Cutbacks at Citadel/ABC Dallas

[bassassassin]

abc-dj:

While I was there, not being able to do local content was the most unpleasant aspect of the gig. Which is why I was eternally grateful to George Gimarc for supplying me with his "standard network phrases for satellite jocking". Things like "didja see the game last night?" and "I went into town yesterday" and "how 'bout that weather". Very useful!!

 

[RADIO TRUTH]

The 24 hour ABC Radio Networks pay the minimum they can to a group of minimally talented djs. They may think they are doing personality but, they don't have enough ability to be personalities. Also, it is very difficult to be a personality when you only talk four or five times an hour. Basically, the 24 hour formats of the ABC Radio Network are geared for small market radio with small market mentalities so they don't feel the need to pay any money or hire anybody with any talent.

 

[seanmoore]

I guess this thread answers my question, "where the heck is Steve Nichols?"

This IS the Steve Nichols of ABC/SMN's "Today's Best Hits" correct? I work part-time at one of their affiliates, and can only say that the nighttime phones and retro have not been the same -- and I miss it. He was easily one of the best jocks, with plenty of personality between the songs. Frankly, it's jocks like him (that small markets like ours don't get to hear much) that inspire me to not totally give up on radio -- that it really can still be a cool business. Hope he is well, and would be very interested to know what's next for him if anybody knows.

This is a very disturbing thread. If small-town affiliates cannot count on the 24-7 formats to deliver the energy of live radio, then our stations are no better than the canned voice-trackers. Especially since the locally voice-tracked stations can truly be local (if usually bland and canned sounding, with un-focused music). I have defended satellite-delivered content for the very reason that it makes it possible for live, talented jocks to be heard in tiny markets -- a way for small stations to affordably sound professional.

But if these services are going to voice-track and fire their best personalities, then there is really no advantage for any local station to carry that.

 

[longtimelistener]

I wonder where the new generation of radio personalities (if there is one) will come from. I grew up in a very small town and my first job was doing the "Coca-Cola Countdown" after school on a 1,000 watt AM daytimer.

Today that operation is an AM-FM combo that's all syndicated, all-the-time, except for a show that the p.d. for both stations does live middays on the AM.

I worked at an RKO station during the heyday of Boss Radio and all the jocks I worked with were small-town guys that had started on the air during high-school at a station where the owner would put a kid on the air as long as we played the right commercials and wrote down transmitter readings.

Where do kids in love with radio get their start now? Or perhaps the better question is are there still kids listening to the radio past their bed-times dreaming of someday "stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song"?

 

[texas_prwriter]

Where do kids in love with radio get their start now? Or perhaps the better question is are there still kids listening to the radio past their bed-times dreaming of someday "stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song"?

As one who not so many years ago found it fun to pick up random radio stations from strange places, I think the answer is today's kids don't stay up listening past their bed times, nor do they have dreams of radio careers. They listen to their friends' podcasts, their own playlists on itunes and find funky bands from their friends. Corporate radio just doesn't light their fire. I hardly think terrestrial radio is dead, but I don't think the "good old days" are ever returning, either. At least, not without a massive change in direction in the way corporate radio is run.

I won't hold my breath.

 

[RADIO TRUTH]

With all the fragmentation from internet radio, satellite radio, Ipods and other things that have not yet been invented, over-the-air radio is dieing a slow, ugly death. Total listening and radio's percentage of revenue versus cutting edge new media will to go downward. The depersonalization of radio is just a reaction by broadcasting companies to save money. Why would any kid want to be a robot in a dieing industry. In the 60s, there was a reason to want to be a personality dj. Forty years later those reasons don't exist anymore. The romance of personality radio is dead, dead, dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[longtimelistener]

Where do kids in love with radio get their start now? Or perhaps the better question is are there still kids listening to the radio past their bed-times dreaming of someday "stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song"?

As one who not so many years ago found it fun to pick up random radio stations from strange places, I think the answer is today's kids don't stay up listening past their bed times, nor do they have dreams of radio careers. They listen to their friends' podcasts, their own playlists on itunes and find funky bands from their friends. Corporate radio just doesn't light their fire. I hardly think terrestrial radio is dead, but I don't think the "good old days" are ever returning, either. At least, not without a massive change in direction in the way corporate radio is run.

I won't hold my breath.

You're right---there aren't any Art Roberts-Dick Biondi-Cousin Brucie-Bill Mack-John R. "the hossman"-and of course, the Wolfman-etc.'s anymore. I'm grateful for the "good old days" and stations like WLS, WCFL, WBZ, WABC, WQAM, KHJ, WLW and WLAC but I'm sad that those days will never return.

 

[gagorder]

Radio ceased to be radio when VT and syndication flooded stations. Radio is radio in name only. You hardly see kids play outside anymore,its inside with video games or Ipod listening. Who can blame them? Corps got too greedy and refuse to acknowledge that and fix it. radio is not compelling anymore, its all visual. Even the corps screwed up MTV and VH1 home of the music video network with no videos or "VJS"
Internet radio was refreshing now the corps are starting to screw that up as well.

You get a suit involved ,you might as well call them a mortician.

 

[CW]

Where do kids in love with radio get their start now? Or perhaps the better question is are there still kids listening to the radio past their bed-times dreaming of someday "stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song"?

As one who not so many years ago found it fun to pick up random radio stations from strange places, I think the answer is today's kids don't stay up listening past their bed times, nor do they have dreams of radio careers. They listen to their friends' podcasts, their own playlists on itunes and find funky bands from their friends. Corporate radio just doesn't light their fire. I hardly think terrestrial radio is dead, but I don't think the "good old days" are ever returning, either. At least, not without a massive change in direction in the way corporate radio is run.

I won't hold my breath.

You're right---there aren't any Art Roberts-Dick Biondi-Cousin Brucie-Bill Mack-John R. "the hossman"-and of course, the Wolfman-etc.'s anymore. I'm grateful for the "good old days" and stations like WLS, WCFL, WBZ, WABC, WQAM, KHJ, WLW and WLAC but I'm sad that those days will never return.

And if lack of entertainment wasn't enough......even the news side has suffered!

Today, in the Beaumont area, a train derailment happened with a rail car full of a chemical that could cause a major explosion and fire. The highway it happened close to is a major 4 lane highway in the area between BMT and Port Arthur and will be closed for a couple of DAYS....YET the CC AM (KLVI) just kept on going with its Sean Hannity loud mouth spouting away(Their FMs kept playing music)...The Cumulus stations just played music since they really dont have a news department and the rest of the stations?? Martin's 990 AM kept on with its ultralow modulation of ABC's gospel format and FOX NEWS Radio 1340 was running Glen Beck; yeah thats news!....oh and 1250 Radio Maria along with the non-comm religious FMs were still out to SAVE YOUR SOUL FOR JESUS but nothing about the local event that could bring them closer to that time NO breaking news on any radio station about it..Gotta love it

 

[jdean]

I get at least two or three emails a week from teenagers and college students wondering about getting into radio/broadcasting. Whether that will be terrestrial or satellite or something we haven't thought or heard of yet, I dunno - but the future is out there, and many of them are just as hungry as we once were. Brighter, too. Maybe we ought to try to sound less like our grandparents.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

I get at least two or three emails a week from teenagers and college students wondering about getting into radio/broadcasting. Whether that will be terrestrial or satellite or something we haven't thought or heard of yet, I dunno - but the future is out there, and many of them are just as hungry as we once were. Brighter, too. Maybe we ought to try to sound less like our grandparents.

I'm sure your inbox is blowing up with kids romanticizing "being a DJ". What kid without a passle of athletic ability and nerve to be on "American Idol" wouldn't? It's celebrity they are after, not a passion for the radio. I wish ANY of those kids in college or CSB would have half the teachers I had who actually worked in major market radio and provided me a tested map to make it in this business. Thank God, he blessed my pipes because I didn't have the patience to stay on a daily shift. Those suits are killing this lovely experience and making it a JOB.

 

[abc-radio-dj]

The 24 hour ABC Radio Networks pay the minimum they can to a group of minimally talented djs. They may think they are doing personality but, they don't have enough ability to be personalities. Also, it is very difficult to be a personality when you only talk four or five times an hour. Basically, the 24 hour formats of the ABC Radio Network are geared for small market radio with small market mentalities so they don't feel the need to pay any money or hire anybody with any talent.

Bitter, are we? Wonder why? Did you lose your job there???? You seem to know oh-so-much about the operation.....

 

[jdean]

I said I get two or three emails a week, not that my inbox is blowing up. I'm looking at one from an Eagle scout who runs track at an area high school, who's got a chance to attend Rutgers. What he wants to know is whether he should go to UNT, because he's heard its a good place to learn radio. There's another one in there from a young lady who wants to do baseball play-by-play, and where to learn how. Everyone has their own reasons - just like many of us started doing it to play our favorite records, meet girls, or whatever. I grew up listening to George Irwin, Bill Mack and the Humble SWC Network...thinking how cool tht must be...and I'm certain there are kids listening to Brad Sham, Eric Nadel, Hal Jay, Kidd, Rhyner, Murphy...thinking "wouldn't THAT be fun". Some of them will get the chance to meet and maybe work with those people, will invent new ways to communicate, and maybe make things better than we have. Not all are after celebrity. Some have a vision, and they deserve credit for that.

 

[Robert Bass]

Have to agree w/ Jody on this one.

I've seen many a completed application for the student DJ program at KEOM. I have yet to read an answer to the question of "Why are you interested in taking the KEOM class?" where an applicant stated "To be popular" or "To be a celebrity".

Most of the applicants seem interested in some form of study in communications, after high school. As Jody stated, some express interest in doing play-by-play, others desire to be news reporters, and so on.

R

 

[yardape101]

Wow, it's like an interactive game: Jody says, "Maybe we ought to try to sound less like our grandparents", and sure enough, Grandpa Veritas shows up with "they're all after celebrity, not the passion of radio".

Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

Yeah, well maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the transmitter. I admit it was terse, but I wear it on my sleeve. I love this game, seriously. And lately I haven't found a lot of "young whippersnappers" that want to do it because of radio, but because of celebrity. If I am wrong, great. I haven't had the luxury to see a lot of applications in a booth writing sounders, so you have one up on me.

There. My mea culpa. Now I'll go back to smoking Viceroys and staining my leathered skin. ;D

 

[gagorder]

I have to agree mostly with Veritas( put down the viceroys and dont sneak any old golds in here either). They are mostly wanting celebrity bragging rights amongst their peers or that hot chick to impress. Jody is right to a degree, there are few who actually want t olearn and havea passion for broadcasting. That is what is missing "Passion". Its very shortt in supply and at extreme drought levels. It started to breach his levee when limitations on the number of spots per hour increased,and liners replaced adlibs and personalities. So Jody is partially correct, Veritas is mostly correct. Unless things change and the "old school" ways of doing radio are brought back,its one step away from somebody getting the matches and having a viking funeral.

 

[Robert Bass]

They are mostly wanting celebrity bragging rights amongst their peers or that hot chick to impress.

Ummmmm, yeah, right..... Just like females are getting into the business to impress guys.

R