Ferguson replaces Mark Davis in WBAP morning radio slot
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/b.../05/ferguson-replaces-mark-davis-in-wbap.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/b.../05/ferguson-replaces-mark-davis-in-wbap.html
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Ben Ferguson to be new WBAP morning talk host
- Thread starter easttxtv
- Start date
I was hoping for Gordon Keith impersonating Hal Jay. Darn it.
Wow, THAT is hugely disappointing news.
Nothing personal, but I caught a few minutes of Ben since Mark's departure. Ben is a very different, and such a very noticeable contrast compared to Mark that it was shocking to hear the show for a few minutes without Davis.
Much disappointment to hear this is permanent.
A few days during vacation, okay, but as the new full time host... a huge reduction in quality.
(Ben's style was fatiguing to the point of tune-out during Mark's last vacation)
If WBAP can do this substitution and get away with it, can you imagine what will happen to the other show eventually?
OH and by the way, I think this is only since the move, but 96.7, WBAP-FM is about 3 dB lower in loudness compared to all the other stations preset in my car.
When punching up 'BAP-FM, I am forced to reach over and turn up the volume to compensate for WBAP-FM's lack of loudness. This makes me perceive that WBAP-FM is weak, as in small market.
Granted it's not a music station, but that doesn't mean it can not or should not be as aurally dense (meaning as loud) as all the other FM's. Turn up the final clipping, thank you.... it's NOT "NPR" for god's sake.
No one should ever use the default present for News-Talk that comes with the processor. This is Dallas and differences in loudness are very pronounced when changing presets. WBAP-FM's present audio makes me think it's a Lufkin station.
Does anyone have ears?
Nothing personal, but I caught a few minutes of Ben since Mark's departure. Ben is a very different, and such a very noticeable contrast compared to Mark that it was shocking to hear the show for a few minutes without Davis.
Much disappointment to hear this is permanent.
A few days during vacation, okay, but as the new full time host... a huge reduction in quality.
(Ben's style was fatiguing to the point of tune-out during Mark's last vacation)
If WBAP can do this substitution and get away with it, can you imagine what will happen to the other show eventually?
OH and by the way, I think this is only since the move, but 96.7, WBAP-FM is about 3 dB lower in loudness compared to all the other stations preset in my car.
When punching up 'BAP-FM, I am forced to reach over and turn up the volume to compensate for WBAP-FM's lack of loudness. This makes me perceive that WBAP-FM is weak, as in small market.
Granted it's not a music station, but that doesn't mean it can not or should not be as aurally dense (meaning as loud) as all the other FM's. Turn up the final clipping, thank you.... it's NOT "NPR" for god's sake.
No one should ever use the default present for News-Talk that comes with the processor. This is Dallas and differences in loudness are very pronounced when changing presets. WBAP-FM's present audio makes me think it's a Lufkin station.
Does anyone have ears?
JRZFM100 said:
Most of my postings here on R-I deal with technical matters and broadcast history. Only very occasionally will I offer an opinion about programming and on air talent. This is one such time.
I don't know Ben Ferguson and he may be among the greatest guys on the planet. But he's a major downgrade from Mark Davis. His style is one of non-stop stridency. Sure Davis hewed to the talking points but he also intermixed pop culture, sports and would occasionally pull back the curtain to reveal something of himself. There was a personal bond formed in listening to Mark Davis as evidenced by some who have mentioned that although their politics were vastly different, he was still a good listen.
Like most radio talent, Davis had a big ego (probably a must for the profession) but he had a self-effacing side that humanized him and made him a good companion. As I mentioned before, his self-confessed ADD added a sparkle to the show when he'd veer off the beaten path and become vastly entertaining. The weekly segment with Mike Gallagher and Chris Wallace each Friday on KSKY is another example of when entertainment takes center stage.
I wish the best of luck of Ben Ferguson and I've given him ample time to grow on me but I'm back to 99% Norm over on co-owned KTCK except for that quarter hour of Gallagher-Wallace.
