Hey folks, cold weather is here! ...

[wadio]

... at least according to Bernie McGuirk in the Peerless Boiler commercial that run about twice an hour on WABC's Internet stream. Peerless should demand a refund or make-goods for the past several months!

This example speaks for itself in terms of how neglected radio Internet streams have become -- and it's not just WABC. Outdated spots, horrendously repetitive PSAs/promos and dead air ... it's clear that station personnel either don't listen or don't care. WOR is pushing iHeart Radio but when listeners get there they're treated to such repetitive goodies as "Travel Minutes" that are, shall we say, "geriatric" in every way.

Media companies are tripping all over each other to "embrace new media" but they apparently don't think the content is important.

 

[reelyreal]

There's a definite content issue. I can't speak for everyone, but I know that at my cluster, there's far less attention paid to the stream because there are far fewer listeners and far less revenue. We spend all of our time in the studio monitoring the air signal and the product that's going out OTA. There's no regular attention paid to the stream.

 

[DToTheJ]

It's not just Cumulus. I remember listening to the stream of a talk station out of Tampa in December, I believe it was WFLA, and the promo started with, "Summer is coming." Again, this was in December, mind you.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

For five hours this past Friday, WBZ Boston's stream had us mesmerized with their coverage of the manhunt. We didn't even turn on the radio to the more-proximate and co-owned KYW Philly.

Of course, WBZ was commercial-free at the time. Their staff was zoned and they did a splended job.

Still, a few of their coverage handoffs from studio to the field -- excellent content and all -- had a few unconscionable drops in audio level and up-cuts which would not have 'cut it' on the parent 1030 signal.
Now, that sort of discrepancy is okay with me ; I've been DXing for fifty years. And the devil knows how many average people in this country and elsewhere who were tuned into the WBZ stream would care about such sonic minutae, either.

Yet, yeah ; the question of stream maintenance continues. The addition of commercials and cutaways would have made the streaming whole more noticeable if the conditions for negligence and second-citizenry had been present and on-the-log. That WBZ was going 200 MPH without a cluttered program log certainly helped their agenda.
But the stream of KNX Los Angeles -- during those big fires -- had similar clumsiness in its presentation as well.

KNX and WABC and WBZ are huge moneymaking citadels on the AM side. The stream portion deserves some re-wiring and priority, though.

 

[OC3]

Why?

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

By re-wiring, OC, I meant figuratively. Some of those streams (even the biggest ones) and the HD spare tires are run as though they are stepchildren.

Thankfully, I don't write for a living. My impreciseness shows at times. But the engineers and programmers do specifically those tasks for a living -- ostensibly maintaining a flow of their own properties. Poster Wadio is right to question the maintenance. Those streams are worldwide. If a company is so quick to embrace this relatively new technology, partially or primarily concerned in keeping pace with the competition and their own new 'properties', and with some of them expensive to operate, some more care and attention should be afforded. Otherwise, why even bother offering it on the internet?
Poster ReelyReal explains some of the reasons for the priorities being elsewhere. Fine and well. But screwups on the streams and the HD properties -- the supposed newer broadcast frontiers for terrestrial radio -- remain symptoms of negligence.

 

[wadio]

Well said, Steve!

There's an old adage: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." More disturbing to me than the lack of resolve by companies to do things right is the indifference of the public. We've become willing to accept all kinds of sloppiness.

Whenever someone on this board identifies an area of radio where there's room for improvement, someone else is always quick to jump in and say, "That's how it is ... get used to it!" It seems we not only condone negligence, we encourage it. Maybe it's a symptom of our decreasing attention spans in this fact-paced multitasking society.

BTW, ... BREAKING NEWS ... Fairway Market is re-opening March 1st! I just heard it on WOR's Internet stream!

 

[OC3]

I think you all forget that CC and Cumulus have cut jobs right and left at their thousands of Radio stations. Remember the stories of the massive firings at WABC and other Citadel stations when the Dickeys took charge or all the long time WOR employees who were shown the door after CC took over? 2 people are doing jobs formerly done by 5 or 6 and things fall through the cracks. This is the new reality and don't you think it pains those left? Both these companies pull the strings remotely at these two radio stations which is sad. That's the reality....

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

The sad reality, bulls-eye, OC3.

Another thing to consider is that the erosion of younger listeners (who had replenished the listening population of the entire radio world for decades) started to become notable before most of the modern sources of music and entertainment existed.

The conglomerate acquisitions, streamlining and additional duties -- packed into a one-size-fits-all approach -- began to become standard behavior long ago.
(Same with the music industry, but that's another topic).

The larger companies will 'sit' on their HD properties, the way people collected new quarters from the 50 states, or Pound Puppies, hoping they'll become valuable, until they turn to money. If they turn to money.
We all have our problems. But maintaining thousands of HD stations and internet streams, similar to the way animal shelters have to do each day, may turn out to be a sad reality for these big companies as well. You know, like they say -- 'Diminishing returns ... it's the law'.