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KEOM: Past, Present and Future | Think of the Potential

J

JRZFM100

Wow, my wife has KEOM, the Mesquite Independent School District's NCE FM, on a preset in her car. I hardly every drive it, but today had the chance and started listening to KEOM again. I had not listened to the stations since 1999 - call that the KEOM of Christmas past!

Not surprisingly, KEOM of Christmas present is almost identical to the KEOM of Christmas past. Back in the 1990's I remember hearing the Defranco Family "Heartbeat is a Love Beat" and Rockford Files theme songs on the station. [I also remember a funny, one of the student announcers introducing a Steely Dan song with the artist being "Dan Steely" owing to their Selector music scheduling software or similar print out with artist last name first]

But, what about KEOM of the Christmas Future? The station has tremendous potential to attract an audience and to give the students a meaningful radio experience, commensurate with the Top-10 market in which it is situated. It'a all about vision, which the district seems to lack.

I remember when the former GM, the PhD (Dr. Griffen?) retired, MISD seemed to hand off the station to a hand picked, in-line successor (female, don't know who) that came from within the MISD system. If I recall correctly, MISD did little or no, perhaps maybe only a token ob search for leadership.

With so much reduction in choice for English Language music programming in Dallas over the past decades, KEOM could be so much more vibrant. It is now very useful as an alternative to the commercial band competitors as a music station, particularly for Dallas side residents.

What would it take to convince MISD to get real about the potential of KEOM?
 
I've often wondered what the mission statement of KEOM is.

If it's meant to be a teaching tool, it is woefully missing the mark. Do they really think that a high school student in 2013 wants to learn and practice radio on a station that plays music from their parent's childhood?

Further, there's little opportunity for the students to experience being an air personality/dj/talent, as all I ever hear them do is read an occasional PSA or weather forecast.

My career in radio (now in a hopefully brief hiatus) began with high school radio. We thought we were right there competing with the big stations in the market, bringing our peers their favorite music, plus school news, sports and activities.

Our station broadcast all day, even though it was closed-circuit to the school. The morning show went right up till the end of homeroom, then there was a different jock during each period. The school divided study hall periods into quiet and active study halls. In the active study hall, you would hear the station playing the hits.

The station didn't have a set format. What's the use of that when different students want to try different kinds of radio? You're not in it for ratings, are you?

We honed our skills by discussing, with our advisor, what we did on the air and the reasoning behind it. Then compared our work to what the pro's were doing.

The result: most of us went into radio. I started my first paying job on the same day I started college. I worked part-time for a couple of years, then became full-time for my last two years at a pretty substantial station in Buffalo. When all was said and done, I was miles ahead of my competitors on graduation day.

Sure, I still had lots to learn...but I had more experience, better skills, and better contacts than my peers and that made me a PD by 24. Have I been a NY or LA jock or PD? Nope. But I think the road from Buffalo, through Oklahoma City, Cincinnati and on to Dallas has been a great career.

It's a pity to see KEOM wasting such an opportunity. Someone is in charge there...but they're wasting a valuable opportunity for the district, the students and the parents.

I'm petty sure they'd find lots of current and former radio pros willing to volunteer time to re-establish the station into what it ought to be. I know I'd be at the head of the line. If it worked for this goofy kid from Buffalo, it can work anywhere.
 
Mr. Z... Peter! BRAVO on your KEOM remarks!

In terms of vision and purpose, in 1997, I went and met with the former GM, the PhD faculty member who headed up the station for many, many years. At that time, they had no vision, or should I say they offered no opportunity to accept any fresh ideas from my commercial paradigm. They wouldn't even take my time as a volunteer off the air.

It was a very much a closed system in that they didn't have or desire to receive input. And, didn't seem to have a vision; technically MISD seemed to be "unconsciously incompetent" about KEOM, meaning they didn't know that the didn't know.

At the time they had (and still have) a very few paid staff members and the rest is students.

I agree that the best outcome for the students would be a format that is interesting to the students. After all, even back in 1997, a student could not play Dan Steely from 1974 and have any fun at all (the kids don't know anything about Pretzel Logic).

