anybody voice tracking?

[rstatic]

Just curious to see how many stations outside of DFW/Hou/SA/Austin are doing any voice tracking and whether you've been able to make it successful? Is it possible, in a smaller market, to maybe vt middays and/or afternoons using talent from outside of the market?
Also curious to see how you're handling summer vacations? VT, move parttimers in, or just have all jocks work longer shifts?

 

[johnqdoe]

It'll be a shorter list to find out who is not 80% VT'd. Gap stations are mostly VT'd. Syndicated AM Drive..."live" middays or PM Drive...By live, I mean local VTs. The rest is out of market. Gap is lookin to get all their VTing done by Gap emplyees...so the CC guys in Austin, Dallas, Houston that are doin Lufkin, Tyler, Texarkana, etc will be out of luck. CC is trackin at least 60-75% in the bigs too. The Dallas cluster has about 1 live daypart per station...no more than 2. Houston's about the same...Austin is prolly more VTing.

VTing CAN work if the jock and the PD give a rat's ass enough to stay in constant contact and exchange info.

 

[fredcantu]

I did VTing on KRIO in McAllen back in the 1970s.
I guess the station was ahead of its time.
But it was an AM and the writing was on the wall for music AM stations.

Good VTing takes a lot of planning and quality control.

 

[Steve Eberhart]

We're voicetracking 10am-5pm on my station KGAF in Gainesville.
I VT 10a-noon and 1p-5p is VT'd by Chad Henderson. Works great and sounds great...I do mine from Dallas, he does his at the station so we both have good information to work with, obviously!...which is essential.

give a listen to our little 250 watt blowtorch!

www.kgaf1580.com

let me know what you think.

 

[bonton]

Just curious if there are any real world examples of voice tracking being a good experience for listeners? As in retaining existing listeners and adding new ones at the same time. The management and cost savings benefits are a separate issue, I'm just talking about the listeners perspective.

Consider these two choices:
1) Listen to a iPod (VT'd radio station) that I can't control or skip songs I don't like and has at least 10 minutes of commercials every hour and song repeats if I listen daily
2) Listen to my commercial free iPod of where I can skip through 2000 songs as I like or repeat ones I do like

As a listener, what benefit does the voice tracked station give me that my iPod doesn't? The iPod actually has several advantages over listening to VT Radio. Radio station libraries are digitized now, so audio quality is the same. The benefits that radio could have over an iPod are gone: local DJs talking about local issues and community events, local music calendar, local live remotes, and DJs playing songs that fit the current local mood and weather.

Less attractive than my iPod, but still much better than voice tracking radio is Satellite Radio. True it has no local flavor either, but it makes up for it with over 100 channels to fit any mood I'm in.

I am 36 so I grew up as a fan when radio was still good. But I will guarrantee that when all the iPod teens of today are grown up business people in 10-15 years, none of them will be spending money to buy ads on voice tracked radio for the reasons I described above. They grew up with a better choice than voice tracked radio and would never spend money on it.

Voice Tracking is the final symptom for a terminal illness. We have AM being voice tracked in the 70s as an example.

Now I might be wrong, and all the businesses that stopped buying ads might be wrong, and the declining audience might be wrong. So please someone tell us all, what advantage does voice tracked radio have over an iPod?

 

[crow]

Just curious if there are any real world examples of voice tracking being a good experience for listeners? As in retaining existing listeners and adding new ones at the same time. The management and cost savings benefits are a separate issue, I'm just talking about the listeners perspective.

Consider these two choices:
1) Listen to a iPod (VT'd radio station) that I can't control or skip songs I don't like and has at least 10 minutes of commercials every hour and song repeats if I listen daily
2) Listen to my commercial free iPod of where I can skip through 2000 songs as I like or repeat ones I do like

As a listener, what benefit does the voice tracked station give me that my iPod doesn't? The iPod actually has several advantages over listening to VT Radio. Radio station libraries are digitized now, so audio quality is the same. The benefits that radio could have over an iPod are gone: local DJs talking about local issues and community events, local music calendar, local live remotes, and DJs playing songs that fit the current local mood and weather.

Less attractive than my iPod, but still much better than voice tracking radio is Satellite Radio. True it has no local flavor either, but it makes up for it with over 100 channels to fit any mood I'm in.

I am 36 so I grew up as a fan when radio was still good. But I will guarrantee that when all the iPod teens of today are grown up business people in 10-15 years, none of them will be spending money to buy ads on voice tracked radio for the reasons I described above. They grew up with a better choice than voice tracked radio and would never spend money on it.

Voice Tracking is the final symptom for a terminal illness. We have AM being voice tracked in the 70s as an example.

Now I might be wrong, and all the businesses that stopped buying ads might be wrong, and the declining audience might be wrong. So please someone tell us all, what advantage does voice tracked radio have over an iPod?

That was an extremely great post. Well said.


Also, just for fun.... check out this link for this new film... it's not related to RADIO....

http://www.zombieland.com/

 

[fredcantu]

Less attractive than my iPod, but still much better than voice tracking radio is Satellite Radio.

What makes you think satellite radio ISN'T voice tracked.

 

[muskrat14]

Not everybody owns an iPod or has access to Satellite radio. Done well, you can't tell if a station is VT'd or not. By the way, satellite radio is VT'd, as well. Anybody really think Mark Goodman is live on 3 channels at once?

 

[bonton]

Less attractive than my iPod, but still much better than voice tracking radio is Satellite Radio.

What makes you think satellite radio ISN'T voice tracked.

"True it has no local flavor either, but it makes up for it with over 100 channels to fit any mood I'm in." Meaning yes it's voice tracked but I have 100 channels or a 100 songs at any given moment so the quantity makes up for lack of quality.

 

[bonton]

Not everybody owns an iPod or has access to Satellite radio. Done well, you can't tell if a station is VT'd or not. By the way, satellite radio is VT'd, as well. Anybody really think Mark Goodman is live on 3 channels at once?

True about satellite, but as for iPods, well the world has changed and I'm not sure if radio has realized it yet. Off brand mp3 players are only $30 now. For the age group under 25, everyone has an iPod or mp3 player of some sort. For that demo, not having an iPod is like not having a cell phone. The point is, when they grow up, they will see voicetracked radio as an inconvenience and being forced to listen to pre-recorded music they can't control.

Now radio could keep these kids by offering benefits that mp3 players don't have: being part of the local community by covering local bands, local events, and the song selections tailored to the local audience.
It's very easy to tell voicetracked radio, even when it's done well, because there is no local personality, and there is an abscence of a dj playing a song "because the legendary performer so and so was in town and they did a great show last night". You don't feel tuned into the community with voicetracked radio, so you tune out.

Y'all don't have to believe me, but the declining numbers should be all the proof you need.

 

[muskrat14]

Not everybody owns an iPod or has access to Satellite radio. Done well, you can't tell if a station is VT'd or not. By the way, satellite radio is VT'd, as well. Anybody really think Mark Goodman is live on 3 channels at once?

True about satellite, but as for iPods, well the world has changed and I'm not sure if radio has realized it yet. Off brand mp3 players are only $30 now. For the age group under 25, everyone has an iPod or mp3 player of some sort. For that demo, not having an iPod is like not having a cell phone. The point is, when they grow up, they will see voicetracked radio as an inconvenience and being forced to listen to pre-recorded music they can't control.

Now radio could keep these kids by offering benefits that mp3 players don't have: being part of the local community by covering local bands, local events, and the song selections tailored to the local audience.
It's very easy to tell voicetracked radio, even when it's done well, because there is no local personality, and there is an abscence of a dj playing a song "because the legendary performer so and so was in town and they did a great show last night". You don't feel tuned into the community with voicetracked radio, so you tune out.

Y'all don't have to believe me, but the declining numbers should be all the proof you need.

I understand about younger demos and iPods or other mp3 players, but I disagree with you on it always being easy to tell if a station is VT'd. Again, my qualifier is "if done well." That means there has to be local flavor and content in the tracks. It can be done, if the PD and the talent are motivated enough. What usually happens, though, particularly on small market stations, is the VT'er gets little or no coaching on local stuff from the PD (who is probably programming multiple stations), and the pay isn't reflective of the time and talent needed to do it right.

Paying someone a few hundred bucks a month for a six-day-a-week VT'd show will almost guarantee a sense of "knock this baby out as quick as possible," on the part of the VT'er. Particularly if said VT'er is doing two or three other stations that day, too.

You get what you pay for.

 

[drewbuddy]

Over all, radio still gets over 90% above all other media(including ipods, and mp3s), because its FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!