Hosts for NYC Internet Station

[Richard Stefan]

I'm trying to find new radio hosts for our internet station and they are just not there.

So where do you find young people in NYC who want to talk, who are educated and willing to take this seriously?

 

[RDO]

Are you looking for people local to NYC, or do you have the ability to have people work from their home or studio elsewhere in the country? Are you paying?

 

[Richard Stefan]

Yes we do, but we'd rather you do your show in our informal studio on the upper west side...

Paying is a rhetorical question....since we have been in the ohbahma economy, no one gets paid unless you have a following....website social blogs active listeners. And if you dont have that then you pay us for the use of the studio and my time as the engineer...

4-5 years ago I could walk into any Irish bar and ask if they needed a dj for the weekend i would get paid wether there was 2 or 200 in the bar it was not the DJ's job to bring in customers but to keep them in there.

So now bar owners want to know how many people can you bring in, or want to see 500-1000 FB friends and then pay you like 20% of the bar....well my friends are older and dont drink much so i could be working for 5 hours for less then minimum wage at that "PAY"

 

[RadioMan203]

I'm trying to find new radio hosts for our internet station and they are just not there.

So where do you find young people in NYC who want to talk, who are educated and willing to take this seriously?

View attachment 153

Yes we do, but we'd rather you do your show in our informal studio on the upper west side...

Paying is a rhetorical question....since we have been in the ohbahma economy, no one gets paid unless you have a following....website social blogs active listeners. And if you dont have that then you pay us for the use of the studio and my time as the engineer...

OK, let me get this straight, you''re looking for people who want to talk, who are educated and willing to take things seriously, have to take time to go to you and then PAY YOU FOR THE PRIVILEGE?

Since it's relatively easy to roll your own internet station I don't think you're going to have many takers on that one!

 

[Richard Stefan]

Interesting.....you think I should work for FREE?????? That is the trouble with people today....work is not valued. Everyone is out to scam you.

Ever hear of CSB or a college with a radio station? Well people pay LOTS of $$$ to go there and get training.......so why not eliminate the middleman and do it for a fraction of the cost?

And my last host was paying yes PAYING WNLK WSTC for 2 hours a week to do his show, and my job was to get him network type guests, before Cox gave the radio stations away to Sacred Heart.........so now 30 show hosts were stripped of their outlet to produce their shows on a terrestrial station...ever hear of Lisa Wexler? How much was she paying for 10 hours a week 4-6pm?

You got to get on the ball Bill.....its a studio that can be rented out for any reason, but the owner of this beautiful renovated brownstone wants to have an fully functioning internet radio station but there are bills to pay......Ever hear of ASCAP or BMI or soundscan????....and we need qualified people to make it happen.......Cox radio pissssed on its paying hosts....was that OK because it was a "real" radio station?

PS show hosts AND ME...drove to 444 westport ave to do their shows live....

 

[RadioMan203]

Interesting.....you think I should work for FREE?????? That is the trouble with people today....work is not valued. Everyone is out to scam you.

You should open your eyes and look at the BIG picture, Richard. You and/or the studio owner CHOSE to start an internet radio station. Nobody twisted your arms, it was a free and deliberate choice. If you're hoping to make it a business then part of being a business is paying those who provide value to your business - in this case it would be your talent. The fact that you're looking for serious people to provide an on-air service but you have not intention on paying them makes me doubt you'll get anybody but the totally inexperienced lining up.

Ever hear of CSB or a college with a radio station? Well people pay LOTS of $$$ to go there and get training.......so why not eliminate the middleman and do it for a fraction of the cost?

Are you providing an accreditation which those persons can use for proof their experience is equal to a legitimate learning institution? CSB does! I suppose somebody may find learning at your studio of value, but are you going to get the educated, serious persons you're looking for? Sounds like a crap-shoot to me.

And my last host was paying yes PAYING WNLK WSTC for 2 hours a week to do his show, and my job was to get him network type guests, before Cox gave the radio stations away to Sacred Heart.........so now 30 show hosts were stripped of their outlet to produce their shows on a terrestrial station...ever hear of Lisa Wexler? How much was she paying for 10 hours a week 4-6pm?

