• 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

Multiple "Formats" on 1 Station (depends on time of day/week)

gr8oldies said:
My first station did Radio Bingo. For whatever reason the attorney general thought we were in violation of the state's Bingo laws. Go figure.

Ah yes, the "women's show". We had Janie's Corner. Recipes, household hints, whatever, for the 1950s woman, seemingly ( it was the 70s and 80s). Still, she had fun with it. She and her husband owned an antique store together, and her husband was a comic foil....."Fang" if you will. When you met Janie in person, she was delightful and not who you might expect. She could tell an off-color joke and have drinks with guys...I miss her. She passed in her 80s a few years ago.
Click to expand...

Virginia of "Coffee With Virginia" did essentially the same show, but played it straight and without involving her husband. Al Hirt's "Java" was her theme song---every morning at 9:05.

Virginia Holmes was a well-off Los Angeles woman whose husband moved them up to Bishop, where her older sister lived. Virginia worked as a substitute teacher (afternoon classes only, so she could be on the air from 9-10), and that older sister lived next door to us.

I had Virginia---"Mrs. Holmes" then----as a sub from about 5th grade on, and she knew I could read well and had sprouted a decent voice around 11. So one day, when I was 14 and out in front of the house playing ball with friends while she was visiting her sister, she asked me if I'd like a job at the radio station. And it went from there. Six weeks later (I had since turned 15), I had an FCC Third Class license and a job.

I don't know what happened to Virginia. Her sister passed away after I left home. My mom left Bishop in the 90s and Virginia was still alive and well then. I can't find any obits, but she would be well over 100 if she's still with us.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I don't think many stations consider themselves to be "block programmed".
But how many stations have music formats, but a show in drive times that is essentially a talk show, with limited music or no music?

Or how many stations air a music formats but have sports play-by-play at night?
Or how many air a music format but have religious services on Sunday?

I imagine it is pretty rare now, but it used to be common for stations to have extended newscasts once or twice a day, and air music at other times. I only know of a couple stations that still air long-form newscasts and do not have a news/talk format today.
Click to expand...
Howard Stern made the "no-music morning show" a thing in a lot of markets.

Sports play-by-play started out on AM Middle of the Road stations in the 60s, then went to a lot of Talk and News-Talk stations in the 70s. The migration to FM in most markets has put a lot of it back on music stations.

David or The Big A would have to help me out on the current regs, but a minimum amount of religious programming was once an FCC requirement.

Most music stations have gotten away from news, much less long news blocks. I do know a couple of talk stations (including my alma mater, KFBK in Sacramento) that do long morning and/or afternoon newscasts (at 'BK, four hours in mornings and three in afternoons). I believe KOGO in San Diego does one in mornings.

Which reminds me...the earliest attempt at "news radio" here in Sacramento was KCRA-AM (1320). They marketed themselves as "Newsradio 1320 KCRA"---but they didn't want to spend the money for a round-the-clock newsroom, so it went adult contemporary every night at 7. There's actually an aircheck of it online---Brian Kennedy in November, 1973:

 
b-turner said:
They do a 30 minute call in show (Swap Shop style),
Click to expand...
You jogged a memory! At KIBS, it was "Trading Post", and it aired after the 10:00 a.m. news, from 10:05-10:15. So "Radio Bingo" was 45 minutes. It just SEEMED like an hour.

KUKI, Ukiah, where I worked in '76 and '77, had the KUKI (pronounced "Cookie") Sale every day. Same deal. I forget what time.

I married a Ukiah girl five years ago and have been to a lot of get-togethers and reunions. The ONLY thing anybody remembers about KUKI---well, okay, the FIRST thing anybody remembers about KUKI---is the KUKI Sale.
 
michael hagerty said:
If $500,000 is an exaggeration on his part, I don't think $350,000 would be. He made a lot of money. Which is why, when he took the gig at KDAY doing nights for $18,000, he needed to figure out a lot of stuff fast, including syndication. WNBC, "The Midnight Special" on NBC TV and "American Graffiti' came at exactly the right time, juicing his profile and helping him clear a lot of markets for the radio show.
Click to expand...
Do you know why The Wolfman left... or had to leave... XERB?

I'd ask Teddy Fregoso who took over the daytime and, eventually, all 24 hours, but he passed away about three years ago and I don't know any of the other people who were with him at the beginning.
 
b-turner said:
A Classic Hits station that carries an hour of the Beatles on Sunday morning or includes a 30 minutes local and world news break at, say 7am and noon or high school football Friday nights are examples of what I would not personally consider a format change because the programming likely appeals to that Classic Hits listener (as well as others).
Click to expand...
I'm not real sure about that.
I used to work for a big Class B station that carried HS sports. The station had huge ratings according to the Eastlan survey. The broadcast area covered approx. 20 high schools, and broadcast one team's games exclusively. I feel like very few of our regular listeners would stick around if their preferred school was one of the 19 others in the area.

There's a difference between an audience who might be interested in football in general, or the one particular football game that was on the air. But by definition, 100% of our regular listeners would be interested in our regular music format.

I have seen what I would term associated formats on a single station. In Austin, Texas, an FM ran blocks of classic rock and blocks of Sports Talk. I figured many of the Sports Talk listeners might like Classic Rock. Needless to say, that did not last long.
Click to expand...
This is a clear loser in my mind, especially today. If I want classic rock, turn on the radio that was previously tuned to your station and get Sports talk, I'm gone real quick - either to a broadcast competitor, or to online streaming.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Do you know why The Wolfman left... or had to leave... XERB?

I'd ask Teddy Fregoso who took over the daytime and, eventually, all 24 hours, but he passed away about three years ago and I don't know any of the other people who were with him at the beginning.
Click to expand...
David, my understanding is that Wolfman's five year (1966-1971) deal for the programming rights to the station was up for renewal.

During those five years, the actual license holders in Mexico realized a lot of money was being made and they were getting a tiny fraction of it. Apparently Wolf's deal was a flat fee. No idea if there were escalators each year, but they weren't getting a percentage, which meant that Wolf was making six figures a year and they probably weren't (ten grand a month in 1966 money is $82,000 a month today, and I'm sure Wolf wasn't giving them that).

So, they went looking for someone who would do a more traditional business deal, giving them a piece of the action, and they found Fregoso.

When Wolf went to renew the deal, they told him no. And on the day the deal expired, the money stopped. I've never been able to find out if he worked as an employee until he could find a way out of XPRS or if he bought his airtime from Fregoso and then sold spots inside it to maintain some of his income stream. Either way, it was five months and he was gone.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I'm not real sure about that.
I used to work for a big Class B station that carried HS sports. The station had huge ratings according to the Eastlan survey. The broadcast area covered approx. 20 high schools, and broadcast one team's games exclusively. I feel like very few of our regular listeners would stick around if their preferred school was one of the 19 others in the area.

There's a difference between an audience who might be interested in football in general, or the one particular football game that was on the air. But by definition, 100% of our regular listeners would be interested in our regular music format.


This is a clear loser in my mind, especially today. If I want classic rock, turn on the radio that was previously tuned to your station and get Sports talk, I'm gone real quick - either to a broadcast competitor, or to online streaming.
Click to expand...
Regarding high school sports---exactly. That's only gonna work if there's one high school in town.

As for football on classic rock stations, you're right, but radio stations don't sell weeknights and weekends and the broadcast fee looks really good on the bottom line. As long as there's not a format competitor that does something phenomenal while the game is on that shifts loyalties, the music station can probably survive breaking format 17 times a year.

It's baseball (60 games per season) and basketball (82 games per season) that'll kill ya. Especially baseball, which has day games.
 
michael hagerty said:
Regarding high school sports---exactly. That's only gonna work if there's one high school in town.

As for football on classic rock stations, you're right, but radio stations don't sell weeknights and weekends and the broadcast fee looks really good on the bottom line. As long as there's not a format competitor that does something phenomenal while the game is on that shifts loyalties, the music station can probably survive breaking format 17 times a year.

It's baseball (60 games per season) and basketball (82 games per season) that'll kill ya. Especially baseball, which has day games.
Click to expand...
If there's only one station carrying High School football, then you do the Game of the Week. Even most small counties have more than one high school
 
Isn't "community radio " like this op's example nowadays where block programming is common. These groups could be private non profit or


Although one has argued community radio on the grounds of diversity too.

Ozcat Radio KZCT 89.5 FM ~ Show Schedule and DJ Roster

At Ozcat Radio, our staff of volunteer deejays plays an amazingly eclectic mix of genres for our music-loving audience. Our programming variety reflects the unique diversity of our community, Vallejo California, the most diverse city in America.
ozcatradio.com

KDVS | 90.3FM

kdvs.org kdvs.org

Here are some local examples in my area.
 
TheBigA said:
Also college radio (where it's run by students) is typically block programming. In this case, the station is built around shows rather than a format. That's sort of how radio was done before WW2.
Click to expand...
Yes that is rare for a big station owner if it even happens such as Iheart, Cumulus, Alpha , Audacy and Salem to do that given that it's built around the format and the station owners will direct you to their apps and podcasts in that situation to find a show.
 
michael hagerty said:
You jogged a memory! At KIBS, it was "Trading Post", and it aired after the 10:00 a.m. news, from 10:05-10:15. So "Radio Bingo" was 45 minutes. It just SEEMED like an hour.

KUKI, Ukiah, where I worked in '76 and '77, had the KUKI (pronounced "Cookie") Sale every day. Same deal. I forget what time.

I married a Ukiah girl five years ago and have been to a lot of get-togethers and reunions. The ONLY thing anybody remembers about KUKI---well, okay, the FIRST thing anybody remembers about KUKI---is the KUKI Sale.
Click to expand...
Ours was called "Service and Music" uhhhh...got some service and play some music. That was our Swap Shop and it's still on today.
 
RadioPatrol said:
Yes that is rare for a big station owner if it even happens such as Iheart, Cumulus, Alpha , Audacy and Salem to do that given that it's built around the format and the station owners will direct you to their apps and podcasts in that situation to find a show.
Click to expand...
Salem had a Miami area station (WZAB - 880 The Biz) which, aside from a pretty horrid and amateurish morning "show", was basically all block programming and brokered programming from 2008 until 2019. The signal is now owned by iHM and airs their Black Information Network.
 
Some examples like KZDT were mentioned. This is more what I term 'Free Form Radio'. In other words, the DJ plays what they like. Typically they do a show each week. The reason these stations do so poorly is the programming is unpredictable. When you have Bossa Nova Monday and Hip Hop Tuesday. In other words, if you liked a program on Monday morning on the way to work, you can pretty much bet what you hear on the way home from work is not to your liking, nor is what airs Tuesday morning.

What happens is listeners might give a station a few chances to hook them. If you tune in too many times and find what you don't like or what you expected, the listener will not try you again as you've been written off as a station they don't like.

The other big thing such stations fail to do is cross-promote. Nobody known what will come next or later (even if they publish an online schedule) because frequently the name of the show has nothing to do with what is played. What kind of music does PlowZone play or WhirledHits?
 
Brokered ethnic is still here. In the 90s I remember WNDZ, Portage IN carrying what they called the first morning show targeted toward the lesbian and gay community (LesbiGay Radio Chicago). It was followed by an ethic or religious show. I remember when WLAC was full-service during the day, but at soon as 7pm came around: "This is the Fire and Brimstone Hour"....brokered religion until 5am, and on Sunday, the religion started around 4pm.
 
firepoint525 said:
My last station (where I worked overnights) was a lot like that, EXCEPT that they were (supposedly) not licensed to play music (except for Spanish-language music during the Spanish-language program, leading me to wonder if maybe that was just the GM's "fiction"). You could hear almost anything on that station, especially during overnight and weekend hours. I occasionally got listener complaints about the off-hour programming, but what could I do about it? I just aired whatever the log called for. Weekends were REALLY a grab bag. Infomercials, sports-talk programming, you name it. They no longer carry the Spanish-language programming, so I don't know what they fill the evening hours with anymore. And I noticed that last year, they became a University of Memphis football affiliate.

Some of the listener complaints (that I alluded to above) were that the programming was not "Christian" enough. The USA radio network (our network) routinely fed old-timey radio programs, so we carried many of those. Our "Christian" network fed us those programs.

This was also the only station (that I was ever familiar with) that carried the weekend presidential address, along with the other party response. The station set aside 15 minutes for this programming, but it rarely ever took more than 10, so I usually filled the remainder with weather from NOAA weather radio.
Click to expand...
If you're talking about a certain station in Nashville that was the sister to another AM dollar a holler station in Memphis I always got the impression that if somebody had flashed enough money in their faces they might have done something with music, no matter what the style.

The last time I heard their Memphis station they had preachers in the morning, Alex Jones in the early afternoon and sports talk in the later afternoon, and had gone to simulcasting with their former sports talk station. I always wondered if even though they claimed to be a "Christian" station if someone had offered to buy airtimr for a Muslim, Hindu, or even Satanist program if they would have let them have the airtime. :rolleyes:
 
gr8oldies said:
Brokered ethnic is still here. In the 90s I remember WNDZ, Portage IN carrying what they called the first morning show targeted toward the lesbian and gay community (LesbiGay Radio Chicago). It was followed by an ethic or religious show. I remember when WLAC was full-service during the day, but at soon as 7pm came around: "This is the Fire and Brimstone Hour"....brokered religion until 5am, and on Sunday, the religion started around 4pm.
Click to expand...
I used to listen to WLAC at times at night when they were doing top 40 radio, although I mostly listened to WLS. When they started doing dollar a holler preachers at night is when I first ran into RG Stair. :rolleyes:
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom