale and Antoinette Russell.
After the layoffs, AFTRA’s local, which represents about 100 employees at six of Clear Channel’s eight area stations, started getting calls from concerned members.
Union officials met with Clear Channel officials and last week decided to file an unfair labor practices charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board. Clear Channel’s local management received word of the charge from a Business Journal reporter and quickly contacted the union, but the form had already been mailed.
AFTRA officials last week were promising to retract the charge and by the end of the week, the Portland DJ had been replaced by a local on-air personality.
The switch involving Simmons’ position is an example of “crossutilization,” the practice of using radio personalities from one station at another one, often in different markets. Clear Channel has become a leader in this practice through its use of an automated system commonly referred to as “Prophet,” which allows a station to fill air-time with programming prerecorded by its own people or personalities at other stations.
Negotiations with union
Worried about the potential job losses and compensation issues that could result from using one personality in multiple markets, AFTRA began negotiating the issue with Clear Channel in January, shortly after the company became a dominant player in local radio.
When San Antonio-based Clear Channel bought AMFM Inc. in August 2000, its collection of radio stations grew to about 1,200 nationwide. Its eight L.A. outlets include pop powerhouse KIIS-FM (102.7), R & B; station KHHT-FM (92.3) and the all-talk KFI-FM (640).
“They view this market as one station and they want to be able to use the talent back and forth across those station lines,” said Lawrence Mayberry, AFTRA’s representative for Clear Channel’s local employees. “The concern for us is what does that mean for our members. What does that mean in terms of jobs?”
Clear Channel, which was saddled with $6.1 billion in debt from the AMFM buy, has been working to consolidate its local resources and cut costs. L.A. market president Roy Laughlin said the goal is to house all eight stations under one roof.
While paring down expenses, Clear Channel increasingly has been using Prophet at the L.A. stations. KBIG, KIIS, KOST and pop station KYSR-FM (98.7) make use of the automated system.
Prophet allows Clear Channel to use well-known personalities, such as DJ Rick Dees of KIIS, on smaller stations that can’t afford to have big names. “That’s the beauty of Prophet, the jocks can be anywhere,” Laughlin said.
The exporting stations stand to gain because they receive compensation for their programming. The L.A. cluster exports more material than any other in the Clear Channel network, Laughlin said.
Interim agreement
The union and Clear Channel earlier this year reached an interim agreement allowing stations to crossutilize on-air personalities for commercials, promotions and public service announcements.
AFTRA rescinded the deal following Simmons’ replacement, arguing that Clear Channel changed working conditions before completing negotiations.
KOST’s decision to drop Simmons and use programming produced by an out-of-market DJ before completing negotiations with AFTRA “is a violation of federal labor law,” Paul Worthman, head of the union’s local broadcasting department, said early last week.
A charge related to the change at KOST was mailed to the labor board Wednesday morning, Worthman said. Following calls by the Business Journal for comment, Clear Channel corporate counsel Neal Murphy and L.A. cluster controller Jim Murphy contacted AFTRA. Later that day, Worthman said KOST would stop using out-of-market talent and the union would retract the charge.
“We’ve agreed that we’ll basically work things out,” he said. “If they had not realized that this was a public issue…I don’t know how it would have ended up. I don’t think it would have gone this quickly.”
