Is WVKO AM in trouble??

[SeanMGilbow]

Crummy sound... no satellite dish... infomercials interrupting programming.

If I were a WVKO listener, I'd go cold turkey -- and this is from someone who's taken his licks defending progressive talk radio.

It's not my responsibility to "support" a commercial station. It's your responsibility to get proper capitalization together and put on a product that merits my attention -- and doesn't detract from it with infomercials in the middle of a weekday. I (the listener) am to be wooed, not panhandled.

Smedge, take a chill pill. The infomercials are now running at less popular times. Ron Kuby still has to establish himself, and some of my fellow listeners may not be happy with Bill Press after the May event was cancelled.

This, too, shall pass.

 

[nmoore6676]

I've been listening to the internet stream for Ed Schultz, who was dropped here in Los Angeles from KTLK. He's been picked up on KGIL but only an hour's worth. Anyway the online audio sounds better than WHIO where I get Neal Boortz and as good as KFI here (until they get the tower reconstructed I get a lot of interference). I would assume that the stream doesn't involve their STL so I may be hearing better than you get there. In any event I haven't heard many more glitches than I hear elsewhere so all in all they seem to be pretty good especially on a shoestring.

Locally the Gold Show lopped off a half hour of the Wall Street Journal report, but I have other listening then so it doesn't bother me. I notice a lot of these "infomercials' on a lot of stations now, including CBS's much revered KFWB, all news station. Some struggling stations run them mid-days but mostly I see them on weekends and overnight so if they help keep the lights on so what?

 

[DToTheJ]

Crummy sound... no satellite dish... infomercials interrupting programming.

If I were a WVKO listener, I'd go cold turkey -- and this is from someone who's taken his licks defending progressive talk radio.

Try CBS' progressive station out of Seattle and their online stream - all the popular progressive talkers (read: mostly not Air America) and best of all, no impromptu preemptions for colon cleanse or gold diggers!
http://player.play.it/player/player.html?id=86&onestat=kptk

 

[psonderman]

Ron Kuby still has to establish himself

Randi Rhodes had a lot of listeners. She's back on the air, I hear her via XM in her old noon-3 time slot. Why does VKO run Kuby instead of Randi Rhodes?

 

[psonderman]

That's 3-6P...sorry.

 

[SeanMGilbow]

Ron Kuby still has to establish himself

Randi Rhodes had a lot of listeners. She's back on the air, I hear her via XM in her old noon-3 time slot. Why does VKO run Kuby instead of Randi Rhodes?

As Tommy aka Buddy from Clintonville put it, Randi Rhodes is an acquired taste.

Kuby, however, has a radio background from the days when talk radio wasn't ideological (pre-Rush). He was dropped from WABC in New York when the station brought in Don Imus.

 

[gabigley1]

Crummy sound... no satellite dish... infomercials interrupting programming.

If I were a WVKO listener, I'd go cold turkey -- and this is from someone who's taken his licks defending progressive talk radio.

It's not my responsibility to "support" a commercial station. It's your responsibility to get proper capitalization together and put on a product that merits my attention -- and doesn't detract from it with infomercials in the middle of a weekday. I (the listener) am to be wooed, not panhandled.

Smedge, take a chill pill. The infomercials are now running at less popular times. Ron Kuby still has to establish himself, and some of my fellow listeners may not be happy with Bill Press after the May event was cancelled.

This, too, shall pass.

Bill Press said on the air he would reschedule this May event here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/34156 I'm sure his listeners
and the station is not happy that he did not keep his promise after
he canceled his May event.

Also, Ed. Schultz was supposed to make a July appearance and broadcast
from Columbus. Why has Ed. shown no interest in his WVKO Columbus listeners?
He made an Columbus appearance when he was on that other station a couple
of years back. He did so even when that other station would not pay for his trip and Columbus appearance. If I recall correctly, he said on the air that the Plumbers Union paid for that appearance. He even said C.C. did not promote his show and
that is why he didn't have as many listeners as he would have liked.

 

[SeanMGilbow]

Crummy sound... no satellite dish... infomercials interrupting programming.