If Cox was brokering out the stations that should have been a clue to the writing on the wall. BTW: You need to up your research: Cox didn't give away the stations to Sacred Heart. Cox was reported to have been paid $500K for both STC and NLK. On the other hand, 'SHU got the former WMMM literally for free with about $50k paid for some newer equipment purchased by the former owner.

You got to get on the ball Bill.....its a studio that can be rented out for any reason, but the owner of this beautiful renovated brownstone wants to have an fully functioning internet radio station but there are bills to pay......Ever hear of ASCAP or BMI or soundscan????....and we need qualified people to make it happen.......Cox radio pissssed on its paying hosts....was that OK because it was a "real" radio station?

Again, this was a conscious decision made by those in charge. The studio could be used in a for-profit business venture - perhaps renting it out to freelancer voice talent to record at. The conscious decision to use it for an internet radio station simply can't be the justification to use free talent, let alone having them pay you. If you're going to be operating a business you need to approach it as a business. If you're doing this strictly as a hobby at least be up front and say so. Don't try to masquerade it a business.

BTW: I had been involved with internet radio since 1998 when the few of us were doing it with bonded dial-up lines and inferior technology! My stations also lasted long enough to pay for ASCAP/BMI/SESAC/SoundExchange and had expenditures going out for talent without one cent from advertising. When I saw that a music format sans commercials being able to break even was less than zero I pulled the plug in 2008. This was all after building professional studios and acquiring broadcast-grade studios, automation and producing an imaging library to compliment the music format - all of which cost money. At several hundred dollars a month the only ones making money was the streaming provider and royalty police.

In you initial post you asked about hosts and said they're not out there. Perhaps you'll see why.

 

[Richard Stefan]

Bill:

The whole point is there are very few kids today who have a clue about radio. There is No minor leagues. You have to start somewhere, so yes people have to pay unless its like the 30 minutes you get free each day on Blogtalkradio with its 32K 11khz less then AM quality sound.

Yes sacred heart did pay but the station manager also was also making an offer to buy the station and keep it commercial. But cox wanted the tax deduction PERIOD!

And to make matters worse The FCC doesn't care that Fairfield county lost its 2 main news talk local stations....why couldn't the FCC say NO...local news and sports ARE Important to a community??? OK maybe 1 should have gone NPR and other should have been for local radio.

And in the hundreds of responses i get, the biggest factor is most do not know how to use the internet for research......you're old enough to know we had no internet so we had to use a library and developed research skills to write or type our reports. Steve Jobs said it best smartphones dumb you down.

So the quality of people are just not there, and whats wrong with brokered shows ???? People get serious about radio and doing the best they can when it their money on the table. Plus most have a business so it becomes another advertising tax write off....they were going to spend the money anyway Bill.

PSThe studio could be used in a for-profit business venture - perhaps renting it out to freelancer voice talent to record at. ......... EXACTLY and it may have to.......and whats the difference between that and charging a person to develop a radio show? NOTHING!

Plus they get my knowledge for free....that is a selling point no one else in NYC can provide.

 

[RadioMan203]

The whole point is there are very few kids today who have a clue about radio. There is No minor leagues. You have to start somewhere, so yes people have to pay unless its like the 30 minutes you get free each day on Blogtalkradio with its 32K 11khz less then AM quality sound.

Well, I will agree that few kids have any clue about radio but the ones who do are quite creative. Go hunt around on services like Live365 and Shoutcast and you'll find droves of stations, from talk to more music formats than you can shake a stick at.

Yes sacred heart did pay but the station manager also was also making an offer to buy the station and keep it commercial. But cox wanted the tax deduction PERIOD!

And to make matters worse The FCC doesn't care that Fairfield county lost its 2 main news talk local stations....why couldn't the FCC say NO...local news and sports ARE Important to a community??? OK maybe 1 should have gone NPR and other should have been for local radio.

Believe me, it boils my oil that my students have to "settle" for a Part 15 AM station when 'SHU has no less than three frequencies with their NPR nonsense covering lower Fairfield County. If I had a heads-up about what was happening to WMMM (a former station I engineered) I might have been able to get that for the school district's radio station instead of letting it become nothing more than a satellator. And to add to your comment, sadly the FCC doesn't give a damn that there's no local informational station for southern Fairfield County. A big black hole exists on the AM dial between Greenwich and Bridgeport now. Most people I know have given up on listening to local AM radio for information since getting cluttered by SHU's programming - they go back to their cable TV and either watch News 12 or a nearby television station.

