KROQ is spinning currents into the ground

[TheBigA]

Since the 60's, jingles, liners, sweepers and promos all are part of the imaging package.

That may be, but is also imaging as distinguished from all of those other things. Stations have imaging directors who oversee those specific things, as opposed to jingle houses and original composition.

None of what I'm talking about was present in the demo in this thread, so I have to assume it either didn't exist at the time or wasn't part of the KNX package. My very simple comment was to say that things have changed since the 70s.

 

[david]

If you look at the shareholder reports, you see that only a tiny fraction of revenue comes from ad sales on the talk formats. Most of that is "fill" to cover the original network spot breaks.

Actually, spots run frequently on POTUS (Channel 124), a talk channel featuring channel specific shows with no M-F network shows, so the spot breaks are by design by SXM; not mandated by a syndication network.

 

[davideduardo]

That may be, but is also imaging as distinguished from all of those other things. Stations have imaging directors who oversee those specific things, as opposed to jingle houses and original composition.

I'm curious... I've been in some big stations in very big markets, and never had or heard of an "imaging director". Most imaging is designed by the PD and production people, in-house or outside, put the material together.

None of what I'm talking about was present in the demo in this thread, so I have to assume it either didn't exist at the time or wasn't part of the KNX package. My very simple comment was to say that things have changed since the 70s.

I don't think the internal procedures have changed. Of course, we had carts and razor blades and did not have ProTools. But the station feel or image came from the PD or group programming team. The use of jingles, liners, sweepers, and the like have change with audience preferences but "stationality" is always the key job of the PD.

 

[davideduardo]

Actually, spots run frequently on POTUS (Channel 124), a talk channel featuring channel specific shows with no M-F network shows, so the spot breaks are by design by SXM; not mandated by a syndication network.

And, as I said, they go for rates that don't even amount to 1% of the operation's gross income.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm curious... I've been in some big stations in very big markets, and never had or heard of an "imaging director". Most imaging is designed by the PD and production people, in-house or outside, put the material together.

Whatever you want to call them, wherever they are based, they are doing something very different from what was in that demo. That's all I'm saying. If you want to call what was in that demo imaging, then that's what YOU call it. It's very different from what became imaging in the late 80s and early 90s when production people combined sound effects & voice into what was called imaging.

This is what happens when someone takes a thread that was talking about KROQ spinning currents into the ground, and then changes the subject completely to something that happened 50 years ago. Let's please bring this thread back on topic. Put all of this 50 year old stuff in it's own thread so we can continue to talk about what KROQ is doing now.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Hmmmmm.

This is what happens when someone takes a thread that was talking about KROQ spinning currents into the ground, and then changes the subject completely to something that happened 50 years ago. Let's please bring this thread back on topic. Put all of this 50 year old stuff in it's own thread so we can continue to talk about what KROQ is doing now.

Actually, guess who got us sidetracked into talking about imaging, when we were talking about music flow?

I am reminded that "back in the day" Jhani had two cassettes for each song in the library, with the tip and the tail of each. When he was uncertain of the way two songs would segue, he would play the tail and the tip of the two to be sure there was good flow.

I have posted about the obsession the old KNX-FM guys had with this on several occasions. Songs generally were programmed such that the ending key of the prior song matched the beginning key of the next. The whole point was to keep it smooooooth.

That was before this thing called imaging.

 

[TheBigA]

Actually, guess who got us sidetracked into talking about imaging, when we were talking about music flow?

What does music flow at KNX 50 years ago have to do with currents at KROQ? Nothing.

 

[davideduardo]

What does music flow at KNX 50 years ago have to do with currents at KROQ? Nothing.

If we are tracing a timeline of how stations imaged, we can go back as far as we want.

I was looking at a promotional booklet for a network affiliate in Minneapolis which was published in 1935. The station spent lots of money on a 20-page booklet with photos of all the local and web talent, its building and transmitter, the office staff and the engineers and some local city shots to tie it together. The call letters were on every page, often many times. But nowhere did it mention the station's frequency.

Back in '35, it was not needed to give the dial position. The station's image was based, mostly on the network and key local shows. So that is what they promoted. That was their image.

As we moved from network radio to music formats, imaging changed. On air presentation was different, and stations got names instead of just letters. We got jingles and sounders and stingers. That was imaging then.

Today, the imaging is not to build station importance, but to create longer listening incidents and more return visits. But it is still imaging.

In the 30's and 40's, ratings showed hours and half hours, not daypparts. Now we look at dayparts, but analyze by the minute. How we do imaging changes and what we define as imaging does too. But it is just a progression, not something new.

 

[TheBigA]

If we are tracing a timeline of how stations imaged, we can go back as far as we want.

We're not. We're talking about the music programming at KROQ. That's the subject of this thread.

 

[davideduardo]

We're not. We're talking about the music programming at KROQ. That's the subject of this thread.

No, we are talking about the changes in formatics including imaging, rotations, aggressiveness in new adds, etc.

In the past, KROQ had the image of being adventurous and trend-setting with new music. They lost that image. It appears that an attempt is being made to earn that back.

Much of station imaging is not about what a station does, but what listeners perceive thee station to be doing. KROQ had built very positive perceptions in the past, and that was the bulk of their imaging. People actually believed a station that around 5% of the audience listened to in LA was "world famous". That was true image creation.

 

[TheBigA]

No, we are talking about the changes in formatics including imaging, rotations, aggressiveness in new adds, etc.

I'm done explaining this.

 

[davideduardo]

Actually, guess who got us sidetracked into talking about imaging, when we were talking about music flow?

Yet the music, song by song, set by set and even the whole library is really 90% of the image of a station that plays a very specific subset of a music genre, rock.