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Lotus
- Thread starter bossbill
- Start date
KALW in San Francisco still broadcasts lunch menus for the San Francisco Unified School District.
So there!
Everybody has, but we make money with sponsored traffic reports. We don't make money from Waze. Figured you'd know that.
There is absolutely NOTHING we do in radio that can't be obtained by some other means. Even our DJs are on the web.
We need to get over this idea that we have any exclusivity to anything. We're just another form of media.
I believe Bill's point was most average consumers use Google/Waze or whatever their phone or vehicle navigation to determine routes and traffic, not just radio. Except I suppose for those considered Luddites who refuse to own a smartphone. And I believe the 'school lunch menu' he had his tongue firmly in cheek.
Yes and yes.
There are (were) some really good reporters and anchors at the station, and the all news clock was also good, but the station imaging has been bad for a few years.
I actually thought the new Northwest News Radio imaging was an improvement over the last package KOMO had. As for the unpredictable traffic reports, the one example is pretty bad, but I haven't actually heard them do that before. That sounds like an automation glitch or something. What I have noticed during my listening in evenings is that they do not adhere as tightly to the clock as they do during the day. If you're expecting it on the 4s, it may be about a minute late or half a minute early. Actually I think this is a bigger issue with the money update at 10:50 PM, but you get the point.
But there is fit for purpose. I could hammer a nail with a toaster but that might not be very effective. Is it really a good idea to have someone diddle with Waze while they're driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic? Probably not. You have to be an active participant in the process in order to get the app to do what you want it to do; radio reports are more passive on the driver's part and thus consume far less driver attention. Yeah, there are some people that are going to let the GPS do the thinking for them. But navigation apps and systems make decisions based on a snapshot in time of what can be a highly dynamic situation and, once they put you on a route, they tend to stick with it even if conditions change. They will adapt to changes that a driver makes based on the driver's own independent judgment.
What worked best for me in my days of Interstate 880 commute hell was to use Waze in combination with KCBS's traffic reports. Whether they were a minute or so off the news wheel from time to time didn't really matter so much as the cadence of the reports. The reports provided an indication of whether the shortest-path route (in terms of time, not necessarily distance) that Waze selected would still be useful, or if that route had deteriorated to the point that I would need to adjust.
I could say much more, but I'm not that conversant with the Seattle market and this is a Seattle board, so I'll stop here.
I agree with this statement but neither are that great.
I look at Google maps before I head out to a destination, but I don’t use Google maps actively in the car. I don’t have any sort of phone mount and my car is far too old to have digital screens that show any GPS information. Regardless of any of that, even if I had all of this information handy, I’d still like an update from the supposed experts (who have far more access to traffic information than I likely do). I listened to the old KOMO every day for traffic reports when I was trying to get to and from work. I’m not currently in the market enough to listen now, but it’s unfortunate to hear that the on-air quality has taken a nosedive.
I’m in the Vancouver market now and listen to CKWX frequently. I agree, the overall presentation of traffic reports is excellent. They take their time with the reports, and share information that is actually quite useful. Mind you, the layout of Vancouver and Seattle differ quite a bit, but reporting on an accident at a critical intersection in downtown Vancouver could easily be translated to an issue happening in Seattle.
I agree that a full market FM signal is a major benefit to KIRO. Does that mean that Lotus should try to establish parity with KIRO and move the programming on 1000/97.7 to 101.5? If they did, they also will need to address the quality concerns. KIRO’s traffic reports don’t have the issues that have been referenced on this thread (for example), so signal parity probably isn’t an automatic solution.
I’m in the Vancouver market now and listen to CKWX frequently. I agree, the overall presentation of traffic reports is excellent. They take their time with the reports, and share information that is actually quite useful. Mind you, the layout of Vancouver and Seattle differ quite a bit, but reporting on an accident at a critical intersection in downtown Vancouver could easily be translated to an issue happening in Seattle.
I agree that a full market FM signal is a major benefit to KIRO. Does that mean that Lotus should try to establish parity with KIRO and move the programming on 1000/97.7 to 101.5? If they did, they also will need to address the quality concerns. KIRO’s traffic reports don’t have the issues that have been referenced on this thread (for example), so signal parity probably isn’t an automatic solution.
You know, they make various mounts for your smartphone that can have it in view. I was at Lowe's just today and walked past a display with a nice windshield suction cup phone mount for $19.99. If you'd like, we could take up a collection and buy you one.
Again, why would some radio station be worried about extended traffic reports when most consumers use their smartphones and in-vehicle navigation? Just because a few people who don't want to spend $20?
That's because Canadians need you to speak much slower, eh.
Yeah, you better get the collection plate ready. My part time janitorial gig at the mall doesn't buy fancy toys like that.
I'm new to the board, so forgive this question if it has been asked an answered. Can component manufacturers place digital chips in car stereos to read what is being played? Same with digital program apps. Why can't they measure what is 'actually playing' than taking a sample and extrapolating it. I know this is a PPM question and is a touch off topic. I was always curious about this.
I remember Fisher Broadcasting was like the holy land of radio in Seattle only because of the fact that the job security there was excellent compared to the other companies like Ackerly, Sandusky, etc. When Sinclair took over, they had 4 stations (KOMOAM/FM, KVI, KPLZ and WGN) they unloaded WGN quickly and I guess held off on the Seattle stations until they did not want to have a radio in their portfolio and sold to Lotus. I feel Lotus failed and now they are scrabbling trying to find what would work in Seattle that works in their other markets. I'm still leaning towards Spanish radio.
They call that RDS (Radio Data Service), but it's voluntary. Many stations have current songs or programming being aired, what's coming up next, and even information about commercials or promos. There's no way for the radio to send that information somewhere for tabulation.
PPM devices actually listens in the open air environment around the participating panelist for audio that has an encoded 'watermark' for a particular station, stream, or TV audio.
It's a lot easier to run a news radio station when you also own a TV station in the same town. So to compare Lotus with Fisher is extremely unfair. Audacy has had to deal with that too, since they now own the former CBS stations.
Running local radio is based on local demographics. The demographics of Seattle are not the same as Los Angeles.
Not comparing Lotus with Fisher, I don't even think my post implies I was comparing the 2. Yes, It is easier when there's a TV station tacked on to a radio station.
Trust me, it was the other way around.
Really... ok you don't get it obvisouly if you even have to ask.... next.
I guess I was reacting to the "job security" aspect. In the world of today's radio-only companies, there really is no job security.
I get what you're saying and yes, there is no job security at any position now. I just remember clusters like Clear Channel, Sandusky, CBS were making the cuts year round since 2001 and the only company that did not unload their employees was Fisher until like 2011 when Sinclair got rid of some staff.
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