I didn't realize The End was running a national alt feed at night. On the other hand, I've all but given up listening to the station, which I was a fan of for a long time. I noted on Twitter last year that the station doesn't seem to have a cohesive musical identity right now, and somebody from the station tweeted back that I "don't understand alt rock" anymore. OK, then, I guess I'll stick with KEXP.
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107.7 The End- multiple stations on their air last night
- Thread starter valvashon
- Start date
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 times. I'm not a regular listener anymore so I'd assume that it happens somewhat frequently. From the times that I've noticed, the station would be running imaging, spots, and liners for Alt 92.3 in New York. The particular issue addressed in this thread is something new, however (probably some sort of national programming issue). It's not surprising that the "alt" imagery could make its way to 107.7 due to some sort of programming error, but it is a bit surprising that it continues to be an issue.
Sounds like a technical problem. No serious radio station would allow this to happen intentionally. Hopefully they will get their act together, but these days there are so few on-site employees it becomes an issue. Ultimately, the GM and the PD are responsible.
That sounds like their local audio routing scheme isn't switching to the locally recorded-whatever.
Stations handle this workflow/process differently: Some will have their station automation send a GPO command (general purpose output) to an audio console fader channel to mute the incoming network, or in this case, another station' programming when a local break is supposed to run. At the same time, another GPO triggers the local automation to play-local-whatever via a different fader at the same console. The problem with this process; is whomever was the last person manually running the board (console) must properly set up the console with the proper faders up or down before they leave for the night. In my example; if the fader(s) for the local break aren't left up, or the wrong faders up or down, one could easily get this sort of thing happening.
The other way stations do this sort of thing; is by using a in-house core audio router, or a small separate router which the local automation turns various sources on or off when triggered by the local automation GPO.
Of course the third possibility; could be they're having intermittent break triggers being sent down the line from the NYC station. If the local automation doesn't hear a trigger, whatever audio coming down the line stays up locally with no local break being triggered.
These last gremlins mentioned are a bitch to troubleshoot sometimes, because they're so intermittent. Unless one has access to very expensive network monitoring software like Splunk!, the alternative (pardon the pun), is to have their one engineer camp out all night to see if they can catch it happening. That's assuming of course it happens when you're sitting at the station those particular nights.
Oh yes, I'm sure the GM and PD are working the problem as I type...
Are their ratings that bad? They used to do quite well. There was a Seattle guy who I believe programmed that station, Ron Harris -- who in the 80s was a DJ at KPLZ and KNBQ.
"You're their only listener," Kelly said.
Being a heritage rock station, I very much doubt they are doing that bad. There are still rockers in the Yakima Valley, but the area does lean towards Regional Mexican, Top 40, and Country. They have over 23,000 followers on Facebook! And they have a translator here in Ellensburg at 94.3. KATS mixes active rock with classic rock - some songs duplicate on 105.7 the Hawk.
I'd like to know how KTCR 106.9/980 is doing, with all the music skewing 55+ and really, 65+. Very unique station, you'll hear Chubby Checker one minute and Neil Diamond the next. They cover some early '70s music which 100.9 does not have on the playlist. Cherry FM leans 1975-1999 with mostly '80s, however, a lot more '90s have been added as they become a quarter-century old or more.
Yakima does not subscribe to PPM or Arbitron AFAIK, so I can't tell for sure. But I lean on KFFM or KXDD being #1. At this point, with 50% of the county Hispanic/Latino, maybe even KZTA.
I return the thread to its original purpose. KNDD running the audio of multiple Audacy stations all at once. It's like quasi-DXing. Wonder if they all QSL? ;-)
Reminds me of the time my Hulu account had a massive localization failure with CBS stations, and so there ended up being a hundred CBS channels from all states (even ch. 13 from Fairbanks, AK), and I actually wondered whether I should've counted them as DX or not. (I decided against it because of the way it happened).
Kelly, I am not sure you were being sarcastic, but YES, the general manager and program director are ultimately responsible. I have experience in many of these type of situations where the buck stops with upper management. Now, if it is found that they were not responsible for this screw up, then I will retract that.
Common problem. On Monday we hear “Friday weather calling for…”. It simply is bad management by the programming department. I hear this type of error quite frequently. More so today than a decade or two ago.
Ron was there in the late 90's early 2000's. That was over twenty years ago.
But you said it was the GM's fault?
How are they responsible for a intermittent technical or operator error? What if the method/process was developed and pushed by their corporate office? Does that still make the Program Director or local GM responsible? Remember, this is during night hours. Programming a station at night is essentially a placeholder to keep the transmissions going, not a source of revenue.
It's so easy for someone retired from the biz, or a radio hobbyist/listener to point blame at individual's like some insider. Unless you know the situation first hand, I argue that blaming is probably misplaced and unfair.
Maybe I live in the past but in my 30 years of upper management I believed ultimately the Pd and his/her boss were responsible for their respective stations. Yes, there may be corporate doctrines that overrule but that is the not the radio biz I worked in. Local managers have always been expected to guide local stations. But maybe I am out of touch with the current operational procedures with local radio stations. Maybe it has been reduced to corporate decisions about every programming aspect. If things have drastically changed then so be it, perhaps I am out of touch. I am not too proud to admit that. But, how sad for the industry.
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That is exactly how George Jetson dealt with Uniblab, the robot brought in to Spacely Sprockets to enforce discipline, increase productivity and, presumably, eliminate jobs.
Regardless of who is responsible, it seems pretty unprofessional to let this issue occur without making some sort of change. I don’t imagine that their advertisers are particularly happy when something like this occurs, especially if it’s a recurring issue.
Without any involvement on the inside of the industry, I would say simple logic agrees. If one pays for something, they expect that something to work flawlessly. That would go for advertising time on a broadcast station.
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