Baby Boomer DJ's and news anchors

[J Gable]

Is it just me or are radio and TV stations trying to boot the baby boomers that are still in the building? I'm thinking of Randy (Little), Jim (LaBarbara) and Michael (Flanery) just to name a few. The ones that are still able to find radio and tv jobs are either working in a small market radio station (like WSCH and other local small market radio stations) or are working as a field reporter for news stations. ???

 

[Barry45RPM]

Man, I'm a Boomer & I can tell you that Radio is chasing us out like the Terminix Man cleans out roaches. On BOTH sides of the microphone.

 

[J Gable]

It's a shame too, because we listeners grew to like you and you became almost like family to us.

 

[KevinFodor]

Hey, I'm a later-boomer (I turned 50 about a month ago).

No one is trying to force me out. And, from what I can tell, no one wants to.

The biggest thing about the business today: You have to anticipate, and deal with, change. That means:
a change in the way we deal with the business, and a change in the way we do business.

Live shifts remain (fortunately). But...can you make a voice-tracked shift sound live? It's possible. Can
you do it? If not, can you learn? If you shut your mind off to what's possible...you find yourself on the beach, griping with some (not all, thankfully) on these boards. Look...you're a disc-jockey. You're a performer. Learn to perform according to today's standards. And today's paradighms.

If you're waiting for radio to go back to 1975, good luck. But, I think you're about to be sorely disappointed.

I'm expecting to be in this business a good 10-15 more years. Betcha I can.

 

[uppendowndadial]

Well, Kevin, unless you're an owner that entirely depends on who you're working for. We've already seen Cume-less chase away veterans, Over 60 people in Cincinnati have lost their jobs since October.. Even Time Warner cut some of their olderstaff loose. 10 or 15 years!?!?! Good luck. I hope the medium doesn't go the way of the telegraph.

 

[master_of_muppets]

i'm speaking generally here, but i find Boomers to be obnoxious. i work with and for a few Boomers, and no matter where i'm at, the world revolves around them. they fart and we smell it for a week. i guess you'd say i'm an "x'er" (generation x), and there's a lot of us just waiting patientily for these Boomers to die off.

oh - something else i've observed about Boomers across the board here in cincy: they refer to cincinnati in the *past* tense. i've yet to meet and talk with a Boomer who talks about cincinnati as a city NOW. that speaks volumes.

 

[kirkiefan]

Too sad...and ABHORRENT!!!

Ol' man Crosley would not have even thought of booting out Ruth,Bob,Paul and the others in the name of corporate profits....at least he had a heart realizing in order to sell a product or service,you had to have a one-on one rapport with the audience...Both Lyons and Braun were pros at this....otherwise,there would have been no advertising(and audience)waiting list which made Cincinnati broadcasting the instutution it was.

CC and all the other clustercasters are inevitably cutting their own throats here...and they are all blinded by their pride and arrogance.

 

[kirkiefan]

Too sad...and ABHORRENT!!!

Ol' man Crosley would not have even thought of booting out Ruth,Bob,Paul and the others in the name of corporate profits....at least he had a heart realizing in order to sell a product or service,you had to have a one-on one rapport with the audience...Both Lyons and Braun were pros at this....otherwise,there would have been no advertiser(and audience)waiting list which made Cincinnati broadcasting the instutution it was.

CC and all the other clustercasters are inevitably cutting their own throats here...and they are all blinded by their pride and arrogance.

 

[microbob]

Too sad...and ABHORRENT!!!

Ol' man Crosley would not have even thought of booting out Ruth,Bob,Paul and the others in the name of corporate profits....at least he had a heart realizing in order to sell a product or service,you had to have a one-on one rapport with the audience...Both Lyons and Braun were pros at this....otherwise,there would have been no advertising(and audience)waiting list which made Cincinnati broadcasting the instutution it was.

CC and all the other clustercasters are inevitably cutting their own throats here...and they are all blinded by their pride and arrogance.

Very well stated and that arrogance is what is killing radio. Short tern gain with no future. I can't imagine what what terrestrial radio will be like 10 yrs from now.

 

[Massive]

Terrestial radio won't exist, or it will be run from the classroom of some middle school. The ages of kids running stations are getting younger and younger.

 

[master_of_muppets]

i know this will sound very negative, but i'm just saying it in a "what i think" way - not to knock anyone:
i believe radio will go the way of The Sound. some imaging, maybe, and just songs + ads. i'll tell my grandkids of the days when people talked inbetween songs (i'm 30, btw). i see the jock as sorta like the projectionists of film houses back in the day. the only reason i know this is because i worked in a small 2-screen theatre one summer during college, and ran the projectors along with sweeping and general grunt work. one day an old guy comes up to me, ranting about how the quality of the picture was much better when the projectionists union ran things. there was a frig'n UNION for these guys! anyway, technology made them obsolete to the corporate bean counters. that's how i see terestrial radio going.

 

[Muddy Buddy]

Radio programming has always been a subjective thing. A "what I think" that either translates into ratings success or failure. If radio becomes just an Ipod that plays commercials & imaging between the songs, why listen? When you will be able to get Internet Radio in your car, how do you set yourself apart from everyone else? The live jock has been vanishing just like the live receptionist that answers the phone for a business. Outsourcing? Downsizing? What's left to promote? (Just a "subjective" observation from someone who's seen the technology that should have been used to enhance the presentation being used instead to cheapen the product.)

 

[Massive]

There really isn't anything left to promote. When CC downsized the promotion departments and NTR took MAJOR hits nationwide. Radio is going to all go to the national level at some point and will be in total syndication. People will have the ability to personally program their radios at some point, and like TIVO your radio will start to identify what songs best fit your style and will start to program songs you are more likely to enjoy and not play those that you don't. GPS systems are going to start to replace the traffic reports, and as far as the weather goes, I don't know about anyone else I go to the weather channel's website and find out my info first thing in the morning. It is almost too late to be reporting the weather once I am in my car, because by then I already know what to expect and how to dress.

 

[Massive]

The saddest thing about seeing baby boomers go is when they are the nice guys like Paul Ellis. It was a bleak day when he left, and the hardest thing I ever had to to was walk by his empty desk that night.

They don't make em like Paul anymore.