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Bender's State Of Radio Address

B

bender

Guest
What up my fellow frequency flunkies, it’s Bender with the first installment of “The State of Radio” address. I thought this would be a good idea because, 1, to give some of the current so called “programmers” a few ideas to steal as their own, 2, because I am so tired of not being able to even stomach radio, 3, not currently being in the business, this is a good time to expose some people for what they really are, and 3, because I have nothing better to do. There are only a few classifications of people still in radio, there are the “Trackers”, those jocks who couldn’t do a live shift if Armageddon was going down, but have an amazing ability to tell me what song they just played and not only what song they are about to play, but also who sings it. Then there are “Word Wasters” the people who can’t prepare 1 break, much less an entire show, therefore, they spit out random thoughts a few times an hour only because the clock says they have to talk. And let’s not forget the “Teleprompted Talent” ah, the time tested classic liner jocks, you have to love the special person that isn’t quite sure what’s going on unless it’s written down for them. There are more, but we will get to that in the next installment. I hear lots of excuses for what’s wrong with radio today, corporations, the internet, satellite, this is all a load. Radio sucks right now for one simple reason, the almighty dollar. Cheap talent being programmed be cheap PD’s being told what 18 – 24 year olds want to hear by 55 year old over paid GM’s. Take it from me, the better you get at what you do, the more money you make, the more you form theories and voice them, the more you get fired, but the one thing that remains constant in the algebraic equation, that 55 year old over paid dude with his totally awesome ideas that he has forced station after station after station to do, not because they worked, because they where his ideas, that he ripped off from some other guy 20 years ago. I have looked at this for a long time, everyone complained about the big corporations, yeah these guys have done some stupid things, but they are still in the business to make money. Then people said it was the PDs, nooo, most of them know what needs to be done, don’t get me wrong, there are some PDs out there who should not be programming music in elevators much less 100,000 watt sticks, but they get shut down time after time by the OMs. Speaking of OMs, for the most part, these are people who either sucked on the air, or where tremendous sales people, one or the other they are best at kissing some major ass, so, except for being the messenger, they are harmless. You want to blame one party for screwing up radio, do your homework on the GM’s. Radio is a team effort, but has become an individual sport, the sad part of all this, most jocks today are doing more to stay under the radar than they are for show prep, and most don’t want to rock the boat so they can keep their jobs. Why, because most of them know in the back of their minds that they are lucky to have the current gig and probably will not get another job in radio with that aircheck that took them 7 years to get 2 minutes of material and even that isn’t very good. DO YOUR THANG, jocks, entertain and you will get ratings, with ratings you can tell your PD, see my way works. PDs, for the love of God, program, like the days when you played a song because you thought it was a hit, and hired good jocks and if you were not creative, you picked up a FMQB and ripped another station off. OMs, just keep kissing ass. GMs just count the beans, and do the conference calls and tell your grandchildren about your great ideas, so the can say “I love grandpaw, but he is so lame” because that is what your listeners are saying about your station.

Until next address,
Back To The Beach
Bender
 
bender! welcome to the dark side ;D the side that is fed up with the state of radio in 2007. i loved your state of radio address ;D how many beers did it take to come up with it ;D LOL!
 
Thanks brother, but I am no Jedi nor have I entered the darkside. I have had a few offers to get back on the air, not anywhere close to here, but I am just so sick of what radio is and where it's going, I would have never guessed 14 years ago when I started that there would be a day when radio wasn't fun. So for now, I sit on my ass with my wife wondering when I will get a job and now, writing "State Of Radio" addresses. If you liked that, wait until I start naming names and giving you the real good dirt, not rumor, fact.

Bender
 
I truly feel sorry for some of the posters on this board. How sad that "it's everyone elses fault" is the reason radio sucks. I was an airline pilot 20 years ago and if they wouldn't have built those newfangled planes I'd still have a job. Damn those engineers for designing a better plane!!!!
 
Hey B, why don't you get down to "DELCHAMPS" and make some
groceries; You will find what you need in the dairy section.
Cause it Sounds like You NEED some "Cheese, to go with this WHINE!".....
 