I have little direct experience these days with the listening habits of persons in the 15 - 18 demo. When I was 15, radio was great and Z-100 had just signed on the air which made New York City radio even more exciting. That is such a funny thought just now, prior to 1983 and Z-100's launch, NYC was an AOR kinda town. I actually grew up originally wanting to be an AOR jock like Pat St John on WPLJ! Z-100 changed all of that.

Back to point, I am told these days that radio pros who go to speak at events about radio careers at colleges and high schools are more and more commonly finding a near total lack of interest in broadcast radio, complete with a lack of desire by students to even consider radio as a primary medium for music. This is very much in contradiction to our youthful memories.

So from a student perspective, yes definitely let the kids contribute to the programming.

But if MISD wants any kind of quality in their product at all - hey, it might help underwriting even (don't know if they do that kinda thing there) - then keep doing what you're doing but at least bring the darn station up to professional (sounding) standards. Reboot the whole thing, playlists, production techniques, imaging, etc.

Throw away KEOM of Christmas past and present. And do radio with some umph... with the intent of being a truly competitive sounding alternative to the commercial DFW stations.
 
KEOM was one of the jewels of Dallas radio while I lived there.

Regarding the 70's format - I think there is a disconnect, some convoluted logic that the decade of creation of a song automatically correlates to an audience segment. I know plenty of kids in the Dallas area that love the 70's format, one of them told me it is their favorite station. 50's, 60's, and 70's produced a lot of great music, and it is being re-discovered all the time by younger listeners. They may not form a majority, but today's music can trace its roots back 50 to 60 years, and even if the kids only hear the songs in commercials and movies, they hear the songs and like them. I know some popular artists personally, and many of them take direct inspiration from the early decades of rock and roll. Their parents may not have even been born in the 50's and 60's, but they know the music and take inspriation from it.

So - what format would people suggest as an alternative to 70's? There has been a certain cultural de-sensitizing to really bad lyrics. Not that even the 60's and 70's were entirely innocent with drug songs, promiscuity songs, etc. But there was a lot of material a school district could work with - without promoting things not appropriate for a school system. Much more so than the typical rap / hip-hop lyrics today. So the 70's is probably a good compromise for a station owned by a school system.

I totally agree that they need to put students on the air. I ran a radio show with kids as young as 14, and I can tell you the level of quality and professionalism was amazing. My announcers were being actively recruited by other stations in the area, and given lucrative job offers - only to be discouraged when they found out the age of my announcers. At least a couple of them have gone on to successful careers in radio. So it can and would be a learning experience appropriate for students, with a possible career path.
 
I hate to be the one to poo poo in the Christmas punch bowl, but are you serious? It's almost 2013. Why would a kid want to learn the ins & outs of an industry that is dying? There is no minor league in radio anymore. It's gone. They've been replaced by computer automation. The days of hearing a first-time jock trying to struggle through reading a PSA, or a live spot on the midnight to 6:00 shift are over. Your replacement used to be the up & coming weekend guy, now it's a voicetracked person from Atlanta. I understand OUR passion & love for radio, the way it used to be. But let's face reality. Those days are over. And if some kid happens to have a passion for broadcasting and wants to pursue it, it's much easier to broadcast online from the comfort of his own room..
 
The point of programming a radio station is to make the station interesting to listeners and not necessarily the staff. The KEOM I remember from my time in Dallas was to target the parents of students in the Mesquite ISD. On the plus sided it was the only station that played music on my morning commute.
 
JRZFM100 said:
Wow, my wife has KEOM, the Mesquite Independent School District's NCE FM, on a preset in her car. I hardly every drive it, but today had the chance and started listening to KEOM again. I had not listened to the stations since 1999 - call that the KEOM of Christmas past!

Not surprisingly, KEOM of Christmas present is almost identical to the KEOM of Christmas past. Back in the 1990's I remember hearing the Defranco Family "Heartbeat is a Love Beat" and Rockford Files theme songs on the station. [I also remember a funny, one of the student announcers introducing a Steely Dan song with the artist being "Dan Steely" owing to their Selector music scheduling software or similar print out with artist last name first]

But, what about KEOM of the Christmas Future? The station has tremendous potential to attract an audience and to give the students a meaningful radio experience, commensurate with the Top-10 market in which it is situated. It'a all about vision, which the district seems to lack.