If I were a WVKO listener, I'd go cold turkey -- and this is from someone who's taken his licks defending progressive talk radio.

It's not my responsibility to "support" a commercial station. It's your responsibility to get proper capitalization together and put on a product that merits my attention -- and doesn't detract from it with infomercials in the middle of a weekday. I (the listener) am to be wooed, not panhandled.

Smedge, take a chill pill. The infomercials are now running at less popular times. Ron Kuby still has to establish himself, and some of my fellow listeners may not be happy with Bill Press after the May event was cancelled.

This, too, shall pass.

Bill Press said on the air he would reschedule this May event here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/34156 I'm sure his listeners
and the station is not happy that he did not keep his promise after
he canceled his May event.

Also, Ed. Schultz was supposed to make a July appearance and broadcast
from Columbus. Why has Ed. shown no interest in his WVKO Columbus listeners?
He made an Columbus appearance when he was on that other station a couple
of years back. He did so even when that other station would not pay for his trip and Columbus appearance. If I recall correctly, he said on the air that the Plumbers Union paid for that appearance. He even said C.C. did not promote his show and
that is why he didn't have as many listeners as he would have liked.

Plans are in the works to have Ed Schultz appear on August 14 in Columbus. I will be sponsoring the event. More information will be available once I get more details from GM Gary Richards.

 

[1sttimecaller]

You’re bringing in Ed Shultz!?!??! With that $44,000 salary you keep bragging about? Are you driving to Fargo to pick them up in your Dodge Stratus?

Have you seen a big eddie demand list for an appearance? First class airfare for 4. Coach class for 4. Hotel: all suites, penthouse if available. Meals, ground transportation must be chauffeured town car (2). (and i doubt Big Eddie goes for the free pizza and orange gatorade routine you guys tried to pull off last time)

Good luck, it’s a lot of effort for a host that cumes less then 400 in cbus on a daily basis.

You stay classy, Sean Gilbow.

 

[SeanMGilbow]

John, if you will read the previous posting again, it says I will be sponsoring the event. It does not say I will be the only sponsor of the event. :

If you go to WVKO's website, you will see all the sponsors who came together to bring Stephanie Miller to Columbus. Not easy when you consider the amount of box wine we had to make available for her.

Another poster tipped me off about your effort at being comical. I will say that you did put some effort into it (well, maybe a little), but as Momma's substitutes Frangela would say, "There was a time in this country when sarcasm was actually funny." ;D

 

[1sttimecaller]

Gee, that's funny, I wasn't being comical.







Columbus' home for Bill Press, Gold Infomercials, Stephanie Miller, Liners from a Chicago station, Dead Air, Colon Ease Infomercials Ed Schultz, Double Audio, Air America and a really lame-o weekend show.

Real, (as opposed to that fake stuff elsewhere) local, issue-oriented talk--"What's What with Mike Cole"--6 p.m.

Local news mornings and afternoons (ya know, rewritten from the dispatch by a guy that interned at WAKR in Akron when Christ was still walking around.)

Your home for Columbus Clippers baseball - Where more people sit in the stands than listen to 1580

Ohio's progressive talk station: 1580 WVKO

Listen live: wvko1580.com, or pull up one of the other streams from say Chicago, like we do, cause we're too cheap to pay for a dish, but we'll say it's location, despite the fact a guy in a mobile home camping in the forest can hook up a dish and get 473 channels of HD TV.

 

[GR]

Crummy sound... no satellite dish... infomercials interrupting programming.

If I were a WVKO listener, I'd go cold turkey

Since you're not a WVKO listener, how would you know what the station sounds like? WVKO has had a satellite dish for months. And infomercials? How dare they? You would think they were trying to make payroll and stay on the air, or something.

 

[GR]

Gee, that's funny, I wasn't being comical.

Liners from a Chicago station

You are being comical, you just don't know it. When was the last time you heard a liner from a Chicago station on WVKO?

 

[gabigley1]

Crummy sound... no satellite dish... infomercials interrupting programming.

If I were a WVKO listener, I'd go cold turkey

Since you're not a WVKO listener, how would you know what the station sounds like? WVKO has had a satellite dish for months. And infomercials? How dare they? You would think they were trying to make payroll and stay on the air, or something.

GR,

I heard liners for WTPG-AM Chicago a couple of months ago.. This was on
around May 5th. Don't recall hearing any liners after that date and I listen ever
day. I'm a fan of the station but take dim view of the poor WVKO-AM audio.

As far as the satellite dish goes, why did it take WVKO-AM over six months
to get it installed and on line? WVKO-AM went on the air December 2nd of
last year but the dish wasn't on line until June of this year.
The dishes were installed on the same storefront building that WVKO-AM
occupies. So, the problem you mentioned back in early December was not
an issue at all. This was a building you said was blocking the path to the AMC 8 bird from the WVKO-AM storefront building.
This is what you(GR) have to say from last December about the Dish.

Personally I would had wait for the Starguide boxes and a satellite dish then launch with an internet feed

Would you, now? Time to clarify a few things:

The Starguide boxes and dish were already there. But the station is in a storefront downtown, and a building is blocking the path to the AMC 8 bird - an unforseen and unfortunate complication. There is no easy solution, so there is no choice for now but to air an internet feed.

There was no time to get "everything right" before launch. An opportunity suddenly arose to LMA the station, and the format was rushed onto the air because it had to be. You can't sell a station that isn't on the air.

Sloppy ID insertions and breaks? Just bad radio? Agreed. Consider a staff of basically one - no PD, no OM, just a couple of neophyte volunteers and a guy who put his life savings on the line to chase a dream. With the clock ticking and another large rent payment looming, he's got better things to do than nurse the board - like trying to sell some spots. Oh, and with a sick 19 month old and sick wife at home, to boot.

Why don't you know-it-alls try doing something like that and see how easy it is?

I see most of the criticism here on this thread as constructive criticisms.
Most of the people here would like to see VKO-AM succeed.
I for one think a diversity of voices is good for radio.

 

[willcail]

Well they didn't have the dish after the first WVKO event. Remember this is a LMA station and Gary have to pay rent to the actual owners of the station plus he have to pay for any radio station hardware from ad revenue. Remember this isn't a CC station.

 

[nmoore6676]

It is important that we have left leaning as well as the conservative outlets on the air. At one time it appeared that Clear Channel was on to that when the implemented "progressive talk" outlets in many markets. Since then they have pulled most of them off again. If there is not a substantial alternative voice, a future congress may well re-institute a new fairness doctrine. That would be the death of all talk radio as we know it because no station will want to give away air time to alternative views. That leaves us to more religious or ethnic programming or drab watered down safe topics. Some signals may even just go dark.

Think about that all of you people who are salivating at the prospects of WVKO going away. I listen on line to hear Ed Schultz and if possible even from this distance I stand ready to support their sponsors. I also listen to conservative talk but there is no dearth of outlets for that. Even here in Los Angeles where the "commie" celebrities all live there is only one commercial progressive station (three full market conservative signals) and another mixed station with a few progressive shows in the mix. That someone in Columbus is trying should be applauded and supported, even if you are a conservative. It is important to know what both side are saying and if you aren't listening then you are seriously uninformed. That is very dangerous as we draw ever nearer to November.

 

[GR]

As far as the satellite dish goes, why did it take WVKO-AM over six months
to get it installed and on line?
I see most of the criticism here on this thread as constructive criticisms.

First of all, what business is it of yours? What part of "there are buildings in the way" can't you fathom? Don't you think that it would have been done sooner if that were possible? Did it ever occur to you that there were extenuating circumstances that were beyond WVKO's control, legitimate complications that, frankly, are none of your or anyone else's business?

And constructive criticism my foot. Those who can, do. Those who can't, live with their mothers and spend their countless hours of free time sitting at their computers taking cheap shots at those who are doing things. I see that the cyber-bullies who are taking cheap shots at WVKO are just like any other bullies - stand up to them, call them out, and they back right down. And that includes the other genius who claimed he tried for weeks to contact the station's sales department, but couldn't figure out how to leave a voice mail message.

