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OUTSOURCING air shifts to talented trackers from other markets

How prevelant is the practice of OUTSOURCING air shifts to talented trackers from other markets. Stations I have worked at have done it, primarily in middays, evenings and weekends when audience interaction, traffic reports, etc. are not part of the package. One person I have used in a few markets charged less than $4K a year for 6 shifts a week.

If you are reading the trades and the posts here at Radio-Info, you know that companies are looking to cut full-time positions in many areas, including on-air staffers.

QUESTION ~ Would there be a market for a company that put this kind of scenario together for stations in multiple music formats? The company would find the talent that fit the stations' needs and manage negotiations, integration with the stations' tracking platforms, etc. The station would be the talent as a vendor, with no benefits, etc. The talent in turn would pay the company who found them the gig directly.

Thoughts?
 
I guess the real winners in any war are the carrion birds that circle the battlefield.
 
I'm not sure that I quite understand this scenario, but I can liken it to what Clear Channel is doing with Ryan Seacrest. Initially, he was doing mornings at KIIS/LA, but now his show is run in various dayparts on many Clear Channel stations, and I know of at least one non-Clear Channel station (WSTR/Atlanta) that is using his show in their midday slot. Is that like what you're talking about?
 
I agree there may a niche for this. I think that voice track will be thumped by Live Jocks in their home studios connected to a station via the internet. We do it here with an FM and it works very well. We use the stations jingles, play their commercials, Time, weather it's all there and no one's the wiser... at a cost that can't be matched for any comparable product.
 
I'm confused as to how one can do this freelance with such different automation systems. What's needed on the home studio end?
 
Good point about the automation systems. It could potentially work with LogMeIn remote control software operated by the voice talent. It would cost a little bit to subscribe to the program (since you'd presumably need the version that lets you hear sound), but if you're doing multiple stations then the cost would be offset.
 
My question is, would it let you send sound back through your personal home studio setup to the station's automation system.
 
The way we do it now is thru VNC. With the stations password, we get access to the board and log ourselves on-air automatically. Weve downloaded their spots and jingles. I use DRS 2006 a play and tight formatted oldies show while respecting the PD's demands for stop sets, etc. The entire show is run from my home studio thru the internet into the station thru a 128k stream. It sounds really good. Of course I don't see how you could do this in peak periods but in my opinion this is the future for nights, all nights, weekends and holidays. It sounds much better than voice tracks, it's live, it can be as local as you want. Now I might not be interested in driving 100 miles to get to your station but I'd be willing to do this for a pretty interesting price.
 
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