I remember when the former GM, the PhD (Dr. Griffen?) retired, MISD seemed to hand off the station to a hand picked, in-line successor (female, don't know who) that came from within the MISD system. If I recall correctly, MISD did little or no, perhaps maybe only a token ob search for leadership.

With so much reduction in choice for English Language music programming in Dallas over the past decades, KEOM could be so much more vibrant. It is now very useful as an alternative to the commercial band competitors as a music station, particularly for Dallas side residents.

What would it take to convince MISD to get real about the potential of KEOM?
Click to expand...

I sample KEOM occasionally for the time warp effect. It's kinda disappointing that a 61kw signal located in Mesquite can barely make it into Tarrant County though.
 
dfwrunner said:
I sample KEOM occasionally for the time warp effect. It's kinda disappointing that a 61kw signal located in Mesquite can barely make it into Tarrant County though.
Click to expand...

That's because it's not transmitting with 61 kw towards Tarrant County. They need to protect KTCU at 88.7 in Fort Worth and reduce power in that direction as a result -- and, as a result, KEOM's 1 mv/m contour only extends as far west as DFW Airport. On the other hand, they blast a great signal out towards the East.
 
Duncan... We can agree to disagree. In a school/student radio station, the goal is should be to provide an experience to each student in the direction they want to learn and grow. What is the point of a school-funded station that does not do that? As a non-com, it's not about ratings...because even if they have them, they can't sell them.
 
In a school/student radio station, the goal is should be to provide an experience to each student in the direction they want to learn and grow. What is the point of a school-funded station that does not do that? As a non-com, it's not about ratings...because even if they have them, they can't sell them.
Click to expand...

Then why transmit a signal at all? I wasn't referring to "Ratings" or "Sales". I was referring to an audience. The audience is NEVER inside the studio. If this is a potential career choice, the students need to follow the rules and guidelines for the format of that station they're working for, just like in real life. I have a high schooler on my staff for an oldies station that does just that. No complaints. He's tickled to be there and has come to appreciate the older music that his parents grew up with.

We can disagree, but there's a bigger picture that I'm not sure you're seeing.
 
Duncan Park said:
The point of programming a radio station is to make the station interesting to listeners and not necessarily the staff. The KEOM I remember from my time in Dallas was to target the parents of students in the Mesquite ISD. On the plus sided it was the only station that played music on my morning commute.
Click to expand...

I assumed as much - only the parents are now beyond the format. Even 80's would probably too old for most of them.

My staff of students genuinely liked the format, and were committed to it. I think there is something to be said for on air talent that actually likes the format they are playing over the air. The enthusiasm comes out on the air, and makes the listener feel like they are listening to someone who is sincere, not just a robot playing a playlist. An iPod shuffle can do that. It takes a personality with heart, love for the format, and love for the audience to pull the listener in and get them involved.

As for radio being a dead end career, at least it is a career that can't be outsourced to India - yet.
 
The enthusiasm comes out on the air, and makes the listener feel like they are listening to someone who is sincere, not just a robot playing a playlist.
Click to expand...

Hey, you CAN insult JACK like that, he doesn't mind! :D ;D :D
 
JRZFM100 said:
The enthusiasm comes out on the air, and makes the listener feel like they are listening to someone who is sincere, not just a robot playing a playlist.
Click to expand...

Hey, you CAN insult JACK like that, he doesn't mind! :D ;D :D
Click to expand...

You got a Jack up there in Dallas? In Houston it is Bob. Well, for those of us on the West side who can get Bob-FM from Austin. I think the nearest Jack is in Victoria.
 
KEOM is somewhat a joke when compared to some other high school stations elsewhere.

Example: Seattle public schools run KNHC 89.5 "C89.5" Seattle, which carries a top 40/dance format. Programming, music, copy writing, DJs, production, etc. are student staff from one of the high schools there. It averages just over a 1.0 share in the Seattle ratings. So, it is possible to have a student operation that puts students on the air, plays something relevant to them, is relevant in the industry (BDS monitored, Billboard dance chart reporter), and has listeners.

http://www.c895.org/
https://www.facebook.com/c895radio

Its facebook page has more "likes" than a lot of stations around here.
 
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