Not to inject myself into this discussion, but with the advent of streaming radio, TuneIn, iHeart, and so on, there is no shortage of stations and formats that can deliver desired programming seamlessly on demand. I am always able to get exactly what I want --- I prefer classical myself --- exactly when I want it, 24/7/365.
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1110 New Format
- Thread starter amos1001
- Start date
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Much as I hate to lose listeners to streaming, I would rather someone do what you are doing than for them to play "armchair quarterback" by telling me -- either personally or via a discussion board -- that they know more than I do about programming.
And, when you get right down to it, a stream from iHeart or from a terrestrial station -- regardless of which platform -- is still being programmed by professionals, not amateurs. (Maybe it's just me, but I find hobbyist streams to be listenable for only very short periods of time.)
If you don't like it, don't read it.
I have a right to my opinion.
Radio stations have a right to do what they want. I don't have to like it.
My name comes from my "praising" of the talented music director a standards station had haired to "improve" things. these days, some of the few standards stations are playing the very songs many of us hated back in 1997. Today, most of those don't sound so bad, but there are still some I wouldn't be willing to accept. But there are far more bad songs on the oldies station I listen to most, and I'm happy when I can hear good songs there. somtimes I change the station for the bad songs, and sometimes I get used to them. But that's in the car.
750 is non-directional 50 KW 24-7. On paper there is not null.
There is an area in just about every AM station where the ground wave can be interfered (cancelled) with by the skywave coming down. But I seriously doubt WSB AM's ground wave goes that far. I wish I had stayed awake during physics class an could remember the exact name of the atmosphere levels, but upper level temperature has an impact or the angle of reflection.
A research sample of....one.
There is also Alexa. They provide access to TuneIn stations using voice command, or you can download individual songs, albums, or formats. On the weekends, both WETA and WQXR offer opera, and I don't care for opera, so I just say "Alexa, play Mozart (or Beethoven, or Bach, or what have you)". You can also just ask for classical in general, and Alexa provides a random mix. Alexa does everything I need a streaming audio source to do.
iHeart and Audacy are also integrated with Alexa. Plus, it has its own directory that no longer requires a specific skill to be created. The Townsquare and ex-Alpha Media stations are part of that directory, and I'm told they love it because they no longer need to worry about ceding inventory to other providers. I can even tell Alexa to play 102.3, and it will play my local station on that frequency. It works perfectly unless you're trying to access play-by-play sports. I suspect a fair number of Alexa users don't even realize they're streaming their local stations instead of picking them up off-air.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Personal attacks on other posters is not tolerated or allowed.
Yes, you do. But your constant exercising of that right by posting negative opinions is resulting in any positive observations being lost amidst the constant noise of your complaining.
Perhaps I am misjudging you as a person. I thought that any reasonable person would want their opinions and observations to be seriously considered, but apparently that is not the case with you.
In all my time in Miami in the 1975-2022 period, I got a chance to listen to many of the local pirates; Miami is a breeding ground for those critters.
It is very obvious that even the ones that are well executed (good segues, nice imaging, etc) the music is obviously determined by the CEP (Chief Executive Pirate) based on some kind of "I know the street better than the suits in office buildings do".
What those pirates don't get is that those corporate stations spend money to survey what actual listeners want... not just what some pirate station guy likes. So we play stuff most folks in a target audience like to hear... not the tunes that, maybe, a bunch of drunk (or otherwise hindered) folks dance to at a club at 1 AM.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That goes along with something I have said for longer than I can remember: Pirate station operators carry armchair quarterbacking to its ridiculous (and illegal)extreme.
From what I have been told, no one is likely to listen, but I need to rant anyway. I've been doing that here for 20 years.
As I said, it wasn't just me when I chose this name, and my email to the station (the first one I ever sent) was complimentary. Unless the person choosing the music was not in fact a lesser primate. So many people complained that the one responsible got fired.
This is a debate as old as time. Quite a few of the songs that tested well were songs all the jocks were sick of. A perfect example is "I'd really Love to See You Tonight" by England Dan & John Ford Coley". It's not a bad song just way over played.
I'm !00% sure I could program a great station but only for an audience of a few, not mass appeal....so I'll limit my programming to my Apple Music playlists.
Back on topic 1110 WBT has distorted audio today.....but by this time nobody cares.
"Over played" for the jock in the studio. "Not played enough" for the listeners.
In about 1998, at #1 rated KLVE in LA, we had one song that was #1 in callout for 14 months. How do you reduce the play on a song that nobody dislikes and everybody scores as "favorite"?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
For as long as I have been in programming (48 years as of last summer) the rule of thumb that I have always found to work is that around the time the airstaff becomes "sick of" a song was right around the same time that the audience was starting to like it.
I don't program for the benefit of the airstaff. As I have said so many times that people are sick of it, we are not in the entertainment business. We are in the advertising business and we program to attract and keep listeners. Complaints from the jocks have rarely entered into my thought process when programming.
With all due respect to him, @Mike Sheridan is likely correct with his self-analysis. Those who can program for a mass appeal audience are very few and far between. It's an instinct ... a God-given talent, if you feel inclined to call it that.
The jocks are overexposed to the music, so songs will burn out quicker for them. I used to listen to the radio a lot more than I do now, and I would get tired of songs and irritated that stations kept playing them. Now that I listen at a more normal level, I have the opposite opinion and think that stations move on too quickly for some songs.
That is saying the quiet part out loud. I think we've talked about it before, but every commercial radio station where I've ever worked was, at its core, a sales and marketing operation. I don’t care how programming focused it was, every company that said “we're all about programming” was only in the entertainment business for audiences it could sell.
When you work in radio, you have to accept a contract that you’re simultaneously not as good as you think you are while understanding that you will probably not go as far as your talent should get you.
I have launched a good number of stations with music I either did not like or did not have any strong liking for. I simply kept in mind that I was not programming for the music, I was programming for the listener. My job was not to enjoy the station, it was to make sure my target audience enjoyed it.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I got a chuckle out of that, Kent, because my consulting and programming agreement with the New Mexico stations came because the owner had worked with me before. He literally asked me to program one of his stations, added a blanket consultancy for the rest of his stations about a year later, and sometimes I think he believes that I am better than I am.
Based on that, I think I have managed to go as far as my talent could get me ... at least in this case.
yup. we are our own worst enemies and my current job as shown me that i am sometimes better than i thought i was