FCC requireing stations being maned 24/7

[theradioguy2004]

While looking at the latest news on Inside Radio I saw numerous laws being passed by the FCC. One of these laws required stations to be manned with humans 24 hours a day, I am wondering if anybody knows about this because I want to know if each station in a cluster has to have someone there 24 hours a day. Personally I figure stations will just hire some minimum wage people to baby sit, but is there any chance that this will bring back more live radio?

 

[ChuckTiller]

That's interesting; I haven't seen it. However, I agree somebody should be at the helm around the clock. Salem Houston is a 3 station cluster. KTEK is a daytimer and doesn't make a difference, in addition to being sold. That gets us down to two stations. One person here would be able to handle it. Going to work in the early morning hours, I know when nobody is in charge. I hear many stations with computer malfunctions (mine included) which could have been solved if somebody had been here.

Last Spring, our ENCO system was shutting down because of some unknown glitch. I would get in the car, turn on the radio and hear NOTHING. If it wasn't KKHT, it was KNTH which had the problem. I started coming in at 2AM, relieving Lana Joseph. Her shift actually ended at 1AM, but stayed to help. That went on about a month, until we finally got the problem solved.

I would prefer a full-time person. However, I'm sure it would most likely be a part-time shift. Nevertheless, a station should be manned 24/7.

 

[fredcantu]

Re: FCC requiring stations being manned 24/7

Before de-reg and clustering there used to be some very creative radio in the all-night shift.

I remember hearing KILT and their ''Kilt Comedy Hour'' at around 3am back in the 60s. I know it was only a cut from a comedy album. But to hear standup in the middle of the night was something... different. Plus it whetted your appetite for the Hudson & Harrigan Show that would be on in a couple of hours.

I also remember KRLY 93.7 in the 70s had an all-night jock named Willie Sancho, a guy with a thick over-the-top Spanish accent. It was entertaining schtick in the middle of the night.

Having live all-night jocks again would also be a great training ground for radio personalities. I'm sure a number of today's major market old-timers got their first major market shot in the graveyard shift.

 

[ChuckTiller]

When I was on KILT AM & FM (1987-1997) on the overnight shift, I used to play H&H comedy bits around 4:35AM. I usually would select something from the 7AM or 8AM hours. I did it that way because, there could be a good chance that the early listener may not have heard the routine. If they did, it was always funny and good to hear again. As Hudson and Harrigan's producer, I had access to all of their comedy routines. Being their producer and on the overnight shift was one of the most fun periods I've had in my over 35 year career.

I agree that the overnight shift is great training ground. My 1st overnight shift was on KIKN in Corpus. The next all-nighter was at KNUZ where I learned to hone my skill. Joe Ford was on the morning show and wrote one-liners for me to utilize on my show. I also used the joke service, "The Electric Weenie." Joe was great at one liners and their usage. I learned a lot from Joe Ford.

 

[DAYRADIO]

Jeff, I believe the Commission is proposing that it return to the old rules that all stations have a manned main studio during all hours of operation, but this is not yet, in fact, a requirement.

 

[scottwmro]

Jeff, I believe the Commission is proposing that it return to the old rules that all stations have a manned main studio during all hours of operation, but this is not yet, in fact, a requirement.

This will put a MAJOR burdon on "stand alone" AM daytime only stations. These stations are OFF at night, alot of them in small towns. These stations don't have the money to hire people just to sit there and be a "night watchman", let alone a DJ during the day! AM daytimers are struggling and I guess this is Kevin Martin's way of putting another nail into local AM Radio, killing it off so they won't have to deal with it.

Now just because the station is to be manned, does not mean the owner or GM has to use them as a jock. We had a situation here in Nashville where a station has a 6 tower directional antenna pattern at night and 2 tower daytime. At Night, the station owner just hired a young lady to just to sit and babysit the automation and do a few office task.

For those of you looking for jock jobs, don't take this as the FCC is telling station owners that have to have live jocks on the air 24/7. Any monkey can run a board. My 4 year old niece can operate a console and a computer. The reason for this is just incase of an emergency in a community. I suspect there will be opposition filed by state broadcaster's associations, and don't be surprised if the NAB starts to voice comments against this rule.

 

[ChuckTiller]

Re-read that, Scott. It says "all hours of operation." Daytimers would NOT have to have somebody there, because they do NOT operate at night.

 

[justareporter]

Yes...the NAB will have to fight it....after all...how terrible a thought for stations to actually pay to have people working while the station is on the air! Shocking!

 

[skippertthomas]

The general goal of Manned Operations being considered, is that someome is available at all hours and that a minimum presence of a person, on site, be looked at.. Many stations will go dark, if an actual person is required to be in place, during every minute of broadcasting.. This is directed to making sure that full powered stations keep their office hours, public files and connection to the community and general area of license... If LPFM's were required to do this, 90 out of ten couldn't run for more than a couple of hours a day and most would go dark... Kind of like the LPFM rule on having three hours to adjust out of wack power levels and such.... What would the FCC prefer?? A 'off air' situation while weather or disasters happen in the overnight, thus the EAS is out and no infomation is shared to a small community, or a well run station with all the ducks in a row that 'when the lights go out' the automation and bells and whistles are in place to trigger the vital information to the public and to the staff, who then, can return to the studios for live updated information????? It's a mixture of both levels.. Just not some station with no office hours and no contact available, running of a coverted toaster oven, out of date computer, bailing wire and alligator clips! It a push for higher standards and quality in the smaller situations... This is my spin from years of watching the FCC deal with general ideas of change and having friends work in the organization...

 

[CW]

The general goal of Manned Operations being considered, is that someome is available at all hours and that a minimum presence of a person, on site, be looked at.. Many stations will go dark, if an actual person is required to be in place, during every minute of broadcasting.. This is directed to making sure that full powered stations keep their office hours, public files and connection to the community and general area of license... If LPFM's were required to do this, 90 out of ten couldn't run for more than a couple of hours a day and most would go dark... Kind of like the LPFM rule on having three hours to adjust out of wack power levels and such.... What would the FCC prefer?? A 'off air' situation while weather or disasters happen in the overnight, thus the EAS is out and no infomation is shared to a small community, or a well run station with all the ducks in a row that 'when the lights go out' the automation and bells and whistles are in place to trigger the vital information to the public and to the staff, who then, can return to the studios for live updated information????? It's a mixture of both levels.. Just not some station with no office hours and no contact available, running of a coverted toaster oven, out of date computer, bailing wire and alligator clips! It a push for higher standards and quality in the smaller situations... This is my spin from years of watching the FCC deal with general ideas of change and having friends work in the organization...

Ahhh the rule to fix power levels within 3 hours applies to all broadcast stations, not just LPFM! It is not a big deal with remote control and auto power monitoring. If anything, the transmitter is not the problem, the STUDIO is....dead air, PC glitches, etc result in dead carrier....and noone fixing it (shame on the engineer not putting a silence sensor inline)....
But moreover, these voicetracked stations that say "Clear to Partly Cloudy" just as the EAS goes off with a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the area...DUH!!! How stupid is that?? and where is the local involvment?? About time something was done to bring back night life to radio.....

 

[mrtexmex2007]

Actually this law has been on for a while. Back then when there was 87.9 fm Radio Poder a Christian station I might add. When they were on air they got shut down by the FCC for not having somebody in the station at night hours.

 

[amfmhd]

This may be one way to clean up night time skywave problems. After a station does it's two thirds requirement on hours from sunset to midnight they can save money by signing off.

But I'm sure the NAB and all owners will fight this tooth and nail.
Also it would be a huge hardship for stations to locate their main studio inside the city of license.

 

[kendro]

Re: FCC requiring stations being manned 24/7

Of course they will fight it. They have a position statement posted on their website that claims the issue with lack of localism is a "false notion".
This is the trade association that supports the radio industry?

 

[oldjohnny]

Actually this law has been on for a while.

No it hasn't.

Back then when there was 87.9 fm Radio Poder a Christian station I might add. When they were on air they got shut down by the FCC for not having somebody in the station at night hours.

First off, I only know of one liscenced station (and there may be one more out there in the nation) allowed to transmit at 87.9 Mhz, And it is KSFH (i had to look it up), located between San Jose and San Francisco.

Now, I'm no FCC guru, but if this station was in the Houston area, then it probably got shut down for being a pirate since there is no liscence issued to anyone to broadcast at 87.9.

 

[greenboy]

I think this is a great idea. There were times over the summer, during severe storms here in Chicago that occured overnight,
there would be a severe thunderstorm warning or tornado warning issued and the small suburban stations never mentioned it.
There needs to be someone there to get the word out, it could save lives.

 

[TomT]

I've been in radio for over thirty years, and have never worked at a station (from market 250 to market 60) that made any money over-night.

