No more radio protest letters ???

[bk77]

My 74 year old grandmother recently wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper quite upset that her local AM radio station replaced her favorite morning host with another. However imahine her surprise when her letter did NOT get published in the local paper rather than she recieved a letter from the radio station she was writing about. The newspaper forwarded her complaint to the radio station. The letter from the radio station was nice but she is still mad her letter wasn't published.

Is this a new trend or something? One of my friends from high school works at a newspaper in Pennsylvania and she was telling me that even though her newspaper accepts letters for all topics including radio and TV, she knew of a few other newspapers that had problems with such letters mainly written about one's personal life or whatever and they too rather than just trash the letter, they would forward it to the radio/TV station or any other business in question and let them deal with it.

I know that some of those online gossip sites, some radio and TV stations are "taboo" whereas they don't get mention on purpose or if they do its very limited but I never heard until now of a local newspaper doing the same.

 

[radioboy]

I used to see radio protest letters in the paper, but haven't seen any in a long time.

However, once a change has been implemented at a station, letters seldom make a difference. There
ARE exceptions, but it takes a lot of letters from a lot of people to make a difference.

Radio stations are programmed to fill up owners' pockets, not cater to listeners. At 74, your
grandmother is not in anyone's target demo.

Stations change so much now I'm not sure many people even bother to write complaint letters.

 

[mleach]

The last time I saw such a letter appear in our local newspaer was back in 1999 when a rather small modern rock station went from being live 24/7 to hooking with with some automation service. Four letters appeared about it and just about every PD and/or GM in the market was totally upset about it. I remember our PD at the time actually contacted the newspaper and asked if he could see the original letter even though it wasn't our station that letter was about. They refused !!

I guess the reasons why such letters are rare nowadays are..

1. nobody really cares anymore.

2. the drama attached to such letters ( some jocks I have known in the past tend to get highly upset when an anti-radio letter appears in the local paper even if it doesnt involve them though oddly they could care less if the same thing is said about them online. ) I once worked at a station where a jock destroyed a telephone because some listener called up and said he "sucked". I can only imagine what would happen if the same person wrote that in a letter that was published in the local paper.

3. newspapers like radio, live on ad dollars. And considering that many local papers have ties with with local radio stations now, they aren't about about to publish a letter than slams something that makes them money.

4. or all of the above.

 

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

Good for her, for writing a radio protest letter! I've written a few. I've given many other people the address of where to write. Sure enough, they did. Nobody heard a thing after... No replies. I think most people choose the email method now. We did those too... ;D (What pains)... and of course we didn't get any replies that way either.

In my case, I wrote about how wrong CBS Radio was for firing Bill Gardner. It was only for cutting the budget. He was the best morning show host Phoenix has ever had, and the oldies station that was getting #1, 2, or 3's in the ratings? Well, they just got screwed over big time. (see Phx board)