• 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

A comeback possible for live local personalities?

G

geek-orama

Amazon is opening a brick & mortar store in Seattle. Grocery stores are cutting back on self service automated check outs. Why? Because marketers are learning that people want more simple human interaction, even just brief ones. Amazon realizes now that none of its online tactics — no matter how brilliant — meet customers' unwavering demand for a real-life, tactile experience of their products.
Could some company see the advantages of more live and local DJs- not just big personalities but the DJs that just give you that one-to-one contact and answer the request line and get out in town to meet listeners. Automated pre-recorded voices won't go away but a station could have an advantage with more local announcers who are sharing an experience in real time with listeners and building a bond
 
geek-orama said:
Could some company see the advantages of more live and local DJs- not just big personalities but the DJs that just give you that one-to-one contact and answer the request line and get out in town to meet listeners. Automated pre-recorded voices won't go away but a station could have an advantage with more local announcers who are sharing an experience in real time with listeners and building a bond
Click to expand...

what you describe has been -- for one example -- KFOG's shtick for ages (since long before Cumulus took over, in fact). "Live and local" is a phrase used in their liners constantly and for the most part it's true.
 
I don't necessarily want a human interaction in grocery stores but I would like a self-checkout system that doesn't always need the attention of the checkout clerk to get it to read the UPC correctly. The reason most people don't like them is they don't work.

And I don't need a live human on the radio necessarily either since I really can't tell the difference. As long as there is a "personality" behind the voice and the banter is interesting it could be live or taped and really doesn't make a difference.
 
geek-orama said:
Amazon is opening a brick & mortar store in Seattle. Grocery stores are cutting back on self service automated check outs. Why? Because marketers are learning that people want more simple human interaction, even just brief ones. Amazon realizes now that none of its online tactics — no matter how brilliant — meet customers' unwavering demand for a real-life, tactile experience of their products.
Could some company see the advantages of more live and local DJs- not just big personalities but the DJs that just give you that one-to-one contact and answer the request line and get out in town to meet listeners. Automated pre-recorded voices won't go away but a station could have an advantage with more local announcers who are sharing an experience in real time with listeners and building a bond
Click to expand...
I'd like to think "live and local" is coming back to radio, but it's probably about as likely as the hair on my head re-growing...Rogaine or not. IMO, everybody exagerrated the influence of online shopping back in the dot-com era. Yeah - internet shoppiong is great for some things (books you know you want, music), but it sucks for things you want to browse, touch, or try on for size - toys, clothes etc. A little picture doesn't replace the experience of being able to see and touch a product in person.

As for radio, I think we radio-nerds posting here exagerrate the importance of live-and-local...especially on music radio.

If you had told average radio listeners 30 years ago that the future would bring them music stations with more songs back to back, about the same number of commercials, but all clustered together in a five minute set, and hardly no interruptions or comments from disc-jockeys, I think most of them would have said "sounds great to me."
 
Growing up in the 60's our music tastes where formed by what the local radio played. In my case LA so it was KRLA, KFWB, and then KHJ. The DJ's where an integral part of our lives. I can remember Bob Eubanks, Casey Kasem, and the rest hosting shows and dances at my high school. Now my kids never listen to the radio for music. It's all about the mp3 players and what their friends are listening to. I don't know how a live and local music station could appeal to that group. As far as talk, here in Sacramento, we used to have two news-talk stations with mostly local hosts. Now there is, I believe, two hours a day of local, only on in Sacramento, general talk programming. If I am not mistaken SF now no longer has a local talk station. If the City can't support local talk I really don't see much of future for live and local.
 
Bobsacto said:
If I am not mistaken SF now no longer has a local talk station. If the City can't support local talk I really don't see much of future for live and local.
Click to expand...

Uh, then you're not following anything in SF radio.

KALW has a live and local daily talkshow, "Your Call" which also airs on KUSP in Santa Cruz. KQED-FM has a live and local daily talkshow, "KQED Forum". KGO has live and local talk with Ronn Owens daily and all weekend.

KKSF 910 has live and local from 3 to 7pm daily as well as Armstrong & Getty, which is also on in Sacto, Stockton, and Modesto -- but it's live and regional. KNBR does a boatload of live and local sportstalk shows daily. I think KSFO and KNEW 960 also do a couple hours of live local shows, too, but I don't listen to them.
 
I'm glad KKSF picked up Gene Burns and then decided, while he recuperates, to have John Rothmann and the rest of the "All Stars" sub for him. Also appreciate KKSF's willingness to let us download their shows via podcast and without charge.

Plus because of KKSF, I've become acquainted with Alan Colmes. Never heard of him before and, gee, he's a lot of fun to listen to.
 
lolbrat said:
Plus because of KKSF, I've become acquainted with Alan Colmes. Never heard of him before and, gee, he's a lot of fun to listen to.
Click to expand...

Alan Colmes is a HOOT! I love how he keeps callers to the facts and berates them when they're just spouting nonsense. I much prefer light to heat. Also, he's *live*, as are John & Jeff, which follow from 10pm to 2am (well, they do do reruns on the weekends and they've done some reruns this week, but when they're in production they're carried live).

Generally, I like KKSF 910 from 3pm to 2am. Not bad, and actually better than my experience with KGO. I can take 1 Rothmann a week, but not 5. Likewise Ed Baxter/Rosie Allen.
 
I probably did not make myself clear. What I was referring to was a newstalk station broadcasting the majority of there programs with local hosts. Like I said we had two such stations doing that at one time here in Sacramento, including overnight. The examples cited are for isolated broadcasts. Nothing like, for instance, Clear Channel KFI in LA which is 14 hrs local M-F. And yes I don't follow SF radio as much as some of you since I don't live in the Bay Area but I have been listening to KGO since 1968 and listening to KQED since they are rebroadcast on KQEI here in Sacramento. KALW is at best a niche station, a Vacaville station has higher ratings in the SF market in the last book. I hope KKSF is successful but if success depends on the same syndicated crud available everywhere I'll take a pass.
 
Bob, you can listen to KKSF 910 AM via the internet. That's what I do between 4 and 10 p.m. sometimes during the week. The 3 to 7 slot are live: 3 to 4 with Len Tillem the lawyer and 4 to 7 with another KGO All Star, either John Rothmann, Gil Gross or Ed Baxter and Rosie Allen. They're fill-in hosts for Gene Burns, also formerly of KGO. 7 to 10 with Alan Colmes is also live but broadcast from NYC.
 
lolbrat said:
Bob, you can listen to KKSF 910 AM via the internet. That's what I do between 4 and 10 p.m. sometimes during the week. The 3 to 7 slot are live: 3 to 4 with Len Tillem the lawyer and 4 to 7 with another KGO All Star, either John Rothmann, Gil Gross or Ed Baxter and Rosie Allen. They're fill-in hosts for Gene Burns, also formerly of KGO. 7 to 10 with Alan Colmes is also live but broadcast from NYC.
Click to expand...

The John & Jeff Show, believe it or not, is also live (unless they're on vacation as they have been lately) from 10pm to 2am. I emailed them to remind them that they should mention "live" as much as they could because we Coasties are so used to getting delayed broadcasts here. They've increased the number of times they say "live" and they actually do get calls from the Bay Area.

I happen to think the Alan Colmes and John & Jeff are the best things to happen to Bay Area radio lately, even though both come from other places (J&J from LA). I much prefer listening to them than I did either Gene Burns or John Rothmann during those time periods when they were on KGO.
 
Can't stand the John & Jeff Show, as they seem to repeat whatever the de jour conservative talking point is instead of coming up with their own POV.

Love Gene Burns and John Rothmann for their abilities to give fair and balanced political perspectives. True, Rothmann's near Pollyanne-ish attitude comes off as a bit much. But his niceness and thoughtfulness sound genuine. Plus he is a native San Franciscan -- a rarity for SF radio these days.

