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e-menace
Guest
If you could buy any Seattle station you wanted and do something challenging and compelling with the format (no automation or syndication please), who would you hire, what would you play, etc?
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Pretty simple for me... I'd go "full service". Hybrid of information & music ... backed with personalities who relate and do a great job of tying all the elements together. No pre-defined format (classic rock, AC, etc.) but a good mix of "gold" [ESPECIALLY if one could find tunes that relate to the events or mood of the day] and a few decent recurrents/new tunes. Not same stuff everyone else is playing -- there is a great deal of outstanding music being recorded and released but not played because it doesn't fit the "formats" today. Also some attention to local artists who could use a boost.
This isn't innovation ... it's simply what great radio used to do very well. Frustrating thing is I can't find that on the dial any more ... and I sure won't be able to find it on i-Pod/Satellite; which makes me wonder WHY it's not on all these stations that scream about how "local" they want to me.
Then again ... I understand down at the NAB this week ... LOTS of lip service paid by group leaders to "we want to innovate and deliver great content"; and then probably left the convention to go back and study the spreadsheets to figure out how to save some $$ by trimming "fat" out of the programming budgets by finding something else to "centralize".
Good convo-starter, e-m. Hope you get additional responses too!
This isn't innovation ... it's simply what great radio used to do very well. Frustrating thing is I can't find that on the dial any more ... and I sure won't be able to find it on i-Pod/Satellite; which makes me wonder WHY it's not on all these stations that scream about how "local" they want to me.
Then again ... I understand down at the NAB this week ... LOTS of lip service paid by group leaders to "we want to innovate and deliver great content"; and then probably left the convention to go back and study the spreadsheets to figure out how to save some $$ by trimming "fat" out of the programming budgets by finding something else to "centralize".
Good convo-starter, e-m. Hope you get additional responses too!
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e-menace
Guest
I miss the full service era too, like KOMO used to be. That was FUN radio.
Let's hear another entry.
I want to see how many people out there differ from the official toadying and party line of the radio we know today.
Let's hear another entry.
I want to see how many people out there differ from the official toadying and party line of the radio we know today.
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airwaver
Guest
KOMO was a great radio station...
..then HE had to depart:
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5751/larkomo97gi3.jpg
I hear Lar has MORE hair now per one of his current radio ads on 710 KIRO of all places!
..then HE had to depart:
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5751/larkomo97gi3.jpg
I hear Lar has MORE hair now per one of his current radio ads on 710 KIRO of all places!
Ohh, Let the list of heritage calls begin...Sure KOMO was a great full-service station, among the best. KING AM and KJR AM, KLSY FM in it's early (Chris Mays) days, even later-day KIXI till Sandusky blew it up. They were all great full service stations with real news dapartments, airborne traffic and jocks that knew this town and how to tell a story.
Where HAS it all gone? Who will have the b*lls to bring it back? Is HD2 going to be just 100 more channels of the same crap we get now on analog FM. Oh, there ya go. That'll save radio, huh?!
Great questions...to keep this thread going for days.
Where HAS it all gone? Who will have the b*lls to bring it back? Is HD2 going to be just 100 more channels of the same crap we get now on analog FM. Oh, there ya go. That'll save radio, huh?!
Great questions...to keep this thread going for days.
airwaver said:KOMO was a great radio station...
..then HE had to depart:
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5751/larkomo97gi3.jpg
I hear Lar has MORE hair now per one of his current radio ads on 710 KIRO of all places!
Waver, That's a rug.
I'd like a full service AM on FM. Great news, traffic, topical information, loads of personality and instead of filling in the day with talk show hosts, I'd put music on, with DJs who can entertain and do more than read liner cards.
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WarpFactor
Guest
talkerdjdude said:
..and who would listen to this?
Maybe 70 year olds.
NOT a ratings or revenue winner, friends.
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e-menace
Guest
Yeah I know! We need to play some crappy Billboard top 40 fill, have some liner cards with repetitive statements about how much music we play and a foul mouthed FREAK on the morning shi(f)t.
Remember I said "dream station".
Remember I said "dream station".
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WarpFactor
Guest
e-menace said:
Well, if your dream is to have a station that nobody listens to and hemmorages money, go for it.
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e-menace
Guest
Oh RIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! Like many of the big boy stations that are leaking cash right now in Seattle? Hit machines like KPTK? Jack? Hot!
As you know, everyone is #1 in radio! Amazing!
As you know, everyone is #1 in radio! Amazing!
K
Kelly
Guest
I agree. Radio in the Seattle market has been running down 10% in revenues this year, and according to predictions will be down another 3% next year. National advertising has all but gone away, with more focus on the Internet. The Northwest markets in comparison to the East, never really have recovered after the crash(s) in 2000 and 2001. 2007 will have no political revenue either, so based on what we are seeing this year, I think down an additional 3% is being optimistic.
I suspect rather than seeing the increase of expensive-to-run "full service", "all personality classic Top-40 whatever" programming with a bunch of live people not reading liner cards etc., we are about to witness the greatest use of automation ever. It's a survival move. In fact, over the next four years, you'll get to hear the use, (not necessarily in Seattle), of the worlds first synthetic jock using new voice synthesis technology developed from the folks who made the first transistor, Bell Labs. I've heard it, and it sounds very good.
Don't get me wrong, that would not be my choice for a Dream Station by any means. It certainly isn't the reason I got into the business, but it is a little look into the crystal ball of the future of radio, and the loss of the "old days".
I suspect rather than seeing the increase of expensive-to-run "full service", "all personality classic Top-40 whatever" programming with a bunch of live people not reading liner cards etc., we are about to witness the greatest use of automation ever. It's a survival move. In fact, over the next four years, you'll get to hear the use, (not necessarily in Seattle), of the worlds first synthetic jock using new voice synthesis technology developed from the folks who made the first transistor, Bell Labs. I've heard it, and it sounds very good.
Don't get me wrong, that would not be my choice for a Dream Station by any means. It certainly isn't the reason I got into the business, but it is a little look into the crystal ball of the future of radio, and the loss of the "old days".
Kelly said:
No question the best formats are also the most expensive. That's why we no longer hear them. It's also, in my opinion, the reason for the demise of everything. People don't want to spend any money on decent content ... so yield to being cheap. Listeners don't get anything they can't get elsewhere ... so they abandon radio ...which, in turn, panicks because it now is approaching the point where it is losing ability to get enough revenue to even cover the CHEAP operations. Doesn't take Scooby-Doo to predict how all that will shake out.
Meanwhile your robo-jock chip talent sounds like a PD's wet dream. First wave was when the music scheduling came along and with a couple hours a day, the music rotations could be "locked down" so nothing left to talent discretion any more. "We don't want those monkeys making content choices" as one consultant explained to me mid-1980's. Then came the digital systems where talent couldn't make the mistake of "overriding bad judgement" with discretionary changes during a shift. Then elimination of live talent (to tracks) so that whole "we can't let them even UTTER anything that isn't pre-approved" could get some traction. So I'm a little confused about the difference between a chip uttering the tracks and the pre-recorded reel-to-reel intro/extros that came from syndication houses in the 70's (kind of like when computer makers introduced computers without Disk drives ... wasn't that basically a rebirth of a DUMB TERMINAL??). Maybe difference is the chips can be fed new liners from the PD's boat as the weekend progresses?!
Like you, I have some passion for the industry. But at the same time I don't plan to be sitting in the front row crying my eyes out when the industry has its funeral. By that point I'm hoping the CSI's autopsy doctor will be smart enough to label the cause of death as "SUICIDE".
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mammaknowsbest
Guest
Dream Station has inventive, new music mix, solid production and solid morning show. I don't really care about personality after mornings to be honest and I get traffic from my car system, I drive an Acura.
Kelly is right on the money. The automation system he talks about is in use in Spokane on an AC there, where the songs are back announced by a virtual voice. I don't think it fits in mornings, but outside of that, why not. The key is focusing on production and music mix to create audience, plus leveraging your morning talent across all dayparts.
JACK needs a morning show to take it to the next level, their new ad campaign is right on target. MOVIN will get a morning show, once their growth peaks with automation. (So far that hasn't happened.) This is the Dream scenario for radio in a tight economy.
Kelly is right on the money. The automation system he talks about is in use in Spokane on an AC there, where the songs are back announced by a virtual voice. I don't think it fits in mornings, but outside of that, why not. The key is focusing on production and music mix to create audience, plus leveraging your morning talent across all dayparts.
JACK needs a morning show to take it to the next level, their new ad campaign is right on target. MOVIN will get a morning show, once their growth peaks with automation. (So far that hasn't happened.) This is the Dream scenario for radio in a tight economy.
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dan_greenberg1500
Guest
JACK needs a morning show to take it to the next level, their new ad campaign is right on target.
By new ad campaign, I sure hope your not referring to the lame spoof of Napoleon Dynamite.
By new ad campaign, I sure hope your not referring to the lame spoof of Napoleon Dynamite.
mammaknowsbest said:
It isn't the economy that's tight. Advertisers are spending more money than ever. They just don't spend it on radio because it doesn't perform like it used to. Gee, I wonder why?
The economy is doing just fine, thank you. It's radio that sucks and its precisely this kind of thinking that has gotten radio to the sorry state that it's in.
Keep re-arranging the radio deck chairs while the ship slowly goes down.
mammaknowsbest said:
Prefacing my remarks with "different strokes for ..." but when the "radio can be bland all day outside mornings" mindset became mainstream is definitely the point in time I said "screw this" and turned off the radio for good. If I want blandness AND no personality I used to use mixed tapes ... then CD's. Today people who want that are finding better alternative sources. Something that makes radio unique vs. those other choices seems the way to make some headway. In any case the point is if you want just tunes (and more than about 200 of them) there are MUCH better alternatives for that pang of hunger.
Guess the parallel exists in TV too. We had a handful of stations that have been pretty good. Then some of them decided "we can run this on the cheap with syndicated shows and eliminate anything local". Today if it weren't for the bare recollection that 10 and 11 are somewhere between 9 and 13 I couldn't even locate those TV stations anymore, tell you what they are doing or whatever. They CHOSE to be bland and I chose to leave. Same with radio. Those who CHOSE to be bland forced me to leave.
But, nevertheless, I understand where you are coming from. I just don't think it's the strategy that will win the long term "war to keep an audience"....
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e-menace
Guest
I'm sure glad the FCC decided to take the socialist way out in 1996 and let a small group of companies put this decrepit industry on life support for another decade or 2 instead of letting the losers go off the air.
Now instead of a few good stations, lots of bad excuses crowd up the band and make it unlistenable.
Now instead of a few good stations, lots of bad excuses crowd up the band and make it unlistenable.
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Kelly
Guest
Well I suppose there is a case where radio has driven out audience to a lesser extent, but so has convenience through technology to a greater extent.
If you asked most of the younger set when the last time they either listened to, or even purchased a radio, AM or FM, they would either tell you the extent of their radio listening is their clock radio that wakes them up, or when they were riding in the car with mom or dad.
One could argue that no level of personality, unique music, or whatever would replace the convenience and selection of a IPod for the younger generation. Hell my youngest son thinks CD's were used by dinosaurs.
If you asked most of the younger set when the last time they either listened to, or even purchased a radio, AM or FM, they would either tell you the extent of their radio listening is their clock radio that wakes them up, or when they were riding in the car with mom or dad.
One could argue that no level of personality, unique music, or whatever would replace the convenience and selection of a IPod for the younger generation. Hell my youngest son thinks CD's were used by dinosaurs.
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