Re: Big Jay Sorensen - WJRZ
I am the morning DJ at WOLDDDDDDD. Sad song. Never thought when it was a new recording that so MANY of us in this business would be cast aside like a used paper towel. But on a brighter note, let me respond to amfmsw.
I agree to some extent that radio as we KNEW it is over dead toast kaput, and yet there are still success stories in many small markets all over the nation from small operators who have always done things close to the vest, not spent extravagently on talent, promotion, or bells & whistles. They DO it by CONTENT. In the end, it's what comes over the speakers that matters, and NOW it's perceived! Look. I can run the best sounding juke box in the world. But if there's nothing in between the songs that does ANYTHING other than say the name of the platform it IS nothing but a juke box. And ya know, some people actually LIKE jukeboxes. Others still have super morning shows, a good midday person, super afternoon drive, and some actually have someone there at night. Results? Lower bottom line than if they voice-tracked midday and nights, but the audience eventually catches on. At least I think they do. Content Content Content. Some hosts/jocks "phone-in" their shows...meaning they just do it by rote..same thing day after day...same cliches, same "hey it's great to be with ya on a Tuesday morning" kinda thing that was dated in the 60's even..but I digress. A better way to do it would be to say. "Did ya get stuck in the 55mph mess on the Parkway yesterday, when everyone behind you was going 80 still, and you were the only one doing the speed limit? Scary huh. Call me up and tell me how it made you feel. Sunshine today hittin' 60, but snow by tomorrow night. Details in 5 minutes on W____. THAT says something. I can't TELL you how many jocks CAN'T do that. CAN'T, never learned HOW and won't even if their life depended on it. If it's not "here comes the Beatles with "Twist & Shout", they would have nothing to say. It's scary, but some stations actually WANT that..so NO one gets offended by ANYthing that a host or jock says. That way, the sales guy doesn't have to hear from Moe's Body Shop that "I just heard that guy say there were miles of backups on the parkway with lots of accidents." Did he say lots of accidents..no, but the oaf THOUGHT he did. So that's why Vanilla is so tolorated these days. And if the audience only hears VANILLA, then that's all it THINKS it likes! Follow that? If there is NO personality, then there is not reason to truly listen, because THESE days, any number of products can be that juke box. WHY on earth would a radio station in today's enviornment be nothing but a JUKEBOX? Because it's safe and it's all they know how to DO anymore. GONE are the pros to TEACH the newcomers how to do things. GONE are the visionaries, the bigger than life guys and women who know how to communicate with something other than "here's the beggining of another 10 in a row on your station for inanimate objects Q___."
So what radio HAS already become in many markets (not all) is juke boxes playing the same songs that the station in the same chain in the next market is playing only a day later. Sometimes using the same music log. Have you EVER heard ANYONE ever say... "I listen to continuous soft-polka on T-100" No. NO one speaks like that. But they DO say.. Hey.. "I like that polka station" I think it's 100.3 on that FM. So while we all lament the demise of radio as we knew it, remember that it was an inside job. For generations now, we've been telling people music good..talk bad. Music good...talk bad. So now generations say in research groups. They talk to much on T-100. Or I don't like that guy because he has an opinion. I actually HEARD that from a woman once. I asked her what she just did.. She was dumbfounded when she realized SHE had an opinion. OH my God. The ground shook as she fumbled to hang up the phone. I won her over about a year later by her saying...ya know "I used to hate you because you talked to much or had an opinion, and now I find myself not wanting to hear "Oh! Pretty Woman" for the 1, 456rd time this week and instead want to hear YOU go off on why Rt. 9 still has traffic jams day and night now for 30 years. Amazing. THAT'S what radio SHOULD be doing, but they're all weeners. So an entire new generation of potential listeners are GONE now from listening to the radio. Name me ANYone in your family UNDER 25 that REGULARLY listens to the radio and can even remember what station they have on..or better yet, who the jock is? Can't.
That's because THEY get their music FREE now..by stealing it. And the record companies now want to charge radio stations performance fees so the artists THEY screwed out of money will get paid for singing "At Last" when they were 22 years old. They didn't get paid THEN, so now they want their money from SOMEONE at age 70. It's rediculous. Without radio playing music, how many great songs would have NEVER been heard? How many NEW artists get the big hits now. Not many, because the record company is laying off promotion people left and right and the product sucks. This sounds like a lunatic tirade doesn't it. But there IS a point to it all in response to the last poster..
Dan Ingram couldn't get paid what he wanted so he left. He doesn't NEED the paycheck now. Brucie is doing quite well with 6 figures over at SIRIUS, and Bill Gardner (whom I've known he and his family including Andre at WMGK for years) will likely pop up somewhere, and I would think that HE's pretty well off too. It's a shame he lost his gig, but the company will continue by paying someone 100K less to do the same job. Will ratings stay as high? Who knows. Radio listeners use radio as an appliance. If the appliance doesn't work anymore, you find a new one to replace it, or you find another technology that works better. If my FAVORITE guy whom I've awakened too for 2 to 20 years is gone, I'll have to find another person I like...maybe on another station. SO what was accomplished by the owners of the station? Possibly losing the listener forever..or at least for some period of time until they can't find anything else compelling on the dials. Or maybe they use satellite..or maybe they listen to an internet station at their desk (like I do most of the time now.)
Consolidation will run it's course..it will either totally KILL the industry or someone will somehow figure out that you can't keep cutting and cutting and expect anyone to give a crap about your station anymore. Thus the silent stations, the chapter 11's or worse. It's coming..and we did it to ourselves. I am realizing more and more ever day that the more I write about this stuff, I'm nailing my own coffin. Because managers read these pages now and then too mostly for entertainment purposes to laugh at the bumbling know it alls, has-beens, or never weres. But when THEIR job is gone, who will be laughing?
I applaud each and every one of you who have managed to stay on the air in some form. You don't have to be told to look over your shoulder every day. The good guys WILL do ok.. The mediocre folks may actually be in better shape than the personalities in the short term because they don't piss anybody off. But mark my words. Unless something drastic happens soon, what we DID know as radio will be gone or at least that THING I used to listen too. Is that still ON?
From PERSONAL experience, I can't tell you how many people in my home market don't know that stations exist! Some have been on the air for over 30 years..and have NEVER penetrated the mind of some radio users. I ain't kidding. It's THAT unimportant to many. OThers know the stations, but couldn't tell you what they do or what format they are. Others know every word spoken by the morning team and can recite it at the dinner table. THOSE are the P-1's that radio stations covett. What will THEY talk about at dinner when that team is gone? Or that station becomes Punk Polka? Get my point?!!?!?!
I'd once again love to hear from some of my on-air brethren on this one IF you're allowed to comment. But most of you can't. What a shame.
BE BIG!
www.bigjayandanita.com
And how many people think I'm still ON the air?? Many more than you would think even after a whole year. Incredible
I am the morning DJ at WOLDDDDDDD. Sad song. Never thought when it was a new recording that so MANY of us in this business would be cast aside like a used paper towel. But on a brighter note, let me respond to amfmsw.
I agree to some extent that radio as we KNEW it is over dead toast kaput, and yet there are still success stories in many small markets all over the nation from small operators who have always done things close to the vest, not spent extravagently on talent, promotion, or bells & whistles. They DO it by CONTENT. In the end, it's what comes over the speakers that matters, and NOW it's perceived! Look. I can run the best sounding juke box in the world. But if there's nothing in between the songs that does ANYTHING other than say the name of the platform it IS nothing but a juke box. And ya know, some people actually LIKE jukeboxes. Others still have super morning shows, a good midday person, super afternoon drive, and some actually have someone there at night. Results? Lower bottom line than if they voice-tracked midday and nights, but the audience eventually catches on. At least I think they do. Content Content Content. Some hosts/jocks "phone-in" their shows...meaning they just do it by rote..same thing day after day...same cliches, same "hey it's great to be with ya on a Tuesday morning" kinda thing that was dated in the 60's even..but I digress. A better way to do it would be to say. "Did ya get stuck in the 55mph mess on the Parkway yesterday, when everyone behind you was going 80 still, and you were the only one doing the speed limit? Scary huh. Call me up and tell me how it made you feel. Sunshine today hittin' 60, but snow by tomorrow night. Details in 5 minutes on W____. THAT says something. I can't TELL you how many jocks CAN'T do that. CAN'T, never learned HOW and won't even if their life depended on it. If it's not "here comes the Beatles with "Twist & Shout", they would have nothing to say. It's scary, but some stations actually WANT that..so NO one gets offended by ANYthing that a host or jock says. That way, the sales guy doesn't have to hear from Moe's Body Shop that "I just heard that guy say there were miles of backups on the parkway with lots of accidents." Did he say lots of accidents..no, but the oaf THOUGHT he did. So that's why Vanilla is so tolorated these days. And if the audience only hears VANILLA, then that's all it THINKS it likes! Follow that? If there is NO personality, then there is not reason to truly listen, because THESE days, any number of products can be that juke box. WHY on earth would a radio station in today's enviornment be nothing but a JUKEBOX? Because it's safe and it's all they know how to DO anymore. GONE are the pros to TEACH the newcomers how to do things. GONE are the visionaries, the bigger than life guys and women who know how to communicate with something other than "here's the beggining of another 10 in a row on your station for inanimate objects Q___."
