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If only I could program Magic 590!

Let me preface this thread by saying that during an average day, I listen to different stations, and different formats. One of the formats I like is what Magic does. What they DID on FM 100.9 versus what they DO on AM 590 is identical. Somehow I thought (aside from the frequency) that when they jumped to AM, that certain things might change. They haven't.

What I like about Magic, is the format. What I dislike, is their "formatics"? Is that a word?

It just bugs the hell out of me that they play a jingle after EVERY song where there's no announcer blathering for 3 mins until the next 5 min round of ads is heard. I KNOW what station I'm listening to. I DON'T need to hear it SUNG every 3 mins!! NO other station in this market does that. (or other markets that I've heard for that matter) A jingle every OTHER song... or 3rd song would make more sense. They also could be shorter in length.

Next on my annoyance list is the Ben Patten (after the morning-drive) show. Why oh why about 3 - 4 times an hour (or after EVERY weather forecast) must he remind us to listen to the morning show that just ended! And he does so by putting HIMSELF in the 3rd person. "Don't forget to join Jay & Ben on the Capital Region morning show" ... This is HIMSELF talking about the show HE co-hosts!! Does anyone besides me see the absurdity in that??? Why not say... "join MYSELF along with Jay Scott....." Again, promoting the MORNING show 15 mins! after it's ended is just dumb. Why not hold off on saying ANYTHING about the morning show until after 2 pm. That makes much more sense. At least wait until the morning CO-HOST is off the air before talking it up for the next day!

Next up, are those confounded jingles again. After coming back from a break in the hours' second half, they close the break with a PROMO for one of the saturday morning info shows. The promo ends with either "590 WROW" or "Magic 590 AM"... BUT instead of starting the next song, they have to play a JINGLE after their spoken ID, which says the same thing, but this time in SONG form. GIVE ME A BREAK!! I was just told what station I'm listening to.....I don't need to hear it SUNG to me again!!! AM I BEING TOO SENSITIVE HERE OR WHAT??? Am I the only one screaming "overkill" ???

I also grow bored with their breaks, which seem long, especially with the banter that preceeds the ads. I thought when the AM switch occured, they'd have LESS ads and hourly breaks. It's NO different. There are still 4 per hour, averaging 3-5 mins per. I clocked one recent hour as having 39 mins of music. Would 3 breaks an hour send Albany Broadcasting into Chapter 11? I doubt it.

Maybe my complaints seem trivial. But I like the music!!! which compells me to listen. But all the nonsense every hour just starts to annoy me and I end up switching it off.

By comparison, there's an FM station in the St. Lawrence Valley that I'll listen to online. VERY similar format. They have ONE ad break per hour!... EVERY hour (at :20 after) Their banter, especially after morning drive is the bare minimum. Their jingles are only heard maybe 3 or 4 times per HOUR... (not so often that they play in your head after the radio is turned off.)

Is this asking too much ???
 
No comments :'(

Am I runnung a dead carrier ???
 
Every time they open the mike after a music set it's the same thing,"Don't forget to join Jay & Ben on the Capital Region morning show" or some close variation. The way they push the morning show it's like it's the greatest show of all time. I can understand mentioning "Magic 590" to start every break. That's basic radio. But why not publicize other shows and personalities on the station? Some of the weekend shows are great but you would never know it because all we hear all day is "Listen to Jay and Ben", "Listen to Jay and Ben,"Listen to Jay and Ben", "Listen to Jay and Ben".
 
all we hear all day is "Listen to Jay and Ben", "Listen to Jay and Ben,"Listen to Jay and Ben", "Listen to Jay and Ben".

Precisely my point! And ever DUMBER is that the hype starts right after the show is over!! But even dumber still is that Ben pretends ALL morning that he's NOT a part of it!

I would think with all the GM's they've had at the station, that one of them would realize how dorky it sounds!
 
