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Overnights???

S

SandyG

What are your choices for the best and worst late night radio shows....11pm - 5am?

Also, does ANY advertiser buy time there or is it just goodwill, freebie, thrown in spots?

Thanks!!!

SG
 
the better question should be how many jocks are working the over night shift these days / how mant stations are voictracking or just running their computers?
 
I am old enough to remember when most radio stations signed off at midnight or 1am. I was an avid DXer and would pick up the distant signals after the band got quieter. Most of what I heard in those days were all night DJ's, mostly country music selling baby chicks and religious icons. Even The Wolfman hawked a lot of that kind of stuff. Then you had trucker radio for the long haul drivers on the big 50KW flamethrowers. Later I remember my Mom who was kind of an insomniac listening to talk radio overnight from WBZ in Boston. Daytime talk was still relatively rare and usually housewife oriented like Phil Donahue who started on on WHIO-1290AM in Dayton Ohio.

When I go older I think a lot of the live overnight DJ's were still only on the big city stations and smaller locals used some kind of automation. Today "Coast to Coast AM" seems to dominate the AM band. I think that people who listen to music don't really care about live because you don't have DJ's like Wolfman Jack and John R anymore. I got my Mom's insomniac gene but I just want some relaxing music at night and I wouldn't want a personality that would keep me awake. I would see 'personality radio' settling AM drive and getting up, out and going time periods and less so as the day moves on. I think night time automation and satellite will be the norm, especially with economic times being as they are.
 
Get yourself a nice, not expensive, Internet radio. A Roku SoundBridge sits on my nightstand and from it, the late night sound of KAAM in Dallas, KEZW in Denver, KJWL in Fresno, KKJL in San Luis Obispo as well as "easy music" stations in Pittsburgh, Florida and even a few online.

Problem solved.

Lots of personalities, lots of non-personalities. Great quality on what are either AM or FM.
 
nmoore6676 said:
I think night time automation and satellite will be the norm, especially with economic times being as they are.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that one of the main reasons why stations started to go 24/7 in the 60's was to avoid the transmitter failing upon being lit up, which was the beginning of drive time. By that time, FCC rules on remote control permitted many stations not at the transmitter to have the site remote controlled with no technicians there. At the same time, the transmitter gear was still all tube based and often lasted longer if never turned off or rarely so.

It only took a couple of bad experiences for those of us who were owners to say to ourselves that protecting mornings was best servid by being on overnight. There is nothing worse than being off the aire, or on a low power auxiliary at 6 AM.

The experience that made me take an FM 24/7 in '67 was being called at 6AM because the transmitter smelled bad and would not go on. A rat had gone into it, gone to sleep on the warm choke, and been electrocuted at sign on, exploding and shorting out the transmitter. It took hours to clean, betwen upchucking from the smell... and, being an FM in that year, had no auxiliary. It went through the night that very day. And I soldered heavy copper screen to the cable punches on the floor.
 
DavidEduardo said:
nmoore6676 said:
I think night time automation and satellite will be the norm, especially with economic times being as they are.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that one of the main reasons why stations started to go 24/7 in the 60's was to avoid the transmitter failing upon being lit up, which was the beginning of drive time. By that time, FCC rules on remote control permitted many stations not at the transmitter to have the site remote controlled with no technicians there. At the same time, the transmitter gear was still all tube based and often lasted longer if never turned off or rarely so.

It only took a couple of bad experiences for those of us who were owners to say to ourselves that protecting mornings was best servid by being on overnight. There is nothing worse than being off the aire, or on a low power auxiliary at 6 AM.

The experience that made me take an FM 24/7 in '67 was being called at 6AM because the transmitter smelled bad and would not go on. A rat had gone into it, gone to sleep on the warm choke, and been electrocuted at sign on, exploding and shorting out the transmitter. It took hours to clean, betwen upchucking from the smell... and, being an FM in that year, had no auxiliary. It went through the night that very day. And I soldered heavy copper screen to the cable punches on the floor.
Click to expand...

Gee and all this time I thought it was because my PD loved to stay up and listen to my overnight shows... Darn! ;)
 
Michael Rivers Kramer said:
Gee and all this time I thought it was because my PD loved to stay up and listen to my overnight shows... Darn! ;)
Click to expand...

As time went on, I think that many PDs became aware that to create a lead in of any kind to the morning show, you had to have something on the air ahead of it. Static did not work. :mad:
 
DavidEduardo said:
Michael Rivers Kramer said:
Gee and all this time I thought it was because my PD loved to stay up and listen to my overnight shows... Darn! ;)
Click to expand...

As time went on, I think that many PDs became aware that to create a lead in of any kind to the morning show, you had to have something on the air ahead of it. Static did not work. :mad:
Click to expand...

That is very true..."Gee I set my alarm 5:15 and all I got was noise".
 
In most markets, late means VT'ing or just back to back music. I grew up with personality MOR and Top 40 radio where the overnight guy acted like he was talking directly to lonely bored women like me. I remember Johnny Williams on KHJ and Terry McGovern on KDKA out of Pittsburgh as examples. This is practically gone except on public radio outlets.
 
I did an overnight shift for CC a couple years back. Basically baby sat the computer, every once in a while play voice tracked show. Did that for two years, and that was the worst shift i've ever worked. The only upside was there was never any traffic going in and going home.
 
For latenights, I usually turn on the radio once I am in bed as background noise...and I have it tuned to sports stations but their late nights seem to be just syndicated Fox Sports Radio or Sporting News. Looking back when I was in high school I used to love to listen to Brother Bill on KIIS-FM. Loved his show. Also would listen to Poorman on KROQ. Was he in overnights? I can't remember..must be getting old :(
 
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