A Trip Down "Quality Control Lane"!

[DOGDOG]

Unless you've just been born, you know radio is getting to be a tougher and tougher sale day-by-day. We've previously covered the cause of the demise of this once great medium, we won't get into that here beyond stupid ownership and management have always wanted to do it on the cheap, up to and including thumbing their finger at localism. Since it is so damned hard to sell radio these days, one would think "management" would at least demand an excellent air sound, especially if fixes to on-air presentation problems cost little or nothing. Come along with me as we stop at a few area radio stations and our trip starts in Leesburg. I was listening on an early Saturday afternoon and tuned in at the start of what was a very well written station sales promo. It really was fantastic and I was very impressed! The only criticism I have of this is it should have been voiced by a mature sounding voice, as opposed to what sounded like some high school kid. What happened next however, was right out of "toilet radio". They were doing some sort of sports interview program...or...attempting to do this. It was done outside and it was next to impossible to understand what was being said! The wind noise was horrendous! Come on people! You know the wind is blowing and its continuous! Why not at least use a windscreen? Why not move the interview inside a building or car? Incredible! After this program it was time for oldies music. Sounded good to me with two exceptions. In the recording process, some of the songs were recorded either with one stereo track or improperly wired stereo-to-mono equipment. Some vocals were well UNDER the music level and some vocals were not heard at all! Again, incredible! To further add insult to injury, some of the songs were not even originals! Instead of the hit version of "Candy Girl" for example, what was played was some live version! Again, textbook "toilet radio"! Imagine what a potential client who was motivated by that well written promo would have thought? It is interesting to note how many AM only stations are now attempting to market themselves as "AM/FM" even though the "FM" is nothing more than some pipsqueak translator which in another life served as a high school science fair project! One would think, if you are going to use one of them and attempt to defraud advertisers into thinking their spots are now on a decent, easy to receive, real FM station, you would, at least have quality audio! Listen around and you'll hear it! Let's now go down the road to your favorite religious station. One of these days, we'll go down the side road called "Hypocrisy" What I can tell you is if you understand Spanish, you will find most of such stations are far from hypocritical! Most, if not all automation software has tools which will allow timing to-the-second. How can a station "manager" allow garbage stuff like one spot starting before the previous spot ends? Or take the case of what I hear regularly on the Deland station...programs starting way late with the most gross example being an eight o'clock program starting at 8:10|

And we wonder why radio is "circling the drain"!!!

 

[davideduardo]

Unless you've just been born, you know radio is getting to be a tougher and tougher sale day-by-day.............................

Definition of paragraph

1: a subdivision of a written composition that consists of one or more sentences, deals with one point or gives the words of one speaker, and begins on a new usually indented line

Your post is nearly impossible to read.

It is interesting to note how many AM only stations are now attempting to market themselves as "AM/FM" even though the "FM" is nothing more than some pipsqueak translator which in another life served as a high school science fair project!

A 250 watt FM translator at a decent height (and some are at over 1000 feet above average terrain) generally covers better than most local channel AM stations (the 1 kw stations on 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490 of which there are nearly 1000 in the US), provides night service for daytimers and provides vastly better night coverage for many low power or directional stations.

And we wonder why radio is "circling the drain"!!!

Untrue. Slow growth or no growth, yes. Otherwise, NO.

 

[Groove1670]

If this is a smaller market, the rambling that started this post is a moot point. There are some really poor sounding stations in surrounding markets where I am located. The inner radio person in me says it's awful, but the stations are loaded with spots and have a loyal following. For those stations, occasional dead air is not a issue, and the listeners don't notice.

I remember the days of running down the hall to get a soda, and the record ended. Nobody ever stopped me and said, I heard 10 seconds of dead air the other day.

Alas...a day in many small market radio stations.