ChuckRoast said:
Every time they open the mike after a music set it's the same thing,"Don't forget to join Jay & Ben on the Capital Region morning show" or some close variation. The way they push the morning show it's like it's the greatest show of all time. I can understand mentioning "Magic 590" to start every break. That's basic radio. But why not publicize other shows and personalities on the station? Some of the weekend shows are great but you would never know it because all we hear all day is "Listen to Jay and Ben", "Listen to Jay and Ben,"Listen to Jay and Ben", "Listen to Jay and Ben".

A lot of stations do that. The now defunct POWER 104.1 in Hartford used to do it. Every time the jock cracked the mic "Power 104.1 Home of The Star & Buc Wild Morning Show." Repeating the name of the show every time you open the mic isn't gonna make me listen to it. The show sucks plain and simple. I'll be listening to your competitor because they play music during their morning show. I was really happy when Clear Channel fired Star & Buck Wild.
 
You can't blame Ben for just doing what he's told. Program Director Jay Scott writes out nearly every word of every break each jock does. The jocks dare not stray or they'll feel the wrath of Jay. Come summer time jocks aren't allowed to say it is 81, 95, 99, 98, 92, 88 and so on degrees because those numbers are another stations frequency. They don't make them as crazy as Jay anymore.
 
I love it... Magic is a unique station that has been in the top 5 in Albany, NY for the last 6 or 7 years and by reading this thread... everyone seems to be a better program director than the one in place. Not to mention that they were doing it with 6000 watts and outrating the 50,000 watt stations in their market. They have now been moved to the AM band and they are still performing well with their formatics that some folks disagree with. Thus, the thread here: "If only I could program Magic 590".

It is not an unusual practice for Program Directors to set up the image line for jocks to follow, so it really doesn't appear so far fetched to hear of jocks being told what to say for the image of any radio station.

Actually, this last comment here seems to be a disgruntled poster, with some inside information to which seems a bit bizarre.

Obviously, someone does a pretty good job at the programming helm of Magic from the ratings we have been able to see.
 
Not disgruntled at all. Worked with Jay in another market in another state. It was an intolerable experience.

It isn't the formatics that make the station its the music. Listeners put up with the awful inbetween the songs because Magic is the only one playing those songs.
 
RBW said:
What I like about Magic, is the format. What I dislike, is their "formatics"? Is that a word?
Most average listeners are like you. They don't know what "formatics" are anymore than they know how their radio works. They just know what they like and don't like.

It just bugs the hell out of me that they play a jingle after EVERY song where there's no announcer blathering for 3 mins until the next 5 min round of ads is heard. I KNOW what station I'm listening to. I DON'T need to hear it SUNG every 3 mins!! NO other station in this market does that. (or other markets that I've heard for that matter) A jingle every OTHER song... or 3rd song would make more sense. They also could be shorter in length.

Let me say I don't disagree; but in defense of this practice, it's similar to what WABC and so many great AM Top 40 stations did back in the day. These days, it sounds pretty lame, especially with a cheesy jingle package. Pick your poison: Zaps and wooshes with call letters and positioning statements or jingles.

Next on my annoyance list is the Ben Patten (after the morning-drive) show. Why oh why about 3 - 4 times an hour (or after EVERY weather forecast) must he remind us to listen to the morning show that just ended! And he does so by putting HIMSELF in the 3rd person. "Don't forget to join Jay & Ben on the Capital Region morning show"

My guess is that he's referring to the 'name' of the show. I've heard this done in many larger markets.

This is HIMSELF talking about the show HE co-hosts!! Does anyone besides me see the absurdity in that??? Why not say... "join MYSELF along with Jay Scott....."

If I can play sophomore English teacher for a sentence or two, it should be, "He's talking about the show he hosts," and "Join me and Jay Scott..." "Myself" is one of those damn reflexive pronouns that we tend to bungle. It's better used in sentences such as, "I hurt myself playing Frisbee golf." I mess this stuff up all the time.

