Stranger said:
I didn't say anything about free enterprise, nor do I see how you make the jump from my concept to yours. I simply answered a legitimate question that someone posed about Forever. Do I think someone should be "held accountable" for a good deal when they see it or when they consummate it? Not generally, and not in this case. I'm not critical of the number of stations they own, beyond the notion that what they do ranges from poor all the way up to mediocre. I suppose they've won the right to do that in proportionately large numbers.
"How did they acquire another..." station? By "selling" one property to a company with which they have an affiliation, thus getting their name off the license, and by pledging to pay the asking price. They gave up control of a marginal facility in trade for what by regional standards is a very good one. I'm not saying that's wrong, either, though I don't like it.
What I am criticizing is their attitude, their arrogance and the way they treat customers and employees, up to and including "executives."
Can I point out what a standalone station like 3WZ does better? That's not something one can answer objectively. I like Z and some others like WBLF, but that's purely a matter of taste. Do I think Z is making better use of the public airwaves than Froggy? Yes, in that they're serious about news and information, and supplement what they do on the air with a well done website and a Comcast channel.
But that's just my opinion. Maybe you don't want up to date information when you listen. Maybe you don't want to be able to check out something you hear and don't quite catch. That would be your choice, and if it is, you have plenty from which to choose.
I agree with you that 3WZ does a good job of disseminating information, but that can be said about a lot of the Forever Cluster. They have News/Talk/Sports/variety of other formats. Given their market position, they can offer this across their stations. If every one of their stations were simulcasting Froggy, I could understand the angst, but in terms of meeting the public interest, convenience and necessity, Forever does a decent job, each of their stations an has their own appeal, it’s not like it’s musak all day. You get jocks, they have news and sports coverage, there’s not much more than can be done with those stations in a market like State College.
As far as treatment of employees, with the exception of State College, most of their personnel, including managers, have been there for quite a while. (note i didn't say they were there "forever" like the last poster who said this, altho that was kind of funny)
Re: Upsetting their customers…How do you explain the renewed business? Charging for dubs was also mentioned in one of the many “F*#$ Forever Threads” Frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with charging money for a dub. That’s the intellectual property of the radio station. Why should another radio station benefit from Forever's ideas. Unfortunately, Forever looks like the bad guys, because of a lousy precedent put in place in State Colelge for way too long. Forever puts a lot of time and money into training their production staff/copy writers in creating ads. Why should the competition benefit from it? Not to sound like the "when I was in this major market guy", but it's true, unless the client pays the production fee to an agency or the station, a lot of markets don't do dub sharing(and that's not exclusive to just the top markets)
I only say all of this from a radio person's point of view. I am not sure if your POV is that of a listener, client, programmer, whomever. Having said that, I never leisurely listened to 3WZ or most of the Forever Stations. I just know this stuff because I worked for most these places, but I usually tune into the Lion 90.7FM. You rarely hear the same song twice and they have a lot of nice deep cuts from big artists that never get the airplay they deserve. You can tune them in at
www.thelion.fm, they stream there too, and more importantly The Lion’s talk shows aren't scared to put the PSU admin in their place either, which needs to be done from time to time.
