LA Times Radio Article

[davideduardo]

When it had inviolable standards. When it had boundaries it wouldn't transgress despite the extra revenue allure from targeting the lowest common denominator. By that I don't mean being prim and shunning newfangled rock music. I mean professional boundaries. Standards against excess commercial loads, formulaic brand imaging, overly crispy and tight playlists, patronizing listeners (with wacky jocks and endless contest hype), isolating listeners (with the death of the jock and/or by voicetracking), mistreating listeners' ears (with the processing wars and now the audible watermarking) ... and so on. There is a gestalt effect when multiple sensory insults like these get fused into one. That effect is the loss of the magic radio once had.

You are describing radio in the later 50s and 60s when the FCC even had to hold up license renewals when stations went over 18 minutes of commercials an hour. Top 40 playlist were exactly that: 40 songs played over and over and over and over without Oldies or the still unknown category of “recurrence“. Processing was done by things like the Level Devil and other violent peak limiters. Contest were incessant and often involve listeners doing stupid or crazy things.

Let me use a metaphor. McDonalds interiors are overly-endowed with combo promotion kiosks and special deal signs plastered on every wall and surface. Their stores, as businesses, are formulaically imaged, heavily food-variety restricted, automaton-ated, and food-processed to perfection. And yet they're missing absolutely everything the small family Italian restaurant offers across the street. The dining experience amidst the ornately decorated, artistically lit, festive interior. The menu of all-family recipes, which though full of "common" fare like spaghetti, tastes wonderfully unique and subtly but satisfyingly different with each visit. The cheery and personable waiters who intimately know all their hometown customers, and who add a lively buzz of warmth and unpredictability to the atmosphere's presentation. The chefs' willingness to take requests and offer custom items not advertised on the menu, and make you more if you loved it.

Yet 80% of all owner operator restaurants fail in their first 24 months of operation. Those McDonald’s do not.

We four or five times a week, mostly in mid range and slightly higher type establishments. I have never seen a restaurant like you describe.

Both restaurants are totally focused on making money. But only one squeezes all the magic out of the experience to hit its revenue target. That being the one that has to make extra money, to feed the hungry corporate tower and its enthroned investors, who aren't burning any personal calories doing actual work inside the restaurant.

You have a dream concept. Radio 60 and 70 years ago had much tighter rotations, more screaming DJs, crazier contests and lots more jingles and promotions.

 

[TheBigA]

Yet the OP makes a good point. Because WABC is running local talk shows during most dayparts, outside of its 24-hour simulcaster on Long Island, you're not going to hear those shows over on the air radio anywhere else.

Actually most of the local shows on WABC are also syndicated on the Red Apple Audio Network. So some small mom & pop stations outside NYC carry them as well. Cats realized that even a top rated station in the #1 market doesn't generate enough audience to attract major advertisers. So he created a national network, and he sells that larger audience.

When I look at the charts of the various top-40 outlets available on the ARSA survey site, I find something funny. I find that while everybody is playing pretty much the biggest hits, there are a flurry of records that do well in one market but not another.

What you're actually talking about is the music business, which changed from being a smaller industry in the 60s to a global business today. The big record labels aren't owned by US companies, but rather by either the Japanese, the French, or the Germans. They don't market their music locally anymore. The touring business isn't even local anymore. There used to be local concert promoters. Now everything is either Live Nation or AEG.

Radio has to deal with these companies because they play music. But radio's influence isn't what it was, because music operates on a global platform. Local radio is simply too small to make a difference.

Most top-40 outlets are owned by big national corporations with (mostly) the same person programming all of the company's top-40 stations.

Not true. The Top 40 music charts (Billboard & Mediabase) require that the radio stations reporting to them create local playlists, and employ a local person who can take phone calls from record label promo people. If it's discovered that the playlists are created by one person, that station is dropped as a reporter. The music business controls all of this, and they are bigger than the radio companies. They own the music, we pay them for the right to play it, and we must play by their rules.

 

[ILOVERADIO]

Actually most of the local shows on WABC are also syndicated on the Red Apple Audio Network. So some small mom & pop stations outside NYC carry them as well. Cats realized that even a top rated station in the #1 market doesn't generate enough audience to attract major advertisers. So he created a national network, and he sells that larger audience.



What you're actually talking about is the music business, which changed from being a smaller industry in the 60s to a global business today. The big record labels aren't owned by US companies, but rather by either the Japanese, the French, or the Germans. They don't market their music locally anymore. The touring business isn't even local anymore. There used to be local concert promoters. Now everything is either Live Nation or AEG.

Radio has to deal with these companies because they play music. But radio's influence isn't what it was, because music operates on a global platform. Local radio is simply too small to make a difference.



Not true. The Top 40 music charts (Billboard & Mediabase) require that the radio stations reporting to them create local playlists, and employ a local person who can take phone calls from record label promo people. If it's discovered that the playlists are created by one person, that station is dropped as a reporter. The music business controls all of this, and they are bigger than the radio companies. They own the music, we pay them for the right to play it, and we must play by their rules.

Cats seems like a smart businessman. WABC has a real local feel, even in the big apple. Playing rock and pop music on weekend nights, especially Cousin Brucie, he locks in the 100+ crowd who spend their money on wheelchairs, Geritol, and nursing homes. I like hearing the owner’s frequent voice on
the station, like he’s inviting me into his home. In an age of automated radio, WABC is live and local 18 hours a day weekdays and much of the weekend. It has a very human feel compared to the jukebox radio on many FM stations.

 

[radiofan2023]

Cats seems like a smart businessman. WABC has a real local feel, even in the big apple. Playing rock and pop music on weekend nights, especially Cousin Brucie, he locks in the 100+ crowd who spend their money on wheelchairs, Geritol, and nursing homes. I like hearing the owner’s frequent voice on
the station, like he’s inviting me into his home. In an age of automated radio, WABC is live and local 18 hours a day weekdays and much of the weekend. It has a very human feel compared to the jukebox radio on many FM stations.

I thought this post was satire based on the first part about the 100+ crowd, but then I read the rest of it and now I have no idea.

 

[Karl]

I crack up every time Hoboken Mary calls into the Joe Piscopo's Bulova Sinatra Showcase. Actually, I like listening to all the callers from around New York State.

 

[radiofan2023]

I crack up every time Hoboken Mary calls into the Joe Piscopo's Bulova Sinatra Showcase. Actually, I like listening to all the callers from around New York State.

I tried listening to that show, but I ended up chairman of the bored!