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predictions for 2012

Obviously you miss the point. There are only about 250 Oldies/Top40/Classic Slop songs ever recorded. All those old Billboard charts were just mind tricks. So those 250 songs have to be divided up between all the overspecialized formats. Hence you end up hearing the same 70 or so tunes over and over and over......

It's all so simple once you understand this....
 
What would happen if one station combined the playlists of KOOL and KSLX and KMXP or maybe KEXX. All live. 12 minutes of commercials per hour in clusters of under 70 seconds. Tight formatting; NO f-ing commercials on the hour and half hour marks, maybe some jingles.

I mean one really has to parse the differences between KOOL and KSLX (at least KOOL sounds live). Or to avoid constant upchucking, I listen to KKLD (they really need to hire an engineer) and KMGN. The overlap is incredulous.

Oh silly silly me. Isn't that the way radio used to be? Now it's back to automaton time....... No wonder listenership is stagnant (now call DE out of his crypt to offer his usual off-base unreality-based opinions).
 
Bill Drake said:
What would happen if one station combined the playlists of KOOL and KSLX and KMXP or maybe KEXX.

In other words, you kids, get off of my lawn! When I was your age there was one rock station that played Zepplin and Beatles and we liked it, damn it! And there were only three TV stations and if you wanted sports you had to wait until Saturday afternoon for Wide World of Sports to come on channel 3.

Media has changed. The good old days weren't always good, and these are the good old days.

Oh, and to answer your question: that format is called Variety Hits. Inch deep, mile wide. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Ask KPKX.
 
The problem is that nobody programs with their gut. For example, I don't hear Jethro Tull anymore. Somewhere down the line, I would assume people were given a list of what songs make them "tune out". If they don't recognize the title, then it most likely got bad results. But if you heard Jethro on the radio, you wouldn't really tune out. It just doesn't scream out familiar on a survey. Its just one of the dozens of examples how PDs now program like robots.
 
johndavis said:
Bill Drake said:
What would happen if one station combined the playlists of KOOL and KSLX and KMXP or maybe KEXX.

In other words, you kids, get off of my lawn! When I was your age there was one rock station that played Zepplin and Beatles and we liked it, damn it! And there were only three TV stations and if you wanted sports you had to wait until Saturday afternoon for Wide World of Sports to come on channel 3.

Media has changed. The good old days weren't always good, and these are the good old days.

Oh, and to answer your question: that format is called Variety Hits. Inch deep, mile wide. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Ask KPKX.


Your narrow vision of what radio has become is the problem. If you work in radio, please leave and maybe someone creative will take your place. How can you possibly compare the canned crap today of what existed, say Pre TeleCom 1996, as good? Sterile, repetitious, lifeless, limited playlists, endless commercials. Essentially DEAD. Maybe that's why alternative media sources are so popular. KPKX is another Bonneville drone. Hardly a leader in innovation. Maybe you can keep from upchucking while listening but I can't. It has all the negative qualities I listed above.

The master of prevarication, DE, asked me once what I had against broadcasters. I did not dignify him with a response. The answer is simple: there aren't any. They have all been replaced with pointy-headed bean counters who program to the lowest common denominator and as cheaply as possible.

I recall the owner of a Drake station, which scored 50 shares back in the 1960's, telling me the key to success in radio was "spending money to make money." Of course that axiom applies across all business spectrums. We don't see that much in this country anymore. And look at our economic standing....

My prediction for 2012? More of the same only worse. Until it all ends according to the Mayan calendar.... ;D
 
In this market you have two types of owners. The "pointy-head bean counting" types you despise (CC, CBS, Bonneville, Univision, Entravision) and throwbacks to the "good ol' days" (Sierra H (Mega/The Beat), Trumper (Hot), and whatever the guys who own Power/Vibe and The Edge are calling themselves these days. I'd say Sandusky is somewhere in the middle. Lets examine how these stations are performing.

In November's PPM (pre-Ho Ho Ho) CC had 3 of the top 10 stations 25-54. CBS and Sandusky each have 2. Univision and Bonneville each have one and a non-comm is in there as well. Those stations? Mix, KOOL, KSLX, KTAR-AM, KHOT, KUPD, KEZ, Kiss and Jamz. Of those stations I think only KUPD does ANYTHING that anyone on this board would consider good, old school radio. All the rest of those easily could be described with: Sterile, repetitious, lifeless, limited playlists, endless commercials...your words.

Where are all the rest of those stations that the "old school" type owners are running? In no particular order, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 27th and 30th places in the same November 25-54 numbers.

