• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

3WS......Live vs Voicetracking

PirateJohnny said:
Here is the "chicken or the egg" question: Has management taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking because listenership/advertising revenue has declined or has listenership/advertising revenue declined because management has taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking?

Pretty easy question. Listenership has decreased because people have other/better ways to listen to music. The iPod not only takes requests, it instantly delivers on them, and all the sets are commercial-free.
 
F.M.Hertz said:
Talking about different formatics is an entirely separate conversation. And while you might find it more entertaining, as I would, time after time research says shut up and play the music. And you don't need live bodies there to do that.

Gee, relax! Sounds like someone desperately wants to be in management someday. ;D
[/quote]

Nope. Haven't set foot in a studio in 20 years.
 
Boss Radio said:
PirateJohnny said:
Here is the "chicken or the egg" question: Has management taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking because listenership/advertising revenue has declined or has listenership/advertising revenue declined because management has taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking?

Pretty easy question. Listenership has decreased because people have other/better ways to listen to music. The iPod not only takes requests, it instantly delivers on them, and all the sets are commercial-free.

Wait till you get your "data" charge. It is not free unless you have an "unlimited" plan that they are honoring. IIRC there are no unlimited data plans from Verizon or AT&T anymore. Sprint or a prepaid plan might be affordable.

I worked a station that "cut" on air salaries $35K a month by going on the bird. One year later billing was down $50K a month.
 
secondchoice said:
Boss Radio said:
PirateJohnny said:
Here is the "chicken or the egg" question: Has management taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking because listenership/advertising revenue has declined or has listenership/advertising revenue declined because management has taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking?

Pretty easy question. Listenership has decreased because people have other/better ways to listen to music. The iPod not only takes requests, it instantly delivers on them, and all the sets are commercial-free.

Wait till you get your "data" charge. It is not free unless you have an "unlimited" plan that they are honoring. IIRC there are no unlimited data plans from Verizon or AT&T anymore. Sprint or a prepaid plan might be affordable.

iPod. No "data" charge.
 
Correct. I miss read I was thinking IPhone sorry. One of my neighbors has a huge AT&T cell bill. He is on the road and was addicted to Pandora. He is going back to "free" radio.
 
Boss Radio said:
PirateJohnny said:
Here is the "chicken or the egg" question: Has management taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking because listenership/advertising revenue has declined or has listenership/advertising revenue declined because management has taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking?

Pretty easy question. Listenership has decreased because people have other/better ways to listen to music. The iPod not only takes requests, it instantly delivers on them, and all the sets are commercial-free.

Well, not quite an answer to my question... If ex-listeners only listen to their iPods, their playlist gets pretty stale. How do they get exposed to new music for free? From a friend? OK, where did that friend hear new music? Listeners need a reason to tune in. Radio needs to give them something their iPod can't.
 
PirateJohnny said:
Boss Radio said:
PirateJohnny said:
Here is the "chicken or the egg" question: Has management taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking because listenership/advertising revenue has declined or has listenership/advertising revenue declined because management has taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking?

Pretty easy question. Listenership has decreased because people have other/better ways to listen to music. The iPod not only takes requests, it instantly delivers on them, and all the sets are commercial-free.

Well, not quite an answer to my question... If ex-listeners only listen to their iPods, their playlist gets pretty stale. How do they get exposed to new music for free? From a friend? OK, where did that friend hear new music? Listeners need a reason to tune in. Radio needs to give them something their iPod can't.

Are you kidding? It's 2012. There's file sharing. There's youtube. Bands and artists have their own websites. You don't even have to be tech savvy to come up with tens of thousands of songs. People don't need radio to introduce them to new music any more than they need National Record Mart or Sam Goody to acquire their music. There's an entire generation growing up with radio as strictly a last resort for music.

How much new music do you think commercial radio exposes?

One other point in your ongoing rant against voice tracking: Most listeners have no idea there isn't someone in the studio playing the music, and they don't really care.
 
A show? You think a DJ does a show? Radio stations have been programmed by people other than DJs for 50 years. Let me say that again. Radio stations have been programmed by people other than the DJ for 50 years. Some of the most legendary radio stations, in some of the most historic places, including the birthplace of radio, Pittsburgh, have been programmed by people other than the DJ. The concept of the show ended in the 70s, when format programming replaced block programming. At that point, DJs didn't do shows, they did shifts. That's what they were called. From that point on, the role of the DJ was pretty much over. There certainly was a time when a DJ was a person who had access to the stars, and knowledge of the music. But all that ended a very long time ago. Long before deregulation. The idea of a human being sitting in a studio waiting for a song to end so he can give the time, temp, and weather is mostly mythology. Radio has had automation since the 1960s. Nothing new. There are people who think the DJ is speaking to them. Who want to have a personal relationship with the DJ. For them, there's a movie that starred Clint Eastwood called "Play Misty For Me." Watch it sometime.
 
TheBigA said:
A show? You think a DJ does a show? Radio stations have been programmed by people other than DJs for 50 years. Let me say that again. Radio stations have been programmed by people other than the DJ for 50 years.

For once I agree with you.
 
At least there's still Cousin Brucie on XM-6.
 
I think there is a kernal of truth here though. The diner on Sunday night is clearly is a lesser product now that it's voice tracked than when RD was at the mic.
 
PT said:
I think there is a kernal of truth here though. The diner on Sunday night is clearly is a lesser product now that it's voice tracked than when RD was at the mic.

That's not regular programming. It's a four-hour specialty show in an otherwise dead time slot.
 
PirateJohnny said:
Here is the "chicken or the egg" question: Has management taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking because listenership/advertising revenue has declined or has listenership/advertising revenue declined because management has taken the live DJ off the air in favor of voice-tracking?

I don't think it's that simple. It's a function of format, market, heritage, and value. At stations where having live DJs actually contributes to the bottom line, they still exist. Where they don't, such at after 7PM or on music intensive formats, they VT. But certainly, the advertising collapse of 2008 wasn't caused by lack of live DJs, because the problem is far more widespread than radio.

The real question is what does the audience want. And that's not simple either.
 
Boss Radio said:
...One other point in your ongoing rant against voice tracking: Most listeners have no idea there isn't someone in the studio playing the music, and they don't really care.

Actually I would love to get into the VTing game. I'm sort of a tech geek and that technology fascinates me. I'm actually building a studio at home and I've acquired an automation program just to play with and entertain myself and anybody who finds the link to my stream. Some people have an iPod, I have a studio.
 
corporateradiosucks said:
db59 said:
I wonder if the average listener realizes they are being tricked into thinking there is actually a DJ at their favorite station, not realizing it is a voice pre-recorded. This is actually a form of fraud.

This is what I don't like about it. I'd rather have a situation like on Bob, where it's blatantly obvious that it's all prerecorded.

I don't even think Bob-FM has any on-air staff.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom