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PREMIUM CRAP RADIO in Providence

K

Kenny Atkinson

Let's start with B101's laundry list of automation screw-ups.

7/22 During afternoon drive at 4:40 or around there Out of a stopset into traffic and music bed.traffic report concludes with traffic bed still playing."American Pie"starts playing,a cold start I may add traffic bed still playing with Lisa's voice over going over first 10 seconds or so over vocals and traffic bed still playing well into a minute of the song.

Saturday night's during Mike Harvey. I am usually listening between 7:40 aqnd 8:10. I always here a Mike Harvey liner playing in the middle a song,a song starting and a spot starts playing about a minute into the song then song resumes again, or a local liner playing over a phone call.
8:00 ID never plays and there is ten seconds of dead air.This has been going on for months.


WSNE-Premium Choice in the morning.Need I say more.
 
did you hear wpro york remote friday? terrible hissing..first thought it was my radio. not sure where he was but I had to flip it was so bad. How old was bruce? I heard the girl Tara confuse his age with the temp. She said temp was "going up to 102"and then talking about gov bruce said he dies" at age one hundred and 2"..lol
 
True automation only works when there are very few elements that need to be accounted for. For example, Radio 92.9 and 93.7 Mike-FM in Boston work fine as automated stations. They're not voicetracking air talent, airing traffic reports, or providing entertainment updates (which Clear Channel seems to like to do). It's just music, liners, and commericials. And they don't underestimate the intelligence of their listeners. Listeners know that it's just a computer somewhere playing nonstop music (and commercials). In Providence, Clear Channel is still trying to get away with the appearance that there are live jocks on 93.3, 94.1, and 101.5, when in fact very few of their live talent is actually live and local. Some people do fall for it--I just saw that my aunt "likes" iHeartRadio on Facebook, I need to get her to dislike that--but others are fed up. Before he was dumped from coast, a cousin of mine who lives in the Providence area chose to listen to Matty in the Morning through the static on Kiss 108 rather than on 93.3 because of all the technical mess-ups that would occur. It's sad that this is what has become of Providence radio. Where does all of Clear Channel's profits go anyway? Clearly not much goes to the local stations. At this point, Clear Channel ought to just completely automate 93.3 with a Mike-FM or other variety hits format and do it completely jockless, similar to Mike-FM, and concentrate some more LOCAL air talent on 94HJY and B101. Clear Channel is to concerned about extraneous bull$#!t like iHeartRadio, HD stations, the thong of the day, celebrity news, etc., that they are not providing local stations, especially in Providence, quality programming. Is there a point where the FCC can cite Clear Channel for their stations not serving their communities?

Jacko
 
Jacko, CC's profits - where they exist - are used to pay down the debt that the company accumulated in buying so many stations. Little by little, over the past decade, CC has cut most of their market clusters down to bare bones.

While 'HJY does feature a great deal of voicetracking, I am heartened by the fact that it is one of the few CC stations that has a complete stable of local talent. While I know that 'HJY is very profitable, someone at CC understands that it is a Heritage station and that a huge part of its success has been its personalities. 'HJY's jocks, even today, are one of the most talented groups in all of FM radio. The sad part is that outside of Paul, Al, and Charles, jocks like Jenn and Matt Battle do not get to use that talent. Ten years ago, 'HJY's jocks were allowed to infuse a huge amount of personality into their shows. I remember Amy Hagen doing long riffs on whatever magazine article she happened to be reading at the time. I remember Doug Palmieri talking about the sex study du jour. Jenn and Battle could be doing stuff like this. Jenn is just as talented as Amy Hagen, with a better voice. Battle has one of the great sets of pipes in Rock radio; it is too bad that he is voicetracked.

On that note, given the state of CC stations around the country, we should be very happy with 'HJY.

By the way, I noticed that Jenn is no longer voicetracking middays at CC's New Hampshire AOR station. They seemed to go local.
 
It's true that HJY is probably in the best shape out of the 4 Clear Channel stations in Providence. However, both Paul and Al and Charles's shows have been on for many years, and it is only a matter of time before one, if not both those shows, are retired. I'd hate to think what would happen to HJY if that were to happen. I remember HJY of years past with Amy Hagan in middays and Jaxon in evenings, eventually to be replaced by Doug Palmeiri. Very good personalities and a better mix of music. Now it's the same old tired classic rock with occasional newer dude rock mixed in. If the HJY of even 10 to 15 years ago existed today, they would have been playing bands like Airborne Toxic Event and the Black Keys, and maybe even Grace Potter & the Nocturnals.

And yes, it seems like I'm singling out Clear Channel from the others. Yes, most corporate broadcasters are guilty in some way, it just seems that Clear Channel is the frontrunner in all this.

Jacko
 
Jacko, you are right to single out Clear Channel. They are by far the cheapest of the corporate owners. They dictate nearly all programming from corporate HQ, and they run voicetracking and syndication in even the biggest of markets. It is amazing to me that 'HJY has more local jocks than does Kiss 108. Moreover, CBS and Citadel put a far better product on the radio than Clear Channel. Music aside, wouldn't you take a more largely live and local (at least until 6 PM) 92 Pro FM over Kiss 108, with four hours of Ryan Seacrest and a voicetracked Romeo? CBS is better even than Citadel, with local, non-voicetracked jocks on in many, many markets. Take a look at Mix in Boston - very local and very much live in most dayparts.
 
ScottBurns said:
Jacko, you are right to single out Clear Channel. They are by far the cheapest of the corporate owners. They dictate nearly all programming from corporate HQ, and they run voicetracking and syndication in even the biggest of markets. It is amazing to me that 'HJY has more local jocks than does Kiss 108. Moreover, CBS and Citadel put a far better product on the radio than Clear Channel. Music aside, wouldn't you take a more largely live and local (at least until 6 PM) 92 Pro FM over Kiss 108, with four hours of Ryan Seacrest and a voicetracked Romeo? CBS is better even than Citadel, with local, non-voicetracked jocks on in many, many markets. Take a look at Mix in Boston - very local and very much live in most dayparts.
Click to expand...

Romeo at Kiss 108 is live, unless something has changed recently. Jackson Blue at night is VTed though, since he does mornings at 104.3 in Baltimore.
 
I figured Romeo was live on Q102 in Philly, where he also does afternoons. Philly is the bigger market. But then again, you very well might be right.
 
ScottBurns said:
Jacko, you are right to single out Clear Channel. They are by far the cheapest of the corporate owners. They dictate nearly all programming from corporate HQ, and they run voicetracking and syndication in even the biggest of markets. It is amazing to me that 'HJY has more local jocks than does Kiss 108. Moreover, CBS and Citadel put a far better product on the radio than Clear Channel. Music aside, wouldn't you take a more largely live and local (at least until 6 PM) 92 Pro FM over Kiss 108, with four hours of Ryan Seacrest and a voicetracked Romeo? CBS is better even than Citadel, with local, non-voicetracked jocks on in many, many markets. Take a look at Mix in Boston - very local and very much live in most dayparts.
Click to expand...

And you're argument ALMOST works until you say "take a look at MIX". Live and local, perhaps, but KISS is dominating MIX even with 4 hours of Seacrest and voicetracked nights. Romeo is live at KISS, btw.
 
At this stage of the game, everyone has to accept that for voicetracking to end, many stations would have to do too much hiring. There wouldn't be enough hours in the day for many personalities to do everything else they've been saddled with then do a live 4 or 5 hour shift. It goes beyond the powers that be wanting to be live & local. Depending on how much multi tasking is required, it just isn't feasible to expect all jocks to do live shifts.
 
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