QUESTION FOR ROBERT BASS

[Robert Bass]

Talk,

I have been at KEOM for 21 years, just shy of the station's 23 years of operation. Therefore my credentials outweigh yours by 4 years! And don't give us your usual argument about how I've never been in commercial radio, because that one ain't cutting the mustard. You would be amazed by how even commercial radio folks praise KEOM. Man, grow up! You've been cornered.

Your attitude could get you fired.

R

 

[firstimelongtime]

Dear Talk
Yes Grasshopper

I blame the government for the current sorry state of local radio. Perhaps you lack the maturity to know what radio was, and is no longer. Maybe you don't know what it was like to listen to the radio until the sun came up, and your friends did too. Me, I would rather listen to "two guys from the barber shop" than the sorry programming we have now.

Oh well, continue on being the alligator, all mouth, no ears. With maturity you will find that you can learn from those you don't agree with.

In the meantime maybe you can concentrate on the difference between having all the answers...and having an answer for everything.

 

[klifhanger]

"FIRST TIME" Good valid post. "Talk" has only been in radio..15 years..lets see 1992. 4 years before the telecom act, with no exposure to true radio and its obligations to the public or market identity, not "national brand". Yess sir those are great credentials to brag about. No passion for it,equals lousy quality. No doubt he is the driving force behind colon cleansing infomercials. "Talk" you havent done radio, youngster.

 

[DFWPT]

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?

KEOM needs new branding! "Your Community Leader"??? LOL

Robert (and with ALL DUE RESPECT, because you know WE ARE FRIENDS!) - I've got to say (and this reminds me a lot of a recent conversation I had with another KEOM employee) - KEOM doesn't do ANYTHING for the community. It never has. The KPLX example above is "community service". Kidd Kraddick and all he does for the kids - THAT's community service. But Dr. Griffin taking 7 minutes to read 30 different garage sale type events IN MESQUITE ONLY coming up in the next two days (and sometimes he reads things that already expired) - that's NOT community service. Earth & Sky telling me that Jupiter can be seen in the eastern sky tonight, is NOT community service. Even Brenda's best meatloaf, good as it may be, isn't community service.

When KEOM builds the Dr. Griffin Wing of Mesquite Community Hospital, then we'll talk community service.

The best community service KEOM can give us all, is Dr. Griffin's retirement!

I suspect KEOM may change a bit next August. What do you think, Robert?

 

[klifhanger]

As far as blood drives and the like,you got a good point, but public service announcements are made,a lot of them,thats community service, Information about Mesquite schools is public service. Theres more but you are overlooking that. Kid Kraddicks thing is a blip on the radar compared to KEOM's. I do agree Dr.Griffin refuses to budge in his management of KEOM and his retirement is looked upon with hope.

 

[DFWPT]

As far as blood drives and the like,you got a good point, but public service announcements are made,a lot of them,thats community service, Information about Mesquite schools is public service. Theres more but you are overlooking that. Kid Kraddicks thing is a blip on the radar compared to KEOM's. I do agree Dr.Griffin refuses to budge in his management of KEOM and his retirement is looked upon with hope.

Yes, the announcements are for the community. My point is more that saying and doing are two different things. KEOM does a LOT of talking about things going on. KEOM NEVER gets involved.

 

[Robert Bass]

Chris,

First of all, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I know you have a lot of experience in commercial radio, and it is a pleasure to know you.

I won’t disagree with you that some changes will occur after Dr. G. retires; hopefully changes that will allow KEOM to grow. But I have to disagree with you on your comment regarding KEOM is not providing community service. I would expect you would know that KEOM has funding limitations, which works against the station. You worked with us, so you should be aware of it.

In all fairness though, this thread is more about Talktalk finding ways to bash those he disagrees with, and that’s just pathetic.

R

 

[Robert Bass]

Oh and Chris, saying KEOM never gets involved, is a bit of a stretch. KEOM does live remotes every year from the famous Taste ‘N’ Trade event. KEOM also did remotes from Fourthfest every summer, until of course the city canned the event. We would have probably been on the square during the annual rodeo parade back in April, except Dr. G indicated to me that two other radio stations in the market were scheduled to be out there. I think that ordeal was viewed as a slap in the face towards KEOM, from the event organizers.

Could we do more remotes? Absolutely! And hopefully that will happen in the post Dr. G. era of KEOM.

R

 

[MikeShannon914]

I know of no other station in the market that exudes a commitment to the "public interest" REQUIREMENT from the FCC like KEOM does. And it's not an afterthought like a public service program buried on KVIL at 5:30AM on a Sunday, for example. Kidd and others trade their charitable acts for ratings and self-promotion. If that wasn't the case, no one would even know about Kidd's Kids or Santa's Helpers or the one that promotes firefighters and police, just by listening to the radio...those events would happen INDEPENDENTLY of the station, and wouldn't be discussed or promoted on the air, or even tied in with a station's call letters at a given event. Now I'm all for using one's well-known name to promote goodwill, so don't get me wrong...but to blast KEOM, who would receive no boost in ad rates or get much other benefit out of doing regular remotes like a commercial station would--when they should be respected and admired for the service they DO provide, even if it's just over the airwaves. Could it be better? Or has it been better? Of course. But at least give them credit for trying to give something back (or something useful) to the community they serve.