Okay... I take it back on audio quality. WBAP-FM is loud again.
I put WBAP-FM on just after my initial post, and the audio quality / perceptual loudness was completely back to normal as in its normal pre-relocation loud. Sufficiently loud enough for Dallas as compared to my other presets. It would seem that someone smoothed out the audio problem before I posted my last. Thank you. It had been low over the past weeks.
As for the liabilities of clipping-
I believe that the rationality of that argument, processor fatigue, might best apply to TSL for music formats, but is not necessarily true and valid for MONO FM all talk programming. I just don't know that the same logic (artifacts of processing on pure voice degrading TSL) applies to voice only programming, on FM or AM. And there is the separate issue of WBAP-FM being a 'rim shot' station, located 65 and half miles from Cedar Hill.
In the sense of my original comment, flipping between presents had dramatically revealed that WBAP-FM was much lower as compared to the stations on my other presets (a problem which has been fully corrected). A perceptual difference in loudness is much more pronounced, and much more a tune out / tune off / tune away factor, especially for an FM Talk station, than the amount of clipping applied, be it MB clipping or Final Drive Clipping.
Additionally, a you'd think (ahh, I'd think) that a conventionally processed / conventionally clipped FM Mono station should be equivalently loud or even louder than it's stereo counterparts by virtue of simply eliminating the 10% loss from pilot injection.
For many years, I was the chief for the other station on that tower, 101.7 / KZMP. I signed it on. From that experience it was my discovery that adjusting the processing in Decatur for aural quality in Dallas, 60+ miles away, should be done with respect to the stations aural performance in Dallas, not at the base of the tower. That is, the amount of clipping employed was based upon how the station sounded in traffic at 35 @ 635, Central Expressway, etc, NOT how the station sounded inside it's 70 dBu contour. As such, it was necessary to employ clipping to achieve the proper competitive loudness for receive signal levels which were at or significantly less less than 54 dBu.
In that time, using an A-B comparison with 96.7 (then Memories, KMEO, now WBAP-FM), the density of 101.7 also created a perceptual and competitive advantage in 'rim shot' performance of 101.7 vis-a-vis a perceived improvement in signal to noise. In other words, a loud 101.7 was perceptually better aurally than 96.7 because the loudness, including undesired artifacts of clipping, masked many of the pops and clicks and hisses that plagued KMEO in the same far distant reception areas. This is a different trade off than loudness versus distortion (valid in the 70 dBu), the trade in rim shot operation is loudness & dirtortion versus a listener's perception of noise.
Would I have added clipping to KMEO given its format? Again, perhaps not the best decision for the Memories format, and definitely not with a Memories format at Cedar Hill, but if it improved the perception of aural quality and S/N over Dallas from Decatur... then definitely.
It's all about listener perception, so beside the all talk Mono FM issue to consider, to get the correct listener perception, doing processing and balancing trade-offs in processing a 'rim-shot' station is wholly different as compared to processing at Cedar Hill.
If I had to guess, I'd bet the amount of clipping on WBAP-FM is set the same now as it was before the move (which certainly was and is adequate to be competitive in Dallas). And, I'd guess that the STL drive levels had been inadvertently lowered by or during the move. Again, a problem that was corrected even before my original comment posted herein.
I put WBAP-FM on just after my initial post, and the audio quality / perceptual loudness was completely back to normal as in its normal pre-relocation loud. Sufficiently loud enough for Dallas as compared to my other presets. It would seem that someone smoothed out the audio problem before I posted my last. Thank you. It had been low over the past weeks.
As for the liabilities of clipping-
I believe that the rationality of that argument, processor fatigue, might best apply to TSL for music formats, but is not necessarily true and valid for MONO FM all talk programming. I just don't know that the same logic (artifacts of processing on pure voice degrading TSL) applies to voice only programming, on FM or AM. And there is the separate issue of WBAP-FM being a 'rim shot' station, located 65 and half miles from Cedar Hill.
In the sense of my original comment, flipping between presents had dramatically revealed that WBAP-FM was much lower as compared to the stations on my other presets (a problem which has been fully corrected). A perceptual difference in loudness is much more pronounced, and much more a tune out / tune off / tune away factor, especially for an FM Talk station, than the amount of clipping applied, be it MB clipping or Final Drive Clipping.
Additionally, a you'd think (ahh, I'd think) that a conventionally processed / conventionally clipped FM Mono station should be equivalently loud or even louder than it's stereo counterparts by virtue of simply eliminating the 10% loss from pilot injection.
For many years, I was the chief for the other station on that tower, 101.7 / KZMP. I signed it on. From that experience it was my discovery that adjusting the processing in Decatur for aural quality in Dallas, 60+ miles away, should be done with respect to the stations aural performance in Dallas, not at the base of the tower. That is, the amount of clipping employed was based upon how the station sounded in traffic at 35 @ 635, Central Expressway, etc, NOT how the station sounded inside it's 70 dBu contour. As such, it was necessary to employ clipping to achieve the proper competitive loudness for receive signal levels which were at or significantly less less than 54 dBu.
In that time, using an A-B comparison with 96.7 (then Memories, KMEO, now WBAP-FM), the density of 101.7 also created a perceptual and competitive advantage in 'rim shot' performance of 101.7 vis-a-vis a perceived improvement in signal to noise. In other words, a loud 101.7 was perceptually better aurally than 96.7 because the loudness, including undesired artifacts of clipping, masked many of the pops and clicks and hisses that plagued KMEO in the same far distant reception areas. This is a different trade off than loudness versus distortion (valid in the 70 dBu), the trade in rim shot operation is loudness & dirtortion versus a listener's perception of noise.
Would I have added clipping to KMEO given its format? Again, perhaps not the best decision for the Memories format, and definitely not with a Memories format at Cedar Hill, but if it improved the perception of aural quality and S/N over Dallas from Decatur... then definitely.
It's all about listener perception, so beside the all talk Mono FM issue to consider, to get the correct listener perception, doing processing and balancing trade-offs in processing a 'rim-shot' station is wholly different as compared to processing at Cedar Hill.
If I had to guess, I'd bet the amount of clipping on WBAP-FM is set the same now as it was before the move (which certainly was and is adequate to be competitive in Dallas). And, I'd guess that the STL drive levels had been inadvertently lowered by or during the move. Again, a problem that was corrected even before my original comment posted herein.
Who??
TSL and Ben-
I believe that the choice of talk host will impact WBAP's TSL much more than processing.
While subbing for Mark, Ben was always fatiguing. And it's the way he hammers at topics...
Ben's discussion of cigarette mfgrs putting pictures of diseased lungs on the outside of packaging is one example. Made me take the effort to press the "tune" buttons to get away. Never with Mark.
See if this hammering away at a topic and the inability to effectively segue to retain audience and lessen listener fatigue is not a clear and present issue for his level of talent development.
I believe that the choice of talk host will impact WBAP's TSL much more than processing.
While subbing for Mark, Ben was always fatiguing. And it's the way he hammers at topics...
Ben's discussion of cigarette mfgrs putting pictures of diseased lungs on the outside of packaging is one example. Made me take the effort to press the "tune" buttons to get away. Never with Mark.
See if this hammering away at a topic and the inability to effectively segue to retain audience and lessen listener fatigue is not a clear and present issue for his level of talent development.
This should be interesting...
MormonVoices included Ferguson on its Top Ten Anti-Mormon Statements of 2011 list for stating "Can you name the candidate that's running for president that believes that if he's a good person in his religion he will receive his own planet? … Would you vote for someone for president who believes in their religion, if he's a good person, he'll get his own planet? … Do you want to get your own planet?"
MormonVoices included Ferguson on its Top Ten Anti-Mormon Statements of 2011 list for stating "Can you name the candidate that's running for president that believes that if he's a good person in his religion he will receive his own planet? … Would you vote for someone for president who believes in their religion, if he's a good person, he'll get his own planet? … Do you want to get your own planet?"
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