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Ancient Weather Forecast on WRKO 680
- Thread starter ajaynejr
- Start date
Sounds like that file was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I appreciate your kind words here. But I can only express my thoughts from the perspective of an earnest and critical listener. My observations are colored by my being around in the early 60s, when the then major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Mutual) provided much affiliate content, and other stations were coming into their own as independents.
I’m in my 70s, and I also teach electronic technology courses for a local community college. I poll students in my various courses re their use of radio. Many of the below-30 crowd don’t even have TVs, let alone a radio, at home. It’s all about the phone! My own adult children listen to either satellite radio or streaming music services.
I do not understand that station owners think they have to target their programming at the 18-54 demo, when, it seems to me, this group is not big on radio. To be fair, a lot of my own age group (55-dead) aren’t high on radio, either. Unless, that is, you include conservative talk radio. But I would imagine a good number of us would appreciate a couple of decent “oldies” stations. And don’t forget: many of us geezers do have disposable income.
And, FWIW, it’s not easy for outsiders like myself to access info from the RAB or NAB. That data is intended for station owners, not listeners, no matter how serious we may be.
I think I’ve been pretty open that a lot of what I opine on is my own opinion. Observations about glitches are either my own or, more likely, from others.
Radio may have abandoned my demo, but I’m not abandoning radio at this point.
It’s a shame the technology is not more reliable. It would almost seem that some of the subsonic tone-controlled 60s automation systems performed well in comparison.
This doesn’t work with our local iHeart stations. Another person on this Forum was continually hounding iHeart about their on-air glitches; hardly ever received any answers to his/her emails or phone calls.
Or care enough to know.
Yes, this is the standard rejoinder to my rants.
When I took the FCC exam for my “First Phone” over 50 years ago, I recall that broadcast stations were licensed to operate “in the public interest, convenience, and necessity”. This was all but abandoned about 40 years ago. So now, IT SEEMS TO ME, broadcast stations are licensed to operate “in the station owners’ interest, convenience, and necessity”.
I have toiled over the words “in the public interest, convenience, and necessity”. For every station this is different. It was much easier to fit all stations in the same box when there were only a few stations compared to today. With three to four times the number of stations compared to 1980, stations had to carve out a niche to serve because mass appeal would not work with ten sations doing the same thing. In the mid-1980s I was music director at an FM in a college town. We were Top 40 with a bit of a rock edge 24/7. The exception was a black music program (no urban hits bit more traditional black music ) 7 to 10 Sundays. We did 3 5 minute newscasts a day Mon. - Fri. We did no public affairs. We were all music. We served the demographic wih a 24 hour entertainment source in a community of virtually no options for the under 21 crowd. We got the black music show when our AM full service Hit Country station format came about. We did public affairs of sorts on the more talk oriented morning show on the AM. The FCC dosn't accept this now. We have to do talk shows nobody cares to hear so it's aired at 6am. Since some companies offer free national shows most stations use these.
Everybody does not need to be that across the dial because everything is covered by the local stations. Basically a station is operating in the public interest, convenience and necessity as defined by the target audience.
One fun exercise is what precisely does broadcasing in the public interest, convenience and necessity really mean. Can you define it? I find that a tough one myself.
I never went for the Second, then First Phone. I just got the 3rd with broadcast endorsement and by the renewal time came up it was reduced to a card you got by answering a few questions.
I think it is fair to say every station operates in the owner's interests. After all, they made the investment and covers the bills regardless. Working sales there were times I was told "I need to make payroll, so collect all you can this week". I'll tip my hat to owners that make the investment and pay the bills and give me a paycheck for my work in a business I'm passionate about. They could have opened up a McDonalds instead.
Everybody does not need to be that across the dial because everything is covered by the local stations. Basically a station is operating in the public interest, convenience and necessity as defined by the target audience.
One fun exercise is what precisely does broadcasing in the public interest, convenience and necessity really mean. Can you define it? I find that a tough one myself.
I never went for the Second, then First Phone. I just got the 3rd with broadcast endorsement and by the renewal time came up it was reduced to a card you got by answering a few questions.
I think it is fair to say every station operates in the owner's interests. After all, they made the investment and covers the bills regardless. Working sales there were times I was told "I need to make payroll, so collect all you can this week". I'll tip my hat to owners that make the investment and pay the bills and give me a paycheck for my work in a business I'm passionate about. They could have opened up a McDonalds instead.
Maybe it's just because I'm old and out of it, but I just don't get the appeal of watching a tv show on a dinky little cellphone screen. Even using one as your primary access to the internet makes me wonder.
What does that phrase actually even mean? It just sounds like bureaucratic-speak. If your audience wants to hear non stop music (regardless of genre) aren't you serving your audience by playing it? No one is, or ever was interested in hearing a panel discussion of candidates for sewer commissioner or a live, poorly mic'ed broadcast of a city council meeting. Total waste of station resources to be required to produce that kind of programming, only to bury it at 5am on Sunday.
I do agree that it would make sense to provide more programming for audiences that still do listen to the radio regularly (ie-over 50 crowd) but that subject's been discussed ad nauseum here forever.
They don't, they cast it to their tv. Read this:
How to cast iPhone, Android phone to your TV | Asurion
Being able to cast your iPhone or Android to your TV and mirror your display is easier than ever. We'll show you how.
www.asurion.com
AMEN!!!
I believe the phrase "in the public interest, convenience, and necessity" was inserted when stations were fewer in number, AND the phenomenon of "narrowcasting" was not yet practical.
Thank you.
