Identity crisis on 95.7

[fordranger797]

Driving home today listening to 95.7 (as I normally do). Throughout the day, it seemed to be a rotating wheel of different names and brands. Half of the time, the voice tracks were referencing “93.3 The Vibe,” and the other half was something else (can’t recall the branding, but it definitely wasn’t “95.7 The Jet.”). I tried to pass this information along to iheart, but nobody is there on the weekend. Not that anyone is surprised by that.

Accidents happen with voice tracks from time to time, but I’m curious about how hours worth of voice tracks end up like this, without anyone correcting it. The last time I brought this up, I got a lot of replies along the lines of “that never happens!” Well, it appears that does (as a matter of fact) happen.

Anyway, I had to look up where “93.3 The Vibe” is located. It looks like it’s hip hop station based in Austin, Texas. So it was a bit amusing hearing voice tracks that may be intended to go over the ramp of a Drake track. Maybe there’s a classic hits version of “The Vibe” somewhere in the iheart network. Either way, the host was asking about what the most useless condiment is. So that’s a topic that can bridge the gap between classic hits and hip hop fans.

 

[lanceventa]

Accidents happen with voice tracks from time to time, but I’m curious about how hours worth of voice tracks end up like this, without anyone correcting it. The last time I brought this up, I got a lot of replies along the lines of “that never happens!” Well, it appears that does (as a matter of fact) happen.

Don't think of each station being linear as its own thing, but rather as being a shared IT network. All of iHeart's stations are on one network and a misconfiguration anywhere in the system could cause a different element whether its music, imaging, commericals, or voicetracks to be sent to the wrong output. That's how it could happen.

Anyway, I had to look up where “93.3 The Vibe” is located. It looks like it’s hip hop station based in Austin, Texas. So it was a bit amusing hearing voice tracks that may be intended to go over the ramp of a Drake track. Maybe there’s a classic hits version of “The Vibe” somewhere in the iheart network. Either way, the host was asking about what the most useless condiment is. So that’s a topic that can bridge the gap between classic hits and hip hop fans.

Only thing curious here is 93.3 The Vibe in Austin is NOT an iHeart station... The only "Vibe" that iHeart owns is an Adult R&B station on 104.1 in Baton Rouge.

 

[crainbebo]

I thought iHeart was guaranteed human? Where's the guaranteed human working in IT to fix this issue on the network? Or did they secretly use AI to do IT?
Better yet, I'd love to hear completely local personalities all week and all weekend...but this isn't 1986 anymore

 

[lanceventa]

I thought iHeart was guaranteed human? Where's the guaranteed human working in IT to fix this issue on the network? Or did they secretly use AI to do IT?

Who says there isn't one? People make mistakes... Just because someone on a discussion forum noticed something, doesn't mean that someone who is in a position to notice did as well...

A few months ago KTCZ Minneapolis went viral after an automation glitch caused the looping of a few seconds of a song for a couple of hours... Want to know how and why it got fixed? I called my friend who is one of the station's voicetrackers. He called the Program Director. The PD called the chief engineer, who needed to then drive into the station and fix the issue. You're talking about local teams who are doing as much as they can with the resources they are given. It is not financially viable outside of a handful of markets/stations to staff 24/7. Expecting things to be like it was forty years ago simply cannot be done.

One other note: iHeart pays its voicetrackers much much more than nearly every other company does to do so, especially local groups.

 

[TheBigA]

BTW Austin's 93.3 The Vibe streams on iHeartRadio:

Vibe 93.3 | iHeart

Austin's Throwback Station

www.iheart.com

It's also possible that this particular weekend talent is a free-lancer who does VT for several companies, including iHeart, and he uploaded the wrong tracks.

 

[lanceventa]

BTW Austin's 93.3 The Vibe streams on iHeartRadio:

Vibe 93.3 | iHeart

Austin's Throwback Station

www.iheart.com

It's also possible that this particular weekend talent is a free-lancer who does VT for several companies, including iHeart, and he uploaded the wrong tracks.

There are no iHeart employees on Vibe 93.3. Waterloo Media only uses internal staffers, while only rarely are iHeart staffers allowed to track for other companies (usually grandfathered). Streaming on the iHeart app has nothing to do with being connected to the iHeart internal SoundPlus playout system.

 

[fordranger797]

There are no iHeart employees on Vibe 93.3. Waterloo Media only uses internal staffers, while only rarely are iHeart staffers allowed to track for other companies (usually grandfathered). Streaming on the iHeart app has nothing to do with being connected to the iHeart internal SoundPlus playout system.

Maybe it’s a different vibe? I couldn’t find another example of “The Vibe,” but maybe there is one.

 

[TheDaChicken]

That reminds me literally a few days ago, I thought I heard someone saying along the lines of "To learn more about contests on this station, go to 957thejet.com/rules" on KJR-HD2.

 

[bobdavcav]

What you heard is incredibly unusual. Every once in a while, you'll hear an iHeart tracker identify the wrong station. Even so, you'll hear the jock announce the correct song if identified, just the wrong station. The last one I heard was Utah's Greatest Hits 94.1 KODJ instead of Portland's Classic Hits 106.7 The Eagle. Typically though, other than that the content is correct. That example is incredibly unusual for two reasons:
1. It lasted hours.
2. The wrong station isn't even owned by iHeart.
So, it's not that wrong station identification never happens, but it is extremely rare, and when it does happen, it's usually for one break. What you heard is something I've never heard before.

 

[fordranger797]

What you heard is incredibly unusual. Every once in a while, you'll hear an iHeart tracker identify the wrong station. Even so, you'll hear the jock announce the correct song if identified, just the wrong station. The last one I heard was Utah's Greatest Hits 94.1 KODJ instead of Portland's Classic Hits 106.7 The Eagle. Typically though, other than that the content is correct. That example is incredibly unusual for two reasons:
1. It lasted hours.
2. The wrong station isn't even owned by iHeart.
So, it's not that wrong station identification never happens, but it is extremely rare, and when it does happen, it's usually for one break. What you heard is something I've never heard before.

Well I wouldn’t say that the content is incorrect per se. The content was extremely (and I mean extremely) general. Like, strangely generalized, as if you were watching a 80’s movie with a fake phone number like 555-4444. A break about what the most useless condiment is can really be used on any radio station I guess (if you try hard enough).

It’s a bit weird. I recognized the VT host right away from other shows on 95.7 (and in general, I think their work is very good). What stuck out in this scenario is that there really weren’t any references to anything local, anything about the station, or anything about the music. That’s a contrast from other VT shows I’ve heard from this specific host where they try to touch on all of those topics.

 

[bobdavcav]

That's really strange too. You're right to point this out, as what you're describing is really odd, and I mean next level odd.