Great poster. Unfortunately, my listening to their show was nil, living in Phoenix during their reign (although, I certainly had heard of them). I'm sure there must be plenty of airchecks out there....Oh no, did I just continue this trip down the rabbit hole.
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Tim Conway Fudge...
- Thread starter sdwulfdawg
- Start date
Actually a full-page ad from a Sunday magazine called West that was a weekly feature of the L.A. Times.
Since I read your post before the picture was added to it, I thought @KilowattKat was just giving you a compliment!
Must have been a lag in rendering. The post included the ad.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I am going to thank you for that very thoughtful post, but I will only directly respond to your most obvious (and the most important one, based on your lead-in) question and the follow-up ones that help to explain your thought process. Forgive me in advance if I skip anything you believe deserved an answer.
It's very simple. During that six month rest period, I continue to monitor airplay via Mediabase, not only on the ~40 Classic Hits stations I monitor in the top 60 markets, but ~45 more in the lesser markets. A song has to have a cumulative total of 100 plays during that period before I even consider letting it loose again. I am more inclined to add one with a total of 150 or higher, and 200+ is a guarantee. (Before you get the idea that those totals should qualify a song for regular rotation, do the math: With that many stations and that length of time, 200 spins, averaged across that many stations, is somewhere between seven and eight spins per week. The songs in my lunar "droppable fill" category have a minimum of 35 plays per week across that same set of stations.)
There's no easy way to create rules that work uniformly with that variable, and since the math proves these songs are -- at a minimum -- eight times less "popular" now, it's far easier for me to do it manually and not keep songs in the active library except during their three-week "turn".
In actual practice, it is that reasoning for why I do it that way which creates the "oh wow" factor with the listeners. (KOAI and John Sebastian -- who I have a lot of respect for -- notwithstanding ... at least I don't need two translators to cover my market.)
It's very simple. During that six month rest period, I continue to monitor airplay via Mediabase, not only on the ~40 Classic Hits stations I monitor in the top 60 markets, but ~45 more in the lesser markets. A song has to have a cumulative total of 100 plays during that period before I even consider letting it loose again. I am more inclined to add one with a total of 150 or higher, and 200+ is a guarantee. (Before you get the idea that those totals should qualify a song for regular rotation, do the math: With that many stations and that length of time, 200 spins, averaged across that many stations, is somewhere between seven and eight spins per week. The songs in my lunar "droppable fill" category have a minimum of 35 plays per week across that same set of stations.)
There's no easy way to create rules that work uniformly with that variable, and since the math proves these songs are -- at a minimum -- eight times less "popular" now, it's far easier for me to do it manually and not keep songs in the active library except during their three-week "turn".
In actual practice, it is that reasoning for why I do it that way which creates the "oh wow" factor with the listeners. (KOAI and John Sebastian -- who I have a lot of respect for -- notwithstanding ... at least I don't need two translators to cover my market.)
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Sorry. As with almost every thread that starts around here, sidetracks happen. My problem is that I can't keep from answering intelligent questions when asked, even when they are off-topic.
To steer us back on track, in a discussion of how KFI had more personality as a music station with the late Al Lohman and Roger Barkley in mornings, I wonder sometimes if -- in a parallel universe where those two didn't break up their partnership in 1986 and were somehow still young enough to be doing radio today* -- they would still be at KFI, albeit in a different daypart. Maybe they would be in Tim's timeslot.
Oh well, I'm going to go listen to the CD of "Light Of My Life" highlights that the late Don Barrett send to subscribers of LARadio.com at one point.
(* - In said parallel universe, Al would have turned 93 last month, and Roger would have been 89 as of last September, but since I get to set the rules, let's presume a life expectancy closer to 200 years and that would have made them middle-aged.)
True, but what could be more harmful than hours and hours and hours of stale and repetitive programming?
If listeners knew they could rely on a station for consistenty fresh and relevant programming, maybe they'd be less likely to seek podcasts.
And the current trend didn't happen overnight. Stations have been gradually pushing their listeners out the door for many, many years.
