• 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

What if a station targeted a *really* old audience?

Kelly A said:
Because that was the music of their youth?
Click to expand...
Not my youth. I learned about this music because I wanted to listen to stations playing better music than AC. This kind of music was played along with the style I knew from variety shows and sitcoms.

50s music I first heard on TV commercials that aired when I was a teenager.

Some of the 60s music may have been on the radio stations I used to listen to, but in general I didn't like the louder music, which I didn't hear.
 
vchimpanzee said:
It means they thought kids like oldies, and I didn't question them.
Click to expand...
Actually the assumption was to play music that their parents driving the kids around might be able relate to, or find 'fun'. As BigA said; that was a severely wrong assumption. Playing Disney pop stars and oldies from a bygone era proved to be a double-tune-out factor.
 
vchimpanzee said:
The way I understand it, the station streams but they charge for it. That dates back to when Sirius/XM temporarily cancelled Escape except as an online service until they were overwhelmed with complaints and had to put it back on the radios. KAHM during the crisis couldn't handle all the extra traffic.
Click to expand...
Which is something I don't understand. KAHM sounds exactly like they did when they signed on 40 years ago. Is great-grandfather going to fire up his Gateway 2000 and pay to listen to some moldy elevator music?
 
EricStein said:
Which is something I don't understand. KAHM sounds exactly like they did when they signed on 40 years ago. Is great-grandfather going to fire up his Gateway 2000 and pay to listen to some moldy elevator music?
Click to expand...
It's possible that a Gateway computer, nonetheless SiriusXM, had a poor speaker on it, not to mention the DSL that would take! It's not the music that's moldy, it's the software! Also, by all means, Gateway was acquired by Acer, and that part is still going strong, so pick up a brand new Gateway instead?
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Perhaps that says more about the person who failed to question the idea.
Click to expand...
And to that point, not intending to go down the stupid Radio Disney rabbit hole-again; RD was intended to promote Disney artists, theme parks, and merch to kids and their parents. It was never intended to be some sort of ratings or revenue contender as radio property. Early on, the most popular shows with kids were evening story times, but that didn't last long. Being on a stable of lousy AM stations didn't help either. RD was a rounding error on the books of the House of Mouse corporate ledger, later to be discovered as a good place to cut when the aging stations were due for an influx of capital investment.
 
TheBigA said:
No surprise the AM stations were cut, but when the online station was also dropped, we knew the concept was a total flop.
Click to expand...
I know someone involved in the Radio Disney 'hospice' process. Rather than just shut it down all at once, it was decided to stick it on streaming for a predetermined period. That enabled time to dump the stations in an orderly fashion, and see if there was any listener interest in streaming rather than AM radio. The answer was: nope!
 
I wrote off radio years ago. Fortunately I could afford to do that. Something happened in the late 2000’s into the early 2010’s. The goal was to increase ratings with fewer live dj’s. And they succeeded, though not for any benefit to listeners. Anyone hoping to be a radio dj today should be very wary.
 
seatownmedia said:
I wrote off radio years ago. Fortunately I could afford to do that. Something happened in the late 2000’s into the early 2010’s. The goal was to increase ratings with fewer live dj’s. And they succeeded, though not for any benefit to listeners.
Click to expand...

The problem was that too few DJs were doing anything that was of any benefit to listeners. That's why they could be fired without affecting ratings. The challenge now is to find people who know how to create unique content that these stations can sell. A lot of it doesn't involve front or back announcing songs.
 
Radio is not dead but it is to young folks who want to get in. Very difficult. I am sure a few will break through but the days of a good voice and and some good aircheck are over. Stations simply don’t care about those skills today. They want content but great voices really don’t matter anymore.
 
seatownmedia said:
Radio is not dead but it is to young folks who want to get in. Very difficult. I am sure a few will break through but the days of a good voice and and some good aircheck are over.
Click to expand...

Once again, let me remind you I'm still in the business, and I can tell you it's not as dead as you think. It's difficult for a reason. Back in the 80s, there was a huge expansion in radio. Docket 80-90 added hundreds of new stations to the dial. Radio stations needed to staff them, so they were hiring like crazy. In my view, the talent level for some of those new hires wasn't all that great. The standards dropped from when radio was primarily an AM medium to when it expanded to FM. People didn't need the great voice to get hired.

