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103.7, Air Personalities
- Thread starter 1069_KIFR
- Start date
calguy said:
I do feel sorry for the many DJs put out of work by voice-tracking. But I don't feel sorry for those who do the VTing. Most of them are pre-recording one 10 or 15 second item that is stuck in the segue between two songs - once per song set. What could that be - 5 short announcements per hour, perhaps? Multiply by 5 hours per day equals about 25 short announcements per show.
I've heard that VTing a 5 hour show like this takes less than an hour. So assuming 6 shows per week, that's a 6 hour per week job.
So if they are lucky enough to VT 5 different stations at say...$15,000 average per station, they can make $75,000 per year working 30 hours per week. Certainly nobody will get wealthy doing that, but it sounds like a decent living to me.
Lkeller said:
The time it takes to do voice tracks can vary quite a bit depending on the circumstances. In the days of tape you added a 25 cycle tone to cue the music and just bang away as fast as you can. I used to VT shows for the old Concept productions and did my VT's once a week for two formats. That's seven 5 hour shows with 5 breaks per hour and custom tracks for the stations for both formats. I was usually done in about 3 hours. Today's radio is digital and it depends on how you're doing it. If it's VT's for the prophet system, well, used to take me about 20 minutes per show, but that would depend on how prepped I was, prep adds quite a bit of time, but the actual recording can be done pretty fast if you don't stumble. The easiest by far was just recording tracks, MP3'ing them to the source and letting them load the tracks in. I've yet to try tracking with Audio Vault. I understand it's very different from Prophet.
Lew I'd say you're a little high in your in your estimate of how much one can earn from one station. Most places, you're lucky to make 5 to 6 grand a year. Lots of stations will give you about 25 dollars per show. Not much, but as you noted, getting enough stations can make it profitable. The real time consumer here again is your prep. If you really want to do it right that takes a while. I've VT'd for other stations using the Prophet system and when it's done right, they'll believe you're right there in their home town, plus you can erase your errors and actually do a better show than if you were "live". That being said, I'd rather be live on the air than recorded any time.
Bryan Simmons said:
This is where nearly all business is going these days: making them all "independent contractors" and not paying them a living wage. This then forces the person, not the company, to provide for their own income by working for a bunch of companies instead of just one. We might call it "entrepreneurship" or we might call it a travesty of life in America today.
DavidKaye said:
I agreee with your travesty statement - but in at least some cases, the VTers are doing it as employees. For example, you'll find pics and bios of Tony Sandoval and Lisa St. Regis from Kiss-FM (KISQ) on the websites of at least 2 other stations - V-101.1 Sacramento and Hot 92.3 Los Angeles. So they are obviously VTing at least 2 of their 3 stations - probably all 3. But all 3 are Clear Channel stations, so I would assume they are CC employees.
calguy said:
I used to make VT-ing sound decent, but it's obviously never as good as live. Any station with good live talent, and similar transmitter coverage, should kick the crap out of this station.
IMHO, VT-ing should be reserved only for overnights. It's sad to see VT-ing in such a huge market. That decision is only about the bottom line.
Mac Daddy said:
He fills in for Parker Lewis. Ron Michaels is voicetracked out of Florida.
suburbandj said:
Rumor has it that "Parker Lewis" is CC San Francisco OM Don Parker. How clever....
C
casual observer
Guest
Currently Don Bleu is the only live show on KOSF and he comes with a couple support people. Celeste Perry voice tracks her daily show sometimes a day or so ahead of when it airs depending on schedules and availability of logs. (This is the case with other personalities as well.) Parker Lewis is indeed CC OM Don Parker although on their website, they have Joey V's name and photo under Parker Lewis' name. They also have Ron Michaels photo under Jonathan Clarke's name. Ron Michaels VTs from Tampa and Jonathan Clarke VTs from New York. Weekend jock Clarence Barnes VTs from LA but occasionally comes to SF and VTs from their studios. All CC jocks can be assigned extra station responsibilities from their home market.
What about the scenario of Don Bleu and Celeste Perry in mornings and Ron Michaels voicetracking middays from Tampa instead of Celeste voicetracking locally?
Sorry to be nit-picky and negative, but the title of this thread annoys me ("103.7 Air Personalities"). Call me old-fashioned, but in the 60s and 70s, the only "personalities" were morning show jocks and the people on the MOR stations that were actually given some air time to talk and be a real presence on the air - Don Sherwood, Carter B. Smith and those guys. Top 40 jocks like Bobby Ocean and John Mack Flanagan weren't considered "personalities" in those days, but in retrospect, they really were - even though they had less time to talk on air than the MOR personalities.
But these 103.7 voice-trackers, who get to make some generic announcement 6 times an hour for 10 or 15 seconds? Sorry, but these people are not "personalities" by any stretch of the imagination - they aren't even disc-jockeys.
Celeste Perry, for example - nothing against her, at all...she's just making a living in the modern radio reality. You could maybe make a case that she was a "personality' 25 years ago on KYA-FM where she got to open the mic going into every stop set. But now? Forget it.
The only "personality" on 103.7 is Don Bleu.
But these 103.7 voice-trackers, who get to make some generic announcement 6 times an hour for 10 or 15 seconds? Sorry, but these people are not "personalities" by any stretch of the imagination - they aren't even disc-jockeys.
Celeste Perry, for example - nothing against her, at all...she's just making a living in the modern radio reality. You could maybe make a case that she was a "personality' 25 years ago on KYA-FM where she got to open the mic going into every stop set. But now? Forget it.
The only "personality" on 103.7 is Don Bleu.
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