Why the differences? Well the easy answer is the big boys have South Mountain sticks, the little guys are rimshots. True to a point. But I'm, pretty sure KHOT is a rimshot too! I would say those "pointy-head bean counting types" have resources nowadays that no pre-1996 owner could dream of. National research. Access to the absolute best programming minds in the industry. Access to the best talent in the country. No Fred Weber or Gary Edens could ever compete with that.

At the end of the day all that matters is the scoreboard. People (listeners) suck. They're lazy. They don't want to be challenged. They want what is comfortable and familiar to them. Research and ratings have proven that, without fail, Brown Eyed Girl will keep the lemmings listening and Jethro Tull will send them over to your competition. (Just to use 2 examples from this conversation)

The guys who get this are winning. The guys who don't are below the Mendoza line for ad buyers. You can either adapt to your surroundings and get the big $$$ national buys up front or you can live in the past and keep chasing down the local strip club owner and sleazy car dealer for the money they owe you from their schedule that ran 4 months ago. I"ll adapt, thanks.
 
DJ_Perry said:
Hard to disagree with that. I still miss the old way....radio in the 80s / 90s

Trust me, I miss the old days as much as anyone. The most fun I had in my career was playing songs off of carts and splicing spots together on a 2 track Tascam. But that's what makes me appreciate many net stations even more. The few of us who want it can find it. For the unwashed masses, there is terrestrial radio.
 
Bill Drake said:
Your narrow vision of what radio has become is the problem. If you work in radio, please leave and maybe someone creative will take your place. How can you possibly compare the canned crap today of what existed, say Pre TeleCom 1996, as good? Sterile, repetitious, lifeless, limited playlists, endless commercials.

Funny, one might say that the beginnings of regimented, structured, repetitive radio came from the mind of... Bill Drake.

Time marches on. The technology has changed, the artists are different, but the only real difference between now and then is now if you get canned, there's fewer places to cross the street and get hired.

I steal from the past but live in the present. You can either moan about how everything is different or you can figure out how to be relevant now. The jocks I know who do the former sell real estate. The jocks I know who do the latter still plug in their cans and crank up the monitors. Your choice.
 
Ford said:
KOOL will not play "Brown Eyed Girl" nearly as many times as this board claims.

OK............. OK, FOLKS!! I HAVE A STORY TO TELL!!!

THE DAY I UNKNOWINGLY BECAME A KOOL LISTENER:
So today I went to the barber shop to get a haircut and the first thing I noticed upon entering was that for once, they actually had the radio on a station playing either adult contemporary or classic hits. For some reason, I thought it was on 99.9 KEZ. Shortly after I was called to get my hair cut, the barber serving me started playing "the motto" by Drake on his phone and began to complain about the barber shop music with the few other barbers wondering if anyone was allowed to change the station. I immediately got involved in the conversation and started telling him about how the people there used to always have it on 101.5 or 95.1 and that a few short years ago, employees even used to bring their own radio's (and also mentioned the time I dj'd there for their manager).

After all the chit chatter and noise began to die down, I was able to hear the barbershop radio again. I start trying to make out the lyrics to the song that was playing and next thing I knew,

BAM! IT WAS BROWN EYED GIRL!

I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!

The very moment I heard it I thought about the talk here on these boards and instantly knew we were listening to KOOL 94.5! We were all KOOL Listeners! I was on the verge of updating my life insurance policy and planning a funeral because I WAS DYING to bust of laughing! But as much as I wanted to laugh and say something, I had to keep my mouth shut and just smile about it instead because all the KOOL Listeners in the barbershop would've thought I had lost my mind and I wasn't sure how I was going to explain myself. I couldn't believe it. *I guess they must play the song quite often because what are the odds that during that short space of time I tuned in it would just happen to come on? Honestly, I wasn't even familiar with that song (or never really noticed it) until today! I only listened for about... 15 minutes? Then BAM! There it was playing.

Well, I guess now I see what all the Brown Eyed Girl hype and talk on this board was all about. Can't blame Van Morrison, though. I like a few different eye colors, but brown eyes are sexy... especially light brownish to hazel eyes because they sparkle in the light. Van should've made a remix called Hazel Eyed Girl. Probably would've been a hit.

On another note, I later went to a nearby dollar store on Van Buren and they were blasting Mega 104.3 ;) Hopefully people were walking around that area with their ppm meters.
 
Hahaha! Last Monday I was celebrating, watching the Oregon Ducks/Wisconsin Badgers Rose Bowl with a friend, and the place we're at played great classic rock during commercial breaks. Then on goes "Brown Eyed Girl" and I couldn't help but crack up and joke that it's not overplayed. ;)
 
And KOOL played...(wait for it)...Brown Eyed Girl again this morning at 9:43.

Guess I should also check K-Slacks. ;D
 
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