Zorba's.
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More changes at TSM Buffalo?
- Thread starter DN14224
- Start date
Zorba's.
As a person who's had a few lunches at Zorba's in Depew (and after just calling the joint to check), survey sez:
NoThe meat sauce they put on their Texas Hot is Michigan sauce. With the chopped onions, it is basically a Michigan.
I had narrowed it down to the Newhouse School or small Ripon College in Wisconsin before taking a different path. Back then, of course, it was not called by the Newhouse name.
There does not have to be any negative perspective on using technology to make the product better.
Movies can be marvelously entertaining, and most are done in bits and pieces and assembled by the "technical staff" of editors and special effects people. In that industry, as technology has improved we get more and more possibilities for the final product. And then we get the Limu Emu, too.
It used to require several engineers on duty at all times at both the studio and the transmitter of stations like WOR. That was because the equipment required constant attention and lots of TLC. We've gone from that temperamental and ephemeral gear to devices that can be left unattended for months on end.
I don't see why technology can't relieve the airstaff of the need to sit around waiting for songs to play out. "Real time radio" is sort of like a '64 Mustang: a fond memory, but obsolete in so many ways.
It seems ironic that people who criticize the use of technology to assist in radio production are doing so on a computer message board over the internet. It's fine to want to preserve the past and to praise the way radio was done before we had computers. Hey, it's also great to praise the way communication was done before the invention of the radio. We all use time saving devices every day. They make it possible for us to have more free time. Think of how we got clean clothes before the washing machine. Think of how many bank tellers lost their jobs because of ATMs. I know people who refuse to use ATMs, and prefer to wait in line to speak with a bank teller. They feel that human touch makes the experience better. I know people who refuse self-check at the grocery store. These are all ways people rebel against modern technology. But to do so on computer message board feels hypocritical.
Beyond a stretch. You're working too hard to fit a round peg in a square hole. Ain't no such thing as a "Michigan" in Buffalo and The 716. T'ain't never been. Go into any dinner, restaurant, greasy spoon, sandwich joint, Ted's, Pat's, Louie's, Towne, Kosta's, Gramma Mora's, Mighty Taco (if you were here, you'd recognize those names and what they stand for in the community) ... whatever and say, "I'll have a Michigan." You'll get a look like you have three heads. Case dismissed. Now, let's wrangle about radio stuff. At least you're good at that.
Only because they refuse to call it that. A hot dog with meat sauce and chopped onions in Plattsburgh is a Michigan. In Buffalo, it's a Texas Hot. They have that same meat sauce at Ted's. If you go to Texas and order a Texas Hot, it will be very different. If you buy Texas Hot sauce in a store, it's a lot spicier than what you get at Zorba's. You can call it whatever you want, but it's the same thing.
Go to Philadelphia and order a steak sandwich, they put cheese wiz on it. Go to Baltimore or DC, they insist on putting mayo on it, but still call it a Philly. I had this conversation about Detroit style pizza vs. Chicago. They're pretty much the same, except for where they put the cheese. A Reuben is supposed to be made with corned beef. Some people use pastrami. It's still a Reuben. It's all these regionalisms. I was in Montreal once and ordered some cider. The waiter looked at me like I was nuts. I explained what I wanted, and he said "SEE-der." Same thing, pronounced differently. I travel all over the country. I see the same food with different names. Big deal. Your putting your provincialism on someone who knows it's the same damned thing.
So what you're trying to say is that you really don't have a clue as to what's really going on here but you feel like you have to insert your opinions anyway. Your posts are akin to voice-tracking from far away without real local knowledge. Most of the time the people who have been around this board long enough simply ignore you. Engaging you is futile because you don't even know what you don't know.
This goes back to something I said years ago. There is very little that is unique to Buffalo, especially radio. That's why Steve Harvey and Rush Limbaugh are so successful. They've had interchangeable hosts at WYRK, and still get ratings. They fired the morning show at 97Rock, and the ratings increased. That's why KB gets zero audience today, even though at one time it was a powerhouse. If all you focus on how things were, you'll never understand how radio works today. Because I've worked in so many places, including upstate NY, I'm not distracted by those provincialisms that interfere with what makes something a hit regardless of where it's played. So as I said a long time ago, feel free to ignore me. I don't demand to be heard. We live in a world today where people lock themselves in their own silo, only hearing what they want to hear. I will say what I want to say regardless.
One thing I've heard from people in Buffalo is that many have never lived (or worked) in other cities. Provincial is an accurate word. They think something is unique simply because they do not know anything else. 97 Rock has clones in many markets. The menu at McDonald's is largely the same anywhere in the country. The same can be said for Commercial Radio formats...
That's Val Townsend's story. She was born & raised in WNY. When she got fired from WYRK, she thought her radio days were over. Then she got hired at 107.7. I'm sure the company thought a local host, born & raised in the area, would attract a lot of listeners who love that she knows the city, knows the street names, and eats Texas Hots. Unlike me, she has real local knowledge. So far it hasn't translated to ratings. But hey, it's only been a month.
You are confusing different people. That's not the current host on 107.7. Don't feel bad. Nobody else knows about that station either...
You're right. Liz is from Texas, where they use real Texas Hot sauce, rather than what Zorba's uses. Probably why she was fired from WYRK. She wasn't local enough. Meanwhile, wonder why they didn't hire Val, since she knows how to pronounce the street names and suburban towns. She has real local knowledge. People on this board would believe her.
Sigh... still insisting "Michigans" was a word you saw "all over Buffalo" when you passed through town forty two years ago, and now insisting that the proper word for a Texas Hot, or a Ted's footlong is "Michigans," ...and gosh, if we only knew what you know, they'd be called "Michigans" because we're a bunch of rubes who never traveled beyond Tonawanda. Guessing you'd order "Buffalo Wings" if you stopped at the Anchor Bar, Barbill or Duffs because "that's what they're really called on TV and in the big city."
Back to the beginning: the word "Michigans" was never used in Buffalo and nobody in The 716 calls a hot dog with sauce a "Michigan."
Done.
Back to the beginning: the word "Michigans" was never used in Buffalo and nobody in The 716 calls a hot dog with sauce a "Michigan."
Done.
Thank goodness we have representatives from corporate to tell us rubes in the sticks how it's done. The consolidators have done a bang-up job with the industry - to the point where there's real concern that there is no next generation of either talent or audience. Their latest strategy is to use radio to promote digital and podcast. Too bad they don't spend some of those dollars promoting radio.
Huh? Here we go again.
That's fine. I've been eating hot dogs with meat sauce & onions since I was 5 years old. To me, it's a hot dog with meat sauce & onions. I didn't know they were called Michigans until a trip on the Northway to Montreal. You call them Texas Hots, but they're the exact same thing. AFAIC, you can call it whatever you want. There are no rules. People in the south call soft drinks "Coke." Everything is "Coke." You order Coke, and they ask you what kind.
How much money would we have to spend and how much local talent do we have to hire to cause people to throw away their computers and cellphones and replace them with pocket transistors like they did in the 60s? Because if all it takes is spending money, consider it done. It was easier to promote radio when the companies that owned radio stations also sold radios.
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Nobody's expecting people to throw away modern technology. Listeners do expect radio stations to provide content that informs, entertains, and provides companionship. They expect radio to be relevant to the lives they live. Yes, we all have shared experiences, but it's hard to listen to a SoCal host talk about how hot it is when you're getting ready to crank up the snow blower and clear the foot of snow that fell last night. "Radio" ain't just the delivery system, it's the content. There are an increasing number of "radio" people who are trying to use the internet as a delivery system for their efforts, but you have to wear a lot of hats if you go it alone and it's very tough to build a team for programming, sales, and technical proficiency in a way that will compensate people properly.
Radio stations already have the facilities and the teams in place. Increasingly, they're losing the talent and compelling content. The cuts come not because the ratings indicate they're not successful. The cuts come because the consolidators overpaid, enacted "synergies" that watered down the product they bought, and ended up in bankruptcy. Money went - and is going - to debt service instead of being reinvested in the product. Pittman is a master showman, but arguably a miserable failure as the head of what's now called iHeart. Citadel/Cumulus followed his lead down the tubes twice. The current leadership is considerably better than Farid Suleman or the Dickey boys, and their stock price and reflects that. "Audacy" is the result of a Pitman-esque renaming as David Field tries to move the pea under the shells and avoid the fate of the Dickeys - bite off more than you can chew, live at the mercy of the vulture capitalists, and try to avoid a bankruptcy that will cost you the stations you started with.
Above all, listeners don't care about any of this. They just know that the product isn't what it once was. Younger listeners don't find any compelling reason to tune in. There are other sources of music and information. What's missing from those other sources is content curation which is why so much misinformation spreads so quickly and is perceived as factual. Then again, radio - like most media - has abdicated the role of gatekeeper in a grab for cash. It used to be "If it bleeds, it leads." Now, it's "If it makes money it's true."
Radio stations already have the facilities and the teams in place. Increasingly, they're losing the talent and compelling content. The cuts come not because the ratings indicate they're not successful. The cuts come because the consolidators overpaid, enacted "synergies" that watered down the product they bought, and ended up in bankruptcy. Money went - and is going - to debt service instead of being reinvested in the product. Pittman is a master showman, but arguably a miserable failure as the head of what's now called iHeart. Citadel/Cumulus followed his lead down the tubes twice. The current leadership is considerably better than Farid Suleman or the Dickey boys, and their stock price and reflects that. "Audacy" is the result of a Pitman-esque renaming as David Field tries to move the pea under the shells and avoid the fate of the Dickeys - bite off more than you can chew, live at the mercy of the vulture capitalists, and try to avoid a bankruptcy that will cost you the stations you started with.
Above all, listeners don't care about any of this. They just know that the product isn't what it once was. Younger listeners don't find any compelling reason to tune in. There are other sources of music and information. What's missing from those other sources is content curation which is why so much misinformation spreads so quickly and is perceived as factual. Then again, radio - like most media - has abdicated the role of gatekeeper in a grab for cash. It used to be "If it bleeds, it leads." Now, it's "If it makes money it's true."
Who are you talking about? When did that happen? Who listens to national talk show hosts for the weather? What Buffalo talk show host is based in SoCal? You're making this up.
Yet his stations are among the most listened-to stations in the markets they're in, and now that he's reorganized the debt that the Mays family stuck him with, the company is better positioned to succeed. That's why the lenders re-hired him. He works for the lenders. Radio revenue never went to debt service. You're making that up too.
Of course not. Nothing is the way it once was. Buffalo was once a major market, and now it isn't. If the grab for cash bothers you, listen to public radio. Except when they fundraise.
I found the weekend overnight shift in classic rock to be a good time to catch up on reading
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