Let me clear something up, I am not complaining, whining, bitter, mad,,,,, I made the decision not to continue with RED, at that time Citadel wanted to look at some other options to continue to employ me to which I declined. I left New Orleans, for numerous reasons, yes I've been fired a few times, but for the most part, I call the shots when it comes to me being on the radio and where. I have been contacted several times about getting back on the air, to which I declined. I have turned down offers at radio stations many would kill to work for, this is not my ego talking, ask anybody who knows me, I have no ego nor do I like people with them. The whole point of what I wrote was to express one of my opinions on what is wrong with radio, something I have great passion for. It kills me to listen to stations and here what they not only consider "air worthy" but "good". I am in no way jealous, lke some people that have posted here, that those people are working and I'm not. Let's get real, I love radio, and when I do a show, I give it everything I have to make it entertaining, BUT, I wake up everyday and hang out with my wife and kids, and sit on my ass, I love being on the air, but enjoy doing nothing as much as anybody else. For all who can read but have issue with comprehension, to sum up my point, radio right now sucks pretty much across the board, and many people have posted thier thoughts on why, so I wanted to, through my 14 years of moderate success, present a different view. Don't get it twisted, radio has been VERY good to me, but I have, and never will get on the air and do some piece of crap show, or perform the way my boss wants me to when I know it is bad radio, just to say "yeah, I'm a DJ" or to keep my job, like I've done in the past, I will bail. So if your going to post a reply to what I wrote, cool, but if you want to post something about me being mad or upset, let me save you the keystrokes, I'm happy sitting on my ass, but mad when I listen to the radio, not because I am not on it, because IT SUCKS!

Bender
 
Hey Bender...thought I would add my 2 cents here as well. I will agree that there are places subscribing to the "cheaper is better" school of thought...but thankfully, many good radio groups remain. I still say radio is something that is in your blood...you do it because you cannot fathom doing anything else...or in my case...you "CAN'T" do anything else. ;D As with any job, there is good and bad and I guess I would rather take crap doing something I love as opposed to doing something I hate. As far as getting good ratings so that you can tell the boss where to go....hmmmmmm...does not work. I had awesome ratings at KZPS(just bonused as a matter of fact) but the new boss wanted to rehire a former employee...so I was shown the door. Yeah, I was ticked, but I found something better that allowed me to do radio the way I wanted to do it. There is plenty of bad, but I have found that something better is usually waiting around the corner.
 
I miss stations like WTGE "The Tiger".
BTW: Bender, were you on the Tiger? I was listening to some old tapes that im converting to CDR and i seemed to recognize your voice on the station. The Tiger in my opinion was the last good station, even more so during its year tenure as modern rock. The jocks knew the music, and werent afraid to talk on the air like most seem nowadays. The playlist was broad. I used to love the "buzz bin", ect. The station turned me on to a lot of music that shaped what i listen to today. To this day I have never heard some of the artist played on the tiger played on any other "commercial" station in this area. The Tiger was good radio, stations that repeat 40 lame songs over and over aren't. And is it so hard to tell us the song artist/title of new music, oh wait theres nobody in the studio, just some windows workstation spewing the 40 songs over and over. 8)

End reminiscent moment here.


I am not responsible for spelling typos.
 
Fieldtech1 said:
I miss stations like WTGE "The Tiger".
BTW: Bender, were you on the Tiger? I was listening to some old tapes that im converting to CDR and i seemed to recognize your voice on the station. The Tiger in my opinion was the last good station, even more so during its year tenure as modern rock. The jocks knew the music, and werent afraid to talk on the air like most seem nowadays. The playlist was broad. I used to love the "buzz bin", ect. The station turned me on to a lot of music that shaped what i listen to today. To this day I have never heard some of the artist played on the tiger played on any other "commercial" station in this area. The Tiger was good radio, stations that repeat 40 lame songs over and over aren't. And is it so hard to tell us the song artist/title of new music, oh wait theres nobody in the studio, just some windows workstation spewing the 40 songs over and over. 8)

End reminiscent moment here.


I am not responsible for spelling typos.
Click to expand...


he was. i have tapes. it was when neil young w/ pearl jam was new.
 
Ahh, The Tiger, yes that was the first station I ever worked at, I could tell you some stories that if they happened today would make O & A look like alter boys. I owe a world of debt to Dave in the Dark and by the way still have my old Tiger Staff Swag including a few All Request Orgy shirts. As far as the music goes, that is when MDs actually had control over the music and would really sit down and listen to music and take chances on songs they thought were hits, not just check mediabase and BDS Tuesday morning and make the adds. Remember when stations hired MDs because they could pick hits, I really chuckle to myself today when I see the title MD, should be MS, music scheduler. I had some great times there and that station was a non stop party both on the air and off. I made some life long friends there a few I still talk to weekly, like one of my best friends, a guy that a lot of you may not even remember worked at the Tiger, he was a part timer when I was the full time night guy, Atom Smasher (KRBE/KISS) we actually did a show together for a while, he would come on my show, for the whole show, For Free. There was always friendly competition between us, that was passion, something that is missing today. I can't forget my partner in crime, Condon. As far as music, that Modern Rock period was all due to a guy named Spencer, who was a tree hugging hippy with the worst smelling gas know to man, he ended up a producer in Portland and made it onto Jeopardy. The music was good, for every 1 songs that made it to the airwaves, I got exposed to 3 or 4 that never saw the speakers but was really good. We also had a great relationship with Glen at the Varsity and together brought in some great shows. From the Tiger "Modern Rock" library, one of my favorites was a band called "Self" a bunch on kids who made the album in thier bedroom, and had it released on a major label, even had a video on MTV, I have no idea if they are still around. Another was a band called Grape Ape who was rapping over some kick ass guitar with nice beats long before Anthrax hooked up with PE and Rick Ruben. Man I could go on for hours, maybe another thread will poke it's head up on this.

