-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
The Kuhner Report - Saturday Edition
- Thread starter wadio
- Start date
IHeart happens. They continue to play the local and national news at the same time over at their sister station at 1200, and both stations frequently come out of ads [usually Ad Council junk] with the programming already in progress.
5:30 pm today WRKO reran yesterday's weather: sunny today, tropical storm tomorrow.No, the storm is now. At least at 5 pm the Emerg Alert System
broke in w news of T storms and tornado alert in parts of Middlesex & northern Worcester county.
broke in w news of T storms and tornado alert in parts of Middlesex & northern Worcester county.
C'mon, iHeart; you've got the opportunity to do for 'RKO what Entercom either didn't know how, or care, to do. You don't need these screw-ups happening; you have all the latest/greatest technology, so we're told.
And it's not just iHeart.
WPRO (Cumulus) on it's internet stream re-enters the overnight syndicated show with a "WPRO" liner. But for the past many weeks (or perhaps months,) the first three letters have been cut off. So listeners just hear, "OH!" before the show theme starts.
The automation is obviously doing it's job but at some point a human being needs to make a small adjustment. The takeaway is that nobody from the station is listening, or cares.
WPRO (Cumulus) on it's internet stream re-enters the overnight syndicated show with a "WPRO" liner. But for the past many weeks (or perhaps months,) the first three letters have been cut off. So listeners just hear, "OH!" before the show theme starts.
The automation is obviously doing it's job but at some point a human being needs to make a small adjustment. The takeaway is that nobody from the station is listening, or cares.
WPRO was my favorite station when I lived in RI. I think they fared VERY well under CapCities ownership.
However, your last two sentences above say it all, not for WPRO in particular, but for a good part of terrestrial radio in general. And that's a bad thing for a struggling medium. IOW - make it suck, drive more discerning listeners away, till you're left with just bodies with a pulse listening.
You take something small, happening in the dead of night, and completely explode it into the total death of an entire industry. This is the definition of a conspiracy theory. Listeners to WRKO hear these kinds of things quite frequently. So it's well positioned.
For all of the threads here about the various equipment failures at WRKO, their ratings appear to be consistent and healthy, even at a time when a lot of stations have lost listeners due to COVID. Maybe this problem isn't as fatal as you make it appear to be.
It may not be a fatal disease but it is a symptom.
A symptom of what? A lot of people seem pretty satisfied with the free service they get. It's not like there are no alternatives.
I think this kind of criticism is totally inappropriate and out of bounds during the current pandemic.
Several station groups have already announce their second quarter financial results, and are showing revenue down as much as half.
Since few, if any, stations have 50% margins, that means that it would be rare if not impossible for stations to be making money right now. And with nearly every business in the nation looking for some kind of aid, radio stations and group owners have no alternative but to cut expenses by reducing staff, promotion and even buying new equipment.
Add to that the adaptation of stations to having remaining staff work from home. We have entered a new world, one which none of us have been through before.
This is an issue affecting humanity, not just radio.
It is, simply, an unfair and insensitive argument during the current pandemic.
Once again, no one forces you to listen. If the quality is below what's acceptable to you, find another station.
The people who listen focus on the conversation, on the personality, and the companionship they get when they listen. Think about that sometime.
It's often been said when it comes to radio forums:
RULE #1: Don't say, "If you don't like it, change the station!" It adds nothing to the conversation.
That's not a rule to most of us. We know that radio stations are taste-driven, and instead of trying to change a station to one's own taste, we generally need to check out other stations.
Saying you want excellence doesn't add anything to the conversation either. It's subjective BS. You want excellence, listen to public radio. But you don't like their opinions. Do you want award winning radio done in an educated style? That's excellence. Why are some people disturbed by the concept?
So are you both saying there's no reason to pay attention to detail? It's possible to walk add chew gum at the same time.
Most stations are doing a great job under very trying circumstances. When there are glitches they explain and I'm sure the audience feels compassion.
It's when nobody notices the same show repeated 3 or 4 weeks in a row, out of sync automation, winter commercials running in the summertime - things like that - it's fair to point it out.
Sometimes it doesn't hurt to say, "Your fly is open!" It doesn't mean you're a bad person, just that you need some adjustment.
Most stations are doing a great job under very trying circumstances. When there are glitches they explain and I'm sure the audience feels compassion.
It's when nobody notices the same show repeated 3 or 4 weeks in a row, out of sync automation, winter commercials running in the summertime - things like that - it's fair to point it out.
Sometimes it doesn't hurt to say, "Your fly is open!" It doesn't mean you're a bad person, just that you need some adjustment.
You're making the assumption that "nobody notices." People make mistakes. They could get fired for it. Is that what you want?
You made a typo in your post. You wrote "walk add chew gum." Should we lambast you for it?
Agree completely, wadio. The sloppiness which we're bemoaning was around long before 2020; to hide behind the pandemic is an easy way out.
Tune to another station? Yeah, right, as if there were so many more appealing options these days (on EITHER band). It seems that those of us who have an affinity for the programming of WBZ and WRKO are often treated with disdain by other posters because we expect better, yes, even in "these times".
Sometimes it's frustrating to post a comment here only to have it slammed by others because we're not "insiders" and/or can't be fully "in the know".
But right now, most stations have reduced staffs and many of those remaining working from home.
Radio's real dollar revenue is off by 60% since 2005. And in the last 5 months, it has been off about 50%, give or take, for most stations. Most stations are losing money, and some of the largest companies may not even survive.
The current talk is about the takeover of iHeart and the conversion of local stations into "repeaters" for national formats and on-air talent. That may be the only way for pot-pandemic radio stations to be profitable and to compete with national media such as Pandora and the like.
Radio has a hard time changing its business model. Yet look at TV, where in many markets the subscriber-sourced carriage fees represent more than half the income today... no, not sponsors and ads... fees for cable and satellite distributors to carry the programming!
- Status