Is The Radio I Fell In Love With Dead and Gone???

[allenv]

My wife very rarely offers her opinions on radio. She has been very supportive of my obsession with the business in our almost 18 years together...She feels my frustration with the direction it seems to have gone..She looked me in the eye the other night and said..."Allen, the radio you fell in love with is dead and gone
and it ain't coming back" Is she right????
What do you think???

Allen

 

[Ssummers]

In junior high, I used to go to the radio station 4 hours before my 4 hour shift each weekend...just to screw around in the production room with the big Gates board (with the big knobs) and the 3 speed gear shift felt covered turntables and the old grey Fidelipac carts...just waiting for the off chance that the disc jockey on duty might have to hit the john and I could run the board until he got back. In high school, I had my own 5 day a week 3 hour early evening show, yet I'd come to the station on the weekends for hours on end just to screw around in the production room making fake promos and sweepers, practicing bits and working on my delivery on the old Harris board with one Technics turntable and the Audiopak carts...just waiting for the opportunity to maybe grab a spot from one of the other fulltimers so I could do real production...and my first couple of full time gigs, I used to stay after my night shift for hours...working on airchecks and highly produced bits on the slide pot Wheatstone board and the ScotchCarts. I used to go to every station event that the main jocks worked just to soak up the ambiance and possibly learn something. I never got paid for those extra hours and the thought never crossed my mind to ask to get paid.

But nowadays, as I rush thru a four hour voice track shift in half an hour on the state of the art digital Scott Studios provided...I catch myself staring at the modulation output lights dancing to the peaks and valleys of my audio...and I notice that I'm not even in an actual broadcast studio anymore, but a production room instead....a clean production room, I might add, with no Rolling Stones posters or blacklights or strobe lights or even the faint remnants of incense. I don't see the huge bulk eraser or any ----brown pancake or reels, no carts or the differently colored cart labels, and lastly, I don't see any records. But that's not all I don't see. During those times that I become cognizant of all the tangible things that I don't see in radio anymore, sadly, regrettably, I don't see a future, either.

 

[ZAX Double J]

You know I come from the old school too. I also am in the new school. I remember the carts, turntables and even reel-to-reel decks. Now the technology has made the job MUCH easier, but unfortunately management sees it as a way of getting rid of the one thing that makes radio uniqe (in my opinion) people. I firmly believe that radio can rise again, but it takes way more work than those in power want to do. I also do the voice tracking and while it does afford some things such as doing your show in only a few minutes rather than sitting there for hours it also takes away the "live" nature of radio that I love as well.

<Rant mode on> Unfortunately I too am beginning to think as if there is no future in radio. I know that I am not that great on-air, but if I don't have the chance to do more on-air work then how can I get better. But because of "budgetary reasons" stations aren't hiring full-timers and those that do want someone with way more "experience" than I even though I have 22 years in the business. All of that time has been part-time. So no prospective station is going to look at my "skills" as being "good enough" to hire me. Now granted I have some engineering abilities, but again since I have not done that aspect of the business in a full-time capacity or have major certifications I am out there too. So radio is becoming a loose-loose arena for me as much as I love it and desperately want to be full-time in it. I seriously doubt that it will happen. Case in point some of my current dutties have now been given to a full-time person so now that leaves me with even LESS work to do and subsquently less hours and less money to take home. Now that really makes one feel like radio is headed in a good direction. <rant mode off>

I feel both of your pains Allen, you know where I stand. It is sad to see the passion dissappearing from this industry faster than a speeding bullet and the engineering side isn't any better either. Finding good engineers is next to impossible and those that are there are over worked and understaffed.

Some say that I am against management, well I'm not. I understand that they have to make money and listen to their shareholders etc. but at the same time many of the problems that radio faces is because of management. Rather than useing technology to help you do your job better management thinks that technology can replace people. NOT in radio. Yeah you can stick a computer on air and let it be a jukebox, but it takes people to MAKE the station money and not just the sales staff either, but everyone in the building. You can have the greatest salesperson and the greatest client/promotion but it takes programming to make it happen. It takes engineering to make sure that things are working to execute the plan and it takes th front office to make sure the bills are paid. without any one of these componets you simply cannot make a profit or have a functioning radio station period.

There is really no simple answer to your question but my "gut instinct" tells me that radio will survive, but only until we the lovers of this medium die out and the younger generation that knows of radio dies out then it will be a dead medium and at the rate it is going that won't be too much longer say in about 25-50 years.

 

[allenv]

Great points guys...As I sit here at 7:58 pm call a station and try to talk to a human..At 90% of them you will reach no one and you can give me a 100 reasons why but that is simply wrong.....Unmaned radio and Voice Tracking is an insult to the listener and the station will never go the the next level ratings or money wise without some one on one contact between a listener and a jock..Just look at the arbs.. almost everyone who does it drops or stays the same book after book...Let's take the Country battle for example. For years WRNS was live at night and now has Lia...If I'm Thunder...I'm live at night so fast your head would spin and I would let the audience know hey we're live... call me.. and WRNS is not...You have to do the opposite of what the station you are trying to beat is doing..Its not complicated..That's just one example. Now they both do the syndicated deal and neither one is properly serving the night time country audience...I under economics
but reguardless you have to do certain things to get attention...If I'm the Bear I've got a person live at night and telling my audience that neither WRNS or Thunder is live....This is just an example... What am I missing??? Am I that out of touch with reality??? If I go to a party and everyone is wearing Blue I'm wearing Red if I want to get noticed...I'm sure someone will get mad at me but again this is not Chinese
math...Has it gotten to the point that 90% of the radio business is drinking the same Kool-Aid???? When will someone stand up and say Let's be different and see what happens...

Allen

 

[ZAX Double J]

When will someone stand up and say Let's be different and see what happens...

That's way too easy and they don't know how to actually DO that. Now if the suits or the consultant says so then they'll do it but until then it's staus quo. It's all about making the big shots more $$. They don't really care about the listener but they WANT listeners. They don't understand that in order to HAVE listeners the station has to care about the listener. The listerer hears the lack of caring on the station. So they turn (hopefully) to one that does sound as if they care. Take Delilah for example, even though it is a syndicated show she gets tons of calls. Now if your station was live, you'd be getting those calls and those same listeners would be buying at your sponsors and they in turn would be buying more airtime on your station which would give the station more to come up with more compelling programming and so on. It is a wheel (just as our econoomy is) take any one part of it out and it crumbles. That is what is happening both in this industry and the country as a whole. The system is collapsing due to greed and the lack of caring about doing a good job.

I agree with you though Allen, WHEN WILL SOMEONE HAVE THE BALLS TO ACTUALLY DO IT?????? Who knows?

 

[allenv]

If you had told me 10-15 years ago that 7-midnight would become basically a throw away shift I would have called you crazy...The audience did not leave radio radio left the audience...For some reason radio VIP's seem to think the only audience worth serving at night is the urban audience..People don't listen as much as night because radio doesn't give them a reason to listen..I hear "we're not making money" well you're throwing away 5-6 hours of potential
money making airtime...Where's the logic??

Allen

 

[XTalker]

I know you guy are all passionate about radio. I was too, at one time.

It is unfortunate that the industry has become what it is today - basically a juke box with a recorded voice to announce the songs and give some allegedly relative information, read from some current events prep sheet, or tell a lame joke.

Honestly, that is not real radio! Real radio had real people. As a listener, you got to know them, and once in a while, they got to know you. There was communication between listener and the personality!

So will it ever come back? I say yes it will. I honestly believe that the big, corporate, bean counting owners to today's radio stations are starting to tire of it. They can only cut so much in personnel. Then what, turn off the lights, reduce power to the transmitter to save a few $$ on the electric bill? I believe they are starting to rub the sticks together for the gigantic fire sale that radio will become.

Start saving you money, boys. The day is not far away that the big guys will start to cut their losses and there will be some bargains out there! Buy one, and bring back radio we used to know (just keep the digital audio and editing software).

And it could be sooner than you think. After this political season is over next week, radio will sound like a barren wasteland. Regular advertisers have been run off so radio can accommodate the political commercials, and many have found another medium that costs less and still delivers some customers; or, their business is down so much, what do they cut first - the advertising budget!

See, radio management doesn't have a lock on stupidity.

 

[firecop947]

It's a sad but true fact...Radio is dying and soon to be DEAD as we knew it. A good friiend of mine told me about 15 years ago that radio will not be the same in a decade, I didn't think he meant it would be all but gone.

October has proven to be a very BAD month for folks I know and respect in the business, my former company Cumulus has let the axe fall across the company as some folks with 30 years in the market get canned due to budget cuts!

Allen, the night shift thing is true, but the fact is that this is the shift that is being voicetracked next!
First the overnights were eliminated, then mid-days, weekends, and now nights!. Next up will be afternoon, with only mornings live.

I'm still in the business, but after 25 years I think it's time to find another career path.

God Bless!

Kris

 

[jmtillery]

It's a sad but true fact...Radio is dying and soon to be DEAD as we knew it. A good friiend of mine told me about 15 years ago that radio will not be the same in a decade, I didn't think he meant it would be all but gone.

October has proven to be a very BAD month for folks I know and respect in the business, my former company Cumulus has let the axe fall across the company as some folks with 30 years in the market get canned due to budget cuts!

Allen, the night shift thing is true, but the fact is that this is the shift that is being voicetracked next!
First the overnights were eliminated, then mid-days, weekends, and now nights!. Next up will be afternoon, with only mornings live.

I'm still in the business, but after 25 years I think it's time to find another career path.

God Bless!

Kris

Kris,

I can tell you about a station right now that has already begun voicetracking every daypart except morning drive. That station is WMFQ "Big 92.9" here is Ocala, Florida. Out of 24-hours of broadcast day, only four - FOUR HOURS, is actually live, and that is only Monday through Friday. All 48-hours of the weekend is voicetracked. Suprisingly, all 24-hours sound live, and if I didn't already know better, I would swear it WAS live. They actually do a very good job at masking the fact that they are NOT live.

I believe the reality will hit the suits one day, and positive change will begin to take place. But, I'm afraid it is only going to get worse before it starts to get better. The good news is, I believe it WILL get better...

Mark Tillery,
Former General Manager - WTMC-AM Ocala, Florida
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]

 

[Marathon Don]

Not intending to side-track this topic too much, but liberals in Congress (presumably with support from Barack Obama) will no doubt reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine". This result could be that profitable conservative talk shows will have to be ditched. Another nail in the coffin, especially for local AM talkers.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Not intending to side-track this topic too much, but liberals in Congress (presumably with support from Barack Obama) will no doubt reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine". This result could be that profitable conservative talk shows will have to be ditched. Another nail in the coffin, especially for local AM talkers.

I will be so happy to see the election behind us. Then we can again discuss radio without constantly being reminded that there is a liberal hiding under every bed, where all the communists used to live. ;D

Try this heresy on for size: The radio most of us fell in love with DID NOT INCLUDE talk radio as we know it. What if some bastardization of the old Fairness Doctrine were put in place, and what if talk radio as we know it became impractical. Would that be the end of radio in communities like those of ENC, or would it enable REAL RADIO to once again emerge and compete for advertising revenue?

Is talk radio actually strangling and smothering REAL radio?

 

[Marathon Don]

Agreed on the election. Kinda burned out on the whole thing myself. I'm deliberately not taking a position either left or right, so as to maintain the topic at hand.

My reasoning here is that many attribute conservative talk radio with extending AM radio's life. AM radio was considered a dead-end delivery system by the mid-eighties. Conservative talk gave AM a booster shot. Liberal radio (most notably Air America) has not been successful in most markets. Many in Congress have been very vocal about reinstating FD. If AM radio, already barely hanging on, has to balance every "right" show with a "left" one, most would probably not run either one. What's left, fishing shows and hog reports? You can only stretch Joy Browne and Clark Howard so far. Maybe an all-day obituary format would be the ticket. The last obit on the list would be for the station itself.

 

[Ssummers]

That's the same scare tactic talk right wing conservatives espouse all the time. Heard it all. You inadvertantly hit it on the head, tho, when you said back then AM was basically a throwaway. So that's where conservative talkers went to do their thing, and where today's successful conservative talk hosts honed their act. The best survived and grew their audience. Air America, on the other hand, threw money at left leaning hosts and comedians and thought they could do just what right wing talkers did...only take the opposite view. I liken it to Howard Stern doing his thing, then, when everyone noticed he was killing it, ratings-wise, all the other so called "shock" jocks copied him. Only the ones who ultimately did their own thing developed longevity. Air America, while a good idea, was ill conceived logistically. Its inception seemed just a little too "just add water" for my taste.

But, try not to scare the uniformed, man, because that's the sum effect of saying something like that. Besides, there's no way this Congress returns to the Fairness Doctrine. They just don't have the votes in the current climate. Most Democrats, Barack Obama included, favor steering the conversation away from prohibiting certain lines of political thought and philosophy and, instead, propose opening up the airwaves to as many varying points of view as possible. In my opinion, the conservatives beat this drum because they're trying to protect their golden goose. Who could blame them? But, be serious, if it came down to standing for their political beliefs or stuffing money into their pockets, conservatives and liberals alike will choose to line their pockets nine out of every ten times.

Not intending to side-track this topic too much, but liberals in Congress (presumably with support from Barack Obama) will no doubt reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine". This result could be that profitable conservative talk shows will have to be ditched. Another nail in the coffin, especially for local AM talkers.

 

[tothedj]

The "Fairness Doctrine" should never be brought back!, while many in the congress
and senate of a "certain" political affilation would like to see it return, the talk radio
listener would make a lot of noise if ever considered, and with today's radio climate,
host like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Micheal Savage, whether you agree
with their views or not, are making money for AM and some FM talkers, do you
want to take revenue away from them Washington?, I don't think so!

 

[Ssummers]

Scare tactics based on a select few Democrats doing some saber rattling. I would never have thought that persons of a "certain" opposite "political affiliation" could get so bent out of shape over their philosophical opponents' half hearted embrace of a dead issue. You'd be better served wondering why we, as Americans, didn't raise this much hell while the Bush Administration slowly, yet surely, disassembled, piecemeal, several facets of our right to privacy(i.e. call monitoring, et. al.) under the guise of national security.

We need a true broadcast advocate to safeguard the true essence of broadcasting insofar as it pertains to its governmental oversight and regulation. The FCC, IMHO, ain't it.

 

[Marathon Don]

I don't think the originator of this post intended it to be political thing. I apologize if I inadvertently steered us off course. My posts on this matter were simply to bring up what I see as potential obstacle to the survival of local radio, primarily AM.

My assertion is not a "scare tactic". If the prospect of radio stations going dark because of a loss of profitability is scary, then so be it.

Now, can we get back on the subject at hand? If you wanna talk FD, there's better places on this board to do that.

 

[Ssummers]

There's no apology needed for steering off course. Actually, it's quite pertinent. Isn't deregulation being held to account for the demise of the "mom & pops", thus resulting in the prevalent "cookie cutter" mentality of monolithic broadcast entities? And wasn't deregulation political in nature? So, I don't think bringing up the recent re-emergence of the Fairness Doctrine as a topic of political conversation was off base at all.

And I didn't mean to assert that you were using scare tactics, either. I was asserting tha the recent wave of Fairness Doctrine paranoia was a scare tactic of the Republicans. You were just the "vehicle" for bringing it up. The Fairness Doctrine will not be resurrected, yet because a couple of Dems started making noise about re-introducing it, several paranoid Republicans have used that as evidence of how all Democrats, including Obama, feel about the Fairness Doctrine. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

As to your point, I'm a bit confused. I mean no disrespect, but, syndicated talk is only "local" insofar as revenue is concerned. If your post was "simply" to bring up a perceived obstacle to the survival of local radio, syndicated talk isn't actually local. So, is your point referencing the survival of local radio itself or the survival of the local radio stations who broadcast that syndication?

 

[XTalker]

Could a new Fairness Doctrine help revive local radio?

Before you jump on me, let's think about it a minute. Would Rush and Sean Hannity stick with it under a Fairness Doctrine?

How would station owners cope with it?

I doubt a new Fairness Doctrine would force Rush, Hannity, Savage, etc. to abandon their politics. If it did, I would not be surprised to see them "retire". Rush has all the money he could ever spend, so why would he put up with such control.

The onus of so called "fairness" would be on the station owner/licensee. So, if you air Rush, you would have to have an equal amount of time devoted to the opposing view.

There is good money in talk radio, so it won't just go away. While Talk Radio grew into prominence in deregulation, smart operators will figure out how to deal with a new Fairness Doctrine without killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Could the right (correct, not politically) fairness doctrine actually help radio as we knew it?

 

[Ssummers]

Could a new Fairness Doctrine help revive local radio?

Before you jump on me, let's think about it a minute. Would Rush and Sean Hannity stick with it under a Fairness Doctrine?

How would station owners cope with it?

I doubt a new Fairness Doctrine would force Rush, Hannity, Savage, etc. to abandon their politics. If it did, I would not be surprised to see them "retire". Rush has all the money he could ever spend, so why would he put up with such control.

The onus of so called "fairness" would be on the station owner/licensee. So, if you air Rush, you would have to have an equal amount of time devoted to the opposing view.

There is good money in talk radio, so it won't just go away. While Talk Radio grew into prominence in deregulation, smart operators will figure out how to deal with a new Fairness Doctrine without killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Could the right (correct, not politically) fairness doctrine actually help radio as we knew it?

As Artie Johnson used to say on "Laugh In"..."Velly intellesting". I guess it would depend on how that specific "Fairness Doctrine" manifested itself. The broadcast spectrum belongs to the public and the government, in effect, leases the frequencies to individuals/groups. The oversight and policing, however, still falls to the government. And, while the Communications Act of 1934 called for all stations to offer "equal opportunity" to all legally qualified political candidates running for office(this was when available frequencies were extremely limited), it was this oversight responsibility that led to the passage of the original Fairness Doctrine in 1949, a policy which established station licensees as "public trustees" charged with, among other things, addressing controversial issues of public importance...and, while "equal time" was not explicitly required, allowing the opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of view on these issues was required. Over the years, both major political parties (and several that were not so major) have used the Fairness Doctrine to whatever political ends that suited them at the time. Additionally, starting in 1967, two main "corollary rules" to the Fairness Doctrine(the "personal attack" rule and "political editorial" rule) were added and were generally enforced by the FCC. However, in 1987, when the Fairness Doctrine went before the courts, many stations decided that since it wasn’t mandated by Congress, it didn’t have to be enforced. The FCC then suspended all but the two “corollary rules”. In 2000, when the FCC failed to justify the two “corollary rules”, the personal attack rule and the political editorial rule were repealed. And even though various and sundry politicians have threatened to revive it, the Fairness Doctrine is dead for now and despite the hooting and hollering to the contrary, there are not enough votes to reinstate it at this time(and there won't be enough post Election 2008, either). You do raise a very interesting premise, however. Would a newly revived Fairness Doctrine require equal time and fervor or just equal time or just the mention of the opposing view? That's why I asked the question of Don..."is it local radio or the local radio stations" that you propose saving? Though I'm not thinking that the kind of Fairness Doctrine you hypothesize would necessarily save local radio stations, I am thinking that, depending on what form a revived FD takes, it very well could serve to re-invent local radio...combine that with the impending sell-off of hundreds of stations on the part of the huge broadcast companies...who knows? That's an exciting thought. Thanks for giving me a different perspective of a threadbare subject.

 

[quadraphonic]

It would be nice if the right Fairness Doctrine could revitalize radio, but I think with the government/FCC enforcing it and radio management being responsible for following it, there are waaaaaaaay too many variables to bet it would ever work out "right." Maybe in a few instances where radio is already working out "correct" and "good" but they would still be the anomalies.