And I'll bet someone is going to tell me that this (poor) quality of audio, such as it is, is "the new normal".
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Boston's WRKO-AM 680 to Debut The Grace Curley Show
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
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Most companies are preparing their staffs to return to the office this summer. Providing they get vaccinated.
Tired Of It All
Banned
We see things differently. Go back and look at all your posts.
Most of these companies Covid rules don't allow anyone to go into folks homes. So your hearing what could be quickly grabbed and given to a person to have them set-up at home to get on the air. Often a Comrex and a headset with a non technical person. Sometimes an App on a phone. It was all meant to be temporary. This does not include Grace who is in a studio as you can see in her video streams.
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In my limited exposure to the inner workings of companies in Southern California (Limited because many companies don't make their future plans public) I have seen everything from radio stations planning to or already having completed moves to much smaller facilities to insurance brokers reducing office space by having those who don't deal with the public work from home.
This process will not all be instant, as expiration dates of leases will make this gradual. And some areas, such as government offices, will be very slow to adapt to new technology as they are behind the times in computer systems. For example, it has been widely reported... and evidenced by having to hire an outside agent to do the COVID computer work... that California government systems are more than a decade out of date.
Obviously, retail and manufacturing and service companies can't do much of this. But even in those cases, a lot of the "back room" work such as paperwork, payroll, accounting and the like will now be done off-site. I know of an owner of multiple SoCal car dealerships that is doing all the invoicing, service orders, contracts and other paperwork out of one "lower rent" office location; that allows them to optimize staffing to match sales needs, and also always has someone to cover if a staffer is sick, on vacation or has a medical or court appointment.
Lots of radio groups... even smaller ones... during the pandemic, have found that there is no need to do commercial logs locally and that work can be done either from home or from states with lower staff costs.
The combination of connectivity, computer capacity and really good software plus the ability to video conference between office staffers instantly has removed the need for rental spaces, commuting and even spending for "office casual" clothing!
Even doctors can do some routine appointments by video now, using in-person visits only for when an actual physical exam is needed. The pandemic made insurance carriers accept new practices, and some will remain long after this is over.
I know what I post, and I don't "rant & rave about how good iHeart is." I never have.
That may be, but the groups I talk to believe that they are in a collaborative business, and their business is better when their employees work together in the same space. They believe sales are better when their salespeople make human contact with customers. In other words, the drive isn't only to save money, but to increase productivity and build team morale. They're planning company softball teams and company gatherings.
California in particular is a state where a lot of people have fought against the restrictions. They've seen their lifestyle hurt by all this work-at-home. They are mobile people and they want to engage with each other. What you're talking about may affect a small percentage, but the people I talk to are ready to get out of the house. They're getting vaccinated, and see late summer as the day we get back to normal.
I fully expect "a Comrex and a headset" or "an app on a phone" to sound like crud, but, since you tell me Grace is in a real studio somewhere, then either she needs a better microphone and/or a better codec for the audio, because her audio is not at all clear. I know Dan Rea has been broadcasting from home for about a year now, but dang, sometimes it's as if his Comrex or his app (whichever) are just not running properly. Funny, Rush Limbaugh operated from "sunny South Florida" for years without any degraded audio quality; it was as if he were in a studio at "network headquarters".
Haven't we moaned and groaned enough here on how awful the audio on three of the AM stations - WBZ, WRKO, WXKS-AM - is, or that we're getting dead air or audio-overlapping-audio? And then there's the issue on the latter two stations of audio-past-its-usage-date, since some much ballyhooed automation system is running things and most likely NO ONE is actually monitoring on-air content.
Your exposure may be limited, but your experience is not uncommon.
My wife just started a new job w/ a NYC-based cybersecurity auditing firm, 100% remote (we're 40 mi south of Boston towards Providence) with occasionally on-site client travel (basically at the end of the gig when they deliver the results to the client).
Her former employer, an IT-auditing firm based in Braintree, was already discussing downsizing their office footprint significantly to only have some flex workspace for employees and offices/conference rooms for the 'executives' and meetings with clients.
I work at a state university and although we're planning to return to full on-site staffing next semester, administration is already discussing allowing some employees to work from home part time depending on the nature of their job duties.
It's a huge win for businesses that can make it work. They reduce their overhead expenses (office leases, infrastructure costs such as electricity, etc.) while transferring the cost of doing business from their bottom line to the bottom line of their employees (my electric bill is substantially higher w/ my wife and I working from home, and we had to upgrade our internet service to a faster speed. Soon Comcast will be giving us a rectal probe with "data caps" which means we'll have to spend even more of our own money to 'upgrade' again to their 'unlimited data' plan).
Tired Of It All
Banned
C'mon man, those of us who point out the ridiculous, avoidable mishaps don't know what we're talking about. We're outnumbered by those who are blinded by their arrogance and their need to abase the rest of us.
Once the environmentalists seize on this, there will be considerable additional promotion of telecommuting due to the reduction of commuting and reduced expenditures on office A/C and heating, etc .
Eventually, companies will have to give connectivity credits and some form of compensation for the home workspace. But the gain of as much as 3 hours in personal and familiy time from less or no commuting will be great, as will the need for perhaps just one family car in many cases.
I have done my annual review of my home, earthquake, liability, auto and home office insurance by teleconference for both 2020 and 2021 and it is much more convenient and saves driving, parking and taking up an entire morning or afternoon. Our HOA now does teleconference monthly meetings; previously nearly nobody other than the board attended, now they can be over 100 home owners on each conference and some meetings hit 200 to 300.
Our local City Council for a community of 41 thousand had an online meeting last week about new rules on vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods and there were more in "attendance" than ever in history for in-person meetings and there were more comments (pre-scheduled) than ever. It also allowed the local media including two TV reporters and one newspaper one to attend where travel and lost time might have prohibited coverage under the in-person system.
I've even read in a newsletter I get that cities may promote this as well since it reduces demands on infrastructure ranging from roads to police traffic management.
I believe there is going to be a significant and measurable change in office staffing. Coupled with more people using on-line purchasing from Amazon to InstaCart, we likely will see things that dramatically affect the way business is done, both for employees and consumers.
But that was because he had a studio, complete with gold plated mikes and good acoustics, that was as good as or better than the network ones.
Remember, even back in the 30's Red, Blue and CBS originated from studios in different locations, not just New York. The Lone Ranger, for example, came out of Detroit and there were shows from Chicago and LA and San Francisco, too. All blended seamlessly into the audio stream delivered to stations because in each location there was a studio complex that was designed for broadcasting.
If many shows originate from "home" those home studios will have to have full sound treatments and professional gear, neither of which is particularly expensive with new technologies.
I think some of this is due to the very reduced 2020 revenues as well some more due to the COVID restrictions on working in a station studio. If this becomes the new normal, then some new approaches will have to be made for control and supervision.
Broadcast automation systems have existed since the 60's. Ever since then, most errors are due to the input of data by people, not to equipment deficiencies or failures.
Two of the largest broadcast groups in LA are reducing office and studio space. Several more have consolidated traffic, billing and accounting in central locations already and several others are doing this now.
Sales will still be based on the personal visit, but clients will often want service calls and things like copy approval and the like to be done in video conferences.
Most stations have reduced sales space in "the building" because there is a realization that a lot of low-revenue sales cost more than they earn.
Much of this has been going on for over a decade.
I don't see all that many people in LA or SF or other congested cities wanting to commute to work. Yes, they may want to get out to parks and the beaches or the mountains or Disneyland, but spending an hour or more each way in traffic is not something most of us want to get back to.
In LA, Univision radio and TV reduced office space from 4 floors to just two. And, as I mentioned several other big groups are cutting office and studio space significantly and permanently.
Particularly significant is the move of "back office" functions out of CA by many companies in broadcasting due to the savings in office rentals as well as the considerably lower other costs outside of a very expensive and highly restrictive environment.
David,
Yes, on this you are spot on, as I recall the late Paul Schaeffer and one if the first, if not THE first automation systems from the 1960s. And, yes, “garbage in, garbage out”, but the overriding issue is that there seems to be little to no monitoring of content going out over the air. Even worse - when some if us call attention to that here, it’s usually written off, due to personnel cuts, or revenue shortcomings, or the pandemic.
Aren't those reasonable responses? My cable TV and internet drop out or lock up all the time. I don't call them demanding someone get fired or even that I get a rebate on my bill.
Appears her "reception" in the Pioneer Valley is a bit static-filled:
www.gazettenet.com
Longtime radio show host Bob Flaherty off WHMP - Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — Bob Flaherty, a WHMP radio personality for more a decade, says he’s been fired after going on a “couple of rants” on the air, including one in which he spoke about mass shootings in the U.S. and punishment for the shooters.“I was fired....
www.gazettenet.com
I am NOT asking for anyone to be fired; I'm asking that the stations assume a responsibility to assure a quality on-air signal.
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