Obligatory TALKERS Heavy Hundred thread

[FTL_Ian]

http://www.talkers.com/heavy-hundred/

My show, Free Talk Live has moved up from #47 to #42! Yay! Thank you to all the great stations carrying FTL for making this possible.

 

[umfan]

Not too shabby. Did you get many new affiliates this past year? I'm surprised by the number on the list who are solely on satellite radio.

 

[TheBigA]

Not too shabby. Did you get many new affiliates this past year? I'm surprised by the number on the list who are solely on satellite radio.

How many of the satellite hosts built their audience base on OTA? And how many started on satellite? Just askin.'

 

[Avid Listener]

Not too shabby. Did you get many new affiliates this past year? I'm surprised by the number on the list who are solely on satellite radio.

Satellite and Internet are the new entry level positions. Times have changed. The career path in news/talk is no longer small market station to larger market station to syndication deal. The OTA "minor leagues" aren't there any more. They're running nothing but nationally syndicated shows. So, nowadays new talk hosts have to break in on the internet, develop a following, hope to move up to satellite or an OTA station in a market big enough to support local hosts, and ultimately to a syndication gig. What happened in the past happened because of the way things were in the past. What happens now happens because things are different now.

 

[Small Market Guy]

Satellite and Internet are the new entry level positions.

Not the Internet. Just ask any PD. If they get a resume with "Internet radio" on it, they throw it right in the circular file. Because the Internet isn't radio.

Most new syndicated hosts come from non-radio backgrounds. Either TV or politics. None of them have come from the Internet.

And I can't think of any shows that started on satellite and moved to terrestrial, either. I'm pretty sure your entire post was completely wrong.

 

[Avid Listener]

Not the Internet. Just ask any PD. If they get a resume with "Internet radio" on it, they throw it right in the circular file. Because the Internet isn't radio.

Ask nine out of ten PD's what they do with resumes from anyone looking for a local talk show gig, and they'll tell you that ALL such resumes go into the circular file. At nine out of ten stations airing a news/talk format, everything comes in through a syndicated satellite feed.

There are so few new positions opening up for local station talk show hosts that any attempt to make any sort of blanket statement is impossible. The sample size is too small for any sort of statistical analysis to mean anything.

 

[umfan]

Nearly all, if not all, Satellite Hosts on the Heavy Hundred started out OTA. My surprise was that they were able to retain such a seemingly large following when moving to a medium that requires a subscription.

 

[Small Market Guy]

Ask nine out of ten PD's what they do with resumes from anyone looking for a local talk show gig, and they'll tell you that ALL such resumes go into the circular file.

Unless they're actually hiring for a local talk show position. That's sort of how it works. Sure it's not happening as much as it used to, but it does happen.

And the people taking those local talk positions are NOT podcasters. You really have no idea how a radio station works if you think someone yapping into a headset in his mother's basement is going to be the next big syndicated host. It will either be someone well known outside of radio (more likely) , or someone who managed to work up through the ranks of RADIO (less likely, but possible).

Tell us something, have you ever even WORKED at a radio station? Sure doesn't sound like it.

 

[Small Market Guy]

Nearly all, if not all, Satellite Hosts on the Heavy Hundred started out OTA. My surprise was that they were able to retain such a seemingly large following when moving to a medium that requires a subscription.

They don't have large followings. They just get paid like they do. Meanwhile Sirius treats the non "name brand" employees like crap.

 

[Avid Listener]

Unless they're actually hiring for a local talk show position. That's sort of how it works. Sure it's not happening as much as it used to, but it does happen.

Yes, and sometimes a golfer hits a hole in one. And sometimes someone hits the lottery. The fact that something happens once in a blue moon doesn't mean that it happens often enough that it's a trend.

Tell us something, have you ever even WORKED at a radio station? Sure doesn't sound like it.

Yes, I have. But, I soon moved up to better jobs.

 

[flybynight]

Yes, and sometimes a golfer hits a hole in one. And sometimes someone hits the lottery. The fact that something happens once in a blue moon doesn't mean that it happens often enough that it's a trend.

Amateur internet so-called "radio" ALWAYS sounds like crap. Anybody who tells you that the next talkradio star will come from the net, is just trying to be edgy/progressive.

Understanding how to handle and run a show, whether it's taking calls, momologuing or playing and commenting on sound bites, takes a certain technique resulting from plenty of coaching and practice along the way. There's a reason why there was a farm system. It allowed talent to develop before ever seeing light in a large or major market.

The idea that some shlub in his basement can just "get good" talking to himself, sans any coaching or direction, is absurd. Being a talk host actually does require some skill, no matter what many radio execs think.

Yes, I have. But, I soon moved up to better jobs.

That narrows it down to almost everything else.

Radio always had plenty of negatives as well as positives as career choices go, but these days the negatives have so dramatically outpaced the positives, it makes me wonder why anyone would choose it as a career now.

 

[TheBigA]

Radio always had plenty of negatives as well as positives as career choices go, but these days the negatives have so dramatically outpaced the positives, it makes me wonder why anyone would choose it as a career now.

Because other than being a superstar singer, it's the best feeling one can have.

 

[flybynight]

Because other than being a superstar singer, it's the best feeling one can have.

Heroin addicts make that claim as well.

 

[TheBigA]

Heroin addicts make that claim as well.

Whatever gets you through the night.

 

[RedStateTalkRadio]

As someone who owns and operates an internet only, talk radio station......a couple of things.

