• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Morning Shows

R

roland3401

Guest
For years, Tucson radio groups have tryed to import syndicated shows into Tucson to little success. For some reason, Tucson would prefer the low budget, low talent local show over something major market with polish. Of course there are exceptions to every rule...but as a whole...Tucson has embrased its bad morning shows. Will someone please explain this to me? Is there any measure of total listenership increasing or decreasing over the years compared to other markets?

There is an expression that people in the desert that are dying of thurst drink the sand because they are thursty...where in reality they drink the sand because they don't know any better. Discuss.....
 
I believe the answer to your question is a simple one. Tucsonans gravitate to local morning shows because they're local. Besides, have you listened to some of these syndicated morning shows? Note - I didn't say all. Oh, BTW, another reason the local morning shows lack "polish" is because the Big Boys don't pitch any budget into the till. Why should they when they can get the syndicated, national shows for about the same money as a great, local midday show?

Please... don't get me started!
 
So I am wondering, what is polish when it comes to Morning Radio? Is it the type of show that Bobby Rich does? JJ and Rich? Frank? I am trying to figure out how you can classify and define morning radio with the term. Radio exist because there are listeners. It is not as though those listeners do not have a choice. Now, more than ever they have the opportunity to examine Satellite, Burned CDs and soon even Ipods embedded in cars. Being local does no purpose to the listener if its just because you send a stunt boy out to get duct taped to a wall in front of the UofA. If the listener feels a connection to the show or host, they will keep on listening. That's where some Nationally Syndicated shows will have a hard time doing, connecting to the listener. There are some really good ones that make the connection and have survived. I have heard some pretty "unpolished" shows make the connection and deliver some good compelling radio. Whose fault is it though that Morning Radio and even now afternoon drive has been replaced from shows out of the market. Is it because there isn't talent available? Is it because the Program Directors don't want to work with the local shows to provide what they envision for the station and is easier to put on something off the stick? Is it the Corporate suits that feel they can pay a show 120k + in syndication vs Local Talent needing insurance, vacations, bonus pay and a salary to match? We have two shows here in this market that syndicate out of Tucson and still do very well in the ratings. They are able to make the connection and not lose focus with the markets they broadcast into.

While Tucson seems to be considered a small to medium market, there are many transplants here from Major Markets - really though, the expectations are not all that different. Listeners want the connection.
 
When it comes to the corporate suits, they will cut corners as much as possible regardless of the "day-part". Take for example when CC put "Coyote Country 929" on the air to go against KIIM. They lost the battle from the very beginning when they syndicated both the morning and evening shows with Tim & Willey / LIA. Both great shows with lots of talent, BUT they were not local and perhaps the Tucson listeners felt a bit cheated. Plus on top of that the overnights were all voice tracked.

In addition when things go wrong with a syndicated show, and they often do ( major train wrecks) there's not a darn thing you can do except start playing a stack of CDs until the problems are fixed on the other end. Sometimes it turns out that your entire morning show is nothing but long sweeps of music with the spot breaks in between. All that just to save a few bucks.
 
You are correct...Polish is not the word. Bobby and Eggs (yes dumass, I know...it's a joke) are polished as is the Kiim morning joke sheet...I guess I just can't believe the level of success they have had based on the level of talent. JJ&r and Frank, although personally I often don't relate, are well produced, provocitive shows that actually have a direction. Heck..even John C. Scott makes you think.

Quite frankly...what is there to be local about? Have you read the paper lately or watched the local news. The only element that is local is the wx and traffic. Other than that...it is just relating to the listener whether the show is generated locally or out of some other city. Tim and Willy's schtick didn't work because it didn't work, not because they weren't local. Mark and Brian where here for a few years and worked pretty well. Imus still works. Mancow seems to be working but still too early and I have heard nothing about Kid Kraddick.

I guess I am just trying to understand why listeners are so complacent.
 
OK, let's say the traffic and weather are the only things to be local about. If a local show presents that local information in a credible and timely manner, why wouldn't the majority of local listeners want that? If the talent or hosts of the local shows stink then nobody will want to listen no matter what kind of format they have or where they are broadcasting from.

