Scott G and others make a good point on voice tracking and how its being used more and more.The day may come when the DJ's job will be completely automated. Less saleries to pay means more profit for the station.Live I enjoy!! Taped is just so fake and takes away from the thrill of watching or listening.Like scott said you miss out on current happenings! The beatles could be singing she loves you ya ya ya and world war 3 the could be happening outside.I guess the good old days of radio and tv are slipping awqy
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The way of the future! I dont care for it
- Thread starter stanleyjohn
- Start date
I couldn't find it online except behind a paywall, but if you can locate a copy of Howard Hoffman's "99" tape (a sequel to his now-famous "9 tape" he pretty much predicted what the above post infers. We're going to get to a point where one jock (perhaps just a simulation of a jock) will voicetrack umpteen stations.
As long as the large groups are allowed to continue trashing the radio biz there's no hope. There are too few smaller groups and "mom 'n' pop" operators to make a difference anymore.
As long as the large groups are allowed to continue trashing the radio biz there's no hope. There are too few smaller groups and "mom 'n' pop" operators to make a difference anymore.
The term "DJ" means Disc Jockey. There are no more discs, so no real need for jockeys. Radio stations haven't worked off actual discs for well over 20 years. Music scheduling software goes back that far. This isn't a recent thing. So the day already came in the early 90s. The other role owners got DJs to do was run the transmitter. Back in the 60s, that was a major qualification for a DJ. They needed to have an FCC 3rd Class license to take transmitter readings, raise or lower power as needed, and either sign off or sign on the station. That requirement went away 30 years ago. So what does that leave for the person who once jockeyed discs? Talk breaks used to come in between every record. Then 30 years ago, they discovered that listeners liked segues. That meant uninterrupted music. So even back then, it was not unusual for a station to run 20 minutes or more without a live announcer. So I've just given you three things that changed a very long time ago.
There were fully automated stations in the 60s. Typically, they were beautiful music stations. But it wasn't unusual to have a fully automated rock station in a town in the 1970s. Of course automation was primitive, with reel to reel tape and cart. But the only thing a human did was load up the automation. Voice-tracking was invented in 1992 because it was a way to use a local talent's time more efficiently. Since the local DJ was no longer cuing up records, and wasn't speaking between every song, there was a need to give him something to do during those 30 minute music sweeps. So a DJ could load an entire show worth of breaks in advance, so he didn't have to sit and wait for the music to end.
So the way of the future is here now. It's been here now for over 25 years. Maybe you didn't know that the station you grew up with was automated. But in some way, it probably was. It's not large groups who automate. It's rare to see even a small mom & pop station without some form of automation or syndication.
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Dj is just for reference!I know that vinyl,tape and soon the cd is a dieing breed to be replaced by a chip.The day soon will come when I and many others don't need radio or tv anymore!just play some electronic digital device to get your enjoyment.It may be that radio and tv are going the way of the dinosaur.
In support of what TheBigA posted.... Ten years ago I recognized a "window" in my life, a limited-time-opportunity. If I wanted to return to the business and ride herd on my very own radio station, it was kind of now-or-never. Over a period of 5 or 6 years I chased a number of opportunities. All were rural market / small market stations we sometimes refer to as mom-and-pop operations. There was not a single station that I looked at that was not using automation. Yes, some did have a form of live-and-local during breakfast time. (In small markets, "drive time" is kind of a ill-named event!)
It was an education to see how various operators dressed and groomed their operation and their automation style to keep it from being such an obvious poke-in-the-eye to listeners who were observant enough to know that automation existed and could be misused.
If you go to work today for an insurance company, a real estate agency, a bank, or a property management firm, you would have a very negative reaction if on your first day at work they led you to a desk equipped with a "dairy stanchion" like we used to have cows stick their head in to keep them still while the extraction of milk took place. Here is your workplace. We will take the restraint off your neck 3 to 6 hours from now when your shift is over. You might look at your new boss and explain to him/her what your idea is of an appropriate place to shove that job!
I think it would be an interesting task to go out a visit a number of radio stations and interview today's on-the-air folks.... live and recorded, and see what the folks who produce audio content prefer as a working atmosphere. Do they like or dislike voice-tracking. I can remember back in the day listening to people doing a "live and local" gig who were on the air, counting down to the end of their shift when they could get rid of the horse-collar and once again feel like a human being enjoying their freedom!
While that may be true on full music radio stations I don't think it will be true across the board. The highest listening today seems to occur during drive time and specifically morning drive. The most successful stations all seem to have some sort of live morning show during this time and that can't be faked easily by using VT.
As long as there is a need for audio-only morning shows there will be a place for live DJ's (or perhaps hosts is a better modern term.
But that's just it. Nobody is missing out on current happenings. We have so many apps on our phones and numerous internet sources of news that it is no longer necessary to have that information on the radio. In many cases people are already aware of breaking news long before it makes it onto the radio anyway. If I want a traffic report I check Google Maps and zero in on the exact area where I'm driving to see if there are any traffic incidents. I'm not going to wait 10 minutes for a traffic report on the radio that may or may not cover the area where I'm driving. That's just one example...
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