So what radio HAS already become in many markets (not all) is juke boxes playing the same songs that the station in the same chain in the next market is playing only a day later. Sometimes using the same music log. Have you EVER heard ANYONE ever say... "I listen to continuous soft-polka on T-100" No. NO one speaks like that. But they DO say.. Hey.. "I like that polka station" I think it's 100.3 on that FM. So while we all lament the demise of radio as we knew it, remember that it was an inside job. For generations now, we've been telling people music good..talk bad. Music good...talk bad. So now generations say in research groups. They talk to much on T-100. Or I don't like that guy because he has an opinion. I actually HEARD that from a woman once. I asked her what she just did.. She was dumbfounded when she realized SHE had an opinion. OH my God. The ground shook as she fumbled to hang up the phone. I won her over about a year later by her saying...ya know "I used to hate you because you talked to much or had an opinion, and now I find myself not wanting to hear "Oh! Pretty Woman" for the 1, 456rd time this week and instead want to hear YOU go off on why Rt. 9 still has traffic jams day and night now for 30 years. Amazing. THAT'S what radio SHOULD be doing, but they're all weeners. So an entire new generation of potential listeners are GONE now from listening to the radio. Name me ANYone in your family UNDER 25 that REGULARLY listens to the radio and can even remember what station they have on..or better yet, who the jock is? Can't.
That's because THEY get their music FREE now..by stealing it. And the record companies now want to charge radio stations performance fees so the artists THEY screwed out of money will get paid for singing "At Last" when they were 22 years old. They didn't get paid THEN, so now they want their money from SOMEONE at age 70. It's rediculous. Without radio playing music, how many great songs would have NEVER been heard? How many NEW artists get the big hits now. Not many, because the record company is laying off promotion people left and right and the product sucks. This sounds like a lunatic tirade doesn't it. But there IS a point to it all in response to the last poster..
Dan Ingram couldn't get paid what he wanted so he left. He doesn't NEED the paycheck now. Brucie is doing quite well with 6 figures over at SIRIUS, and Bill Gardner (whom I've known he and his family including Andre at WMGK for years) will likely pop up somewhere, and I would think that HE's pretty well off too. It's a shame he lost his gig, but the company will continue by paying someone 100K less to do the same job. Will ratings stay as high? Who knows. Radio listeners use radio as an appliance. If the appliance doesn't work anymore, you find a new one to replace it, or you find another technology that works better. If my FAVORITE guy whom I've awakened too for 2 to 20 years is gone, I'll have to find another person I like...maybe on another station. SO what was accomplished by the owners of the station? Possibly losing the listener forever..or at least for some period of time until they can't find anything else compelling on the dials. Or maybe they use satellite..or maybe they listen to an internet station at their desk (like I do most of the time now.)
Consolidation will run it's course..it will either totally KILL the industry or someone will somehow figure out that you can't keep cutting and cutting and expect anyone to give a crap about your station anymore. Thus the silent stations, the chapter 11's or worse. It's coming..and we did it to ourselves. I am realizing more and more ever day that the more I write about this stuff, I'm nailing my own coffin. Because managers read these pages now and then too mostly for entertainment purposes to laugh at the bumbling know it alls, has-beens, or never weres. But when THEIR job is gone, who will be laughing?
I applaud each and every one of you who have managed to stay on the air in some form. You don't have to be told to look over your shoulder every day. The good guys WILL do ok.. The mediocre folks may actually be in better shape than the personalities in the short term because they don't piss anybody off. But mark my words. Unless something drastic happens soon, what we DID know as radio will be gone or at least that THING I used to listen too. Is that still ON?
From PERSONAL experience, I can't tell you how many people in my home market don't know that stations exist! Some have been on the air for over 30 years..and have NEVER penetrated the mind of some radio users. I ain't kidding. It's THAT unimportant to many. OThers know the stations, but couldn't tell you what they do or what format they are. Others know every word spoken by the morning team and can recite it at the dinner table. THOSE are the P-1's that radio stations covett. What will THEY talk about at dinner when that team is gone? Or that station becomes Punk Polka? Get my point?!!?!?!
I'd once again love to hear from some of my on-air brethren on this one IF you're allowed to comment. But most of you can't. What a shame.
BE BIG!
www.bigjayandanita.com
And how many people think I'm still ON the air?? Many more than you would think even after a whole year. Incredible
