I can see some personal playlists for Web only radio stations being played as a personal fiefdom though if the songs they are playing are original and not connected to major labels though.
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What makes some of the smaller town stations better?
- Thread starter 97chris
- Start date
I can see some personal playlists for Web only radio stations being played as a personal fiefdom though if the songs they are playing are original and not connected to major labels though.
True I know 93KHJ from American Samoa would air national and local newscasts on the hour though before going back to their CHR/Hot AC format. But thats the only difference between a small market station and a large market station. If it was a larger market CHR/Hot AC station the news portion would be produced by the news/talk station in the cluster in that market.
And that describes the Pacifica organization, where there are multiple boards of directors that supervise and sometimes contradict each other.
Also the idea that Smaller Market stations sound better have its origins at KYNO-AM in Fresno when Bill Drake was the PD and Gene Chenault was the then owner of KYNO formed the Top 40 format that was later replicated or improved on RKO owned stations like 93KHJ Los Angeles and "The Big 610" KFRC San Francisco in the 1960's and 1970's.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/business/media/02drake.html
The facts are right, RadioPatrol---it's just the wrong conclusion.
Bill Drake wound up in Fresno after programming KYA in San Francisco. Gene Chenault wanted to build a consultancy and had his eyes on his friend, Willett Brown, who owned KGB, San Diego and was on the Board of Directors of RKO General Radio. He hired Drake to be the programming brain.
Fresno was just going to be the format kitchen---the place to work the bugs out. What neither Drake nor Chenault counted on was a full-fledged battle with another talented programmer, Ron Jacobs, at KMAK. "The Battle of Fresno" was legendary precisely because such high-stakes stuff rarely happened in markets of that size.
Sure, talented programmers on their way up work smaller markets---but they rarely have the management/ownership support that Drake and Jacobs had in Fresno from their respective bosses. That was all-out war, and it made both stations better---that is, until KMAK lost. After that, KYNO was good, and the finishing school for a lot of soon-to-be larger market jocks (Bobby Ocean chief among them), but I don't think you could make the argument that KYNO sounded better than KGB, KFRC or KHJ.
"Winchester Cathedral" is on America's Best Music and I like it.
A #1 smash in '66.
The same winter that "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" was a big hit, blocked from the top of the Billboard chart by that winter's unquestionably biggest song, "I'm a Believer." Only the Monkees tune turned out to be one people still wanted to hear on the radio 30 or 40 years later, though.
A perfect example of a big song from a half-century ago that will inflict great damage on any station that plays it today.
Well, except KSUR.....
Which can't pay its power bill...
And you don't know that. Perhaps the station would have a 0.6 or better if they quit playing all those stiffs from the 60's.
As it is, the station is ranked 43rd in the market. No matter what they play, putting any general market music format on an AM with limited coverage is a perfect example of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
And yet, like I said, It's on "America's Best Music".
KCDX 103.1 FM Florence/Phoenix. AZ ....26 yrs of playing classic rock , virtually ad free, 42KW reaches Phx. metro and Tucson metro..... not a money maker, just the owner's hobby and I like it ...Library is over 10,000 titles. Love it when owners who have this kind of hobby make it fun for us to tune in. Thx
What happens when he sells it to someone who doesn't share his personal passion?
Obviously the goal is to make some money from a hobby, but the listeners are having fun and that's what counts.
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A cheap filler format for low-budget stations in smaller markets. Not exactly a great example to use if you're trying to convince the radio pros that major market classic hits stations are somehow missing the boat by not playing it.
Salt Lake City and Green Bay aren't exactly "smaller". And yet what I was referring to was
Sometimes the secret is engineering. There are some small AM stations in my area which really care about the way they sound. Listening to music on them is a pleasure.
Whereas some other stations (many owned by large companies) appear to be just mailing it in when it comes to
audio quality.
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