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IS "ANYBODY" Listening???

Drucifer said:
I'm painting with a broad stroke when I say that radio MUST get back to being compelling and entertaining. If that means bringing back AIR TALENTS, LOCAL TALK HOSTS, LOCAL NEWS and INFORMATION to make it compelling, so be it.
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PPM is KILLING the personality. PPM results are being interpreted by companies as "less talking = better ratings". Thus, radio is DESTROYING the only special thing it had to differentiate itself from other media
 
APE is right on here. You do have to be local, but you also have to be interesting too. PPM doesxn't say "don't talk", it says, "say something that matters to me.". Period." :p ::) :'( :D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
 
PPM is KILLING the personality. PPM results are being interpreted by companies as "less talking = better ratings".

Only the stupid companies. G105, WRAL, and WQDR have plenty of local personality for their respective formats.
and, they are leading the market.

Funny thing though, on G105 their 10-3 ratings have had a steady slide since they brought on Ryan Seacrest.

I love the memories of the classic stations like WLS, WKIX, and WABC, but to listen to some of those jocks today on airchecks- they sound like buffoons.
 
I realize I am flogging a dead horse but it's so true...if I wanted "less talk" I would listen to my IPOD or ITunes. Radio thinking they know what songs to play is DONE but it will be another 10 years before they realize it.

As soon as some upstart owner/programmer with innovative programming ideas surfaces, the industry will change and survive. I still have not figured out WHY we can't bring back FULL SERVICE to the AM radio band with a TON OF EMPHASIS on local news and information that you would have to sift through a dozen web sites for.

This constant diatribe of right wing talk (it wouldn't matter if it was left wing talk) is getting OLD and STALE and the people who have somehow found themselves running the show (Michael Berry KTRH in Houston) think they have the answer. The answer is your signal is decent and you are the ONLY thing on the air. Catch the clue...
 
I tend to agree that the human voice, not music, attracts radio listeners -- whether it's DJ w/music or news or talk or sports. That said, I believe the audience's expectations for on-air talent have risen over the years. Also I believe there are music formats that don't lend themselves to MP3/iTunes, like oldies or classical or jazz. The pop-driven or rock-driven markets are looking dismal these days because the Hollywood music industry (as we knew it) was predicated on profits from $15 CD sales... long gone.
 
ctl said:
I tend to agree that the human voice, not music, attracts radio listeners -- whether it's DJ w/music or news or talk or sports. That said, I believe the audience's expectations for on-air talent have risen over the years. Also I believe there are music formats that don't lend themselves to MP3/iTunes, like oldies or classical or jazz. The pop-driven or rock-driven markets are looking dismal these days because the Hollywood music industry (as we knew it) was predicated on profits from $15 CD sales... long gone.
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I like your post. My point about MP3 and IPODs is that if I really want to listen to music...that's what I do. If I want compelling and entertaining radio with music, I listen to air-checks from the old days. You are right though, there are songs I wont buy but I like listening to.
 
good stuff all, let's make it fun. You've been given a new station in the Triad to start from the ground up. What's your format, who will you hire and how will you win? BTW, the station is a 100K FM. Go.
 
start with a shaky premise then drive it into the ground! Hire every out of work jock nd college jock and wants to be a jock for about 5 an hour for 2 hour shifts eacfh, then whoever sticks, keep 'em and pay 'em 7. You did it! Whatever you decide to do, don't ever not do it. The audience smells fear through the speakers like a neighbor boiling cabbage. Are you gonna take down the top 40? Are you the new country place? Are you the best talker every show? You can't not do it. every thing you do goes like this. Winning. Duh. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
 
You know, it's sad . . . I realize I'm so burnt out on the same old, same old formats that I can't get up any enthusiasm about anything new. Everything I would really like to hear would be too much of a niche format and all the rest of the formats have been done and redone. I think WTQR is going to have to decide this very thing. What's left for them? Frankly, I wish WBRF had a better signal in the eastern part of the Triad. I'd probably never change my station. Their totally local sound has a strong appeal. I just like knowing there are real people behind the mike. Everything else just sounds like a phony jukebox. And WBRF really gets behind the community and I admire that a lot.
 
