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Free Form Radio

S

stevehendrix

Guest
I know I've probably mentioned this before. But you jocks who want to do a free form style radio show SHOULD pitch it to your local public radio station. Todays Virginian Pilot newspaper in Norfolk highlites Paul Shugrue and his public radio show called "Out Of The Box". ANY opportunity you can land to spread your talent to more audience is worth the trouble to try. If you don't try, don't cry. The link is:

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=97542&ran=167556<P ID="signature">______________
Steve Shannon WELK,WINA
Steve Hendrix WRVQ,WRNL,WLEE
Starr Stevens WROV,WXIL,WKEE
The Real Steve Kelly WGH,WZCL,WLTY
Kelly Wayne WTVR,WKEZ
www.wrovhistory.com
</P>
 
Thanks for the link.

Still, a commercial radio station that incorporates a little freedom with their musical choices stands to not only revolutionize a stagnant advertising outlet (Free radio) with bold innovation, but always will make a mint.

Innovative radio programming shouldn't be confined exclusively to public and subscription radio stations...<P ID="signature">______________
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.wclmradio.com/pages/bopst.html>The Bopst Show</a>
Monday-Friday (1-4 PM EST-USA)
WCLM 1450 AM
Richmond, Virginia
http://www.wclmradio.com
Request Line: (804) 231-7685

</P>
 
> Thanks for the link.
>
> Still, a commercial radio station that incorporates a little
> freedom with their musical choices stands to not only
> revolutionize a stagnant advertising outlet (Free radio)
> with bold innovation, but always will make a mint.
>
> Innovative radio programming shouldn't be confined
> exclusively to public and subscription radio stations...
>


but always will make a mint... Not Necessarily True!
Tell that to Chocolate Chip Johnston, Steve Ford, Chilly Breeze,
Jay Martin, Rob Roberts, Carmilla Ham, James Johnson...[oops can't, HE'S DEAD],
Jason Edwards [my brother], including myself, the other air talent and staff [I can't remember all of their names...oh, and Diane the Receptionist...!!! Jason will love that one, lolol inside joke]. All of us ended up getting flamboozled by the lawyers who owned her at the time. Always make a mint... all of us will laugh and take issue with that statement!
Exactly 20 years ago!!! 1450AM WENZ, Now going by call letters WCLM. Did just what you stated..."Innovative radio programming". The community perked up it's ears when we came on. All the other stations including the big guns took notice as well. We were fresh, spontaneous, lively, informative... very different. What radio is supposed to be entertainment with personality. Chip, if I remember correctly, had five or six paychecks bounce. Jason had three. I had two bounce. I even ended up suing them for overtime... They went bankrupt 3-4 months after my brother and I left in mid-May '86. <P ID="signature">______________
Lou
</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by iLovradio on 01/03/06 06:10 AM.</FONT></P>
 
This is true. A radio station can be the best thing on the air since the invention of the transmitter, but financially it is only as good as it's advertising sales staff. Without the cashflow from advertisers, a commercial station is doomed to failure.

> but always will make a mint... Not Necessarily True!
> Tell that to Chocolate Chip Johnston, Steve Ford, Chilly
> Breeze,
> Jay Martin, Rob Roberts, Carmilla Ham, James Johnson...[oops
> can't, HE'S DEAD],
> Jason Edwards [my brother], including myself, the other air
> talent and staff [I can't remember all of their names...oh,
> and Diane the Receptionist...!!! Jason will love that one,
> lolol inside joke]. All of us ended up getting flamboozled
> by the lawyers who owned her at the time. Always make a
> mint... all of us will laugh and take issue with that
> statement!
> Exactly 20 years ago!!! 1450AM WENZ, Now going by call
> letters WCLM. Did just what you stated..."Innovative radio
> programming". The community perked up it's ears when we came
> on. All the other stations including the big guns took
> notice as well. We were fresh, spontaneous, lively,
> informative... very different. What radio is supposed to be
> entertainment with personality. Chip, if I remember
> correctly, had five or six paychecks bounce. Jason had
> three. I had two bounce. I even ended up suing them for
> overtime... They went bankrupt 3-4 months after my brother
> and I left in mid-May '86.
>
 
"Thanks for the link"
(I thought of YOU after I read his story Chris)

"Still, a commercial radio station that incorporates a little
freedom with their musical choices stands to not only
revolutionize a stagnant advertising outlet (Free radio)
with bold innovation, but always will make a mint."
(I wish that were true. But I've lost track of the number of commercial stations that played alternative, jazz, scat, oldies, all news, country gold, etc that either didn't promote themselves or had a poor FM signal, or were AM, and then went belly up in less than a year because other stations with quality signals promoted heavily and stole their audience.)

"Innovative radio programming shouldn't be confined
exclusively to public and subscription radio stations..."
(Its not confined. The AM station you're on is commercial (I've seen the website), and plays ALL kinds of formats. But innovative radio programming won't do squat unless it can reach and maintain a huge audience with a quality far reaching signal. College radio is the most innovative on the dial, but their signals are weak. Their audience is loyal, but small.)

My point is...spread yourself out. Take your talent and pitch it to other outlets. As long as you confine yourself to one frequency band, one town, one station, one signal, you are limiting yourself and your chances of bringing innovative programming to the masses.

Bottom line of agreement with you is...YES! Radio should not be as bad as it is today. But it is, and the only thing you can do to make it better is to throw yourself and your show at every radio outlet that will listen to your ideas and give you an airslot.

If you don't, you are limiting yourself and your chances of spreading innovation to the masses. Think BIG and MAKE it happen.

I like you man. I've never heard your show because I live in Hampton. But you've busted my ass many times on previous posts and got me thinking, which is a good thing. I hope I do the same for you.<P ID="signature">______________
Steve Shannon WELK,WINA
Steve Hendrix WRVQ,WRNL,WLEE
Starr Stevens WROV,WXIL,WKEE
The Real Steve Kelly WGH,WZCL,WLTY
Kelly Wayne WTVR,WKEZ
www.wrovhistory.com
</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Steve Hendrix on 01/04/06 02:22 AM.</FONT></P>
 
The problem in maintaining a radio station that thinks out of the box on a small stick is securing advertising. The companies that make media buys for their clients aren't interested in interesting programming; they'll interested solely in securing time on the largest bandwidths for their clients. I can only hope for scraps from these promotional budgets as these company's clients are better served buying time from Clear Channel, Cox or Viacom not only for sheer wattage, but their commercials will be played on a variety of stations in one fell swoop. Without a cluster of stations to air the advertiser's commercials in a variety of formats, stations such as WCLM can't reasonably compete.

The only way to exist is to hustle the small mom & pops which is the only way my show exists. And it's a dubious investment on their part as only so much mileage can be milked from a thousand watt stick regardless of how popular a show or station may be. I'm exceptionally lucky as I am friends with virtually every business owner that advertises on my show (with a few notable exceptions) and they keep my show on the air.

The eternal dilemma is if I could get on a larger frequency, I wouldn't be able to do my show as I have. The only way I could maintain the musical variety of my show, as you've pointed out, is on a public station which is all fine and dandy, but my motivating goal is to do what I do on a commercial station. It is a catch 22, but the potential rewards of mixing art and commerce are immense if the right situation were to arise. <P ID="signature">______________
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.wclmradio.com/pages/bopst.html>The Bopst Show</a>
Monday-Friday (1-4 PM EST-USA)
WCLM 1450 AM
Richmond, Virginia
http://www.wclmradio.com
Request Line: (804) 231-7685

</P>
 
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