 

[DOGDOG]

Here's exactly what I mean...AGAIN! I was listening to a live barter talkshow. At the top of the hour, they broke for network news. Guess what? Legal ID runs and dead air. Finally somebody wakes up and starts playing drops over and over! Eventually the board operator decides to move on with the next segment of the program. Are there feed problems with a network? Of course there are but at least have the common sense to be prepared! Let me interject, when was the last time you saw a blank space in the newspaper where the ad should have been? How about on a billboard? Why is it radio which has these screw-ups and seemingly nobody does anything about it but just sit back and accept it? I can only imagine what would have happened if I sold an adjacency to that newscast or talk show...or worse yet, if I just pitched that adjacency that afternoon to a new perspective client! "Oh you're being too hard", I can just hear it now. If I was the GM, the next morning in my office would be sitting the CE, PD and board operator. The CE would be directed to be positive it wasn't caused by a dish alignment problem. The PD and BO would be questioned as to why wasn't somebody there to DO SOMETHING as soon as the dead air appeared rather than playing one drop after another as a sorry excuse! I would also tell the CE and PD to use one of the tools in the automation system to record every hourly newscast and into an emergency news file which would be automatically triggered by the dead air silence monitor after just a few seconds instead of 45! Come on now people, radio is a hard sell as it is. Problems without a common sense response make the station seem like a bunch of kids trying to play radio. We don't need to be the laughing stock of media buyers. Lets get our act together and improve our product! It only takes TWO things...people who give a damn and people who know how to use the tools available!!!

 

[TheBigA]

Nothing else to do? What makes you think this station has a full compliment of employees for you to castigate?

 

[davideduardo]

Here's exactly what I mean...AGAIN! I was listening to a live barter talkshow. At the top of the hour, they broke for network news. Guess what? Legal ID runs and dead air. Finally somebody wakes up and starts playing drops over and over! Eventually the board operator decides to move on with the next segment of the program. Are there feed problems with a network? Of course there are but at least have the common sense to be prepared!

To form any kind of opinion, we have to know the station and the market.

In most smaller markets, there are no board operators. For a live show, the announcer takes the automation into live assist mode, does the show and then turns the automation back into automatic mode. If the swapshop host did not hit the right button, or hit it right after a time update or something similar, all manner of problems can happen.

In smaller markets and even at smaller stations in bigger markets technical work is handled by a contract engineer who makes a few regular visits and is called when something breaks. The PD is often the production manager as well as voice tracking a shift or two and does all the normal programming operations.

And in smaller markets, nobody worries about "media buyers" at agencies. They worry about relationships with local business owners.

 

[DOGDOG]

The opposition to quality control, from what I'm seeing, is quite a sorry state of affairs. Just read the excuses. First of all, the term "media buyer" can be the "mom" of a mom and pop operation or the district manager of six stores! It is not limited to Madison Avenue! The example cited above was a LIVE program with LIVE callers! Therefore, there was a board operator present!!! In all probability, these problems have happened in the past at that station and will continue to happen. As long as people come up with excuses to sweep under the rug problems which could be avoided, they won't ever be corrected! They are acceptable and as we have seen here, there is an abundance of people who are too lazy to correct them. Instead, they excuse them away. If you fly somewhere, be thankful the airline and flight crew don't think that way!

 

[TheBigA]

The opposition to quality control, from what I'm seeing, is quite a sorry state of affairs.

There's no opposition to quality control. If you were a bit more specific about the station, you might get more useful response. Otherwise it's just a rant.

 

[davideduardo]

The opposition to quality control, from what I'm seeing, is quite a sorry state of affairs. Just read the excuses. First of all, the term "media buyer" can be the "mom" of a mom and pop operation or the district manager of six stores! It is not limited to Madison Avenue!

That's a "client" and not a "media buyer". I've never heard the "media buyer" term applied to anything except the agency function.

The example cited above was a LIVE program with LIVE callers! Therefore, there was a board operator present!!!

And, per your description, the show ended and the network join and ongoing programming did not fire correctly.

At smaller stations there would be no board op. Particularly for a swap shop type show. Just one person on the board taking calls and moderating.

In all probability, these problems have happened in the past at that station and will continue to happen. As long as people come up with excuses to sweep under the rug problems which could be avoided, they won't ever be corrected! They are acceptable and as we have seen here, there is an abundance of people who are too lazy to correct them. Instead, they excuse them away. If you fly somewhere, be thankful the airline and flight crew don't think that way!

It may be the station is not prospering, and is making do with an aging digital storage and automation setup because they can not afford to update.

Again, you have not identified the market and the station, so we can't evaluate it's revenue and other aspects of the operation.

 

[DOGDOG]

In this environment, the person who authorizes advertising expenditures is the media buyer. I talk to people everyday who own the business and therefore they are the media buyer. Advertising salespeople seek out that person to pitch. I have some clients who have delegated that responsibility to another person. One example in particular is a guy who owns several independent auto repair shops. A few years ago he came to the realization what he did best was fix cars and that's all he wanted to do. Accordingly, he hired someone to handle the business end of things and was also the guy who made the advertising purchases. Therefore, he is the media buyer for that chain. In some ways I am appalled by the negative response to these quality control issues as I've stated here. All my life I've sold...be it advertising or other services. I've always derived an income from a commission. On one hand, I pitch to the media buyer, then on the other hand, I'm the first person they call when something goes wrong. Once I investigate the cause of their complaint I can honestly say some just don't know how radio advertising works...especially those newly in business. On the other hand, there's not much I can say when somebody at the station screws up. There are some things we cannot change and there will always be the problem child client. My point is, we seem to lack basic quality control with tons of excuses made when problems happen with plent of blame being thrown. A few days later, the problem happens again. Take a clue from the space program. When a problem happens...they fix it!

 

[davideduardo]

In this environment, the person who authorizes advertising expenditures is the media buyer.

That's like calling an "actor" a "reader of lines." The statement is true, but does not reflect how our language is used.

I talk to people everyday who own the business and therefore they are the media buyer.

No, they buy advertising.

Advertising salespeople seek out that person to pitch.

No, they seek out the decision maker to make sure they are talking to someone who has decision making powers. The title does not matter.

I have some clients who have delegated that responsibility to another person. One example in particular is a guy who owns several independent auto repair shops. A few years ago he came to the realization what he did best was fix cars and that's all he wanted to do. Accordingly, he hired someone to handle the business end of things and was also the guy who made the advertising purchases. Therefore, he is the media buyer for that chain.

But the term is not used that way in the real world. You may think of the person as a media buyer, but at a small business it's "the person in charge of advertising".

In some ways I am appalled by the negative response to these quality control issues as I've stated here.

Until we know the market and station, we can't give you an opinion. We can tell you when your facts are wrong, though: small stations don't have board ops, etc., etc.

My point is, we seem to lack basic quality control with tons of excuses made when problems happen with plent of blame being thrown. A few days later, the problem happens again. Take a clue from the space program. When a problem happens...they fix it!

With "dead" air, nobody dies. You are exaggerating the problem. And again, unless we know the station and market, we can't tell you whether it appears that the station can fix obsolete equipment or even hire a capable staff.

 

[TheBigA]

My point is, we seem to lack basic quality control with tons of excuses made when problems happen with plent of blame being thrown. A few days later, the problem happens again. Take a clue from the space program. When a problem happens...they fix it!

Once again, you seem to be unwilling to be specific. Radio is not one thing run by one person. There are thousands of stations run by thousands of people, and everyone has different standards. Believe me, I've worked for a lot of different people. You can't make an effective point when you can't be specific. Even the space program screws up. They've done it a lot.

 

[Groove1670]

I'm contemplating buying a 3x5 ad in the local paper and leaving it blank. or in exchange give them thirty seconds of dead air. Oh the humanity. On a sidebar, if we ever have any dead air on our stations. We will fire the instigator immediately. Rest assured. Make radio great again!

 

[DOGDOG]

TODAY'S QUALITY CONTROL FAILURE 12-26-16

I attempted to listen to one of my favorite Orlando talk stations which has a stable of not so well known hosts. Surprise, surprise...what was being aired was digital distortion...not for a few minutes but for SEVERAL HOURS! That's right, at least four hours of digital garbage! Eventually, somebody from the station decided to listen and the problem corrected! I can just read it now from those accepting of this bush league "performance"..."they were short staffed"; "it's a holiday weekend" and on and on. The bottom line to this is whatever equipment failure occurred was regrettable however, NOT noticing what is going on at YOUR OWN station for hours is unacceptable! You mean to tell me nobody at that station even bothers to listen to it? Incredible! So then, if you're the GM, let me teach you how to deal with this! First you call a staff meeting and set the record straight that QC is going to be the job of everyone! Anybody who calls the GM to report a problem will get some sort of bonus. The CE would be questioned as to what is the cause and what can we do to prevent this. New equipment? A better way to feed audio? Next on the hot seat is the PD. Why wasn't he or she checking in regularly? To just chalk this up to computer technology and accepting this is not the answer. Fixing it once and for all is that answer.