So maybe it's good that radio is being more selective in the people they hire now. As I've said, the resumes I see are incredible. And you're right, a good aircheck is only a small portion of what they need. They will need social media skills, digital audio editing skills, and even video editing skills. If they want to be a PD they need to know all of the digital music scheduling software systems. Yes, it takes a lot more to get hired. But most of the good schools are teaching all of this.
 
TheBigA said:
Once again, let me remind you I'm still in the business, and I can tell you it's not as dead as you think. It's difficult for a reason. Back in the 80s, there was a huge expansion in radio. Docket 80-90 added hundreds of new stations to the dial. Radio stations needed to staff them, so they were hiring like crazy. In my view, the talent level for some of those new hires wasn't all that great. The standards dropped from when radio was primarily an AM medium to when it expanded to FM. People didn't need the great voice to get hired.

So maybe it's good that radio is being more selective in the people they hire now. As I've said, the resumes I see are incredible. And you're right, a good aircheck is only a small portion of what they need. They will need social media skills, digital audio editing skills, and even video editing skills. If they want to be a PD they need to know all of the digital music scheduling software systems. Yes, it takes a lot more to get hired. But most of the good schools are teaching all of this.
Click to expand...

I dont have a sooper dooper voice.. but its pleasant, i seem to be likable and listeners relate to me. .wether its my afternoon show on KSKO, my afteroon show on KLMI or my overnight show on LRN. I think nowadays you need to be able to relate to and connect with listeners... thats mroe important than sounding like you got a deep ballsy voice.

Understanding digital media and being a bit of a jack of all trades is especially important in my situation
 
Good for you. But I will repeat skill set has changed. You need website ability, an ability to combine all media toward your product, and think outside of the radio box. Very few jocks can do this.
 
seatownmedia said:
Good for you. But I will repeat skill set has changed. You need website ability, an ability to combine all media toward your product, and think outside of the radio box. Very few jocks can do this.
Click to expand...

I think very few jocks know how to entertain. Here's a question: How many DJs do you know who could get people to pay for a ticket to see them do their schtick in a club? A few years ago, I met a DJ at a radio convention. We got to talking about his background, and he told me he had been a professional touring comedian who played Zanies and places like that. He got tired of the travel and wanted to settle down. So he took his act to radio. He's worked his way up the ladder, and last I checked, he's now in a Top 50 market. He knows what it takes to get people to pay money to see him. That's the kind of people we need in radio.
 
TheBigA said:
I think very few jocks know how to entertain. Here's a question: How many DJs do you know who could get people to pay for a ticket to see them do their schtick in a club? A few years ago, I met a DJ at a radio convention. We got to talking about his background, and he told me he had been a professional touring comedian who played Zanies and places like that. He got tired of the travel and wanted to settle down. So he took his act to radio. He's worked his way up the ladder, and last I checked, he's now in a Top 50 market. He knows what it takes to get people to pay money to see him. That's the kind of people we need in radio.
Click to expand...
That is a good story of a what in my experience is a rare exception.

I've been involved... in the role of janitor cleaning up... when managers or local market PDs hired "comedians" to do a morning show. Most comedians have an act. They repeat it over and over and over for different crowds each night, and they may only change one or two jokes every so often, or develop a new set or routine for the act so that the next time they play the same venue, it has changed. That means maybe an hour of new content each six months to a year.

That means they run out of stuff the second day they are on the air with a radio show.

Unless their shtick involves audience participation and improv, most comedians fail horribly on the radio. In one case, in a Top 5 market, a well known club comedian was hired. He burnt out in less than a month, and the numbers were horrible.

And some of the people I have worked with who are great on the radio... including three who were #1 in mornings in LA for years... were not able to do any kind of in person act other than being a master of ceremonies... a guy who pulled numbers out of a jar for a drawing at a car dealer remote or the like. A team I had in a Top 15 market who got 30 shares could not do in person shows if their lives depended on it... they were uncomfortable and the audience was, too.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom