maybe these bad economic times are a blessing in disguise?

[austingrace]

my theory is this. maybe all these companies that have done bad or just plain suck will not last. maybe we will see real radio back in this town? ??? get rid of that crap on 740 and 810 and all that crap. i'm sick of the radio sucking. i heard the cbs is selling all three stations in the market. as i said, maybe this is like a clenzing. we will see who lasts and who does not.

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

my theory is this. maybe all these companies that have done bad or just plain suck will not last. maybe we will see real radio back in this town? ??? get rid of that crap on 740 and 810 and all that crap. i'm sick of the radio sucking. i heard the cbs is selling all three stations in the market. as i said, maybe this is like a clenzing. we will see who lasts and who does not.

Austin,

One of your best posts yet.. and i agree with you.

We're going to see stations owned by big groups start to suffer and have to be sold off at fire sale or near fire sale prices... this will allow more of the common man to own stations.

 

[jmtillery]

my theory is this. maybe all these companies that have done bad or just plain suck will not last. maybe we will see real radio back in this town? ??? get rid of that crap on 740 and 810 and all that crap. i'm sick of the radio sucking. i heard the cbs is selling all three stations in the market. as i said, maybe this is like a clenzing. we will see who lasts and who does not.

Yes, I agree. Many, if not all, of the large radio groups are over leveredged and holding a tremendous amount of debt. I knew this day was coming many years ago. I just didn't know the exact date. However, it's a matter of pure, simple, basic economics. At any given time, there is only a finite amount of advertising dollars in any given market that will support the total radio stations in that market. The economic "pie" can only be sliced so thin before the slices are so small that no-one can survive on the proverbial "crumbs" that are left. Now, add to the equation the current economy, Wall Street on the verge of insolvency, the banking crisis and the housing/mortgage bust. This has resulted in many people becoming unemployed leaving little or no disposable income for the general populous to invest back into the local economy. With that said, local, regional and national advertisers are cutting back on spending which includes marketing and advertising due to the lack of business from those once employed and spending their disposable incomes. This equates to even less revenue for the individual radio stations that were straddling the fence post (they could go either way - profitable or insolvent) during the best of times. Another way of saying it is "you can't survive when you owe everyone and have no money coming in". It's that plain and simple.

Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]

 

[austingrace]

hahahahah oh wow. i didn't realize you guys would agree with me soooo much . that is good. it means i'm not the only one here sick of the same 10 songs on the radio and sick of radio stations just plain sucking. not saying all the radio is bad here but the majority of it is. i mean it is now to the point where i dx wvlg 640 am daily in hopes of hearing good radio. i mainly listen to wprk and wucf and stations like that because it is the closest thing to good radio we will get. so now it is time to sit back and watch . we're in for an interesting one. i really hope radio people are reading this. maybe they will get it. people are sick of it. they are done with the cookie cutter approach to radio. it is old and boring. and don't even bring hd radio in. that is a disgrace in every sence of the word. trust me, i heard hd radio. it does not have vary good sound and the signals suck. just get rid of it all together and focus back on am and fm. i think hd radio means "we are desperate and we will try to springs crappy technology on people and make them believe it is better and therefor, they will buy it." not, not i, i will not fall for the hd trap...
sorry, i know i just went way off topic. but i had to say that.

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

hahahahah oh wow. i didn't realize you guys would agree with me soooo much . that is good. it means i'm not the only one here sick of the same 10 songs on the radio and sick of radio stations just plain sucking. not saying all the radio is bad here but the majority of it is. i mean it is now to the point where i dx wvlg 640 am daily in hopes of hearing good radio. i mainly listen to wprk and wucf and stations like that because it is the closest thing to good radio we will get. so now it is time to sit back and watch . we're in for an interesting one. i really hope radio people are reading this. maybe they will get it. people are sick of it. they are done with the cookie cutter approach to radio. it is old and boring. and don't even bring hd radio in. that is a disgrace in every sence of the word. trust me, i heard hd radio. it does not have vary good sound and the signals suck. just get rid of it all together and focus back on am and fm. i think hd radio means "we are desperate and we will try to springs crappy technology on people and make them believe it is better and therefor, they will buy it." not, not i, i will not fall for the hd trap...
sorry, i know i just went way off topic. but i had to say that.

