Johnny Magnus has replaced Chuck Cecil (on KKJZ -in Long Beach?) --- after the latter decided in January to hang up the earphones at age ninety. I remember when Ceci's "Swingin Years" replaced the canceled NBC Bandstand on KFI nearly sixty ears ago - it had a long run. Magnus of course was part of Gene Autry's team at KMPC.
Both Cecil and Magnus are, as has been pointed out in another thread, old time jocks who actually did programs (this as the old fashioned way) rather than being part of a format (which has been the style of recent decades). As has been noted, millennials and generation x’ers don’t think the way their grandparents (read “my generation”) did.
Its true. I have 30-something “kids” who borrow my car, whose radio push buttons have a variety of AM stations pre-selected. Inevitably when I get it back the console has been switched over to FM or cd media – grandpa’s news and talk they don’t want to hear because they’re not information junkies like me.
This doesn’t apply to all the younger generation of course. I know of exceptions. But “in the dsays” of vinyl options were more limited – now we have digital and social media, with AM radio and sard copy publications (newspapers and magazines) taking the hit. Netflix has displaced Blockbuster just as Wikipedia has ousted the home in-home encyclopedia that my parents thought was so modern.
My question – granting that formatted programming makes more money for station owners because it capitalizes on peoples “herd instincts,” is this “new approach” really the best for us as a society? Or were we better when we had stations owned by local entrepreneurs who were required to have a mix of news and public service as well as “equal time” for viewpoints in their programming?
Sure, they needed to make a profit to survive – but their reason for being in radio extended beyond just money. It was the difference between Paley and Tisch at CBS, to use an example many in this audience may pick up on.
Alex Drier was a liberal, Paul Harvey a conservative, Lowell Thomas somewhere in between. Personally I found their newscasts more interesting than much of what we hear today. The same applies to the DJ’s of yore – they were indeed presenting programs to share with an audience rather than adhering to a station’s “format.”
Both Cecil and Magnus are, as has been pointed out in another thread, old time jocks who actually did programs (this as the old fashioned way) rather than being part of a format (which has been the style of recent decades). As has been noted, millennials and generation x’ers don’t think the way their grandparents (read “my generation”) did.
Its true. I have 30-something “kids” who borrow my car, whose radio push buttons have a variety of AM stations pre-selected. Inevitably when I get it back the console has been switched over to FM or cd media – grandpa’s news and talk they don’t want to hear because they’re not information junkies like me.
This doesn’t apply to all the younger generation of course. I know of exceptions. But “in the dsays” of vinyl options were more limited – now we have digital and social media, with AM radio and sard copy publications (newspapers and magazines) taking the hit. Netflix has displaced Blockbuster just as Wikipedia has ousted the home in-home encyclopedia that my parents thought was so modern.
My question – granting that formatted programming makes more money for station owners because it capitalizes on peoples “herd instincts,” is this “new approach” really the best for us as a society? Or were we better when we had stations owned by local entrepreneurs who were required to have a mix of news and public service as well as “equal time” for viewpoints in their programming?
Sure, they needed to make a profit to survive – but their reason for being in radio extended beyond just money. It was the difference between Paley and Tisch at CBS, to use an example many in this audience may pick up on.
Alex Drier was a liberal, Paul Harvey a conservative, Lowell Thomas somewhere in between. Personally I found their newscasts more interesting than much of what we hear today. The same applies to the DJ’s of yore – they were indeed presenting programs to share with an audience rather than adhering to a station’s “format.”
