Buffalo's Radio Future

[Mike Sheridan]

Actually I think public radio might have a little pressure. They need to program and report on issues that keep their contributors listening and writing checks to their local NPR station.

 

[Steven21]

But if a station wants to cut costs, the easiest way is to get rid of the aging talk hosts, and hire a bunch of college grads. Radio, for the most part, has resisted that temptation. Instead they hire and rehire even more veterans, and continue to drive the average age upward.

Did I miss something? Are you advocating the hiring of a bunch of college grads to staff a talk station?

If yes, you've got to be kidding.
If no, then nevermind.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

NPR reports this morning that Michael Jackson's death received more coverage by "the media" than the war and elections in Afghanistan. In so many ways, I'm not surprised. Not at all. "We have found the enemy, and they is us." -Pogo

"The Media" today is far more than traditional journalism. Certainly with 3 24/7 cable news channels, they have a lot of time to fill. And truthfully, the Afghan elections would be a bad example for comparison. The health care story is getting as much coverage as Jackson's death.

Like "radio," this thing called "the media" has become far more than a handful of newspapers. I'm sure the folks at TMZ see themselves as part of the media. Same with Perez Hilton. Even Twitter and various blogs have become part of the media. It's all of that which has depressed the value of traditional media, and thus the price of advertising, and why we are in the place we're in.

Back to Jackson's death, the criteria on how stories are chosen for coverage aren't totally within the realm of serious journalists. Not everyone works under the same pressures as NPR. That's the purpose of non-commercial broadcasting...to operate without commercial pressures.Same with Bob Smith at WXXI. He doesn't have to cover stories like this reality star murder. So good for them. All those who disliked the Jackson story had a place to go for coverage of more pressing news like what's happening in the Punjab.

As a person who has some experience with news-talk radio in Buffalo, I'm grateful that Buffalo has two NPR affiliates. No slight to WBEN and its staff, but very few "media sources" equal or surpass what's produced by NPR, WNED-AM and WBFO. Very likely, there are those in Rochester who feel the same about WXXI-AM.

 

[TheBigA]

Did I miss something? Are you advocating the hiring of a bunch of college grads to staff a talk station?

If yes, you've got to be kidding.
If no, then nevermind.

I don't think I'm actually advocating either...just laying out the choice as fairly as I can.

Thankfully, it's not my decision to make.

I'd just like to see some fresh blood in radio. I'm tired of hearing about the old days.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Might not be a bad idea to turn the college kids loose on a radio station. I used to enjoy WVUM 90.5 with it's 10 watt signal when I could hear it. The Voice of The University of Miami. You were never quite sure what they would say or what music they would play. Predictable unpredictability!

 

[Steven21]

Might not be a bad idea to turn the college kids loose on a radio station.

What an underestimation of what seasoned talent means to a station. Nothing like the incredibly poor and amateurish sound of college kids on the radio.Yeah, since stations are spending so much time directing listeners TO tne net, we might as well make professional radio sound more like youtube!

No wonder the higher ups show such contempt for broadcasting pros.People closer to the trenches are apparently in agreement!

Talk about a doomed industry.

 

[Bob1370]

"Might not be a bad idea to turn the college kids loose on a radio station."

Been done with mixed results. Sometimes it turns out godawful, as we all know.

Sometimes it can work well, IF the students in question have to make the station a viable proposition without help from the college administration. They did that at Cornell University back in 1958 when the student radio group got a class-A commercial FM license, and had to build it out and sell commercial time to pay for the operation. WVBR-FM struggled through much of the 60s until they hit on a formula of full service album rock a la WNEW-FM and WCMF back in the fall of 1968, and never looked back. Their graduates are now all over the business (including people like Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, Jeremy Schapp of ESPN, and Tom Poleman, Z100 programmer and head of programming of Clear Channel's NYC cluster). The station itself usually leads 12-34s in the twice-yearly Arbitrons in Ithaca and has been a going concern for over 50 years now. There are similar student owned commercial operations on a few other campuses, the biggest of them being WBRU in Providence, a full-market Class B that's the major active rock station in market #31.

The question is, do the young ones approach it as an entry point for a serious run at the broadcasting business, or as a fun hobby? If it's the former, if they know that staying on the air depends on producing a marketable product, you'd be amazed how professionally mature they become very quickly, they're ready for medium and large market radio in whatever format you pick once they graduate. If it's the latter...well, it gets harder to turn on the "professionalism" switch...not impossible, but much harder...