You are right on point again Austin.. I absolutely agree with you 100 percent on everything you said. You are not off topic one bit.

It's gotten so bad I listen to stations overseas, including some whose presenters don't even speak english while the music they play is english... just because I'm sick over the crap we have here.

 

[austingrace]

thank you radioguybroadcasting
and all you other guys in advance. i'm glad i'm not alone here. all i will say is that my computer and fm transmitter make a good pair . internet radio is the savior. i was listening to old radio airchecks. radio was great back in the 70s 80s and early 90s. i heard some amazing production. i like to listen to wcbs from new york. they have good music and good jingles in my book. but the jingles were steller back in the 70s and stuff. it sounded real good. that is when people put there all in presenting a station and everything sounded so good. i pay real close attention to that kind of stuff.

 

[jmtillery]

Austingrace, I can tell you from first hand experience that radio WAS a whole lot more fun back in the 70s. I lived it and worked radio back then, having started in the mid 70s on a country station, later moving to Top 40. The jingles were superior. The music was unmatched. Jocks were allowed to be creative and were not reduced to robots by becoming card readers. In fact, the jocks picked their own music and developed their own music sweeps. What a novel idea of lettinng a human decide what song flows better after another instead of letting the programming software make that randum decision. Creativity and localism were the keystones to exciting, fun and successful radio back in those days. It could be here again today, as we discussed relating to WVLG. The "suits" in corporate radio need to come to the same conclusion or they are heading to failure - FAST!!!

Mark Tillery,
Ocala, Florida
[email protected]

 

[DJ Mo]

Maybe it's time College radio stations start to shine? We pick our own music from our own personal collection & run our shows our way... Only thing is we do it for free. I've done it for over 3 years. It's still fun for me & my listeners!

Could it be a system that might work for commercial radio? We do 2-3 hour shifts. Of course, the PD would have to interview a lot of really hungry radio people who wouldn't mind doing it for free. I know I'd be totally game.

 

[austingrace]

here is a question that needs to be asked about radio. why in this day and age do these stations owned by companies with big money sound worse than some comunity owned station or a college station? cuz they are cheap and only care about money. all these lay offs and stuff. i just found that to be real funny. money is not everything. that is all i will say.

 

[Mr Hand]

here is a question that needs to be asked about radio. why in this day and age do these stations owned by companies with big money sound worse than some comunity owned station or a college station? cuz they are cheap and only care about money. all these lay offs and stuff. i just found that to be real funny. money is not everything. that is all i will say.

Austin your right. I-pod sales are up, and the feild market research they spend thousands on didnt help anything to gain listeners. the deregulation act of 1996 killed the radio star.

 

[muskrat14]

my theory is this. maybe all these companies that have done bad or just plain suck will not last. maybe we will see real radio back in this town? ??? get rid of that crap on 740 and 810 and all that crap. i'm sick of the radio sucking. i heard the cbs is selling all three stations in the market. as i said, maybe this is like a clenzing. we will see who lasts and who does not.

Austin,

One of your best posts yet.. and i agree with you.

We're going to see stations owned by big groups start to suffer and have to be sold off at fire sale or near fire sale prices... this will allow more of the common man to own stations.

What "common man" has ever owned radio in a market this size? In my 30 years of radio, I've never worked for a common man -- every owner I've worked for has been loaded, even in small markets. And if what is said above is true about the lack of ad dollars, how will that "common man" survive? If CC, CBS and the like can't make money with their promotional resources, how will Common Man Broadcasting? Like the big guys, CMB will have to pay for talent, unless they want to run the same syndicated and corporate stuff you claim to be sick of, or VT. CMB will have overhead, ASCAP/BMI, promotions, engineering, administrative...just like the big guys. In fact, the big guys are better off because they can spread the overhead over their clusters.

But keep tilting at those windmills. The ironic thing is that I wish you were right.

 

[TonySantiago]

thank you radioguybroadcasting
and all you other guys in advance. i'm glad i'm not alone here. all i will say is that my computer and fm transmitter make a good pair . internet radio is the savior. i was listening to old radio airchecks. radio was great back in the 70s 80s and early 90s. i heard some amazing production. i like to listen to wcbs from new york. they have good music and good jingles in my book. but the jingles were steller back in the 70s and stuff. it sounded real good. that is when people put there all in presenting a station and everything sounded so good. i pay real close attention to that kind of stuff.

Austin,

You are DEFINITELY not alone in this thinking! It's been crappy in New York for the longest time. When 'CBS went to "Jack" (which has SINCE been corrected), country music fans not having a station in quite a while, and a debacle out of a respected smooth jazz station turning into a rock station with absolutely NO sense of direction (WRXP), things just stink.

From my perspective (dance music fan) things stunk for the longest. WKTU was so overrated yet they did very little to bring in newer music so once they flipped to Rhythmic A/C, it wasn't much of a loss. HOWEVER, out of something bad came something good....Pulse 87 (WNYZ-LP). Yes, it's technically a "TV" station (87.7) and has signal issues but the excitement level this dance/rhythmic station has brought back to New York radio is something that I'm surprised more corporate outlets aren't trying to copy because yeah.....radio is stale and no one in corporate is trying to think "outside the box" to save themselves. In effect, "playing it safe" has done more harm than good. Going the route Pulse 87 did could HELP save some stations!

Pulse 87 is current (from your perspective think of it as how 95.3 Party was in the late 90's/early 00's) and refreshing. I'm not just saying this as a dance music fan but somehow something was brought back to radio that had been missing, personality and excitement. Those that have been on iPods are actually coming back to radio because of this station.

Hopefully Orlando could have a dance station again like it was with 95.3 Party. The listenership is definitely there (I've seen past books).

The one unfortunate thing austingrace.....your post is definitely "preaching to the choir here" because I really don't think corporate will ever "get it".

STATION LINK : http://www.pulse87.com/

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

thank you radioguybroadcasting
and all you other guys in advance. i'm glad i'm not alone here. all i will say is that my computer and fm transmitter make a good pair . internet radio is the savior. i was listening to old radio airchecks. radio was great back in the 70s 80s and early 90s. i heard some amazing production. i like to listen to wcbs from new york. they have good music and good jingles in my book. but the jingles were steller back in the 70s and stuff. it sounded real good. that is when people put there all in presenting a station and everything sounded so good. i pay real close attention to that kind of stuff.

Austin,

You are DEFINITELY not alone in this thinking! It's been crappy in New York for the longest time. When 'CBS went to "Jack" (which has SINCE been corrected), country music fans not having a station in quite a while, and a debacle out of a respected smooth jazz station turning into a rock station with absolutely NO sense of direction (WRXP), things just stink.

From my perspective (dance music fan) things stunk for the longest. WKTU was so overrated yet they did very little to bring in newer music so once they flipped to Rhythmic A/C, it wasn't much of a loss. HOWEVER, out of something bad came something good....Pulse 87 (WNYZ-LP). Yes, it's technically a "TV" station (87.7) and has signal issues but the excitement level this dance/rhythmic station has brought back to New York radio is something that I'm surprised more corporate outlets aren't trying to copy because yeah.....radio is stale and no one in corporate is trying to think "outside the box" to save themselves. In effect, "playing it safe" has done more harm than good. Going the route Pulse 87 did could HELP save some stations!

Pulse 87 is current (from your perspective think of it as how 95.3 Party was in the late 90's/early 00's) and refreshing. I'm not just saying this as a dance music fan but somehow something was brought back to radio that had been missing, personality and excitement. Those that have been on iPods are actually coming back to radio because of this station.

Hopefully Orlando could have a dance station again like it was with 95.3 Party. The listenership is definitely there (I've seen past books).

The one unfortunate thing austingrace.....your post is definitely "preaching to the choir here" because I really don't think corporate will ever "get it".

STATION LINK : http://www.pulse87.com/

Love ya Tony, but you find a way to bring Pulse 87 into almost every discussion/post you make...

 

[maximumradio]

There are several LP Channel 6 radio operations around the country. I am not going to belabor the issue of the viability of Dance as a format except to restate what I have previously posted through the years: A great format that could have been mass appeal and could still work well in certain markets with station operators who give the fornat 100% in sales and promotion as well as in audio quality and programming including air staff. Sure the Orlando and Miami markets could use and support a Dance format but if the format ended up on an AM half of the potential audience would complain about the audio limits and the major groups are fearful of the format. Anyway- I digress - I set out to remind Mr. Santiago that Pulse is not going to be there forever- The LPTV/Class A TV stations are not required to go digital on 17 Feb 09 but at some point not that far away there will-according to my FCC counsel-be a cut off date under which all LPTV/Class A TV stations will have to go digital and when that happens Pulse 87.7 will be gone as far as being a defacto radio station since the transmission system used is not IBOC and there is no radio receiver at this time capable of receiving digital television audio.

 

[TonySantiago]

Love ya Tony, but you find a way to bring Pulse 87 into almost every discussion/post you make...

To be honest, I haven't encountered any other station recently, in this country, that has brought this much excitement back to terrestrial radio. Even if I wasn't a dance music fan, the format in itself is "different". There may be other stations in the country that could have brought back some sort of excitement, with their given format, to their respective markets....but I haven't heard about it.

It's been more "cookie cutters" than something innovative.

 

[TonySantiago]

There are several LP Channel 6 radio operations around the country. I am not going to belabor the issue of the viability of Dance as a format except to restate what I have previously posted through the years: A great format that could have been mass appeal and could still work well in certain markets with station operators who give the fornat 100% in sales and promotion as well as in audio quality and programming including air staff. Sure the Orlando and Miami markets could use and support a Dance format but if the format ended up on an AM half of the potential audience would complain about the audio limits and the major groups are fearful of the format. Anyway- I digress - I set out to remind Mr. Santiago that Pulse is not going to be there forever- The LPTV/Class A TV stations are not required to go digital on 17 Feb 09 but at some point not that far away there will-according to my FCC counsel-be a cut off date under which all LPTV/Class A TV stations will have to go digital and when that happens Pulse 87.7 will be gone as far as being a defacto radio station since the transmission system used is not IBOC and there is no radio receiver at this time capable of receiving digital television audio.

I'm aware of this. I work in TV.

Perhaps by then, if Pulse has to "shut off" in the not too distant future, another broadcaster could see the viability of the format and bring it on. Too bad HD was pretty dead in the water so to speak since that would have solved the AM audio issues right there.

But one thing that has been scratching my head with what you've noted....what major group would fear the format?

Perhaps I'm going to answer my own question here but I do realize that there is still a "disco sucks" mentality when it comes to dance and a lot of radio corporate heads feel that way. And even though things have progressed, well until Proposition 8 in California anyway, there is still a sense of "homophobe" in the media figuring that dance music mainly targets a gay crowd...and maybe that's the real (or underlying) fear out of corporate. I dunno. But I do know that there are a lot of "straights" (myself included) that love dance...and THANK GOD for the gay community for really showing their support, love and innovations throughout the years!

I know I kinda "went there" with talking about dance music and Pulse 87 (hey, that's what I follow! ) and I've answered the post before this. Once again, I haven't heard of any other terrestrial station (in whatever format) in this country that has created excitement in their markets and brought people BACK to the medium with something new, innovative, outside-the-box, and refreshing. And to that, Orlando deserves another station like 95.3 Party, as well as Miami and you can definitely add Tampa to this.

And what the heck, if a programmer can do something innovative with any given genre of music and try it out in their given markets, it could pay off somehow by getting people back!

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

There are several LP Channel 6 radio operations around the country. I am not going to belabor the issue of the viability of Dance as a format except to restate what I have previously posted through the years: A great format that could have been mass appeal and could still work well in certain markets with station operators who give the fornat 100% in sales and promotion as well as in audio quality and programming including air staff. Sure the Orlando and Miami markets could use and support a Dance format but if the format ended up on an AM half of the potential audience would complain about the audio limits and the major groups are fearful of the format. Anyway- I digress - I set out to remind Mr. Santiago that Pulse is not going to be there forever- The LPTV/Class A TV stations are not required to go digital on 17 Feb 09 but at some point not that far away there will-according to my FCC counsel-be a cut off date under which all LPTV/Class A TV stations will have to go digital and when that happens Pulse 87.7 will be gone as far as being a defacto radio station since the transmission system used is not IBOC and there is no radio receiver at this time capable of receiving digital television audio.

I'm aware of this. I work in TV.

Perhaps by then, if Pulse has to "shut off" in the not too distant future, another broadcaster could see the viability of the format and bring it on. Too bad HD was pretty dead in the water so to speak since that would have solved the AM audio issues right there.

But one thing that has been scratching my head with what you've noted....what major group would fear the format?

