2012 Radio Topics

[Surfer]

Mine is more a simple comment and not much else but I've noticed the threads here on the Atlanta board lately are dull. It's one thing to post rumors and even more fun to discuss what certain stations can do but lately it seems we've all gotten "soft". Do we no longer care about this industry? Does anybody have something new to say except the same old stuff about PPM's and what the industry "used" to be like? When the most fascinating topics are from the engineering folks talking about DX-ing and transmitter locations, we've truly lost our desire for this business, at least that is how it seems to me.

So, here are my thoughts for 2012. There is ABSOLUTELY no intelligent thought put into these choices. Just what I'd LIKE to see happen. After all, that IS...in some way, what we should be talking about...RIGHT?

I'd personally like to see...

92.9 Flip to Beautiful (elevator, if you will) music. Why? I like music to sleep to. Love to see 96.1 flip to Jazz. 97.1...expand the playlist by 300 more songs. (Couldn't hurt, right?) 100.5 needs to go away. Hey, here's an idea! Make them all traffic reports all the time. No news, just traffic. Their slogan..."You're never more than 1 minute away from traffic conditions in your area on 100.5-FM, WHOV! (Something like that anyway). 101.5 needs to play the hits but focus on what made country music what it is. More songs from 1970 and on. 105.3 should simulcast 640AM and 640 should EXPERIMENT with nothing but local talk shows as a place to TRAIN new blood. That would be radical (and possibly profitable). Of course, NOBODY will go for it because it is crazy to train new talent in a major market but have they done ANYTHING GOOD with that train wreck of a station lately? Finally, let's talk about the elephant in the room and make 106.7 simulcast 680-the Fan. It should happen because everybody in the industry is becoming convinced that the AM band is going away so lets speed up the process.

Anyway, those are my thought for 2012. Will any of it happen? Doubt it, but it would be, at the least, INTERESTING. Something this board is not.

 

[Wildstyle K]

So, here are my thoughts for 2012.  There is ABSOLUTELY no intelligent thought put into these choices.  Just what I'd LIKE to see happen.  ....



I'd personally like to see...

92.9 Flip to Beautiful (elevator, if you will) music.  Why?  I like music to sleep to.  Love to see 96.1 flip to Jazz.  97.1...expand the playlist by 300 more songs.  (Couldn't hurt, right?) 100.5 needs to go away.  Hey, here's an idea!  Make them all traffic reports all the time.  No news, just traffic. ...

Ok, I tink I've quoted enough.

Now, While I can understand the overall point being made here, I still have a few things to say in response. I must say that out of all things I've seen so far, the suggestions presented above have the least amount of "intelligent", or logical detail in it. (*don't stop here - keep reading and let me explain*) Yes - I know that that is supposed to be an over exaggeration example of the "unintelligent thinking" here, but still; Elevator music.. Jazz.. all traffic.. those are extreme examples, and aren't great comparisons to most of the posts posted here.

At least plenty of the posts and thoughts I've seen on these boards (at least the ones I'm seeing) have suggestions, predictions, and other posts that are often diligently and analytically thought about, and often generate some stimulating conversation and debate. Maybe later, I'll find a few intelligent posts to support my premise.

Suggesting switching 92.9 to elevator music, 96.1 flip to jazz... 300 songs...all traffic all the time.. etc, while I understand your premise, it's not exactly a good attempt towards making a brief summary on what you've seen on these boards because those "ideas" are so outrageous that it's almost impossible to not know that those ideas.... well, will never work in reality! The most you could probably get away with is an one or two hour time slot of jazz or elevator music around 4am on a Sunday morning on an appropriate format. Maybe. You don't even want to think of bringing up Cume, PPM, demographics, advertising....etc. and mix it in with those suggestions then try to spark debate and conversation if the suggestions are so outrageous that it clearly must be based PURELY on personal wishful thinking or a joke. 
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Now, I will admit that many posts presented here may be a mixture of analyzing based on a certain level of knowledge, opinion, and fact, statistics, AND personal preferences. Also keep in mind that people will try to find the most logical and sensible solutions about any situation in life (including radio) then try to gear that solution and/or suggestion towards whatever their personal desires are as much as they see logically possible. For example: Updating B98.5 - many wanted it, and yes, it worked; Star*94 going back to straight up Hot AC - many people talked about it, and yes, it worked; Q100 going more towards "traditional" chr - yes, it worked; What CC stations should go on which frequencies and why - we don't know which ideas were the best yet because it hasn't been done; That's just a brief summary of the (so called) "unintelligent talk" here that actually turned out to be good ideas in the end. I'm sure I've missed some even better examples. I also find it funny that most of the stations and past format flip "mistakes" that are complained about here are also stations that aren't (or are no longer) doing well.

