I fully realize that I am not in the field of broadcasting, and because of that fact, I was always told by certain people when I was in broadcasting school that I had no right to critacize anyone that has a paying job in radio while I do not. I can understand what they're saying and why, but it seems that an awful lot of people are not using their automation systems properly. I am thinking in particular of WMOU AM in Berlin New Hampshire along with their FM translator W294AZ at 106.1 FM, which some days seems to take its programming from WXXS FM in Lancaster, and other days from WLTN FM in Lisbon-Littleton. Anyway, the point I want to make here is, what I am noticing almost daily, is that the first few words of the station's local newscast overlap the audio of CBS news, and the station is always several seconds late in cutting away from CBS news, when they give that network ID that is meant for stations to cut away to their local newscasts. Now, I can understand this happening occasionally but this is happening nearly all the time these days, and it sounds very sloppy and unprofessional. When I was in broadcasting school, one of the things that was stressed was getting both into a network feed, and out of the network feed at the proper time. So why is this no longer important? Has radio become so sloppy, so haphazard in its operation that it's OK for two voices to be heard at once on the air, even during a morning show? I mean, I can understand that this wouldn't be terribly important at 3 AM, but we're talking about both the 7 and 8 AM newscasts and this is happening constantly and I have the recordings to prove it. Can anyone in the business explain why this constantly keeps happening?
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Automation sloppiness
- Thread starter samw54
- Start date
I'm guessing that the time on the station's automation computer is slightly off.
Why not call the station and complain about it?
Why not call the station and complain about it?
Agree with your answer but doesn't the network feed generally include a tone to indicate the end?
I'm with Frank on the audio issues, sounds like two sources on air at once or a time sync that's off, which could cause the national news run in to the local news (or the next event) if it's a hard timed event.
As for the tone: They only work if you have things wired up correctly, or at all. My 2 talk AMs have 4 tones wired up: Legal ID (only used during sports since the hourly ID always falls at the end of the hour break), Commercial break & what they call a roll over liner (that 3-5 second liner that usually plays before a network break, Limbaugh uses them for example) and a time sync that isn't audible at 59:58. My top of the hour news is a 5 minute timed event. Any other tones a network may send, the computer ignores them.
As for the tone: They only work if you have things wired up correctly, or at all. My 2 talk AMs have 4 tones wired up: Legal ID (only used during sports since the hourly ID always falls at the end of the hour break), Commercial break & what they call a roll over liner (that 3-5 second liner that usually plays before a network break, Limbaugh uses them for example) and a time sync that isn't audible at 59:58. My top of the hour news is a 5 minute timed event. Any other tones a network may send, the computer ignores them.
See....if they'd just bring back REAL radio....'live' radio, these things wouldn't happen!
MANY more mistakes happen when radio is live, especially in small markets. If stations had evidence that people were tuning out because "A local man died last night when his pickup truck..." was being stepped on by "...and the White House had no comment. Joe Blow, CBS News," and that the tune-outs were costing them ad dollars, maybe something would be done. But nobody is switching the station because of this, and the advertisers don't care unless it's their ads that are being stepped on. When the choice is living with a three-second slip-up at the end of the news a few times a day and hiring a bunch of people to take the station live 24/7, the choice will always be to save the money.
Yup...it's AWAYS about the money. That's why in some markets you have one guy voice-tracking on 3 stations different formats using a different name. Yeah, that's real good stuff...like the public is stupid. Maybe if the stations presented a decent product people would tune in, ad revenue would increase and management could pay to have 'real' people on the air. A lot of people really believe that 'Corporate America' radio has ruined good radio. Live radio won't be back, I know, but it was a great era.
The average listener doesn't catch on (and wouldn't care anyway) that "Johnny Michaels" on country WAAA is the same guy as "Mark Williams" on AC WZZZ and "Jeff Francis" on CHR WMMM, because the DJ is just part of the "stuff between the songs" and is meant to be as unobtrusive as possible. He/she's not stupid; it's just not of interest. Why do you think the alternatives people (still very much a minority) are abandoning radio for are even more soulless than "Corporate America" radio? You've got SiriusXM, where the vast majority of airshifts are voicetracked or prerecorded well in advance and some of the music channels have no DJs at all; and Internet radio, which largely consists of song after song presented without human intervention. Keeping people listening to radio is why "corporate" radio is minimizing the DJ's role and going with long music sweeps in the first place.
You make some good points, CTListener. The way people listen to music has really changed over the years. In my opinion, some of the reason that listeners are "not interested" in the DJs is because the DJs just aren't interesting--no personality. It takes absolutely no talent to say "...and now, 6 in a row." If the DJ was interesting, then their role would be more prominent. In the 'heyday' of early rock n' roll, the DJs were personalities, many just as popular as the artists they were playing. (who can forget "The Wolfman"?) For a variety of reasons, that has changed over the years. I'm not saying that's good or bad, just different. Steven King's Bangor station is an example of all live DJs, and it appears to be working. I don't listen to the station because it is not my genre, but the concept is still there. If I'm on the air and I want people to listen to me and hear the music I'm playing (the same songs perhaps as on Sirius, etc.), then I'd better give them a good reason to listen to what I have to say. But, I agree, generally people don't care if the same person is VTing on 3 or 32 stations. So, give 'em a reason to listen to a particular personality. Again, I know.....that era is gone--so be it, but I miss it.
Yes, I sure miss great live radio too, but I guess that only exists in the largest radio markets and even there, it's only available on a limited basis. Radio is sure not what it once was for a multitude of reasons, but I think that if done right, personality radio could still work with the right talent and the right presentation.
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