QUESTION FOR ROBERT BASS

[adguy]

Nah, I put "awful" in quotes to note my sarcasm...I happen to buy into the same beliefs as Robert, hence my other points. I'm just saying it's a dead argument to think that those 3 things will ever change, and that radio will ever return to what it once was. That's also why I said those things about how keeping some of that old spirit in mind can be a pleasant justification for staying in the biz today.

I've bashed the medium for its corporate mismanagement of it for quite a while now, but there is hope for some return to "the old days". I posted previously what is going on in Houston. In the last couple of years local owners have gained control of stations and given back that local swagger and poured their resources into those stations like the single station owners used to do back in the day. Mixed results however. In Dallas, we've seen some of the same things. One example: BizRadio. One owner had the right idea, but failed to let the experienced radio people he recruited operate the stations without his misinformed intrusion. The result: both Houston and Dallas will probably go under after his lease runs out at the end of the year, unless he comes up with enough money to buy them outright. Another example: KGOW in Houston, AM 1560 The Game signed on this week with the funding of a very smart entrepenuer and host of investors. They hired very experienced market folks to operate, program and sell the station. Unlike BizRadio, they actually purchased the station. It is a terrificly programmed station with every host local, funny, informative and overall, incredibly entertaining. It's that EXACT same swagger single stations owners DID carry before the corporate destruction. I don't think anything will be able to stem the tide of Satellite, IPOD and MP3, but ironically I believe that these single or 2-station owners that buy and operate stations with market knowledge and experience will rule terrestrial radio in the future. See, it's not all pessimistic.

 

[Robert Bass]

3. the airwaves should be run by the government

The word I would use is "regulate".

R

 

[klifhanger]

Adguy,We agree. It sounds like there is a glimmer of hope. Bizradio is in process of buying two stations(Dallas,Houston), However as long as Dan and especially Elisea Frishberg call the shots it will still struggle.

 

[Talktalk]

And, there in lies my point, perfectly voiced by all who oppsed it with such venom...just read, and tell me where I err.

let me start with Adguy, he is extolling the virtues of 1560, but if you go and read his posts on the Houston board, you will find that yes, HE likes the station, but expresses what a horrible signal it has, AND that advertisers should get the first week free and ony pay a fraction for such a weak signal...he ALSO says that even with a TON of money in marketing, they won't have a DECENT cume for "quite some time". So, you say the way to fix radio is by independants running stations with bad signals, and can't earn anything even after spending a ton on marketing a station that no one can hear...

Robert, and the rest...you have complained non stop and made jabs when you had no arguement, but the fact remains, non-coms, like KEOM, fun station to listen to on Friday afternoon on the way home from work, but doesn't really offer anything? Does it? Is it changing lives? Making memories? And while you think I go overboard on my takes, these are all things that you posters have said as returned to you, sometimes it aint fun looking in the mirror.

Radio is stronger NOW than ever before, if you don't like a stations programming...don't listen. Isn't that what all of us in the biz say? And if you want to go a step further...change it...I am sure Robert will have some catchy one liners as will a few others, but here is the challenge...come back with something of substance, a little tougher...

 

[Robert Bass]

Robert, and the rest...you have complained non stop and made jabs when you had no arguement, but the fact remains, non-coms, like KEOM, fun station to listen to on Friday afternoon on the way home from work, but doesn't really offer anything? Does it? Is it changing lives? Making memories? And while you think I go overboard on my takes, these are all things that you posters have said as returned to you, sometimes it aint fun looking in the mirror.

If you only listen for say a half hour on a Friday afternoon, then you’re missing out on everything else that happens. KEOM’s role is Community Service, and the music serves as a hook to keep you listening.

Twice per hour, KEOM announces events that may be of interest to the demos. There are also a number of locally produced and syndicated shows that run throughout the day. Locally produced items include KEOM Oddities, of course the Recipe File, Community Focus, the Community Bulletin Board and Wondrous Words. Syndicated programs include The Environminute, Family Health, Earth & Sky and Nature Watch.

KEOM has a mission that serves the listeners. It may not live up to your personal expectations, but it is a far better example of what radio should be, when compared against two 8 minute commercial breaks per hour on commercial radio.

It saddens me to see commercial radio so fixated on profits in ways that clearly irritate the listeners. Don’t believe me? Get out on the street and ask the masses. Long commercial breaks will be right up there at the top of the list of gripes. I know this because our audience tells us this is one of the things they hate most about commercial stations, all the time.

R

 

[Talktalk]

where is Mr. Myopic when you need him...Robert, why do you have to bring commercial readio down to try and make you feel better? Commercial radio offers numerous programs that help the community. These programs that you speak of are laughably bad...poorly produced, poorly read, poorly written...and they are supposed to be. These are kids learning a craft...but please, don't compare what you do to professionals who deliver a professional product. and stop talking about 8 minute stop sets, you have a handfull of stations that actually do that, and they have some of the highest tsl's in the market.

Words are cheap, actions count, if people were so fed up with commercial radio, they would not be listening. Where is this audience errosion you speak of? Show me, don't just tell me that your handfull of listeners "tell you..."

 

[Robert Bass]

Talk,

Why are you so obsessed with trying to bring non-comms down? The comments you made about KEOM’s programming are strictly your opinion, which is fair. But why must you continue to berate everything that goes against your beliefs?

R

 

[klifhanger]

TALK-TALK You must have only been in radio for 10 maybe 15 years,so you don't have any experience or knowledge to compare what radio was,what its role was meant to be. You just see $$ and commissions. I hope you have a good account saved up,because based on various business analysts, surveys, the collective feel is radio is losing listeners steadily. Advertisers will go elsewhere and then what will happen to you? Only a blind CONsultant,and narrow in scope salesperson would argue with the findings,and try ever so hard to spin the numbers and ignore the facts detrimental to their narrow focused objective.

Again,(listen up it failed you the first time) Non-coms started many many many broadcasters, Gm's, owners yesterday and today, well known names in fact, andit would take an additional discussion group to list them all. You "diss' on them because they are non-commercial. Many Non-coms carry more community information( which radio was ORIGINALLY based on) than any commercial station/ Schoolboard meetings, city council,civic organizations, sports( LOCAL NOT PRO and commercial stations mostly only carry football). KEOM SPECIFICALLY fully serves its license location. NOT MANY stations can boast that,and thats why you have a license and it reads on the license to serve its community. It teaches many students what broadcasting is and it provides an advancement when these same students attend college and study broadcasting. Are you so blind,that you refuse to concede the need for non-coms and you just want to argue with Robert? [EDIT]The corporations have screwed it up son and you just got caught in the tsunami,and you are trying to talk,not act your way out of it. BTW when there is no "REAL Competition" KLUV, comes to mind' Listeners will flock to that for that particular format. Naturally you wont see it that way. The 'TSL'S? Just another SPIN THE NUMBERS' and ignore the overall picture. Pretty dark and getting darker.


[EDIT-inflammatory]

 

[Robert Bass]

Klif,

I have a feeling Talk feels threatened by the thought of restoring the good in commercial radio. Perhaps his cushy job would be at stake?

R

 

[klifhanger]

Yes, I am inclined to agree. He is in a corner,knows it ,but will not admit it. He has no appreciation for radio roots and how to make it grow.

 

[adguy]

Commercial radio offers numerous programs that help the community.

Show me where commercial radio is REALLY helping the community.

Words are cheap, actions count, if people were so fed up with commercial radio, they would not be listening. Where is this audience errosion you speak of? Show me, don't just tell me that your handfull of listeners "tell you..."

I have not listened to FM in 2 years. I prefer my office XM and car Sirius with no commercials for music. I certainly don't represent the vast majority of listeners, but I'm certainly NOT the only one. It's not that people are fed up with commercial radio. In fact, they don't look at it as any kind of a special entity called "commercial radio". They just see sat radio, IPODs and MP3s as great entertainment options that deliver what they want without commercial or lame liner-note interruptions. You want to see audience erosion, look at Houston and Philly where the PPMs now reside. What an eye opener. The true audience levels are just starting to be revealed and it's a lot lower than before the PPMs. And yes Talk, they're coming to Dallas soon, so get ready.

It's obvious Talktalk is a neophite, having a good sales run, but hasn't yet experienced the Penthouse-to-Outhouse move, which he will probably experience sooner rather than later.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

Sigh, it seems that bridge... you know, the torn-down viaduct used to connect two points... is closed, so let me drive around this verbal obstacle course and add my two cents.

1. Talk - You may be a PD, GM or even worse, a CON-sultant, but you dang sure don't care about a listener base. Now, before you immediately go to post your banter, listen. You said "Commercial radio offers numerous programs that help the community." To which, I say you are RIGHT. However, Adguy is right too. The connection is "radio stations" and "REALLY". It's not the station GM or PD saying, "Let's help the community." Those idiots lounging in their faulty ivory towers could care less. It's usually a jock with a conscience that shows said GM, "This outreach could bring in numbers." To which, Mr. Narcissistic Parvenu GM says, "Oh, well here is my pocketbook. Where do I sign up?" And YOU know it. If it weren't for a few committed jocks on national (e.g. Steve Harvey, Donnie Simpson, Russ Parr, Wayne Eddy and countless on NPR) and local (Tom Joyner in the day, Ron Chapman, Kidd), your statement wouldn't subsist. Stations don't back outreach, they back jocks who bring in the ratings.

2. Non-com Vs. Com - KEOM is doing a helluva lot of good to "service the community." But then again, non-coms can "afford" to do more, because the name of the game in com radio is ratings. That said, you non-com haters out there need to step off! Non-coms are into ratings as well, but can clearly beyond the bureaucratic red tape spool in the warehouse to see what is behind those ratings... people. If I need to say more, then you weren't listening. :-\

 

[Robert Bass]

What a shocker that will be for Talk.

I've tasted being broke, I already know what it is like. I'm sure some of our other readers / posters can say the same.

R

 

[Talktalk]

oh boy, the summer heat is melting some folks...

veritas- where did i say i was a non-com hater? have i not said all along how much i LOVE KEOM, that goofy little station rocks. like i said before, this is not a zero sum game, we can have 2 winners here, my opinion, and that IS cantrary to robert and adguy who have stated their positions quite clearly.

by the way, adguy, i don't have enough time to tell you all the ways commercial radio helps the community, but kplex, how much money has that station ALONE raised for st. judes? event KLLI helps wayward strippers get new "equipment" which helps them support their kids...every station has charity programs, non profit programs, community affairs shows, etc...they do a TON, not that I would expect ADGUY to know about that, because he doesn't listen...which is why he has no credibility. And veritas, I don't CARE WHY radio does good deeds, I CARE THAT RADIO DOES GOOD DEEDS.

All of you know that adguy doesn't know what he is talking about regarding PPM's, it has zero to do with audience errosion because cumes are going up...DUH. tsl is going down...DUH. Besides, you can't compare PPM to Diaries, new system, apples and oranges...again...DUH.

Robert, it has been quite some time since you have said anything of substance, am I getting under your skin?

 

[Talktalk]

BY THE WAY, not to drone on, can one of you find a post where i bashed non-coms? Have I said ANYTHING that wasn't true? Don't tell me, show me! HEY ADGUY, answer the question about 1560 because you just got busted talking out of both sides of your mouth.

Robert, you got all bent out of shape about misrepresentations, and have not stopped making them yourself. You are a hipocrite and yours is the biz on the block, not mine. I have the mothers milk of revenue and ratings...you have taxpayer support...good luck with all that...and the rest of you, show me audience errosion, don't tell me.

adguy, i don't want to hear from you until you answer the question.

 

[klifhanger]

Talk-Talk..there is no need to show you the pots where you blast non-coms. Look them over yourself ,you wrote them. The tone was clear and present the way you addressed Robert,and it wasn't perfectly covert either. KPLEX's St Jude's drive is a small blip on the radar in community service,where a non-com does it all the time and KEOM does it 24-7. You haven't been in radio past a decade to appreciate it ( I said that before) true potential to serve the community and be profitable. Its all profits at the cost of service to the community,and quality of the product. How the hell,can you be proud of that,unless you are solely concentrating on your own commission ,not the pride of the station?

 

[Talktalk]

klif, you are wrong about everything in this post, a record for you. I have been in the biz for 17 years and that has included ALMOST every department in the building. The reason you can't quote the posts is because they are all inside your head, they don't exist, I am sure adguy is scouring as we speak.

mabey, just mabey, it's you and not me.

 

[klifhanger]

Talk-Talk" nice embellishment of your credentials. Your posts prove otherwise. This topic is tiresome. You failed,and I am not alone in that conclusion. next.

 

[firstimelongtime]

"I prefer my office XM and car Sirius with no commercials for music. I certainly don't represent the vast majority of listeners"

Have to call you out on that one AdGuy. With the loss of local ownership I think you do represent the majority, or at least the trend.

Since this board is non-political I won't wonder out loud about the paradox of government regulation being a bad thing and what deregulation has done to energy, the airline industry, and your local favorite radio station.

 

[Talktalk]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Are you really blaming the government for what YOU don't like about radio? It looks like both you and Robert are blaming the overheated pop tarts on the sunrise. Seriously, can't possibly be "sirius". And you know what, I like Sirius as well, won't ever replace radio, nor will mp3's or iphones or chips implanted in your head...you are all soooooo dramatic. This is progress ladies, but holy cow, you blame the government for bad radio....