WVKO isn't being operated by a large chain with deep pockets. It's being run by one person who is sticking his neck way out there, with a little help from a handful of employees, interns and volunteers. Operating on a shoestring? There is no shoestring. Try barefoot.

 

[KFodor]

As far as the satellite dish goes, why did it take WVKO-AM over six months
to get it installed and on line?
I see most of the criticism here on this thread as constructive criticisms.

First of all, what business is it of yours? What part of "there are buildings in the way" can't you fathom? Don't you think that it would have been done sooner if that were possible? Did it ever occur to you that there were extenuating circumstances that were beyond WVKO's control, legitimate complications that, frankly, are none of your or anyone else's business?

And constructive criticism my foot. Those who can, do. Those who can't, live with their mothers and spend their countless hours of free time sitting at their computers taking cheap shots at those who are doing things. I see that the cyber-bullies who are taking cheap shots at WVKO are just like any other bullies - stand up to them, call them out, and they back right down. And that includes the other genius who claimed he tried for weeks to contact the station's sales department, but couldn't figure out how to leave a voice mail message.

WVKO isn't being operated by a large chain with deep pockets. It's being run by one person who is sticking his neck way out there, with a little help from a handful of employees, interns and volunteers. Operating on a shoestring? There is no shoestring. Try barefoot.

Hey...Gary (if that's you)...lighten up.

I appreciate where you're coming from. But, welcome to the real world of radio.

I'm sure you realize, unlike some on this board, that I've been very careful not to overly criticize your station. I know you're operating on a shoestring. (And the "barefoot" comparison is understandable, too...we both worked for Percy, so I know what you mean.)

But, in my very first post on this subject, I told you: you would be held to the same standards as WNCI, WTVN, WBNS, etc. And that's where you guys fall down, sometimes.

No. You can't run liners and traffic reports from other cities. Not even for one day.

You have to sound as professional as the big boys. Your promos must change regularly. Your imaging must be up to snuff. Your local shows can sound local, but they must sound professional with good bumper music, good imaging and board-ops that can pull it all off.

"The Gold Show". Sure, I get it. You're doing what you have to do to make money and pay the bills. Just understand, you're going to P.O. the left-of-center faithful that want to hear Ed Schultz, etc. And they're going to let you hear it.

Nobody's gonna give you a break. You're in market #35. Welcome to the big leagues.

I couldn't use that excuse with Star 107.9 when Percy owned it. And, you're wrong to think because you're a small operation that anyone is gonna give you a break.

It ain't easy to run a small station in a big city. Particularly one that, because of the polarized political climate we live in today, is a bullseye for anyone with a right-wing agenda who happens to, also, be a broadcaster. (Or a person with a right-wing agenda period.)

Nonetheless, WVKO is providing a service that I feel is important. All sides need to be heard (even if I disagree with a lot of what I hear). I do believe in the free expression of opposing viewpoints your station is providing.

Shoot me an e-mail if you'd like some ideas.

 

[ajhenderson]

GR is right; small AMs in medium cities have to run block programming.

WTPG is not in Chicago and never has been.

Columbus is the 37th largest market.

And if Ed Schultz's listenership is so weak (not assaulting your facts, just the applied logic), the gold shows everyone complains about wouldn't keep renewing to be around or on top of his show.

As to getting a break, Jason may have a point, but when progressive listeners have nowhere else to go, what are they going to do. Sure, WVKO's imaging isn't up to WLW standards. A lot of 2nd-tier talk stations have, IMHO, weak imaging that I could have outdone in my first year in the business. Maybe I just like to waaaay too much talk radio to keep my ear to the ground. But the fact is people don't tune into a station to hear imaging, and if you like the shows, you'll listen. That is likely true for RW stations and certainly when you're the only game in town. At least there's an effort, unlike CC talk stations that, while the automation allows for less dead air than stations like WVKO, sound weak, and you know they could do so much better. You can't accuse WVKO of being run as a throwaway station.

 

[cadkins6739]

As far as the satellite dish goes, why did it take WVKO-AM over six months
to get it installed and on line?
I see most of the criticism here on this thread as constructive criticisms.

First of all, what business is it of yours? What part of "there are buildings in the way" can't you fathom? Don't you think that it would have been done sooner if that were possible? Did it ever occur to you that there were extenuating circumstances that were beyond WVKO's control, legitimate complications that, frankly, are none of your or anyone else's business?

And constructive criticism my foot. Those who can, do. Those who can't, live with their mothers and spend their countless hours of free time sitting at their computers taking cheap shots at those who are doing things. I see that the cyber-bullies who are taking cheap shots at WVKO are just like any other bullies - stand up to them, call them out, and they back right down. And that includes the other genius who claimed he tried for weeks to contact the station's sales department, but couldn't figure out how to leave a voice mail message.

WVKO isn't being operated by a large chain with deep pockets. It's being run by one person who is sticking his neck way out there, with a little help from a handful of employees, interns and volunteers. Operating on a shoestring? There is no shoestring. Try barefoot.

Hey...Gary (if that's you)...lighten up.

I appreciate where you're coming from. But, welcome to the real world of radio.

I'm sure you realize, unlike some on this board, that I've been very careful not to overly criticize your station. I know you're operating on a shoestring. (And the "barefoot" comparison is understandable, too...we both worked for Percy, so I know what you mean.)

But, in my very first post on this subject, I told you: you would be held to the same standards as WNCI, WTVN, WBNS, etc. And that's where you guys fall down, sometimes.

No. You can't run liners and traffic reports from other cities. Not even for one day.

You have to sound as professional as the big boys. Your promos must change regularly. Your imaging must be up to snuff. Your local shows can sound local, but they must sound professional with good bumper music, good imaging and board-ops that can pull it all off.

"The Gold Show". Sure, I get it. You're doing what you have to do to make money and pay the bills. Just understand, you're going to P.O. the left-of-center faithful that want to hear Ed Schultz, etc. And they're going to let you hear it.

Nobody's gonna give you a break. You're in market #35. Welcome to the big leagues.

I couldn't use that excuse with Star 107.9 when Percy owned it. And, you're wrong to think because you're a small operation that anyone is gonna give you a break.

It ain't easy to run a small station in a big city. Particularly one that, because of the polarized political climate we live in today, is a bullseye for anyone with a right-wing agenda who happens to, also, be a broadcaster. (Or a person with a right-wing agenda period.)

Nonetheless, WVKO is providing a service that I feel is important. All sides need to be heard (even if I disagree with a lot of what I hear). I do believe in the free expression of opposing viewpoints your station is providing.

Shoot me an e-mail if you'd like some ideas.

I find this an interesting thread. I am by no means a "ciber bully" but all I have maintained that the WVKO STL quality needs to be improved so it doesn't sound like a 1960s remote. I recall hearing WWST Wooster ID's during Indians games in the 60's when there were distributed by FM tuner and Northern Ohio spots during some of those games but man this is 2008. There are so many more listening choices all sounding slick with good production, even though is Milk Toast Same Sounding radio, it's still very slick production and packagged well. Listeners are not as forgiving now as they used to be and they don't have to be. Just because you have a dream doesn't mean the world will welcome you with open arms, I have found that out trying to get in to broadcasting with my percieved handicap. You can not decide to run in the Indie 500 riding a bicycle and not have your decission questioned. I love and have loved WVKO more than any radio station and have had a passion for them wanting to work there since I was 6 years old, but facts are facts. Maybe starting in such a buisness these days "bearfoot" was biting off more than can be chewed, only time will tell.

I like hearing spots on WVKO, it means someone is finaly making some money, but bad audio is bad audio--satellite dish not withstanding. Put another way, if you're getting the audio to the transmitter through a coffee can, everything will always sound like a coffee can.

I have sent emails volunteering voice work or tech help and nobody has called me!!!

The days of a radio audience accepting a WLNO mom and pop sounding radio station are unfortunately gone. That's what is wrong with radio, you could take WTVN and put it in Oklahoma and nobody would know the difference--it all sounds the same like Clear Channel, all liners, id's, spots using the same 3 or 4 voices.

It's been said, "it's none of your buisness" Well, musings about radio or what may happen or why things happen is what this list I thought was created for.