Again, promoting the MORNING show 15 mins! after it's ended is just dumb. Why not hold off on saying ANYTHING about the morning show until after 2 pm. That makes much more sense. At least wait until the morning CO-HOST is off the air before talking it up for the next day!

I'm with you on this. Is there nothing else of value worth promoting, a feature in midday or afternoon drive?

Next up, are those confounded jingles again. After coming back from a break in the hours' second half, they close the break with a PROMO for one of the saturday morning info shows. The promo ends with either "590 WROW" or "Magic 590 AM"... BUT instead of starting the next song, they have to play a JINGLE after their spoken ID, which says the same thing, but this time in SONG form. GIVE ME A BREAK!! I was just told what station I'm listening to.....I don't need to hear it SUNG to me again!!! AM I BEING TOO SENSITIVE HERE OR WHAT??? Am I the only one screaming "overkill" ???

Sounds like another case of "that's the way they did it at insert major market AM station that had killer numbers in 1977." Or maybe they don't have the automation tags correctly coded.

I also grow bored with their breaks, which seem long, especially with the banter that precedes the ads. I thought when the AM switch occurred, they'd have LESS ads and hourly breaks. It's NO different. There are still 4 per hour, averaging 3-5 mins per. I clocked one recent hour as having 39 mins of music. Would 3 breaks an hour send Albany Broadcasting into Chapter 11? I doubt it.

This is probably a case of transferring the exact same clocks and automation coding from the FM to the AM and honoring the contractual commitments made to their advertisers.

Maybe my complaints seem trivial. But I like the music!!! which compels me to listen. But all the nonsense every hour just starts to annoy me and I end up switching it off.

I was driving through Albany a few weeks back while on my way to Providence and sampled the station. After about four songs and a commercial break, I returned to FM and my CDs. There were some good songs on 590, but the audio was typical of AM. I thought "why listen to music on AM when I can hear it on CD or FM?" Buh-bye. I returned to the station about a half hour later, listened for 10 minutes and left permanently. A listener must really want to hear the music or be a fan of the station to endure music on AM. If the same music/format/personalities can be found on FM, it's no contest.

By comparison, there's an FM station in the St. Lawrence Valley that I'll listen to online. VERY similar format. They have ONE ad break per hour!... EVERY hour (at :20 after) Their banter, especially after morning drive is the bare minimum. Their jingles are only heard maybe 3 or 4 times per HOUR... (not so often that they play in your head after the radio is turned off.) Is this asking too much ???

Never hurts to ask.

As to the PD mandating liners being read "as written," I'll only offer that the era of Program Director dictatorships ended a long time ago. The best PDs act like coaches, allowing and encouraging their jocks' talent to radiate. Sadly, the art of "coaching" air talent seems to have passed, largely due to (1) today's PDs never having had good coaches and not having learned to coach, (2) today's PDs being overburdened, (3) today's air talent being unable to accept direction, (4) PDs and air talent not understanding the "art" of radio and managing air talent.

I've always likened good PDs to having an attitude of, "I'm the coach, you're the starting QB, here's the game plan that my coaching staff and I developed for this opponent. You're smart enough to execute it (otherwise you wouldn't be the starting QB.) Call an audible when warranted, but don't do anything that hurts the team and your teammates. Minimize turnovers. Move the ball down field so we can score using your talent, experience and the other ten players on the field. If you're doing a bad job, I'll tell you. I'll also tell you how to make it right and get better."
 
Ben does what he is told. Jay has been told (by consultants) that the station information needs to be jackhammered into the listeners heads as often as possible! That means possible inclusion of a vocal overlay during instrumental passages of songs. "You're listening to MAGIC 590!"
 
