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CC's Premium Choice

C

carolinaradio

How many formats does Clear Channel offer the "Premium Choice" option for? I know they have it for Rock and AC, but are there any others? Not sure if there are any top 40, classic hits, country, etc using it.

Do you all think that pretty soon CC will have a Premium feed for each format, and each station (not in larger markets maybe) will be required to use that feed?

Also....do stations using this offer have PDs? Or is it for stations that don't have PDs? I sort of think of it as a thing that's optional for the stations NOW, but will be mandatory eventually and all AC, Country, Classic Hits, etc stations in the nation owned by CC will run the same programming at the time.

Just some questions, as I don't fully understand the concept. They sure are moving a lot of AC's to the feed. I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out. Thanks!
 
The interesting thing is it's not syndicated programming that was created by some network in a vacuum, but a bunch of radio shows that are successful in one market being shared with others. This is a station-based programming solution instead of coming from ABC, Dial-Global, or some other place. It puts the power in the stations that have developed the best and most successful shows in the country. I often read comments on this board from people who say "Why can't my station sound like that one in another market." Now they can. If you're a local PD with a slot to fill, you have lots of options. You still want your key dayparts local, but you can draw on quality talent from another market without actually stealing that person from the station.
 
The two local premium choice stations are 24/7, but stations can take only the overnight shift, for example, depending on budget. Both of these stations are in the Aloha Trust for sale assuming anyone would actually want to buy them. The difference with this voicetracking and the voicetracking that everyone used to bitch about is that the talent does no liners, promos, IDs, or anything that would identify it with the station. It's like a sattelite feed without the customization when you come right down to it. Everyone used to complain about talent from Charleston, SC tracking Akron.OH and "pretending to be local". Now no one is pretending.
 
All those formatics could be easily added. It wouldn't take much to automate jingles, sweepers, and liners. IF that would make any difference. Part of me wonders if it does.

From what I can hear, these aren't voicetracked shows on PC, but real time live shows.
 
No, those aren't live shows. If you have several affilates together you won't hear the tracks hit at the same time. It is the same playlist. We have a personality in this market who is one of the PC jocks. He does his local show and tracks the national shift.
 
I've only heard premium choice on 3 stations (AC's WBBQ/Augusta, GA, WLYT/Charlotte, NC, and WMAG/Greensboro, NC)....they all have different jocks (some are tracked, some are live) but the MUSIC is nationally programmed, I guess it is nationally dropped in to the automation somehow. The songs can be a little off on each station.

As CC is forced to make more cuts, I bet we will see more stations having to use this option. I wouldn't be surprised, as I said, if it becomes mandatory eventually.
 
I have noticed that Kiss 95.7 speeds up the music, even during Ryan Seacrest's show. I haven't yet noticed if they also make it sound like Ryan Seacrest ingested helium. And when I could hear both Z100 and Kiss 95.7, I noticed different songs and the same talk segments.

It's stuff like this that drives people away from radio. There's no local flavor to those shows. I hate hearing the same jocks in every market, one is enough! Delilah and Ryan Seacrest drive me up the wall!

I remember a voicetracking mistake when the DJ voicetracked a weather segment saying that the high would be 80 degrees...in the winter on a Philadelphia station.
 
Nick said:
It's stuff like this that drives people away from radio. There's no local flavor to those shows. I hate hearing the same jocks in every market, one is enough! Delilah and Ryan Seacrest drive me up the wall!
Click to expand...

I think you're making a generalization that simply has no basis in fact. There's no local flavor in most of what's on TV, and yet people watch.

Most people don't care that Seacrest is a national show. They just know he's on in their town. If he has a guest they're interested in, they love it. And chances are better that he will have a superstar guest than if a local jock in Wichita is going to have a superstar guest. If the point is to deliver quality content, he has better access than just about any local jock. Unless you're in NY or LA. Even then, if you're a big star, and can only do one radio interview, who are you going to pick? Someone who can get you in front of millions? Or someone who has limited reach?

What drives people away from radio is bad radio. It doesn't matter if it's local or syndicated. Bad radio, especially with the choices available today, is simply inexcusable. And the chances are better that you'll hear bad local radio than bad national radio. The talent pool is only so deep. It's the difference between minor league sports and the majors. Who attracts the most fans?
 
Premium Choice, IMO, is a GOOD thing in some cases. As I posted on the SC board, they have an AC here that they are making a mess out of musically. Now if the music was from the AC feed, it would sound 10 times better.
 
carolinaradio said:
Premium Choice, IMO, is a GOOD thing in some cases. As I posted on the SC board, they have an AC here that they are making a mess out of musically. Now if the music was from the AC feed, it would sound 10 times better.
Click to expand...

It might be smarter to hire someone with talent to fix a bad radio station than to plug in generic, out-of-market syndication.
 
SirRoxalot said:
carolinaradio said:
Premium Choice, IMO, is a GOOD thing in some cases. As I posted on the SC board, they have an AC here that they are making a mess out of musically. Now if the music was from the AC feed, it would sound 10 times better.
Click to expand...

It might be smarter to hire someone with talent to fix a bad radio station than to plug in generic, out-of-market syndication.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but at least in this area, CC is too cheap to hire anybody with any talent.

I would wonder what these stations that HAVE PDs that have been with the stations for ages are using Premium Choice for. Are they really that busy to program locally?
 
SirRoxalot said:
carolinaradio said:
Premium Choice, IMO, is a GOOD thing in some cases. As I posted on the SC board, they have an AC here that they are making a mess out of musically. Now if the music was from the AC feed, it would sound 10 times better.
Click to expand...

It might be smarter to hire someone with talent to fix a bad radio station than to plug in generic, out-of-market syndication.
Click to expand...

Ahh yes, the automatic solution to any problem: Hire someone locally. Could it be that after years of local hires, they've finally realized that's what was wrong with the place? Take a look at the trouble Emmis is having with their rock station in NYC. They spent lots of money hiring live talent, gave them the freedom to play whatever they wanted, and followed all the advice the radio critics said. Now after almost two years, they have a 1 share! Wow! Great job! Let's hire more local talent!
 
How about that great local talent getting their show prep from a handful of national services, which in turn grab their stuff from AP, add punch lines...
 
Bill Wolfenbarger said:
How about that great local talent getting their show prep from a handful of national services, which in turn grab their stuff from AP, add punch lines...
Click to expand...

Well...not exactly. There are lots of prep services. The free ones mainly take stuff from press releases and AP. The ones you pay for tend to create original stuff. There are several comedy services, and all they do is jokes and topical humor. I was flying between towns one day, and got to hear the same joke told by two different jocks in different towns. But one of them put a spin on it that the other one didn't. That's the mark of a real talent. Prep services are simply that: Preparation. They give you some information that you can use in what you do. They're not meant to become your show. Some people don't understand that. They just read it verbatum, and it sounds like it.
 
I don't disagree that the real talent can put their own spin on it. But real talent used to actually come up with their own stuff. Now, the talent that comes up with his own stuff my choose to offer it to others, thus becoming a Show Prep service.

And I do find it interesting that a jock will sit down and spend 4 hours reading show prep on the air and feel like he did a great show.

We subscribe to at least 3 paid show prep services. They all tend to use what's going on in the news as a start, followed by various punch lines. And they also rewrite AP stories from Cooler Copy, etc. I find often that the funny story from AP on Monday ends up rewritten in Radio OnLine or Bitman on Tuesday, and that I can tune the dial and hear the story in various forms several times. Then a few days later, I hear it again, perhaps from a weekend show. Occasionally it gets told by somebody who is only using it to tie in with something local.
 
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