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Farm System For Radio?

Yes -- many stations are now automated overnights and weekends either with voicetraking or no jock at all. It's Very sad! I began overnights in 1966. Did it most of my years in radio. Now I'd be hard-pressed to find an all -night job on oldies radio. I liked all -night radio. No boss to hassle me--- except on the hot line at 3 am --because I played the wrong jingle!!!! (What a business!!!!)
 
stations now use satellite music feeds too overnight and weekends--- not live, local jocks. I recently heard a station lose its feed overnight. The carrier remained on with dead air---over four hours. Guess no human being was at the station and no manager was listening. This is what operating cheap gets you! Guess who owns that station?
 
Today--too many jocks---not enough jobs. Years back my FCC first class ticket got me jobs as a top40 jock and board op at some top stations. today jocks need no license at all----right? plus the automation/satellite feeds/voicetracking used by many stations cuts the use of live,local jocks. It's really too bad. I really do not like non-jock formats like Jack either. very boring. maybe stations will go back to using more jocks in the future. We can hope!
 
DID ANYBODY EVEN READ THE ARTICLE?

It's a 10 Day Summer Program.
How is this better than spending four years in college taking courses, working at a student radio station and maybe even getting a part-time or summer job?
How is it even better than the Connecticut - Columbia or any other proprietary "school of broadcasting?"
This shows some contempt for radio to suggest it is something that can be mastered in only 10 days.
And it is NOT a "farm system." The article says the purpose of this non-credit summer program is to prepare students for entry-level jobs. Entry-level jobs are the farm system and that's precisely what radio does not have much of any more.
This is just hype from some backwater college trying to market a summer program to the gullible.
 
I've thought for years colleges are cranking out radio and tv graduates----when there are likely not nearly enough jobs for them. but I suppose you can say that for grads with other degrees too---- except a law degree or computer degree!
 
Right. And spending 10 weeks one summer in the mountains of North Carolina is not going to help one's career prospects as much as a summer job in radio (even if that summer job is an unpaid internship).
College Radio TV programs are a major rip off. I speak as a graduate of one that was (at the time) rated the best in the country. The main thing they accomplish is they allowed me to stay in college taking fun but mickey mouse courses in which I could get good grades without much effort. Unfortunately, I did not learn anything I had not already learned at the campus radio station and student newspaper, or (after my freshman year) working in commercial radio part-time. Better to take a liberal arts curriculum - what you learn never becomes obsolete, especially the ability to learn - and then go to grad school to learn a trade (law school, B-school, even journalism school).
Notice the people at the TOP of the broadcasting industry were mostly NOT broadcasting majors.
 
I too hold a useless college communications degree. as noted earlier my FCC first class ticket was far more useful years ago.
 
Re: DID ANYBODY EVEN READ THE ARTICLE?

fred flintstone said:
It's a 10 Day Summer Program. This shows some contempt for radio to suggest it is something that can be mastered in only 10 days.
Click to expand...

Good point. I get a little concerned that so much of the discussion in this business is a bunch of old guys talking about the good old days when there was a farm system. Hell, I'm RUNNING a farm system. It's called a small market.
 
when in college I did not bother with the college station. I had my FCC first ticket so a local station hired me part-time. ($1.50 an hour I think but I learned more there than in 4 years of college communications courses) (the college science and liberal arts courses were useful and I suppose a degree looks good on a resume) (But as I said in other posts the FCC license meant a lot years ago and I got many jobs due to having it---both as a jock--- and at large radio-tv stations as a board op.)
 
Re: DID ANYBODY EVEN READ THE ARTICLE?

Salty Dog said:
fred flintstone said:
It's a 10 Day Summer Program. This shows some contempt for radio to suggest it is something that can be mastered in only 10 days.
Click to expand...

Good point. I get a little concerned that so much of the discussion in this business is a bunch of old guys talking about the good old days when there was a farm system. Hell, I'm RUNNING a farm system. It's called a small market.
Click to expand...

The only trouble with that is that so-called "farm system" has basically been gutted, thanks to consolidation.
 
Re: DID ANYBODY EVEN READ THE ARTICLE?

radionut925 said:
The only trouble with that is that so-called "farm system" has basically been gutted, thanks to consolidation.
Click to expand...

Nah. If it's been guttted by voicetracking, that was thanks to cheap microchips, not consolidation. Voicetracking picked up steam about the same time as consolidation did but as the say in statistical analysis: Correlation is not causation. They just happened at about the same time. Plenty of small independently owned operations voicetrack. In fact, the more successful ones that I know of voicetrack MORE than the big companies.
 
Actually you're both right... it's been gutted by both consolidation and cheap microchips. Both cut back on the need for the number of live bodies there have to be in the studios at any given time. Consolidation allowed stations that were bought up and clustered together to use the same jocks on differenct stations, and voicetracking allowed different voices to be brought in from outside the market. It's not a one-or-the-other issue. They both are killing radio.
 
Josh C. said:
They both are killing radio.
Click to expand...
I don't know if they are killing radio; they are killing the job market in radio.
Correlation is not causation.
And the availability of jobs is not the same a listener satisfaction.
It can be argued that small and medium market radio has a better on-air quality thanks to technology.
And the people who owned locally owned stations back in the day could be - and were - just as greedy and ruthless as Clear Channel, Entercom and the rest. Maybe more so.
 
I don't know if they are killing radio; they are killing the job market in radio.
Correlation is not causation.
And the availability of jobs is not the same a listener satisfaction.


[/quote]

That's not the case if a particular station or group is cutting back on key elements such as local news and weather.
 
radionut925 said:
I don't know if they are killing radio; they are killing the job market in radio. And the availability of jobs is not the same a listener satisfaction.
Click to expand...

Exactly. That's why jocks are hardly objective about voicetracking. Did the United Auto Workers embrace robots painting cars on the assembly line? I think not! Are the paint jobs better? Yes.
 
Yes, those phone calls from Paul Drew at 3 AM were real treats.

One time I had to give him my top 5 reasons as to why he shouldn't fire me right then and there in the middle of a shift at The Big 8 ... highly stressful bit of grovelling went on that time.

I'll never forget seeing him arriving at the station about 6:15 AM as I was on my home and I said "Good morning Mr. Drew" as I passed him in the hall. He reamed me out for a solid 10 minutes about how someone of my social standing in the radio station shouldn't be under the impression I could just speak to him whenever the whim overtook me.

That said, I learned a great deal from that man and I take his attitude of perfection in the product with me to this day.

Regards to all,
Lee
 
I do voiceover work now--NYC/Philly areas. I refuse to work for low pay as a jock after being in radio and tv since 1966. by the way----what is Clear Channel University? A training program for clear channel employees? do other radio companies have similar programs? I must be the only person in radio never to have worked for clear channel. at least--not yet!
 
fred flintstone said:
Josh C. said:
They both are killing radio.
Click to expand...
I don't know if they are killing radio; they are killing the job market in radio.
Correlation is not causation.
And the availability of jobs is not the same a listener satisfaction.
Click to expand...

Actually, it is. The correlation isn't just a matter of synchronisity... it truly is causation. The argument I made tells you exactly why. Stations were grouped together more than they ever had been before, therefore, the need for jobs dropped substantially. Further, technology improved, and the need for jobs dropped even further.

With the drop in job availability, the need for finding new talent dropped in direct proportion. Therefore, the rate at which new talent is brought into the industry was severely diminished.

This directly affects listener satisfaction, because it restricts the flow of new ideas and material making their way to the airwaves. The less originality there is on the air, the fewer people are going to listen. That's proving itself as we speak.

So on this topic, we're not just discussing correlation. One truly does affect the other.

It can be argued that small and medium market radio has a better on-air quality thanks to technology.
And the people who owned locally owned stations back in the day could be - and were - just as greedy and ruthless as Clear Channel, Entercom and the rest. Maybe more so.
Click to expand...

Oh, believe me, I agree with that! Working at a small-town Class A for ten years taught me that lesson well!
 
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