If it were me, with a 100k station to program, I would go CHR. I would use the classic Warp Factor package with a tight rotation. I would pick an appropriate VO to go with it. I would have an 800 request line, bring back the top ten at ten, make it or break it, features, etc. I would be live and local 24/7. The main thing I would do is promote, promote, promote... high school pep rallys and such, t-shirt giveaways, live remotes from everywhere in the area.

I would program the second station in my imaginary cluster as a hot/ac with the hot kiss package, and again, live and local.

My third station in the cluster would be live and local Country with Nascar and Qualifying.

For all 3, promote, promote, promote. And since this is a fun imaginary exercise, I am assuming I have the money to do all this right.
 
Ok guys,
tonight I used my Android phone and the Tune in Radio app to find WBRF.
all I can say is this is the perfect radio station.
they do radio the way it should be done.
How have they survived?
they have 100kw how did they avoid the clear channel hell?
 
I think WBRF has survived because they're not really in a Metro, so none of the big groups wanted them. Also, the Owners are really committed to the station and its mission. One of the things I actually like is that you never know what you're going to hear on there. If it's Saturday, it might be Beach Music! Sunday mornings is great Bluegrass Gospel music. During PM Drive every day, they have Outlaw hour, which features Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, David Alan Coe, Merle Haggard, and other "Outlaw" type artists. Won't hear that on any other station in the area. In between, there's a friendly local voice telling you what's happening in the community, etc. It's REAL radio! The way it should be. Is it pristine like the corporate stations? - NO, but that's why it's good!
 
We get all of our local information from the Internet. My Sansa Fuze MP3 player and FM radio is in my shirt pocket, playing podcasts that I download each day. There are a couple of talk shows to which I like to listen, but I've started downloading the podcasts instead because when they are live, they are so cluttered with spots, sports, traffic, news, promos, and other interruptions that they're hard to follow. I can drive from the office to home (about 22 minutes) and hear less than 10 minutes of content.

Something has to change in the industry. The quality of music being released is certainly not helping the music stations. The clutter factor is a real problem, and I have a high tolerance. A couple of years ago, I recorded an hour of a local afternoon talk show on WPTF and telescoped it. How much actual content was there in the 60-minute period? Exactly 22 minutes. That much content just doesn't lend itself to attracting listeners, in my opinion.

My comments are as a listener as I have been out of the business for many years. Your mileage may vary.
 
Yep people *still* do listen to the radio.

It just boils down to this: "relevant to my interests".

It's such a shame that for our family it has to be Sirius XM Kids Place Live right now. What they do is relevant to the community they serve - which happens to be children aged 2 to 12. They are on a shoestring yes, there's a lot of automation, yes... but the three on air presenters who are live most of the time during peak listening hours are just really attractive to the audience, they engage with them, they get to know them through their phone ins, letters, facebook postings, etc. Heck, my wife just went on the stations' facebook page a couple of months back, told 'em to have my eldest son in their thoughts whilst recovering in hospital after major surgery... and the three presenters wrote a personalized *handwritten* message with a present back to him!!!! Would a local radio station do that? I just don't know! Those three people have just earned their parent company my subscription pretty much for life.

Again it is about "relevant to my interests". I'm a British ex-pat, so BBC World Service on the sat rad and the BBC domestics on the wifi radio are for me. My wife actually likes K-Love so that is what she has. If the satellite radio is not working then it's that or WUNC-FM, or WFDD.

In these parts, when there's strange natural events going on (lots of snow, thunderstorms, tornados, etc) people turn to the TV - it's relevant to their interests. Back in the UK because there's no real "local" TV people turn to the radio because they have what's relevant to their interests - school closings are on the radio in the UK, not on TV.

Radio in the USA - terrestrial radio - for the most part is just music and adverts. Some programming is relevant to my interests so I do listen to some terrestrial radio. Just not so much these days.
 
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