Drained

[lipripper]

When is Atlanta radio going to realize listeners want to be ENTERTAINED not DRAINED??? This "shut up and just play the music" is a bunch of "who-ha." There's so many places and ways of "just hearing the music" that radio needs to make a turn around. When listeners turn on the radio it's to be entertained (I wonder what this jock will say next) or to get information. If radio is to survive it must realize it has to be different,remain constant and return to its roots. Do the jocks who are most talked about get their reputations by "just playing the hits" and limiting babble? No! It's because the are personalities. They speak! And when they do they connect with the listener. Oh my gawd! Did I say personality. How can you connect with listeners and be a personality by voice tracking??? Impossible. By cutting costs it's cutting the very throat of what we love... Radio. Save radio and "Dance with the one who brung you."

 

[Ssummers]

Unfortunately, I think the onus is on the radio owners rather than radio in general. It's radio and it's a business, that's why they call it the radio business. With the advent of deregulation and the influx of owners (especially owners with broadcast deficient backgrounds), the focus has been on paring down the debt ratio and cutting superfluous cost and expense. To programmers' chagrin, the debate over what is superfluous and what isn't, is apparently a very arguable issue without a 100% consensus(Hell, who has a 100% consensus anyway?). First paperclips, then blank CDs, then the overnight jocks, then the in-house research, then the night and midday jocks, etc. so ad infinitum. I hear the new idea is to cut sales staffs(weird how a lot of sales people are up in arms about that, but mostly showed nothing but apathy when the cuts were happening to programming, isn't it?). What is the bottom line? Well, the bottom line is the bottom line. The almighty dollar. No argument there, after all, like I said, it is a business, but until owners understand that they have to strike a balance between the "art" and the "science" of the industry, a lot of radio stations will continue to sound like the audio equivalent of chewing gum with the taste chewed out of it.

 

[RAD1]

Unfortunately, I think the onus is on the radio owners rather than radio in general. It's radio and it's a business, that's why they call it the radio business. With the advent of deregulation and the influx of owners (especially owners with broadcast deficient backgrounds), the focus has been on paring down the debt ratio and cutting superfluous cost and expense. To programmers' chagrin, the debate over what is superfluous and what isn't, is apparently a very arguable issue without a 100% consensus(Hell, who has a 100% consensus anyway?). First paperclips, then blank CDs, then the overnight jocks, then the in-house research, then the night and midday jocks, etc. so ad infinitum. I hear the new idea is to cut sales staffs(weird how a lot of sales people are up in arms about that, but mostly showed nothing but apathy when the cuts were happening to programming, isn't it?). What is the bottom line? Well, the bottom line is the bottom line. The almighty dollar. No argument there, after all, like I said, it is a business, but until owners understand that they have to strike a balance between the "art" and the "science" of the industry, a lot of radio stations will continue to sound like the audio equivalent of chewing gum with the taste chewed out of it.

You are absolutely correct sir! More and more jocks on the air are forced to adhere to corporate policies if they still want to work in radio. That means cut the chatter (among other things)! Trust me, I could spew out names of quite a lot of jocks who are frustrated by the state of radio nowadays. However, if they want a job in radio today and keep it, then they will do what corporate dictates. Whether or not you agree with it, that's the way it is. There's no lack of talent and/or personalities out there who can still entertain but their hands are tied. And yes, the almighty dollar reigns! Radio is a business and there's more concern about creating revenue than actually creating content on air. However, I have noticed and I wish there was more of an equal balance on air because mornings on some stations seem to have too much chatter by jocks, while the other dayparts are stifiled!

 

[AMCM]

It's going to be a while, if ever, that we hear another Jocko Henderson, Wolfman Jack, or Alan Freed on terrestrial radio.

 

[lipripper]

The point is, owners (bean-counters) are concerned about the radio listener number dwendling and what can they do about it. So, the cut everything that's certainly one way.

Listeners don't hear the entertainment value so they turn to satellite, iPods, Cds, etc. if ALL they are going to hear is music.

Radio needs to build itself up again. The art form that made radio such a great medium is what's missing from radio today. Sure, it's business. But, just cutting costs isn't the one and only solution. The oldest form of communication is the voice (even if in the beginning it was just a bunch of sounds and grunts). So, let's start communicating with other people and stop thinking of them as just a bunch of numbers. And no more instant morning soup. You can do an impression of just about every morning show nowdays in 60 seconds.

Example: "Good morning! Ha! Ha! Ha! Weather for today is..Ha! Ha! Ha! Now let's check traffic..Ha! Ha! Ha! A look at the news..Ha! Ha! Ha! Last night on television..Ha! Ha! Ha! And Britney Spears..Ha! Ha! Ha! Insert corny bit..Ha! Ha! Ha! American Idol..Ha! Ha! Ha! Did you hear what (insert artist here) did? Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Next day? SSDD. Arent' we ever gonna learn from our past? That's why we study history. Not for dates, battles, etc.. It's to learn from our mistakes. Take a lesson! I'm off my soap box, for now...

 

[smblack]

Very well put!

 

[RAD1]

The point is, owners (bean-counters) are concerned about the radio listener number dwendling and what can they do about it. So, the cut everything that's certainly one way.

Listeners don't hear the entertainment value so they turn to satellite, iPods, Cds, etc. if ALL they are going to hear is music.

Radio needs to build itself up again. The art form that made radio such a great medium is what's missing from radio today. Sure, it's business. But, just cutting costs isn't the one and only solution. The oldest form of communication is the voice (even if in the beginning it was just a bunch of sounds and grunts). So, let's start communicating with other people and stop thinking of them as just a bunch of numbers. And no more instant morning soup. You can do an impression of just about every morning show nowdays in 60 seconds.

Example: "Good morning! Ha! Ha! Ha! Weather for today is..Ha! Ha! Ha! Now let's check traffic..Ha! Ha! Ha! A look at the news..Ha! Ha! Ha! Last night on television..Ha! Ha! Ha! And Britney Spears..Ha! Ha! Ha! Insert corny bit..Ha! Ha! Ha! American Idol..Ha! Ha! Ha! Did you hear what (insert artist here) did? Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Next day? SSDD. Arent' we ever gonna learn from our past? That's why we study history. Not for dates, battles, etc.. It's to learn from our mistakes. Take a lesson! I'm off my soap box, for now...

Bean counters as you call them don't care about history, just trying to create it or numbers, ie listeners, ratings, etc.! Their only concern is the now and the revenue. They have a theory, less is more and make each word count, however, not always what you hear. Less money they have to shell out for talent and multi-task the talent they do have equals more money they save or don't spend. That shouldn't be the only solution but it's their only focus.

 

[Team Zoom]

Radd1, you are right on the money. Radio groups seem to be hanging on for dear life financially, but I do believe that Lipripper is right. Eventually they'll have to focus more on LOCAL personalities (with personality). Now they are content to offer local service elements like traffic and weather, but the satellite channels are now providing those services too. What the satellite channels don't do is talk about local relatables that let the listener know that the guy/girl on-air is one of them. It all went south with de-regulation just like Scott wrote.

 

[Ssummers]

Word to the mofo! Remember when satellite tv first hit the scene? Everybody was bitching about how you couldn't get local channels. Then, VOILA! Miraculously, satellite tv figured out how to broadcast local channels to their respective markets. That's what people were saying about satellite radio at its inception...that it was incapable of localizing. I knew back then that they'd figure out how to start becoming more local eventually...just like satellite tv did. Well, it's happening now. Some savant in terrestrial radio needs to figure out a way to get into bed with internet radio and adapt and conquer or the credits are gonna start to roll.

 

[RAD1]

Radd1, you are right on the money. Radio groups seem to be hanging on for dear life financially, but I do believe that Lipripper is right. Eventually they'll have to focus more on LOCAL personalities (with personality). Now they are content to offer local service elements like traffic and weather, but the satellite channels are now providing those services too. What the satellite channels don't do is talk about local relatables that let the listener know that the guy/girl on-air is one of them. It all went south with de-regulation just like Scott wrote.

I hear ya but large corporate types aren't consumed with promotion of local talent and that trickles down to local so-called "programmers" who honestly just hold a title. This isn't going to change unless you're already a well-established local morning show who can bring in huge chunks of cash. So if you can do that then they're willing to spend some on promoting you. Other daypart jocks, not even a consideration. Should it be different, certainly. If they would simply realize that spending money promoting a local talent would increase the size of the fold in their pockets due to the obvious exposure. They fail however to see the benefit.

And this may shock you, but large radio companies don't care about the feelings of what listeners actually want to hear as far as music or content. They don't! They base their decisions on outside research that provides an equation and gives them a map. It's then forced on every station they own in a specific format! They only view listeners in terms of numbers that generate ratings that create revenue via ad buyers. How do get ratings without pleasing the listeners? Good question. The fall guy is again research, they believe that's the only information they need to get there.

 

[Team Zoom]

Man you hit one one of my hot buttons on the research topic Rad! What gives me the red a** is the fact that the research in question is usually conducted in a particular city and then used chain-wide, with no regard to the fact that just about every format has some kind of regional tweak in it. I've never been a fan of research because it's useless if you ask the right questions in a badly controlled focus group (ie: asking questions to listeners in an environment where they can be swayed by other respondents). Also, if the company goes into a focus group with an agenda the questions can be asked in ways that guarantee support for that agenda. Now most research isn't even done locally. So you have that on top of that (little Fargo movie reference there ...)

 

[FloydB]

That's what I've always hated about statistics, Zoom. Unfortunately, you have to have some sort of number to prove to the ad buyers that you're worth selling time for. But, there's so few groups, yet so many numbers that any one of them can be skewed to be shown in your favor. TV's just as bad, if not worse. After every book, you'll see that promo "thank you for making us #1" which is what they use to bump their ad prices to potential buyers. Of course, they don't broadcast it on the radio, but if you look closely at the TV promo, you'll find their piece of the "pie" that made them #1.

 

[Uriah]

Look no further than this board for an example of what grabs attention and influences the overload of trite on-air content. Lowest Common Denominator wins....Jen Hobby Divorce: 36 posts & 2,171 views...an educated discussion about the industry 11/664 views.....

 

[Team Zoom]

How easy was that? With all the dough spent on meaningless research Uriah just nailed home the point with a couple of computer clicks. WE are our own focus group!

 

[lipripper]

K.I.S.S. Wow! Shows how shallow we've become.

 

[trusty]

K.I.S.S. Wow! Shows how shallow we've become.

What you mean "we", kemosabe?

 

[lipripper]

Collective term for the folks on this board, Sa-Heeb.

 

[littlejohn]

>Man you hit one one of my hot buttons on the research topic Rad! What gives me the red a** is the fact >that the research in question is usually conducted in a particular city and then used chain-wide, with no >regard to the fact that just about every format has some kind of regional tweak in it.

In the 80s we had stations in several Southern markets playing country, very successfully. The research was used to 'localize' the stations to their homes. Music differed greatly; but presentation and genre even more so. What sold well in one place would be a bust in another. That's the proper use of research, to try to find out what the people >here< wanna hear, wherever >here< may be. Concepts which sell well in Oklahoma tread upon their peepee when you try them in Georgia, and vice versa.

 

[lipripper]

Another positive response. You got that right!