Now, one could question why the board seems to be getting "dull" and contain less of that shocking, edge of your seat, exciting radio news that we once dreamed of around the times we first signed in. I will admit that it is puzzling when you find radio news presented to the board that was announced first on twitter. Is it possible that the reason for this is more people have learned better ways on how to keep certain information from leaking out? Is it possible that more people listen to other folks who say "no one is supposed to know bla bla bla yet so don't post it" because they don't want to lose the trust, or even worse, jobs...etc.? Could it be that we're more desperate for constant news and stimulating changes that we try to just start topics with the hopes that it will provoke someone to drop some "exclusive" secret radio news? It could even be the fact that as time goes on, there's an increase in the amount of board members and posts. Of course many newbies are going to start off presenting dumb ideas as they are still learning the basics, then there are those who are just fed up because so and so plays certain songs on an hourly basis and they don't understand why, then somehow find this board and vent about how everyone should play more music. 

By the way, just about every section (with exception to places like New York, LA...etc.) thinks that their section is dull. | Lastly, more people may have negative views about the industry, but I highly doubt that people no longer care about the industry because it wouldn't make sense for people to devote so much time into thinking about and discussing things they don't care about.

 

[wpb1999]

Mr. Surfer,

You are the one that is the problem on this board. Radio-Info blogs serve an important purpose. People who are both a fan of radio and people that are in the radio business (like me) can come to talk about what they think radio should be, what it can be, what is wrong with it and what we like most about it. We are talking about what we'd like to happen. I just did a lengthy thread about the B98.5 that I miss. That is what I think that certain radio station should be like. Our board isn't boring or dull for that matter. We are all anticipating a WGST simulcast and the minute that happens I am sure that someone whether it be Rodney,Roddy, myself or someone will post something about it. And will it happen that 680 is simulcast? If so, I'm sure this board will be one of the first people to report that. Just like when WSB was put on 95.5, Roddy posted it 2 hours before it happened. 33 pages of responses were filed on this board. That is pretty massive. But saying that beautiful music should go on 92.9 is just an irresponsible use of this board. Now, I have long said, and Lance Venta of RadioInsight agrees with me, that 92.9 should be all news. That is a reasonable suggestion. And when I monitored twitter because of something about ALL Sports moving to FM and everybody thought it was Atlanta, that is good speculation.

Surfer, you were right, you did put NO intelligent thoughts into this post and it does show with your quite deranged ideas.

Best Regards!

Bill
[email protected]

 

[MRFLASHPORT]

When (and if) 106.7 gets their HD back online, they had an awesome Smooth Jazz on HD-2, the ONE TIME I heard it.
Standards? WSB-HD2 is a good cure for road rage and you'll fall asleep behind the wheel if you're not careful ;D

 

[agentUrge]

Love to see 96.1 flip to Jazz. 97.1...expand the playlist by 300 more songs. (Couldn't hurt, right?)

smooth jazz or what I would call "real" jazz? I'm of the thought that since we've already got at least one that's smooth jazz ....so, if Jazz was the answer, go for the broader variety and cover everything from the swing era, bebob, fusion, contemporary, etc. There's plenty of opportunity for sub-genre specific shows and not much of a need for talent. People who like Jazz want to enjoy the music mainly, but enjoy knowing how the web of jazz connects artist to artist...they could follow the NPR or Sirius/XM way.

my .02

 

[Surfer]

To the folks who called my posting "unintelligent" or that I am "the problem", please understand that I was only trying to find something other than the usual 20 topics to discuss. If my post was offensive or sounded foolish, it was neither my intent nor my purpose. I only wanted something "new" to discuss. That being said, I could have made a "gentler" case and so, I apologize.

 

[JohnAllan]

Surfer,

I don't agree with your post, but I tell you, SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO!! Your opinion counts just as much as anyone else. Now, I do agree with the "stale subjects" point. There seems to be nothing but speculation, and incorrect facts. So why should one of those topics be any better than this one?

 

[Wildstyle K]

To the folks who called my posting "unintelligent" or that I am "the problem", please understand that I was only trying to find something other than the usual 20 topics to discuss. If my post was offensive or sounded foolish, it was neither my intent nor my purpose. I only wanted something "new" to discuss. That being said, I could have made a "gentler" case and so, I apologize.

There's no need to apologize. There was nothing offensive about it. The only reason it was "unintelligent" was because it was designed to be unintelligent to make your point. You were trying to make an example of unintelligent posts, so of course your example would have to be unintelligent. You had to make it sound foolish because you were making examples of things that sounded foolish to you. No problem with that. The only thing was that it was overly outrageous. The examples made were too unreal in comparison to the actual posts you were trying to make examples of. The thing I disagreed with mostly is when there was an implication that NO thought or common sense whatsoever is put into the discussion on these boards, while just the other day I remember reading through quite a bit of well done, detailed debate. Maybe all ideas aren't as good as others, but the overall discussion was good and something to consider and worth thinking about.

Another thing I've been wanting to add.

Many people tend to believe that everyone in the world thinks and sees things identically to the way they themselves see things. We need to abandon this way of thinking. How does this relate to the boards? Well,... an example; One person may be fascinated with chart statistics and ratings. Another may be fascinated with formats. Some may be fascinated with how listeners are surveyed. Others may be fascinated with how the music itself is selected/played while not having any interest in the business aspect at all. Some may be interested particularly in certain specialty programmings, specific shifts, or how prizes, calls, and requests are done.... and some may be interested in strictly how sales work or how frequencies and signals interact...etc. etc. etc. Everybody has a different tastes, and people's fascination toward radio may originally stem from a variety of different specific personal tastes. With that being said, it's safe to assume that people will always discuss and talk about topics that they may be passionately interested in while others see the same topic as pointless and mind-numbingly boring. There may be phases when most of the talk falls out of a particular person's interest. That doesn't mean the topics have become stale or dull. That just means it has become stale and dull to the people who aren't interested in whatever talk is dominating the boards at the time. If you are a fond lover of hardcore facts and solid reliable news on who's flipping formats or what for sure will happen next, then of course you will dislike a bunch of speculation and prediction talk. However, that doesn't mean it's necessarily stale or unintelligent talk.

Let me get back to the "offensive" thing. There's no point in apologizing for anything because nothing you said was offensive, really. It was strictly an opinion. I know this day in age where everyone is quick to get upset and take things personally, demanding apologies and causing disruption somewhere, every reply you see here will look like a "counter attack" that was based purely out of spite. Well, that's not true. At least, I'm not trying to "talk / fight back" from a defensive point of view. I'm simply... well, pointing out that things are not as bad as you describe from your point of view.

There are only a few rather unintelligent posts I've seen on the home page of the Atlanta section, with this link -----> http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=204190.0 --- possibly being the least intelligent one of the herd. But then again... is it REALLY entirely unintelligent? Or are there certain things within that topic that could lead to good debate and conversation, despite the fact that it has a poorly chosen subject title?

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I didn't proofread any of this and have to go now, so I hope I presented this and delivered my points at least somewhat legibly.

 

[Surfer]

KDM, thank you for your opinion and, for making a good use of this board. While I would agree that some of the topics are not boring, for me, it truly appears as though we are talking about the same stuff over-and-over again. That...I find boring. (Check out the thread from Goodtimesandgreatoldies as an example).

And, for the record, why CAN'T a station take a really far-out chance with a format...like polka music (OK, not seriously). I would love to see somebody step up and run a true format that sounded a lot like radio stations did in the 60's. Not just playing the rock and roll hits but adding the older artists that were still popular...or, even sponsoring hours of programming. I'd like to see if somebody could actually pull of today what we had no clue we were doing during the infancy of the medium. THAT, WOULD BE INTERESTING! (Of course, if it made no money who would care but, if it did...wow!)

 

[gregg75]

This board is hung up on flips. They happen 1-3 days out of the year. From the threads on
here, it seems to be almost a weekly thing/rumor.

 

[agentUrge]

This board is hung up on flips. They happen 1-3 days out of the year. From the threads on
here, it seems to be almost a weekly thing/rumor.

That alone should be a clear indication to the insiders that frequent the board that the format has become pretty hum-drum to the radio-philes of Atlanta.

I'm one of those listeners..though, the fact that I've turned to alternative forms of media (Sirius/XM, Smartphone, etc) is my way of saying that radio has gotten hum-drum and dry. Occasionally, I'll listen to a morning show and I make a point to listen to 99x at noon because I like the program. That's it. But I'm one person. I don't know enough about the industry to say weather or not consultants are killing the biz or helping it...nor to I know enough to make sense of the numbers that get posted here all the time...and frankly, I don't care either. I didn't listen to 99x back in 1997 because of the Arbitron numbers....I listened because I liked what I heard. Now I listen to something else for the same reason...unfortunately, about less than 5% of my listening goes to the Atlanta FM dial. But, I'm a niche market...and that's okay. I'm not the only one. It seems clear that the old model of radio is not working...just as the old model for the music industry is no longer working.

 

[Wildstyle K]

I don't know enough about the industry to say weather or not consultants are killing the biz or helping it...nor to I know enough to make sense of the numbers that get posted here all the time...and frankly, I don't care either.

So, this all goes back to the original post where Surfer popped the question:

Do we no longer care about this industry?

As you can see, although some of us may disagree with certain aspects of Surfer's original post, it may actually be more accurate and post-worthy than it seemed upon first glance.

This all reminds me of Drake's lyrics from the song "Headlines":
“I had someone tell me I fell off.. Oh, I needed that; And they want to see me pick back up.. Well, where'd I leave it at?”

In other words, Surfer is basically trying to tell us that "we fell off" from delivering what this board was originally intended to offer in regard to radio information, and he would like to see us "pick back up" from where we "fell off".

However, I do remember back when I posted about how a local station in my hometown dropped the Delilah program and someone here mentioned that "B98.5 keeps her program because (paraphrasing) they're stuck on their old boring ways." Interestingly enough, shortly after, B98.5 did start to tweak and update themselves, and the benefits of them leaving behind what most here considered a "stale / boring / out of date format that needs to be updated" also showed in ratings. With that being said, is it safe to say that what is frequently discussed on this board actually has some merit? Does it show something when people here complain and frown upon certain aspects of a station, then that station makes changes in that area, only to create a higher overall rate of success for the station? How about when a station is doing well, then they decide to do something that a majority of board posters disagree with and they end up failing?

We must also question what specifically this board is truly intended for and if the theme of today's posts still fall within the guidelines of what these boards were originally intended for upon creation. This debate is similar to when politicians argue about the founding fathers of this country and what this country is/was supposed to be all about. Just because things tend to change over time and the fashion in which ideas and discussions are presented have evolved, does this mean we've really lost touch with how things are supposed to be done here? Or has the way ideas and discussions are presented simply just changed over time? And how much more will topics and discussions change as radio and technology itself changes? Will there eventually be baseless speculations on what type of broadcasting technologies will be created and take over next? Could HD radio format predictions be within the near future? Could there be speculation on whether or not HD and Satellite radio will become the new free terrestrial radio as internet begins to charge for their unlimited services? Could terrestrial radio as we know it become completely obsolete the same way regular tv seems to be compared to having cable and subchannels?

I guess the possibilities are endless. Back in the 90's, "2012 Radio Topics" would've seemed like a futuristic topic. Now, we are in the future. Are we all just disappointed that things in radio land didn't end up evolving the way we thought it would in the "future", so now we must resort to wishful thinking and hopeful speculation? Is this why people are losing interest, caring less about the industry, and beginning to "water down" the quality of their posts and discussions?

Now, back to the Delilah thing for a moment: View this thread about Delilah Gone From B98.5 --> http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=204318.0 Keep in mind that this all follows a "station upgrade" that many have been pushing for on these boards in the recent past. If this entire move turns out to be even more beneficial to B98.5 in the long run, is it safe to assume that the posts on these boards do contain some level of truth and valuable information, despite the fact that much of it is based on emotion instead of solid facts? Is it possible that "outsiders" (radio listeners, ex-employees, and other people on these boards) have the capability of somehow forecasting, or getting a feel for what could work or wouldn't work, although it may not look the same through hard factual statistical research data?

These are just a few fair and balanced, unbiased thoughts and questions I want to get people considering and thinking about for a moment.