FYI: Not all internet radio sounds like crap. I have 30 different shows on the station. About 1/3 originate at AM stations and are then rebroadcast here, almost always later that same day (if produced at night, the next morning).

Most of the rest of the shows are independently produced either in "home studios" or using online services like BlogTalkRadio, Spreaker, etc. BlogTalkRadio's sound quality is easily the worst, but there are steps that can be taken to make the show sound significantly better. Spreaker's sound quality is quite good.

Many of the independent podcasters were in AM radio for years, even decades, some in major markets and have decided to move to new media as AM radio is for the most part drowning in red ink.

Only the very naive have any illusions as to becoming the next great talk radio star. I've been doing a show for more than five years and I do it because I enjoy doing it (helps with my sanity) and believe it or not, have thousands of loyal listeners each month. That being said, I KNOW that I'm not going to be discovered unless a major radio exec has a flat tire in my driveway.

My station, believe it or not, makes a small (very small) profit and in 2013 had well in excess of 500,000 listening hours and even though it's early, we're on pace to exceed 720,000 listening hours in 2014 and should have a decent shot at 750,000 hours this year. The next goal would be to break 1 Million hours. The station is less than 4 years old, so that's not too bad, considering there was NO ONE listening when I flipped the switch in May 2010.

Like anything......some of the shows in the lineup are better than others. Not just in production quality, but in content, but that's true of traditional radio. We have one tiny AM affiliate that broadcasts our internet stream on the AM band. I'm talking with a couple of other stations right now that are a bit thin on their own lineup and are considering us to fill some of their content needs. I've got no illusions about building a massive affiliate network. If we have 4-5 stations taking our feed during part of their broadcast day, then fine. If not, that's fine too.

I guess the bottom line is that a small grassroots internet station like ours does fill a niche as month, after month our listenership continues to grow. Stations like mine are a part of the new media. Generally speaking, 25-40% of our listeners are listening using a mobile device (iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.). The rest are using PC's or internet radios (i.e. Logitech Squeezebox).

AM radio will never completely vanish, I just think that as more and more autos add smart technology, internet radio will gain even more listeners. Some "experts" predict that within 5 years smart technology will standard equipment in virtually every car model. Not sure if that's true, but it's going that way.

If it happens, my station will be ready as it's on all the major syndication apps such as Tune-In, Stitcher, iTunes and about 8 or more lesser know websites (TalkStreamLive, Streamfinder, etc.)

 

[Avid Listener]

Amateur internet so-called "radio" ALWAYS sounds like crap.

For the most part, amateur ANYTHING usually is crap. However, in addition to amateurs playing at broadcasting with a Samsung Meteor, there are former on-air talk show hosts whose stations went under or changed format who keep active by working on the internet. There are well-trained professionals looking to build their portfolios and gain some experience who work on internet "radio" as a hobby while also working at a regular job on the radio. I'm speaking of behind-the-mic technical professionals.

Now, this example is from television, a much more difficult and challenging medium than radio, but Nadia Giosia parleyed an internet cooking show into first a run on Food Network Canada, then to the Cooking Channel in the US.

In the unlikely event that a PD looking for a new talk show talent actually searches for one, instead of hoping one falls into his lap, internet "radio" has the same potential for enabling someone to display some raw talent as any other form of auditioning. Are you going to try to convince everyone that no one in the history of on-air broadcasting never, ever got his foot in the door by using a self-crafted audition tape?

When you come down to it, how much difference is there between internet "radio" and working on most college radio stations?

There is one thing that does ALWAYS sound like crap. That's any opinion that anything in the universe is ALWAYS the same.

 

[Small Market Guy]

Yes, and sometimes a golfer hits a hole in one. And sometimes someone hits the lottery. The fact that something happens once in a blue moon doesn't mean that it happens often enough that it's a trend.

Who said it was a trend? I just said that people get hired to do talk shows on radio stations. And those people didn't get those jobs by sending a clip from a podcast.

 

[Small Market Guy]

As someone who owns and operates an internet only, talk radio station......

Not radio. Sorry. It's not.

 

[Avid Listener]

Who said it was a trend? I just said that people get hired to do talk shows on radio stations. And those people didn't get those jobs by sending a clip from a podcast.

There are so few people getting hired to do talk shows on radio stations in the year 2014 that any blanket statement about where the people doing the hiring are going to find the people they hire is wrong. There just aren't enough examples to make any sort of overall conclusion.

Since you claim to know that people get hired to do talk shows on radio stations, care to name more than 4 first-time talk show hosts hired by any radio station in the United States so far this year? I'm not talking about experienced hosts switching stations. I'm talking about entry-level talk show hosts. How many have been hired, and what was their backgrounds?

 

[RedStateTalkRadio]

Well.....like it or not......that's what the entire world calls it. It's called internet radio. It's NOT AM radio, it's NOT FM radio and nobody said it was. While it's true that it's NOT radio in the traditional sense, but neither is satellite radio, yet it's also called radio.

I'm an old fart myself, so I understand wanting to hang onto tradition and that's fine, but internet radio IS the future. Anyone who thinks that AM radio will be half what it is today, 25 years from now is living in a fantasy world. It may still exist, but it won't even be a major player 25 years from now.

The odds of AM radio becoming profitable again are slim and none. Yes, there will be some stations that perhaps survive and are able to pay their bills, but the vast majority are living on borrowed time.

Technology marches on.........AM radio for the most part hasn't really changed at all in decades. That alone dooms it to the ash heap of history.