Jay doesn't listen to consultants nor anyone else for that matter. Jay is in charge and he doesn't let anyone tell him what to do. And to borrow a term from a previous poster, a dictator pd.
 
tower17 said:
You can't blame Ben for just doing what he's told. Program Director Jay Scott writes out nearly every word of every break each jock does. The jocks dare not stray or they'll feel the wrath of Jay. Come summer time jocks aren't allowed to say it is 81, 95, 99, 98, 92, 88 and so on degrees because those numbers are another stations frequency. They don't make them as crazy as Jay anymore.

I'm not blaming Ben... since I know most of it comes from the PD. I find it hard to believe though that the temp can't be given just because it represents another frequency! That's just waaayyy too bizarre. Perhaps when Jay hangs up the headphones, or finally moves on... the stations' annoyances will also follow suit!
 
tower17 said:
Listeners put up with the awful inbetween the songs because Magic is the only one playing those songs.

Don't know your location - Tower, but with 1160, 1190, 1230 & 1410 listenable thru parts of the area... they aren't the only ones dabbling with this type of programming.
 
Element9 said:
Most average listeners are like you. They don't know what "formatics" are anymore than they know how their radio works. They just know what they like and don't like.
Thanks for your comments. But thinking back to my days designing hourly clocks, I think I KNOW what formatics are, I just disagree with Magic's.

Let me say I don't disagree; but in defense of this practice, it's similar to what WABC and so many great AM Top 40 stations did back in the day. These days, it sounds pretty lame, especially with a cheesy jingle package. Pick your poison: Zaps and wooshes with call letters and positioning statements or jingles.
[quote/]

I think I'd sooner have the wooshes!! But seriously, other AM stations such as the successful 1320 WJAS Pittsburgh, with the exact same format, exist very nicely without ANY jingles!

I'm with you on this. Is there nothing else of value worth promoting, a feature in midday or afternoon drive?
[quote/]

Probably not. Except for CBS Marketwatch or the news.

I was driving through Albany a few weeks back while on my way to Providence and sampled the station. After about four songs and a commercial break, I returned to FM and my CDs. There were some good songs on 590, but the audio was typical of AM. I thought "why listen to music on AM when I can hear it on CD or FM?" Buh-bye. I returned to the station about a half hour later, listened for 10 minutes and left permanently. A listener must really want to hear the music or be a fan of the station to endure music on AM. If the same music/format/personalities can be found on FM, it's no contest.
[quote/]

I've said here before. I have NO problem listening to this format on AM. I also happened to love the "old" WABC. Their jingles and liners were terrific!
 
RBW said:
I've said here before. I have NO problem listening to this format on AM. I also happened to love the "old" WABC. Their jingles and liners were terrific!
WABC jingles and liners were great, but they were delivered by bigger than life, live personalities like Dan Ingram, Harry Harrison, Cousin' Bruce, George Michael and Ron Lundy. Comparing Magic 590 to WABC is a little like comparing a Yugo to a 'Vette. As to listening to this format on AM, take a look at the dedicated shares for music stations AM to FM. You are the exception to the rule. Carry on.
 
Element9 said:
WABC jingles and liners were great, but they were delivered by bigger than life, live personalities like Dan Ingram, Harry Harrison, Cousin' Bruce, George Michael and Ron Lundy. Comparing Magic 590 to WABC is a little like comparing a Yugo to a 'Vette. As to listening to this format on AM, take a look at the dedicated shares for music stations AM to FM. You are the exception to the rule. Carry on.

Oh make no mistake... I wasn't comparing Magic to ABC... it was just an example of great jingles, a great station and a great era in radio. I just wonder if Commander Jay has some allusion that he's bringing back those golden days, by overplaying his "cheesy" jingles.

Partly due to those golden days, is also why I still listen to music like this on AM. Plus, I'm a DX'er at heart. So I'm accustomed to listening to music (& talk) w/static, co-channel interference etc. As long as I can HEAR it, even marginally, I'll listen. So to me, a clear local signal, (especially if it's music) on AM, sounds good.
 
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