So the quality of people are just not there, and whats wrong with brokered shows ???? People get serious about radio and doing the best they can when it their money on the table. Plus most have a business so it becomes another advertising tax write off....they were going to spend the money anyway Bill.

PS The studio could be used in a for-profit business venture - perhaps renting it out to freelancer voice talent to record at. ......... EXACTLY and it may have to.......and whats the difference between that and charging a person to develop a radio show? NOTHING!

Well, there is a difference, Richard. Somebody doing a voiceover gig will likely be doing it for a paying client. Buying time on an internet station, unless you have stats showing your audience and justifying your charges to the host, is only going to be outgoing monies to them with questionable return on investment. If you allow them to sell their own advertising on the time they purchase from you then you have a equitable business model.

Plus they get my knowledge for free....that is a selling point no one else in NYC can provide.

Well, that's a little disingenuous - if they're paying you for the use of the studio then there, in essence, aren't getting your knowledge for free.

I will wish you the best of luck in trying to make it work. I know after a decade of expenditures with very little return I decided it was a waste of time unless you can support the bandwidth and other associated costs like royalties.

 

[Richard Stefan]

Bill:


--------Buying time on an internet station, unless you have stats showing your audience and justifying your charges to the host, is only going to be outgoing monies to them with questionable return on investment-----------

Hmmm Isn't that what a Businessman is supposed to figure out for themselves? Lets see do i pay for ValPak coupons The Norwalk Hour or WGCH or an internet radio show.......Its all the same...its advertising.

Also What about CSB....you are paying to make demo tapes....so for a fraction of the cost they have the experience of being live and having the podcast hosted on our website.

----If you allow them to sell their own advertising on the time they purchase from you then you have a equitable business model.-----

Pretty much that how we have done it in the past its your hour 58 or 55 minutes if there is another show scheduled after yours.....we will run our own commercials for health foods, raw food dvd and book in the stream to fill in the time, and not imbed it in their podcasts......to me that's fair...That what I hated about WNLK after all their commercials news traffic you paid for top dollar for an hour but got only 44-46 minutes....it was a rip off.

-----if they're paying you for the use of the studio then there, in essence, aren't getting your knowledge for free.--------

Yes but at last count there were at least 10 other internet stations on and off on CL looking for show hosts in NYC and all are pretty much ghetto rap and hip hop, and none of them ever worked in a radio tv station as far as i can tell not even as an intern...

Yeah South Norwalk and Brien McMahon grad....i have a lot more to talk about but here was a partial guest list for the show I worked on.

http://www.unconventionalwisdomradio.com/guests/

 

[TheBigA]

I agree with Bill. Anyone with a brain knows you don't need a fancy studio to do internet radio. Anyone with a good idea and talent can start their own station and own all of it themselves. They don't need to pay anyone for a studio. They can buy all the gear they need for a few hundred bucks. Their main expense will be royalties.

This looks like a nice studio, and you're probably better off doing what you say, and do hourly rentals to voice talent. However, you'll find most of them also own their own studios too. Investing in a studio today is like investing in a boat or a pool. If you can do quality production, you might try to attract some agency work. Or maybe do your own StageIt show.

 

[Richard Stefan]

Big A...

Everyone has a studio but not many are using it for podcasting. The key we found is to aggregate them into a station more people will check out other shows .


At one point 5 years ago we had easily 15-20 live shows a week in tribeca...some paid some didn't......but the crash hit and the taxes and maintenance skyrocketed on their 100 year old building and the sold it and bought another old brownstone and renovated it....so now we are pretty much open for business but the quality of people are a far cry from 5 years ago....that's what i am lamenting about.

 

[TheBigA]

As I said, those who know what they're doing are now owning their own. Those who don't need help. As long as their check is good, why criticize them? They're your customers.

I have some friends in the studio biz, and they're ALL hurting bad. Especially in NYC. A few I know are doing shows on StageIt. Others have opened studio schools, training young kids. Anything to make a buck and pay the bills.

Even I have my own studio in my house. Pretty good rig, with Studer board and a great mic collection. It's just for me to play with.