S
Soon Yi CIV.V
Guest
I was just looking at one Tom Taylor's November 25 piece and I happened across a disturbing all-Christmas factoid. You know, most of us locals were introduced to the extended all-Christmas format by Clear Channel's now-deceased Sunny 104.5...and a lot of us liked it so much that we've mentioned how we wish a Clear Channel station would do it again. We must be out of our minds to think it could be as good simply because it would be on a Clear Channel station! After all, we're talking about the company who is leading the way in consolidating and imploding the industry! Here's some more sad evidence.
Taylor was specifically talking about Clear Channel stations who flip to all-Christmas. Unless I'm misunderstanding this first part, the stations were apparently given the opportunities (by corporate, I guess) to do an "early flip #1" on Monday, November 17 or an "early flip #2" on Monday, November 24. How nice of them to further suck the local aspect from their kajillion US radio stations! But that's not the worst part.
He says the Christmas music all comes from a central Clear Channel server in Cincinnati. Stations are graciously provided a Selector database with pre-programmed logs! Pre-programmed! In Cincinnati! So it doesn't matter whether you live in a city which has produced a bunch of recording acts or whether there are regional favorites (or songs certain regions hate). It's all pre-programmed with nary a blink of recognition to memory of how fantastic "live & local" radio was.
'But wait,' you might be saying. 'What if a local PD wants to throw in something he knows his local audience will enjoy?' Well, according to Taylor, that PD would have to get the OK from the Clear Channel Regional Vice-President of Programming. Which means it'll probably never happen for a few reasons.
He says things are different at the large-market stations (like Lite in NYC) but...well, ya know, for some reason I just don't think it would apply to their Philly cluster. (Especially since it's only market #5. Err, I mean #6. Oh wait. It's #7. And now #8!) Anyway, he rightly surmises that centralization is only going to continue its aggressive malignancy.
So my point--and I do have one--is that those of us who keep wishing a Clear Channel station would once again join in the all-Christmas festivities, we may as well just put it out of our minds. Even if the station were being programmed by the same folks who came up with Sunny's playlist, corporate wouldn't let them do it right anyway! (I never thought I'd say this in my life but thank God for Greater Media!)
BTW: On that day, Taylor also mentioned how "Greater Media’s 'Now 97.5' WNUW briefly went all-Christmas on the Friday following the Phillies’ World Series parade – then reverted to 'a younger approach to today’s soft rock' Monday morning. They might’ve hoped to impel Jerry Lee’s WBEB (101.1) to jump, but not a chance." But we all already knew that. I just decided to mention it since it's "local."
PS: Just tuned up toi 101.1 and "Here Comes Santa Claus" by Gene Autry is on.
Taylor was specifically talking about Clear Channel stations who flip to all-Christmas. Unless I'm misunderstanding this first part, the stations were apparently given the opportunities (by corporate, I guess) to do an "early flip #1" on Monday, November 17 or an "early flip #2" on Monday, November 24. How nice of them to further suck the local aspect from their kajillion US radio stations! But that's not the worst part.
He says the Christmas music all comes from a central Clear Channel server in Cincinnati. Stations are graciously provided a Selector database with pre-programmed logs! Pre-programmed! In Cincinnati! So it doesn't matter whether you live in a city which has produced a bunch of recording acts or whether there are regional favorites (or songs certain regions hate). It's all pre-programmed with nary a blink of recognition to memory of how fantastic "live & local" radio was.
'But wait,' you might be saying. 'What if a local PD wants to throw in something he knows his local audience will enjoy?' Well, according to Taylor, that PD would have to get the OK from the Clear Channel Regional Vice-President of Programming. Which means it'll probably never happen for a few reasons.
- The all-Christmas bump is all-but-expected so if they send ya a pre-programmed log, why mess with it?
- It's just another e-mail or phone call to make when the PD could just continue sitting quietly with the consultant.
- I would imagine a lot of PD's who want to program their station probably resent having to get permission from a guy at Region.
He says things are different at the large-market stations (like Lite in NYC) but...well, ya know, for some reason I just don't think it would apply to their Philly cluster. (Especially since it's only market #5. Err, I mean #6. Oh wait. It's #7. And now #8!) Anyway, he rightly surmises that centralization is only going to continue its aggressive malignancy.
So my point--and I do have one--is that those of us who keep wishing a Clear Channel station would once again join in the all-Christmas festivities, we may as well just put it out of our minds. Even if the station were being programmed by the same folks who came up with Sunny's playlist, corporate wouldn't let them do it right anyway! (I never thought I'd say this in my life but thank God for Greater Media!)
BTW: On that day, Taylor also mentioned how "Greater Media’s 'Now 97.5' WNUW briefly went all-Christmas on the Friday following the Phillies’ World Series parade – then reverted to 'a younger approach to today’s soft rock' Monday morning. They might’ve hoped to impel Jerry Lee’s WBEB (101.1) to jump, but not a chance." But we all already knew that. I just decided to mention it since it's "local."
PS: Just tuned up toi 101.1 and "Here Comes Santa Claus" by Gene Autry is on.