Tucson has several long running morning shows. There is Mike Rapp who has been on several different stations and formats but always in the morning. There is Allen Michaels who has also been on several stations but not always in the morning. There is Bobby Rich, who has been on the same station mostly with the same partner since '92 or '93. There is Max on KIIM who has been there for 12 years with a few different partners and news readers. There is Andy and/or Barry on KLPX, Frank on KFMA, John Jay and Rich on KRQ. Even Ed Alexander on Mega and Jim Bednarek on KTUC. And probably some others.

They are local because they are here and they talk about things that happen here. Even though 9 out of 10 days are slow news days, the occasional monsoon morning storm makes up for that. Plus, they are out and about in town. They do events and emcee dinners and meet listeners and are involved in charities. And they live and shiop and put their kids in school here and make their living based on how successful they are here.

When I travel I hear much bigger towns with talent no better than what we have here in Tucson.
 
I tried O&A the first day out and I made it through one hour before I called the game on account of pain. One full hour of those motards regailing us with a very inside account of a comedy show somewhere in the north east U.S. was all I could take. Unless you were there it wasn't interesting. WHO CARES!! My wife bailed at one point in the story when retard 1 said that moron 2 was cowering in a corner, "you know, like a women after a rape". Come on, maybe Mike and Tyler weren't everybody's cup of tea, but at least they didn't go down those roads, even if I did have to listen to Steve Miller and The Eagles every hour.

If I can't get any local content, at least make the show funny. That's two strikes, and I'm out.

Oh, and while I'm at it, thank God for Doc Phillips, and, D'yer Mak'er is meant to be pronounced like Jamaica as in Did You Make Her, for crying out loud.
 
If the morning show is going to suck, as is the case on many stations in this market (92.9 The Mountain has got to be the worst), better it be brought in by a larger market that way if the listeners complain, who cares, stations could have a dog barking all morning and it wouldn't matter, Carrie from Johnjay & Rich is the perfect example of that.

You can look back throughout the years and remember all of the great morning shows that used to be in town and many of that talent is still here, they've just been thrown in the trunk by their owners and are not given the tools and support needed to produce great radio once again in Tucson. They're just fond memories now. With corporations buying out stations and cutting costs and budgets we'll have nothing but cookie cutter talent. The days of radio legends are over...
 
Not many, there hasn't been morning radio, or Tucson radio of any sort for me since towards the end of last year...
 
I'd rather listen to the local morning dumbass (92.9) as opposed to the syndicated morning dumbass(O&A).

Seems the the Tucson market as a whole, agrees.

Rock On KLPX!

-Freaky Steve
 
SALESGUY2000 said:
I'd rather listen to the local morning dumbass (92.9) as opposed to the syndicated morning dumbass(O&A).

Seems the the Tucson market as a whole, agrees.

Rock On KLPX!

-Freaky Steve
Click to expand...

Guess you haven't listened to KHIT lately. Tim Tyler does mornings. O&A are buried on the overnights.
 
One word. Talent. With a budget comes talent. If you don't have talent you better be local. If you have talent you don't have to be local.

Nothing more, Nothing less.

JJ&R=entertainment type talent. Bobby, Max, Alan, ect...I need 8 songs an hour and a joke sheet talent. Frank=lowest common denominator talent. If you like Jon Stewart, you will listen to him weather he does local wx or not.

Polish is an mis understood term. Bobby is polished. Nice swprs, fun beds, no slips....but boring content. if you have good, entertaining content you don't need "polish"...but it won't hurt either. If you don't have talent...you need polish and local time and temp....
 
If thats the case, why is it. Why does Mgmt allow it or promote it when radio should be gearing up for the increased competition of Wi-Fi Radio? I'm stilll scratching my head wondering if anybody is doing HD Radio right, there are a couple of formats I like but should HD be doing anything else?
 
I think "management" thinks they have a captive market. It seems like they are trying to do just enough to make some money. They aren't trying to be better, or trying to grow the market. Someone who once worked mornings (also responsible for some of the station content) told me that he didn't see sat radio being a threat to terrestrial, that people would always listen to the local radio. He also was quoted as not really getting what value HD was to their station (which shows in the waste of the opportunity of it and streaming they have become). From high altitude it's simple - you have to be better and/or provide more value than the other choices...

It sucks that I have to pay for radio I enjoy listening to, but that's the point - I HAVE TO! Because short of a couple of voices, terrestrial radio bores me quickly with it's miniscule and repetitive playlists, and diminishing quality of on air talent.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom