MY92 or ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz92

[dudeonthedial]

I was curious to get peoples thoughts on the Newest station in the market My92? Looks and sounds to me like another mistake by Clear Channel in a need to cut budgets and put bland stations on across the country. The song tags after each songs sounds like someone had a great idea to bring Max Headroom back and run a radio station like a computer. Don't we already have stations like that on the internet? The music is good but its doesn't sound like anything I cannot get from Jack or Zone. Why do they put these stations on, don't they hear how bad they are within the first few days?

 

[sfradio]

I like it, I wish star 101.3 in the bay was like this station

 

[SFSAC]

I like it to.
Remember the stickers on the album...Play It, Say It! ?
That's what they're doing.
I don't need some cue card reading, corporate puppet telling me things I already have heard. (99% of Dj's today..yes! Dj's because I haven't heard anyone recently that deserves to be called a Personality.)

And yes, we CAN get this type of station on the internet. But how do you listen to the internet in the car?

 

[bobbybooey]

And yes, we CAN get this type of station on the internet. But how do you listen to the internet in the car?

Coming soon to a car near you. Right now you can do it with a laptop if you live in a city with wi-fi... once the major markets are all wi-fi'd up you can be sure that internet radio "receivers" will be soon to follow. And THAT, NOT satellite radio, is the biggest threat to terrestrial radio in the next decade.

 

[jammerdave]

If I want a widely varied format, I just listen to "Jack-FM". My92 sounds like a lightweight version of Jack. Maybe we should just call it "Jill-FM"

jd

I was curious to get peoples thoughts on the Newest station in the market My92? Looks and sounds to me like another mistake by Clear Channel in a need to cut budgets and put bland stations on across the country. The song tags after each songs sounds like someone had a great idea to bring Max Headroom back and run a radio station like a computer. Don't we already have stations like that on the internet? The music is good but its doesn't sound like anything I cannot get from Jack or Zone. Why do they put these stations on, don't they hear how bad they are within the first few days?

 

[BTSF]

Just spent about 90 minutes listening to My92.....music O.K. for weightlessness, jockless jock annoying, really nothing there to make me wanna repeat the experiment.

 

[radiovictim]

From an industry employee point of view, this format (much like the Jacks across the nation) should scare the crap out of anyone. It shows how truly expendable people are in this business. On the other hand, maybe it's exactly what's needed to light a fire under the butts of 99% of the liner jocks in radio - make them try harder to compete. Perhaps competition will finally provide more quality content?

From a listener point of view, this station is great. The variety is excellent. The imaging (though the voices leave something to be desired) is decent - not too produced, tags are informative without being obtrusive and listener sweeps add personality to a station that has no "personalities". The commercial breaks are also handled and allotted very well. CC has been ahead of the game in this department for years.

My guess is that My92 will steal a substantial amount of soccor moms from the Zone (because they talk too much) and the End (for the same reason). They will probably do very well with this format, so long as they don't fall into the trap of adding recycled Sacramento jocks to the air. If they can keep the variety... or more importantly the perception of variety... going strong, they should enjoy a large piece of the Arbitron pie. Just my estimation... have at it.

 

[hammerpants]

The only issue I will "have at" is that the jocks have to step it up. The majority of jocks would love to open it up beyond the 10 second plug off a liner card, some are even equipped to do it! Please look up to see the puppet master pulling the strings. GMs and PDs who bash jocks for being "boring" need to find a reflective surface to see who REALLY killed personality radio and brought on the bland, hard drive powered stations like this.

 

[radioman78]

And yes, we CAN get this type of station on the internet. But how do you listen to the internet in the car?

Coming soon to a car near you. Right now you can do it with a laptop if you live in a city with wi-fi... once the major markets are all wi-fi'd up you can be sure that internet radio "receivers" will be soon to follow. And THAT, NOT satellite radio, is the biggest threat to terrestrial radio in the next decade.

Actually it is already here if you have the right cell phone and a bluetooth receiver in our car. If you have a good cell phone that can surf the net, and listen to internet radio (most high end new cell phones can), all you have to do is log onto the site and then turn on the bluetooth. 2008 Fords already are set up for this.
http://www.hear2.com/2007/10/this-is-what-i-.html

Even more crazy is that you can get itunes on some phones, and this method will allow you to listen to itunes radio and podcasts.

On the "My92" topic, it sucks. It will fail like the KWOD 2.0 that it is modeled after (sound wise not song wise).

 

[Radio Rey]

These ID tags are something that a lot of stations are doing...the MY-FM in LA is doing it (with Jocks), The End is doing it (at varying times), WBEB B101 in Philadelphia is doing it on every song, and I'm sure that there are more that I'm not mentioning.

These are designed to help a station be more informative at a higher frequency to the listener. They are short, to the point and really don't disrupt the flow of the music...especially when presented right (kudos to the END)

But there is no way that these ID's could replace a jock... Yes some...maybe most jocks talk too much! But the listener is almost trained to hear that real life person ..it's comforting and familiar; and if the jock is good he will relate to his listener.

 

[dudeonthedial]

These are the type of stations that are going to kill local radio and it scares me to see people say "it's good" "i like it". This is a radio forum, built for people who are die hard radio fans, if we are going to fold to a format that sounds like it can be run by a computer then what does that say about us?

 

[BTSF]

dudeonthedial....

You are so on target....the jock-less, soul-less automation craze is really pathetic...

What is sad is when an allegedly rich company like CC {with $9 billion with a "b" in debt???}
will cut humans out to provide a service for humans...this is something Issac Asimov or
George Orwell must have done at least a short story on.......

As I previously posted....the music was O.K. at best, but nothing I'd push a button to hear.

 

[dudeonthedial]

its tuff to see people say positive things about automated stations when you look at the stations in the market busting their ass*s to stay alive with no marketing budgets and a staff that don't know if they will be there the next day. Clear Channel set the standard..how long till CBS, Entercom and the rest follow and say no more spending...we must support the live stations as much as possible...

 

[SFSAC]

we must support the live stations as much as possible...

And how do you propose we do that? In this time of a needed economic stimulus where in this market, housing, gas, milk, necessities are all up. But our "wonderful" govt is willing to ask a third world country to borrow money from to give to Americans so they can turn around and then we'll buy more third world country items. Who does that support?

If you're saying we need to support live stations by visiting the sponsors that advertise, check out the advertisers...mortgage companies, car dealers, and drugs. Take your pick. Where should I spend my rebate check to help these advertisers?

Don't get me wrong! I'm all for supporting terrestrial radio and the personalities, but please don't take this as a knock, I feel dudeonthedial BETTER be Good on the dial if not Great.

 

[Radio Rey]

I agree that the Jock has the be great, and he has to know what he is saying and who he is saying it to, and it must be something the listener actually cares about.

But who is going to teach the Jock, especially the new-comers how to do that??? Who is going to take the time to stop worrying about the bottom line...and start worrying about the product the station provides?

People are not going to buy (listen) to your product if it doesn't a) inform
b) entertain
or
c) invoke

I've worked for what some might consider radio programming pioneer's (in their respective formats) and the #1 thing that they were concerned about was not my show...but how much I would do for the least amount of pay!

 

[radioman78]

But who is going to teach the Jock, especially the new-comers how to do that???

Excellent point. It is harder and harder for someone without radio experience to get their foot in the door. It is getting to the point where you have to have 2-3 years on-air experience just to get a weekend shift even in smaller markets, which used to be where the new people would develop their craft.

Another example of this is the world Pro-Wrestling. When WWF/E bought out all their competition, it got rid of the lesser federations where the wrestlers would develop their skills before they made it to the "major leagues." Vince McMahhon has gone on to say that he ruined it for himself because now he has a smaller talent pool to select from.

This is now happening to radio, but it is computers and automation that is killing our craft not monopolies. Listeners like people on the air. If they didn't, it would have ended back in the 60's.

 

[Stage5Clinger]

Listeners like people on the air.[

And they like to be able to interact with the jock, too. Art Laboe is a great example of someone that does this. He's like 80 or 90 years old, but he's got the 18-30somethings wrapped, and it's because it's all listeners on the show. It's kind of a symbiotic, but it adds up to numbers to sure. Plus, if you're a radiophile, like me, and you've never checked his show out, well it's compelling to say the least. I can listen to it for hours, even though it's a format I'm not into.

Bottom line is people want to hear real, live humans or they'd be listening to cds, ipods, or whatever.

 

[BTSF]

Until some local ownership actually hires humans instead of brokering 24/7/365, developing on-air talent is gonna be tough.....corporate couldn't care less, and salivates over the possibility of owning 8 stations in the market, all as jock-less as can be.

I remember CC trying out some software programs that used automated "voices" that vaguely sounded human...the concept was to de-humanize radio even more and make the computers the announcers and news anchors. Yes...the automated voice would read the "news/sports/weather/etc."....it always sounded to me like a stuffed rag doll voicing liners, but I witnessed corporate types smiling and even running hands together, like this was the fruition of their evil plan.

And, in some ways, it will be, if it ever gets the bugs out of it.

By the way...who decided how many nano-seconds of announcing during music programming constitutes "a lecture" that must not last 10 seconds? Growing up around radio, I actually listened to announcers, and many used to be the audience grabbers that made AM Radio a commercial media force for decades.

Words, properly used, can be one hell of a tool....sales and otherwise.....

 

[DyingMedium]

The only thing really killing personality driven radio is bad management.

Are there bad jocks? Yep...but, you can have the best of both worlds if the station is run properly.

The FM rock stations of yesteryear (and some of them today...right here in Sac), know exactly how to strike that balance.

 

[dudeonthedial]

Sooo Top 5 Jocks in Sacramento and Bottom 5?