Are there any live overnight jocks left in 2020?

[Mike_Overnight]

Yes staions want an overnight dj but just don't want to pay for it

Bringing back a topic that’s been discussed here a few times over the years - are there any radio stations left in 2020 with a live overnight DJ? Do primary EAS stations still need a live body in the building 24/7?

Here in my midsized market (Richmond, Virginia) I haven’t heard anyone live between midnight and 5:30 AM in a few years. 1140 WRVA used to have live local news every half hour through the night, but they cut that some time ago. On the FM side, the last live overnight jock I remember was Kirby Carmichael on Q94 - but he was cut by former owner Clear Channel 14 years ago!

I know the economics of keeping an overnight DJ are not favorable nowadays, since few people are listening at that time and automation is ubiquitous, but I’m curious who the holdouts are in 2020. It’s still nice to hear a local human voice on the radio at 4 AM.

To give you an idea I contact 20 station around the place I live within 100 miles
For 20 to 25 years those same stations had NOT produced any revenue for the time slot 00:00 till 5:00
Monday to Sunday

To start out the stations many I had worked at before for years as dj and book keeper so I know that the revenue was not there. I would always ask why don't you turn the power off and save money and of course it was always the same answer we are License for 24 hours to broadcast.

I ask each of them if I provided content could I broadcast on their station from Monday to Friday time slot 00:00-05:00. I was willing to pay 15 percent of gross sales to them so that the station did make money on the deal. I would provide all the needed to hook up to them for the broadcasting needs, using their liners, ID, etc
I even offered the sales personal that if they sold commercials during my time slot I would be happy to play them at no cost.

Now these is what I received back from them
1. They wanted 75 percent of sales or lease the time, some wanting up to $1000.00 a month with a 12 month contract
2. Many wanted me to work at their station (in the building only) when I tried to explain I don't need in your building when you're not here I broadcast from my home studio.
3. Many also wanted me at their location to do handy work, like clean up and clean office because they said that there was not much to do overnight.
4. Some are so far behind in technology that it was like talking to the Flintstone's They don't understand and of course the old saying (we have done this 25 years this way why change)

Conclusion:
Stations only worry about the bottom line, now that they have computers to play everything the need to have a live person or a syndicated so is not worth beans to them.
They have turned into juke box stations and they are happy with it.
Its's easy for them.

Follow Up
1. They never have done anything with the time slot now passing 10 years later no revenue at all
2. Just because an interest was being made for this time slot they looked at it a way to make them money the easy way.
3. Educating station owners is the hardest thing to do
4. Of the thing they don't have time to talk about it, is trash talk. On the average day more time is spent talking about

Thought:
In some of this I blame DJ's as well:
A. DJ''s came late for their shift.
B. Doing no prep for their show.
C. Treated the JOB as a 9 to 5
D. Thought of themselves as they are worth more than they are.
E. No passion for and NO pride in doing a job to the best of their ability.
F. Think they know it all.

 

[TheBigA]

1. They wanted 75 percent of sales or lease the time, some wanting up to $1000.00 a month with a 12 month contract

That's pretty standard, given they're paying all operating expenses, and you're not. You offered them 15%, which means you're getting an 85% commission on your sales. Now I see your point that giving them 15% is an improvement over 0. But that's not how they see it.

 

[firepoint525]

For as bad as overnights were, weekend overnights were far worse! I did weekend overnights for a few months for what quite possibly was the most clueless GM ever! We were a small AM station playing "hot country," and he just KNEW that there was some old guy out there who would call in asking to hear Hank Snow! (This was in the early '90s.) Never mind that we were only an hour from Nashville, where there were never fewer than THREE FM stations playing the same music! He took us to AM stereo (in the '90s?), and we eventually had an FM sister station, but it was in a rural area, so coverage really didn't even matter, especially at night! I tried to get them to at least let me run syndicated programming during that time slot, but they wouldn't hear of it. I knew that the station couldn't have been making a dime during those overnight hours, because I had no spots to play. (They might have made something from the network for letting their spots play during newscasts.) But I also knew that eventually, the other shoe would drop, and common sense would rule the day. When they tried to move me to JUST weekend overnight shifts, that was the last straw for me, and I left. Within six months, things started to unravel at that station, and by the time that I had been gone for a year, not only had my former shifts been eliminated, so had everyone else's. They went to syndicated talk (probably under a new owner--DEFINITELY under a new manager!), and all my former co-workers' jobs were gone. Of course, being an overnighter, I probably saw the inevitable, long before any of my coworkers did, but I knew that changes were coming, and being ONLY a weekend overnighter by the time that I left, I would not be able to weather those changes. Even if the only change was to automate the overnights, I would have been out. So I saved myself some hell by just going ahead and leaving that station.

 

[b-turner]

You have to consider the angle of the salesperson. In selling advertising, you are paid a commission on collections. Considering it takes the same time to sell that big 6am to 7pm account as it does an account that buys evening or overnight for far less money per spot, the salesperson is not motivated to sell small orders that they might not even make any money on because of the actual expenses of servicing the account. It is easy to 'get' why nights and overnights are not moneymakers for stations.

I have worked stations, even in small markets, where you had packages that offered 24/7 schedules. In one instance, we charged $275 for 100 spots but you could add 100 more at night for $25. Salespeople pitched it as $300 a month for 200 spots, half daytime, half at night. As a jock, I recall about 8 units an hour on my 6 to Midnight Saturday shift. During the day it was triple that. Usually such a promotion was wrapped around a daytime rate increase with the night spots designed to lessen the blow when clients complained (I recall the rate had been $2.50 a spot but had increased to $2.75). I remember one salesperson saying "You're a businessman. If you had no customers during certain hours, you'd shut down during those hours. Well our station is a business too. If nobody listened at night and overnight, we would shut down during those hours". Thus, he sold his client on the $25 increase to add nighttime spots.

At one station in a college town, we had a 24/7 schedule (I was stuck overnights for a week). We had a few fast food spots that were 24/7 so we had about 3 spot breaks an hour for those restaurants. I'd say we had about 6 units an hour. That was not all 52 weeks. We loved the time from Christmas until the college started back. Our daytime commercial load was under 1 unit per hour only to jump to 20 in a couple of weeks. During the times the college was not in session our evenings and overnights barely had a commercial. I recall the evening jock doing a 92 song marathon on a 6 hour shift one Sunday evening around New Years. We were 92.1 FM

 

[TheBigA]

It is easy to 'get' why nights and overnights are not moneymakers for stations.

Back in the day, stations could make a comp deal (compensation) to carry Larry King in overnights. Some of the biggest AM stations in the country did exactly that. Why? Because they got timely and live programming and some cash along with it. It was an offer they couldn't refuse.