You're an example of someone who doesn't limit their listening to just one station, or even one geographical area.
I think a lot of people are doing that because the technology makes it easy to listen to stations anywhere.
There's no need to put restrictions on how you listen. Radio can be a big buffet if you approach it that way.
After his mea culpa, he used his hour four to respond to the talk back feature...
Absolutely. You've got that right!
That's true too, but here's what I believe linear talk radio has lost over time:
Back in the day, I'd say around the 1970s, a listener could tune into a favorite station and expect to hear continuous live content 24/7, maybe with the exception of Sunday mornings. There were no "best ofs," no infomercials, and the content wasn't 100% political.
Today, if you punch one of those presets that iHeart is so proud of, you have no idea what you're going to hear. Since the programming is so sliced up, you might catch the last 20 minutes of a live show followed by a repeat of something you heard two days ago or an infomercial. Some talk shows actually include "guests" who pitch their products. At least with Podcasts, you know what you're going to hear, and it starts at the beginning.
I still prefer linear radio and I've solved the problem for myself, but it's something I would never expect the average listener to do.
I have a Windows machine set up with a task scheduler (FBTask) where I can input a time, specify a media player (VLC works very well) and add the URL of a radio station. VLC needs to be configured so that if the stream is interrupted it will keep trying to load it, and 99% of the time that works fine. I also use an excellent $30 audio level controller (Breakaway) because internet streaming is all over the place when it comes to levels. So that's the setup.
The next fun project is finding content. Very little radio info tends to be up to date. For example, I like to listen to Lars Larson weekdays from 7 to 10 pm. His affiliate list is completely out of date and I accidentally found that WICC carries the show at that time but it's not on the list. Affiliates - The Lars Larson Show This is very typical. Station schedules are typically out of date. Searching for the URLs is also difficult.
But once I got it done, I now have my own "personal linear radio station" with a weekday schedule, and separate Saturday and Sunday schedules. Finding live radio show on the weekends has become nearly impossible so I stream mainly TV audio those days.
Radio has lost it's primary focus these days, but just like in the past I can leave my "radio" on and enjoy it without constantly searching for content.
I wish some tech company would come up with something similar -- maybe if iHeart could add some kind of timer to it's app instead of just the limited number of presets. On my phone I use an app called Radi-Oh! where I've set up 40+ presets. It's great for Bluetooth streaming in the car.
Exactly. But .......... it ain't easy!!!
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Add a MP3 recorder app and you have the radio equivalent of a TiVo.
Because the average listener doesn't use the radio the way they did in the 70s. Attention span is shorter. People prefer to listen on their own schedule than in a live linear style. There's data on this. We don't just make it up. So when you say "radio is chasing people away," the fact is that people have changed, and radio is adapting to the way people now use radio.
Got 'ya, but what I want is LIVE. Once you record it, it's stale. That's a Podcast to me.
The point is you have choices. You can make radio do what you want. You didn't have that ability 50 years ago.
Same with TV. History has shown that when people have choices, they take them,
Yeah, but everything goes in cycles.
The worst thing any company can do is to lose focus on what people love about their product. For decades now, stations have been pushing listeners to their websites and social media.
You get what you ask for. That's how it works.
Yes, but as I pointed out, it's a difficult, technical process.
The electronics industry isn't really making new radios anymore. We're at a point where a generation has grown up without radios. So this isn't a cycle.
The things people like about broadcast radio is it's free and doesn't require membership or credit card. That hasn't changed.
The number of people using social media and listening to radio is about the same. Social media is interactive. Radio is passive.
And who's to blame for that? I think we disagree, but that's OK.
Electronics companies make more profit making phones and computers. It's pretty simple.
At one time, electronics companies owned radio stations. They all got out in the 80s.
The last exciting radio that people wanted to buy was the Walkman, over 40 years ago. The iPod replaced it. No radio.
There's hundreds of radios available foe sale on Amazon. I'm looking at buying one that has Wi-Fi capability for internet streaming and AM/FM and HD. I can't be the only one.