Sometimes Brian Copeland is fun to listen to but his new time slot I cannot fit in. Enjoy Christine Craft when she's on KGO, even if that means she on from midnight to 4 or 5 a.m. Tim Montemayor is like Karel -- just another idiot on the radio (albeit with a conservative bent) who tends to talk about himself, his wife, his kids, yada-yada-yada, too much and too often, or to rant about some topic, without being neither funny nor insightful. Definitely miss hearing Peter B. Collins and Stacy Taylor too, even though Peter B., to me anyway, came off as too intellectual for the radio and Taylor merely disgruntled.
 
lolbrat said:
Can't stand the John & Jeff Show, as they seem to repeat whatever the de jour conservative talking point is instead of coming up with their own POV.
Click to expand...

People keep saying they're conservative and I haven't found that, at least not politically. Are you sure you're not thinking of "John & Ken", a totally different talkshow team? I don't like them at all.

John & Jeff tend not to get into political issues, but favor human interest issues, such as what to do when your wife cheats on you and then tells you she wants another kid, or whether the government should ban hand-free cell phone use. They've asked how many truckers have taken speed to stay awake, and stuff like that. They also have little human interest quizzes.

Plus he is a native San Franciscan -- a rarity for SF radio these days.
Click to expand...

Oh? Let's see...Brian Copeland, Jon Miller, Jon Bristow, Peter Finch, Pat Thurston -- okay, maybe not SF itself, but Bay Area. Actually there are a boatload of local folks in radio here, but those are just the ones that come to mind at the moment.
 
You been reading the recent Chron features about who is a real San Franciscan?

Rothmann not only graduated from Washington High, he taught there. How many SF natives can lay claim to those two feats?

Miller (Hayward?), Copie (San Leandro by way of Ohio?), Thurston (Berkeley?), and Finch (Richmond?) are from the East Bay. Bristow from the North Bay. But yeah, they're SF Bay Areans. :D
 
lolbrat said:
John & Jeff are the guys who follow Colmes.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and tonight it wasn't any rightwing talk, either. Tonight they were talking about excuses people use to miss work. Yeah, I think the complaining poster has John & Jeff mixed up with the rightwingers John & Ken from KFI. Both teams are in LA, though.
 
John & Jeff tend to lead in with some conservative political crapola. I'll listen to them again for a few more nights to see if that's their usual preamble.

And complaining poster? Like you don't have a habit of digging at people? :D
 
lolbrat said:
John & Jeff tend to lead in with some conservative political crapola. I'll listen to them again for a few more nights to see if that's their usual preamble.
Click to expand...

There is so much crapola being flung by both left and right, I find myself being buried in the brown stuff. Like many, I have taken a slight step back from political talk radio. I only listen to John and Ken when I can actually receive KFI on the way home from work. They are "unlistenable" at times. It is usually because they get redundant, saying the same stuff over and over again.

John and Jeff are not my cup-O-tea. I agree with David that they're not really conservative. I think they just try too hard to be entertaining.

I find it interesting you feel it's important that one must be born and raised in the Bay Area. That sounds much like views in the South. When living in South Carolina, I was told being from Georgia makes you a "yankee". ;)

I guess that makes me 1/2 Southern, yet still a yankee, since my Dad was born outside Atlanta. My Mom was born in SoCal. I was born in Pasadena. So am I one half Californian? Or just a native Californian? :)
 
lolbrat said:
John & Jeff tend to lead in with some conservative political crapola. I'll listen to them again for a few more nights to see if that's their usual preamble.
Click to expand...

I still think you have John & Jeff (formerly of KPWR and KLSX in LA) and a totally different team, John & Ken (from rightwinging KFI, also in LA). These are two different teams. John & Jeff seldom get into politics. They talk mainly about human relations stuff -- marriages, kids, etc., and quirky topics such as excuses to take the day off from work that didn't work. Stuff like that.

John & Jeff's Website: http://www.johnjeff.com/

John & Ken's Website: the rightwingnuts and hatemongers: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/02/have-kfis-john-and-ken-lost-their-ktla-jobs.html

It's JOHN & JEFF who are on KKSF 910. It is John & Jeff I like hearing. As for John & Ken, I wouldn't walk across the street to throw a bucket of water on them if they were in a flaming car wreck. Those guys are hate-mongers of the first order, just like their mentor, Rush Limbaugh.

JOHN & JEFF -- YES
John & Ken -- NO
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom