Is it me or has anyone else noticed how weak the talent is on Power 98? It seems that in the past several years, the on air staff sounds like they just came in off of the street with no experience. Maybe the format has evolved or I just getting too old (@ 34). Don't get me wrong, I love the urban format but I would love to do an aircheck session with some of their staff.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Crappy, Weak Radio
- Thread starter outtaradio
- Start date
Isn't that what's known as street "cred"? Not polished, trained and experienced, professionals, but people who
sound like everyday people -- like those in the listening audience. You know, street cred!
sound like everyday people -- like those in the listening audience. You know, street cred!
I don't know about Power 98 so this isn't about them. It's about radio in general. I suspect finding polished professional radio people might be a difficult task. Given the low pay, lack of job security and total lace of prestige. Radio for the most part doesn't reward professionals enough to retain them. They go for the cheaper folks with less experience every time.
The question is: are jocks even necessary anymore? The computer does everything these days. There is no music or commercials to pull and plan. Put some sweepers in, let the computer play and lock the door. That will reduce the payroll and save money. For all the excitement about HD radio, that's what you'll hear on HD2, music and sweepers. That about all radio will be soon. The computer killed the radio star.
The question is: are jocks even necessary anymore? The computer does everything these days. There is no music or commercials to pull and plan. Put some sweepers in, let the computer play and lock the door. That will reduce the payroll and save money. For all the excitement about HD radio, that's what you'll hear on HD2, music and sweepers. That about all radio will be soon. The computer killed the radio star.
F
fmradionuts
Guest
:
Mike, thats the TRUTH!!!! Everything sounds like an I-pod!! I miss high energy DJ's, reverb and tons of jingles!! As one friend of mine put it (He has 30+ years exp and a vet of 99.9 KISS in the 80's) "The great HOE-OUT of radio!" :'(
Mike, thats the TRUTH!!!! Everything sounds like an I-pod!! I miss high energy DJ's, reverb and tons of jingles!! As one friend of mine put it (He has 30+ years exp and a vet of 99.9 KISS in the 80's) "The great HOE-OUT of radio!" :'(Sorry about all the typos in my last message...yikes!
A group PD once told us that radio was an appliance. That says a lot right there.
Being on the radio used to be a big deal, not so much anymore. I wonder how many young people want to have an on-air career and why?
There are so many things competing for our time. Radio really needs to do something to get attention. I read somewhere that radio's biggest competition in the car is the cell phone.
A group PD once told us that radio was an appliance. That says a lot right there.
Being on the radio used to be a big deal, not so much anymore. I wonder how many young people want to have an on-air career and why?
There are so many things competing for our time. Radio really needs to do something to get attention. I read somewhere that radio's biggest competition in the car is the cell phone.
Radio and Records had the cell phone v. car radio study. It makes sense, since the other competition are paid sat radio or silence.
I'm still in radio, working at the #2 station in a different market. Both us, and the #1 station are live and local 24/7. All the jukeboxes added up don't come close to our share. Additionally, our demos are all the money demos and we have the highest commute time in the country. We're making money hand over fist. This is the most genuinely upbeat staff I've ever worked with. Every store I go into in this town, our station is playing. The cashiers at the bank when I deposit my check get genuinely excited with they see our station logo on it. We have 12 lines that ring non stop in afternoon drive. My last job at the #1 talk station in DC, we were lucky to getfour lines going in the first half hour.
Part of that is that we're one of the dwindling mom and pop (actually 3 brothers) medium market stations. When Cumitadelchannel gets around to buying us, I'm sure it will all be dismantled. But local radio can still be done, it can still have buzz, and being on air can still be a big thrill.
As for Power 98's problem, most Charlotte stations stopped grooming part time talent in the early 90's recession. At that point, only the top performers had full time night jocks. Kiss(102) was VT'ed via reel off and on (certain death for a CHR), Mix (104.7) too, Sunny had a schedule of untalented part timers whose sole interaction with the PD was to be yelled at for various infractions.
I'm still in radio, working at the #2 station in a different market. Both us, and the #1 station are live and local 24/7. All the jukeboxes added up don't come close to our share. Additionally, our demos are all the money demos and we have the highest commute time in the country. We're making money hand over fist. This is the most genuinely upbeat staff I've ever worked with. Every store I go into in this town, our station is playing. The cashiers at the bank when I deposit my check get genuinely excited with they see our station logo on it. We have 12 lines that ring non stop in afternoon drive. My last job at the #1 talk station in DC, we were lucky to getfour lines going in the first half hour.
Part of that is that we're one of the dwindling mom and pop (actually 3 brothers) medium market stations. When Cumitadelchannel gets around to buying us, I'm sure it will all be dismantled. But local radio can still be done, it can still have buzz, and being on air can still be a big thrill.
As for Power 98's problem, most Charlotte stations stopped grooming part time talent in the early 90's recession. At that point, only the top performers had full time night jocks. Kiss(102) was VT'ed via reel off and on (certain death for a CHR), Mix (104.7) too, Sunny had a schedule of untalented part timers whose sole interaction with the PD was to be yelled at for various infractions.
I rarely remember us having liner cards at Kiss (102). When I first arrived and asked about a format clock I was told to not sound like an idiot and stop down twice an hour. As for Sunny, we weren't all talentless :-*
NewsNow said:
Hold on where you are and ride it till the end. Many are not as lucky. Good gigs are hard to find!
outtaradio said:
Good advice not to sound like an idiot, but then again hearing someone completely off the wall on the air can be fun!
As for Sunny, a lot of nice talented folks went through 107.9 while I was on WBT. The ones I knew had talent but I'm not sure the radio station allowed them to do much.
There were some very good jocks on Sunny, even part time. There were also some that to this day, I couldn't tell you why they were hired. I'm sure it was the same at the other stations. Towards the end of Kiss 102, their jocks were trying to sound uber "street" and they also had board ops sneaking breaks to get an aircheck together. What a train wreck.
I remember one of the part time jocks at Sunny was told to forget about full time and find a nice job selling pants at Sears. Ouch. The prevailing wisdom at JP was that you had to go away and do something before you can come back and get a good gig. But with those WBT calls on a resume, you can get in the door in about any market, larger or smaller, even if you were assistant bottle washer.
I'm only about 100 miles off topic. Can I also mention my dogs? They're sweeties. The cat's kind of mean, though. I drive a Saturn. My favorite color is green.
I remember one of the part time jocks at Sunny was told to forget about full time and find a nice job selling pants at Sears. Ouch. The prevailing wisdom at JP was that you had to go away and do something before you can come back and get a good gig. But with those WBT calls on a resume, you can get in the door in about any market, larger or smaller, even if you were assistant bottle washer.
I'm only about 100 miles off topic. Can I also mention my dogs? They're sweeties. The cat's kind of mean, though. I drive a Saturn. My favorite color is green.
Talking about the low-payed talent in radio today and how it is not as professional anymore, I gotta' tell ya', in the past few years I've seen all the part-time talent I've hired get more and more into that "Oh, dead air for a few minutes, o.k..." mode.
I remember when I (and many of us) first started out, if I had ONE SECOND of dead air I almost broke my neck trying to do something to get audio on the air. I've had kids lately dub music in with late tones and then let it play that way on the air without even thinking there is anything wrong with it, even after letting them know that's not cool. They just don't seem to care when they're making $5.15 an hour, at least now they don't. But I sure did when I was making $3.00 an hour!
Three bucks an hour or 65k a year, either way I always try my best to maintain professionalism with any broadcast facility!
Kahuna
www.thatwasradio.com
I remember when I (and many of us) first started out, if I had ONE SECOND of dead air I almost broke my neck trying to do something to get audio on the air. I've had kids lately dub music in with late tones and then let it play that way on the air without even thinking there is anything wrong with it, even after letting them know that's not cool. They just don't seem to care when they're making $5.15 an hour, at least now they don't. But I sure did when I was making $3.00 an hour!
Three bucks an hour or 65k a year, either way I always try my best to maintain professionalism with any broadcast facility!
Kahuna
www.thatwasradio.com
NewsNow said:
There is no call for someone being so negitive as to tell a part timer to forget about radio and find a job at Sears. We are all in this together, that's not a constructive critque. I would have quit on the spot. Good part-timers are not easy to find.
I never knew the WBT calls carried that much weight. I don't recall them ever doing me any good. I went to Lite 102.9 (then EZ-102.9) after five years working part time at WBT (and having a blast). I finally gave up on working full time there. Don Bell at EZ knew me since he brought me to Charlotte to work at WSOC. I guess after EZ/Lite I'd had enough of full time radio work and didn't want to leave Charlotte.
To be honest, that particular announcer was pretty weak on talent, though he did show up every day and read the liner cards verbatim. Not something I would say to any talent, though.
The WBT calls never did me any good in Charlotte, or much of NC for that matter. In fact, I applied for a Triangle area PD position under a GM who had been hired partly because she had WBT on her resume. She let me know she would only consider somebody out of state.
However, knock on the doors at an ABC O&O in a major market, and I got a royal welcome. Most of the interview consisted of, "so did you work with (so and so)? How about (that guy)?"
The WBT calls never did me any good in Charlotte, or much of NC for that matter. In fact, I applied for a Triangle area PD position under a GM who had been hired partly because she had WBT on her resume. She let me know she would only consider somebody out of state.
However, knock on the doors at an ABC O&O in a major market, and I got a royal welcome. Most of the interview consisted of, "so did you work with (so and so)? How about (that guy)?"
NewsNow
Please, don't call someone out individually for being a weak talent. It's rather distasteful and doesn't do much for your character. Pick on whatever station or format you want but to pick on an individual isn't very becoming of oneself. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of jocks in this market who completely suck and have absolutely no business listening to the radio much less being on one. There's a certain traffic reporter who makes a complete idiot out of himself every morning on WBT but I would never call him out.
Rock On,
C
Please, don't call someone out individually for being a weak talent. It's rather distasteful and doesn't do much for your character. Pick on whatever station or format you want but to pick on an individual isn't very becoming of oneself. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of jocks in this market who completely suck and have absolutely no business listening to the radio much less being on one. There's a certain traffic reporter who makes a complete idiot out of himself every morning on WBT but I would never call him out.
Rock On,
C
You can't blame consolidation for all of the ills of radio today. You can blame ratings! Because of ratings being the primary reason for an advertising purchase, the industry got so hung up on positioning and call letters, it forgot what really made people listen - enterainment!
There are hundreds of examples in the country of stations that still know how to do it! Problem is, they may not get as strong ratings and therefore don't make as much money. If sellers could get away from ratings - and really sell advertising, the industry would be much different. ROS - we used to call it - Results Oriented Selling!
There are hundreds of examples in the country of stations that still know how to do it! Problem is, they may not get as strong ratings and therefore don't make as much money. If sellers could get away from ratings - and really sell advertising, the industry would be much different. ROS - we used to call it - Results Oriented Selling!
NewsNow said:
If they have the right attitude and want to work at it then it's the PD's job to show them not only what they are doing wrong but what they are doing right. I know alot of people who sounded really rough when they started and got better over a short time.
As for the GM who would only consider someone out of state for PD.....I'd much rather have someone who knew the area than an outsider if their qualifications were roughly equal.
AM radio while it was popular was the best place for jocks, there was more freedom. When I got to FM it was read liner B then shut up and play the music.
Our liner stopped at A when I was doing it in the 90s. :-[
quadraphonic said:
Bet is was my favorite...."less talk".
Talking about not talking never made sense to me. Just don't talk and I'll bet the listeners with figure it out without someone telling them 6 times an hour.
Also talk is:
Commercials
Sweepers
Promos
and the poor fool behind the microphone trying to create something entertaining over a 7 second intro.
- Status