No major group.

If it was viable, someone, one of the lower rated stations would already be doing it.

 

[DJ Mo]

There are several LP Channel 6 radio operations around the country. I am not going to belabor the issue of the viability of Dance as a format except to restate what I have previously posted through the years: A great format that could have been mass appeal and could still work well in certain markets with station operators who give the fornat 100% in sales and promotion as well as in audio quality and programming including air staff. Sure the Orlando and Miami markets could use and support a Dance format but if the format ended up on an AM half of the potential audience would complain about the audio limits and the major groups are fearful of the format. Anyway- I digress - I set out to remind Mr. Santiago that Pulse is not going to be there forever- The LPTV/Class A TV stations are not required to go digital on 17 Feb 09 but at some point not that far away there will-according to my FCC counsel-be a cut off date under which all LPTV/Class A TV stations will have to go digital and when that happens Pulse 87.7 will be gone as far as being a defacto radio station since the transmission system used is not IBOC and there is no radio receiver at this time capable of receiving digital television audio.

I'm aware of this. I work in TV.

Perhaps by then, if Pulse has to "shut off" in the not too distant future, another broadcaster could see the viability of the format and bring it on. Too bad HD was pretty dead in the water so to speak since that would have solved the AM audio issues right there.

But one thing that has been scratching my head with what you've noted....what major group would fear the format?

Perhaps I'm going to answer my own question here but I do realize that there is still a "disco sucks" mentality when it comes to dance and a lot of radio corporate heads feel that way. And even though things have progressed, well until Proposition 8 in California anyway, there is still a sense of "homophobe" in the media figuring that dance music mainly targets a gay crowd...and maybe that's the real (or underlying) fear out of corporate. I dunno. But I do know that there are a lot of "straights" (myself included) that love dance...and THANK GOD for the gay community for really showing their support, love and innovations throughout the years!

I know I kinda "went there" with talking about dance music and Pulse 87 (hey, that's what I follow! ) and I've answered the post before this. Once again, I haven't heard of any other terrestrial station (in whatever format) in this country that has created excitement in their markets and brought people BACK to the medium with something new, innovative, outside-the-box, and refreshing. And to that, Orlando deserves another station like 95.3 Party, as well as Miami and you can definitely add Tampa to this.

And what the heck, if a programmer can do something innovative with any given genre of music and try it out in their given markets, it could pay off somehow by getting people back!

I also work in TV doing audio. I also program the music on a national show called "The Daily Buzz", which consists of what I never heard just one radio station play - a mix of top-40, dance, oldies, hiphop, rap, classic rock, country, & r&b.

I also appear on 2 radio stations (voluntarily) & beatmix songs that don't exactly fit, but tempowise, it does. I've received lots of positive responses from random people around the world & locally in Orlando & Gainesville saying they wish I'd be on all the time. However, it's those higher ups who really make that decision that I have trouble getting through to them.

Heck, I did radio for free the past 3 years (and went to broadcasting school), why not do it for free (or really cheap) until I get my very 1st official ratings from Arbitron? (Who says you can't afford hungry talent?) I run my show & beatmix solo manually (with CD's & vinyl) without any music scheduling programs. (I do know how to use Nex-Gen & Simian.) If someone can actually throw me into a position of musical power, I'd totally do what I've been doing for the past 3 years. With 5+ years DJing experience added, I know which songs to play lightly & which to keep in rotation so it won't become too stale.

Anyways, enough about my rants on not being a paid radio talent. I'm sure everyone else who hasn't gotten their first paycheck doing radio says the same thing on these boards. So never mind.

This is probably my last rant before I officially switch professions away from broadcasting... However, if one of you are curious, just check my website for "Mo" info & airchecks. Maybe you can save me (and other great upcoming radio talent) from skipping away soon.

 

[thecarautority1]

I heard a rumor that 98.1 is ditching the Spanish format to go for a Alternative rock one such as what WOCL Orock 1059 used to be.
It should compete with 1011 wjrr. lets see what happens

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

I heard a rumor that 98.1 is ditching the Spanish format to go for a Alternative rock one such as what WOCL Orock 1059 used to be.
It should compete with 1011 wjrr. lets see what happens

Where'd you hear the rumour?

it would also be a good idea to post this in a brand new thread.