Let's imagine that 60% of the populace wants rock music, 30% of the populace wants country & western, and 10% of the populace wants classical. Given two applicants for the last remaining frequency, one plans rock and the other plans classical, and given that there are already two established rock stations and no classical stations, then I do not jump to the conclusion that the applicant planning rock will be serving the public interest, etc. better and be awarded the frequency. (A hint hint, not an off topic remark)
Serving the public interest has nothing to do with the format of the station. It means EAS, Playing local public affairs having a public file and the other few elements required by the FCC. Nothing more. The FCC or government has never before deregulation or after cared what the public want. The term just referees to what is required with your license to serve. In other words to follow the rules is what a licensee must do to serve the public interest and have their license renewed.
Funny thing, when cable was a big deal, those that didn't pay their bill with one provider could only recive C-Span. People usually paid that day. That cable TV forced public affairs on late payers really says something. And that they've pay that day says they'd pay to NOT be subjected to public affairs programming. Just an observation.
The WRKO forecasts, even when they're not out of date, keep getting stepped on for the first several seconds by the intro music.
Then you have the traffic reports where Andy Carbone sounds like he's bored and tails off at the end of his sentences, forcing you to really concentrate to figure out what he's saying. I was curious whether there were any similar observations out there, and came across this on X:
https://x.com/DJVINCE1
@DJVINCE1
Wow, the Morning Mumbler in Boston, is in rare form today! Here's a transcript of his traffic update: "akjxhd jrirkw. Sbshjsmd fbsksjd. Tvttvjeisj e jrjbsm ejskrh....I'm Andy Carbone..."
6:16 AM · Aug 5, 2024
Then you have the traffic reports where Andy Carbone sounds like he's bored and tails off at the end of his sentences, forcing you to really concentrate to figure out what he's saying. I was curious whether there were any similar observations out there, and came across this on X:
https://x.com/DJVINCE1
@DJVINCE1
Wow, the Morning Mumbler in Boston, is in rare form today! Here's a transcript of his traffic update: "akjxhd jrirkw. Sbshjsmd fbsksjd. Tvttvjeisj e jrjbsm ejskrh....I'm Andy Carbone..."
6:16 AM · Aug 5, 2024
Andy is actually a decent traffic reporter from my observations going back over a decade. I believe what you're hearing is the god-awful editing done by the support crew of the morning program.
I feel the same way about the rushed and clipped reports from Chris Fomma on WBZ.
Because the poster obviously worked in the industry previously. That’s fine. He cares about the product and appreciates good radio like during the era (industry and station) he fondly recalls that inspired his moniker. Not sure he fully appreciates the constraints of modern day economic reality, but some of his points about general management/operational laziness are spot on,
I heard an ancient weather forecast on RKO not all that long ago. Maybe last week or the week before. Not only was the forecast wrong, but the station id at the end of the forecast was incorrect. (e.g. "I'm Jane Doe for WLKW") I sort of shrug it off now, because it has become so routine and expected poor quality/management.
“… routine and expected…” - awful, isn’t it?
I know I’m not alone on this.
“Routine and expected”, but not acceptable.
Maybe when A.I. software gets cheap enough they can totally get rid of their "humans" and the system will know the date and not read out of date forecasts. Or everything goes national.
The industry is in a "race to the bottom". You cut expenses because revenue is down. Then your cuts further reduce listenership which negatively impacts revenue so you cut more expenses which reduces listenership and guess what your revenue still goes down.
So let's let the nation broadcasters (really debt paying organizations) destroy the industry. Then maybe Wall Street speculators will go away. Unfortunately a bunch of stations go away too. Then should be ownership limitation of less than 20. If you can't make a profit worth 20 stations you need to find something else to do for a living. Station prices will go down to a reasonable multiple of revenue. With the current level of software there isn't really any advantage of 30 or 30,000. Nation buys or deals could be "outsourced" to rep firms. The "big three" have to pay some form of commission to their national sales folks so really I doubt there would be a great difference on what a station gets per commercial. I don't know the exact level of computerization the nation agencies use for commercial buys but back in the last century our McDonald's order came on the old computer paper with the holes on the both sides.
The industry is in a "race to the bottom". You cut expenses because revenue is down. Then your cuts further reduce listenership which negatively impacts revenue so you cut more expenses which reduces listenership and guess what your revenue still goes down.
So let's let the nation broadcasters (really debt paying organizations) destroy the industry. Then maybe Wall Street speculators will go away. Unfortunately a bunch of stations go away too. Then should be ownership limitation of less than 20. If you can't make a profit worth 20 stations you need to find something else to do for a living. Station prices will go down to a reasonable multiple of revenue. With the current level of software there isn't really any advantage of 30 or 30,000. Nation buys or deals could be "outsourced" to rep firms. The "big three" have to pay some form of commission to their national sales folks so really I doubt there would be a great difference on what a station gets per commercial. I don't know the exact level of computerization the nation agencies use for commercial buys but back in the last century our McDonald's order came on the old computer paper with the holes on the both sides.
They already have. That's why the only buyer of radio stations now is K-Love. They have cash and don't depend on Wall Street.
It also explains why Audacy went private after its recent bankruptcy. No sense offering stock to Wall Street when there are no buyers.
Listeners aren't leaving broadcast radio because of out-of-date weather. They're leaving because THEY want to control what they hear and when they hear it. Linear 24/7 media is losing to streaming. That also includes traditional broadcast TV.
I still believe content is king. Rush (RIP) had audiences even on AM. You run it "live" then rerun the content as a podcast. Someone on the TV board would the know the percentage but there is a significant percentage of viewing of Soap Operas that's "taped" or binge watched on an app. I had a girlfriend who taped General Hospital while she was at work.
An out of date forecast might not be an issue Saturday AM on a music station, but on a spoken word station where folks are listening to every word to call up and harass or praise the host it might.
Wonder why some don't take calls?