All the ex-dj's and radio wannabes on this board may think this is a cool idea, but, as an owner of an independent FM in a market with two competing 6 station clusters, it looks like a very bad idea.

Especially since the original purpose for the 24/7 suggestion was to have someone at the station in case of an (external) emergency. For many rural stations, there will be no point in running between 10 or 11 pm and 6 AM, they will shut down. Right now, if the NWS or the primary relay station sends an actual emergency alert at 3 in the morning, it will relay automatically on my station, even though it is unmanned. If I am off the air at 3 AM no-on e will get the message.

 

[Kent]

I tend to think going back to requiring stations be manned 24/7 will provide no benefit at a high cost. As things stand right now, the vast majority large clusters are manned 24/7. However, the typical listener can't tell it. The station has someone about as qualified as a trained monkey on the overnight shift, and all that trained monkey does is monitor the stations and the logs. I worked at a cluster a few years ago that had an overnight "ramrod" as we called him, and he was not permitted to go on-air at anytime, period. If weather was bad, he had to send the alerts out via EAS and call someone in to be on-air. I never understood why no one had a weather radio at home so they could come in when the storm was a few counties away.

Of course, the whole issue that got all of this started, which is the Minot train derailment, is an urban legend. The stations were manned when it happened. Clear Channel used to, and probably still does, require its stations to be manned 24/7. Minot was the classic case of what happens when you have a trained monkey on duty who doesn't do his job.

 

[justareporter]

Okay...so let me see if I understand the opponents of 24/7 correctly. A small market AM can't "afford" someone on staff from the hours of 8p-6a (I picked the worst case scenario.) Quick math makes that out to be about $35k a year @ $10/hour.

You're kidding right?

If a station owner can't manage to find $35k a year to run his radio station with ONE body in place 24/7 he/she should just pull the plug or turn over the license to someone who can get the job done.

You MIGHT get me to agree that there should be a waiver for stations with less than...say...100w nighttime...or something like that. You know, the "barely lights a lightbulb from the RF" stations out in the middle of somewhere.

As to the rest? Time to do what your license tells you to do and "serve the public interest, convenience and necessity."

I'm getting tired of people making excuses for us not doing our jobs.

 

[Kent]

Okay...so let me see if I understand the opponents of 24/7 correctly. A small market AM can't "afford" someone on staff from the hours of 8p-6a (I picked the worst case scenario.) Quick math makes that out to be about $35k a year @ $10/hour.

Keep in mind that you also have to factor in health insurance, unemployment insurance, social security taxes and other issues. A $35,000 salary goes WAY up once you consider that. I've been told you can effectively expect expenses to be double each person's salary once you account for all of the extras.

If a station owner can't manage to find $35k a year to run his radio station with ONE body in place 24/7 he/she should just pull the plug or turn over the license to someone who can get the job done.

Tell me, how do you feel about the Telecommunications Act of 1996? That's the whole reason the ownership rules were loosened 11 years ago! The small owners argued they couldn't afford to continue operating while the large operators argued they could absorb these stations and make them work. The irony I've noticed is that all of the people who rail against voicetracking and consolidation are also the ones who argue for unrealistic requirements on station owners. Just like you say you're tired of people making excuses for us not doing our jobs, I get tired of anti-consolidationists arguing the FCC should squeeze their heroes out of the business. If you don't have a problem with the further, for lack of a better term, Clear Channelization of the industry, more power to you. If you don't have a problem with small towns being left unserved, I'll also say more power to you. At least your views would be consistent if you fit either of those categories.

 

[justareporter]

Keep in mind that you also have to factor in health insurance, unemployment insurance, social security taxes and other issues. A $35,000 salary goes WAY up once you consider that. I've been told you can effectively expect expenses to be double each person's salary once you account for all of the extras.

You're right....but the figure is closer to 25-30%. Still, that makes the total less than $50K

As for not serving small towns, the large consolidatd station clusters don't serve them NOW. I think I know where the problem is: groups like clear channel said they could make money ONLY if the created clusters and saved money through voice-tracking, consolidating back-of-the-house costs, etc. Problem: they have become bloated with a zillion VPs, in house consultants, etc.....and someone has to pay the salary of these folks.

Answer: instead of cutting costs and getting rid of layers of fat the NEW clusters fire on-air people even as the cry being broke.

Solution: got me.....the FCC didn't do enough to require staff levels and performance. Everyone got greedy and now we have to remake the wheel or risk becoming obsolete.