Bender
 
baton rouges rock n roll station 100.7 the tiger hi im delaney got my six pack of bud drunk off my ass and playing some damn good music. got something you want to hear call me 499-100.7. heres a little ac/dc for those about to rock we salute you on 100.7 the tiger....(in a drunken voice)


thats what i remember listning to every night on 100.7. a very drunk delaney ;D

i actually quit listning when it went modern rock.
 
Interesting that you mention Dave. He told me how he met you at Jiffy Lube one day in 1995 and invited you to hang out during his shift so that you could see how the whole radio thing worked. If anyone...and I mean ANYONE deserves the right to bitch about radio..it would be Dave. "He" was the Tiger...MD,APD...they were still using index cards for the music rotation when he was hired on there. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the practice...you did not have a playlist so to speak...you took the first index card out of the box...played that tune, then moved the card to the back. Yes...prehistoric, I know. Dave changed that. He also chose the music you heard until a higher up wanted to place their friend in his position. Dave could have bitched, moaned and complained, but he decided to try something new. He taught himself web design....back in the mid 90's mind you..when HTML was still the rule...and he is now regional webmaster for CC.

I also find it interesting that you fail to mention Paul C. in your posts here. You want to talk about people playing the tunes that are sure to be hits "before" everyone is playing them? Paul added many tunes at Rock 93.7 before the rest of the country added them in an attempt to play "catch up". Silvertide, Josh Todd, Kevin Martin(sans Candlebox). Paul was all about the creative freedom you keep mentioning but you have failed to mention him at all...so I will. ;)
 
bender said:
Ahh, The Tiger, yes that was the first station I ever worked at, I could tell you some stories that if they happened today would make O & A look like alter boys. I owe a world of debt to Dave in the Dark and by the way still have my old Tiger Staff Swag including a few All Request Orgy shirts. As far as the music goes, that is when MDs actually had control over the music and would really sit down and listen to music and take chances on songs they thought were hits, not just check mediabase and BDS Tuesday morning and make the adds. Remember when stations hired MDs because they could pick hits, I really chuckle to myself today when I see the title MD, should be MS, music scheduler. I had some great times there and that station was a non stop party both on the air and off. I made some life long friends there a few I still talk to weekly, like one of my best friends, a guy that a lot of you may not even remember worked at the Tiger, he was a part timer when I was the full time night guy, Atom Smasher (KRBE/KISS) we actually did a show together for a while, he would come on my show, for the whole show, For Free. There was always friendly competition between us, that was passion, something that is missing today. I can't forget my partner in crime, Condon. As far as music, that Modern Rock period was all due to a guy named Spencer, who was a tree hugging hippy with the worst smelling gas know to man, he ended up a producer in Portland and made it onto Jeopardy. The music was good, for every 1 songs that made it to the airwaves, I got exposed to 3 or 4 that never saw the speakers but was really good. We also had a great relationship with Glen at the Varsity and together brought in some great shows. From the Tiger "Modern Rock" library, one of my favorites was a band called "Self" a bunch on kids who made the album in thier bedroom, and had it released on a major label, even had a video on MTV, I have no idea if they are still around. Another was a band called Grape Ape who was rapping over some kick ass guitar with nice beats long before Anthrax hooked up with PE and Rick Ruben. Man I could go on for hours, maybe another thread will poke it's head up on this.

Bender
Click to expand...

A few random thoughts:

Hearing Larry Leblanc introduce The Cult on KKGB 101.3 in Lake Charles makes me nostalgic when I pass through on my way from Houston to Lafayette.

The Tiger was definitely a party station and was fun to listen to. Somthing that I haven't heard since the bad nightmare I thought I was having when my clock radio turned on to "Cat Country 100.7" at 6:45 some morning in 1997 if I remember correctly.

The drunk call-ins from jocks after concerts in New Orleans were always entertaining.
 
Wow! What fond memories are brought up when just a few names are mentioned. You may not know be by my name. I used to go by OX and still do to some. I do not have the experience of Tasha or Bender, but do remember them on the radio, and working with Tasha was truly like working with a legend. I applaud you for your success darlin'. I too am ashamed at the state of radio as it stands today. I actually was out of the business for about 6 months, selling cars, I was almost sick to death that I was not doing anything in radio at that time. Radio is my life, my wife and kids have sacrificed a lot too because of my career. And to see radio treated like it is now sickens me. I am currently up in West Virginia of all places, no I don't like being up here with the Yanks' but I am doing what I love to do. I pray to God that there more people like Bender, Tasha, and myself and I pray that they can use their abilities to guide Radio with their passion and again make Radio good again!
 
HEY, Kleinpeter "Can you get the herd back in here, we need to make more cheese"
There is just to Much "WHINE" on this thread...I DID this...blah-blah....This was
really good when we did this...blah-blah...Rock 93.7..blah-blah-blah...Dead...
Cat...Dead...Tiger...blah-blah-blah...Dead.....Dead....Dead.....(Sorry, Mike R.I.P.)

U-Ins want Radio the the way YOU Want it, "Get some investors, put your deal
together; find a stick; Buy It!"....and Broadcast your little hearts out. Playing what
ever Oblivious Stuff YOU, underline "YOU" think is..."Good Radio/Doesn't Suck cause
I can't do what I want on the Radio! Cause I KNOW Everything, and the people I WORK
FOR, are Scum Bags and have know clue, cause they are ruining radio, but they are
paying me, HUH?"...Till Then, Come to this board with some creative, innovative,
forward looking comments, and stop trying to time Warp to another Universe.
"You are Only As Good As Your last Break!" Not one YOU did 5 or 10 years ago.
 
Let address a few things here. First off, Medicineman, at no point and time was anyone "reliving the glory days" here, we were simply recalling a good time we either were a part of or enjoyed listening to, notice I said The Tiger was a party, not all time greatest station. Second, to get on here under an alias and post shots voids anything you have to say, especially when you subscribe to the "your only as good as your last break" theory. So Martin Luther King Jr. is only as good as the last speach he gave, Edison is only as good as his last invention, Motley Crue is only as good as the last concert they did, it's called a "body" of work, a battle of words is the wrong choice. You even pointed out the fact that you know your boss is doing dumb things, wherever you work, but you continue to what he says because he pays you, how does it feel to be an acomplice to stupidity, thats gotta feel good at the end of the day. I know all about needing a job with a wife and 2 kids to provide for, but if your good at what you do, you can make a few bucks giving you the opportunity to bail on bad situations. And another thing, and I could be wrong, but nobody got on this thread with the intensions of saying "hey look what I did", as I posted before, I simply gave my opinion, and you give yours, but mine is whinning, huh?

And for Tasha, why so angry? I gave Dave mad props, and will say again, I owe that cat a lot. As far as Paul, nobody was neglecting or dissing, but I thought we were talking about the Tiger, I didn't want to start one of those "Who was the greatest MD of all time" lists! I feel bad for Paul when I talk to him, because he does have a great ear and is in a situation right now where his hands are tied, it's a paycheck, but a waste of talent.

Bender
 
Hey B "Wrong"...Please insert Your name here

..."Good Radio/Doesn't Suck cause (name) can't do what (name) want on the Radio! Cause
(name) KNOW Everything, and the people (name) WORK FOR, are Scum Bags and have know clue,
cause they are ruining radio, but they are paying me, HUH?"

I have a Job, I like the Poeple
 
The people I work with are NOT Scum Bags They GET IT!

Maybe You/B have worked with the wrong people...Tough...Move on Dude!

Your State of Radio, paints with a broad brush; If you are fed up
with Radio, Do something Else!~
 
ok...how in the hell do you comment about a post on another page???? Anyway Bender...I am not mad at all. I know you mentioned Dave...I just think Dave deserves alot more respect than he ever received. This is not a MD pissing match in any way shape or form..however..you were listing those who were innovative(Spencer) and I noticed you left out Paul...the PD/MD of the last "Rock" station for which you worked.

Medicineman..you DO sound quite angry,though.;) I would gladly have a drink with you and give you my ideas of what should be done in radio..but my pontificating on what should be done here on this board would prob bore the hell out of everyone else. I would do what most with common sense would do..it isnt rocket science by any means.

Daylin/Ox..How are you man! Thanks for the kind words...but I am in no way above anyone else who chooses to do radio. God has been very kind in keeping me employed..that is all. I am glad you are still in the game!
 
T.S.-"O.M.G." Sweetie I've seen a Unicorn :eek:,....I Agree with You!

You are ABSOLUTELY Correct on Both of these from your earlier
Post-Tashas Said:
-"…But thankfully, many good radio groups remain"...and

-"There is plenty of bad, but I have found that something better"
"is usually waiting around the corner."

You are Correct on Both, Are you listening "B".

B's Take is a Rant, cause he is on the Beach, Broadly painting
Radio and the People in it at the beginning of this thread, is only blowing
off steam, I thought there was a rant page for that.

T.S.-Drinks??? How 'bout "So-Co and Lemon Juice", Yeah "Lemon Drops"
on the House, Dahlin!.............
 
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