 

[TexasTom]

> but holy cow, you blame the government for bad radio....

Would anyone here realistically claim that the regulatory environment -- which is determined by the government -- has no effect on what we hear on broadcast radio stations?

So, yeah, the government does deserve some of the blame for bad radio. The government, in the form of the Telecom Act and ownership deregulation, has created an environment that allows bad radio to flourish.

Fortunately, it does seem that the regulatory pendulum may be starting to swing the other way, since there seems to be virtually no public support for further deregulation of the media. The public has seen the alleged value of "free markets set free" in the media environment, and appears to be less than impressed with what it sees. That's why the comments that the FCC received in the 2003 ownership deregulation proceeding and in the current one have been overwhelmingly against further deregulation -- and the few favorable comments that the FCC receives are almost inevitably from folks with a vested financial interest in deregulation or from conservative think tanks that aren't inclined to let details like the real world interfere with their ideology.

 

[adguy]

Amen TexasTom! You put it best. There's absolutely no need for further deregulation. Personally I am opposed to gov't regulation in business, but the 96 Telecom Act was clearly passed in favor of the major media corporations with huge financial interest and very effective lobbyists. The free market economics of the media will eventually play out in what the audience has to say. The audience is currently voting for further expansion of sat radio, IPODS and MP3s. Terrestrial radio is losing audience because of what the corps have done to it via cost-cutting, voice tracking and homogenization. The natural course of things will hopefully swing back to single station owners with market knowledge and experience that will fill the void created when the Corps destroyed terrestrial as we once knew it. So, in summary, let the natural market forces decide the medium's fate as it should be.

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

I know of no other station in the market that exudes a commitment to the "public interest" REQUIREMENT from the FCC like KEOM does. And it's not an afterthought like a public service program buried on KVIL at 5:30AM on a Sunday, for example. Kidd and others trade their charitable acts for ratings and self-promotion. If that wasn't the case, no one would even know about Kidd's Kids or Santa's Helpers or the one that promotes firefighters and police, just by listening to the radio...those events would happen INDEPENDENTLY of the station, and wouldn't be discussed or promoted on the air, or even tied in with a station's call letters at a given event. Now I'm all for using one's well-known name to promote goodwill, so don't get me wrong...but to blast KEOM, who would receive no boost in ad rates or get much other benefit out of doing regular remotes like a commercial station would--when they should be respected and admired for the service they DO provide, even if it's just over the airwaves. Could it be better? Or has it been better? Of course. But at least give them credit for trying to give something back (or something useful) to the community they serve.

I am just catching on the "TalkTalk" community live fest, but Mike, that's why you are who you are. Nicely done, sir. I wish more people saw the truth in that. "Community service" is not even parallel with "serving the community." I think there is a quaint little station in Mesquite that may agree.

 

[klifhanger]

Agreed Mike's post was wel lthought out. Commerical stations heavily promoted "public Service " events are strictly for ratings and usually are done during a sweeps. If they were so concerned with community service,they would do more of it, not just one event.

 

[Talktalk]

again...so what? Who cares WHY they do them? Are the dollars they generate and exposure for causes worth less?

 

[Robert Bass]

Talk,

Have you ecer seen a Station License? Service to the public is a requirement on this document.

R

 

[Robert Bass]

"Community service" is not even parallel with "serving the community."

It is.

R

 

[davideduardo]

Agreed Mike's post was wel lthought out. Commerical stations heavily promoted "public Service " events are strictly for ratings and usually are done during a sweeps. If they were so concerned with community service,they would do more of it, not just one event.

There are no "sweeps" in radio. Except for 4 weeks around Christmas, radio in Dallas and most of the top 100 markets is going on all the time. And with the PPM, coming in mere months, there is measurement in 13 28-day cycles every day of the year.

It's long been known that in a variety of formats, community events create listenership, just as playing good songs or having good talent does. While such activities are defitely also driven by increasing or holding listenership, they are done to keep the listener satisfied and part of doing good radio.

Many such events, like hurricane relief, are not scheduled in advance. They are done because the station feels that doing such things are both worthy and what the listeners expect from a station.

 

[Talktalk]

Robert, focus man, I said "who cares why" doesn't matter WHY, I asked if the value of what they do is less because of the reason they do it...

 

[Robert Bass]

Robert, focus man, I said "who cares why" doesn't matter WHY, I asked if the value of what they do is less because of the reason they do it...

That’s a bit of a rhetoric question, isn’t it?

Serving the public and expecting to profit directly from it isn’t valuable in itself, because that’s not the purpose. Serving the public interest is priceless, and when you serve the public interest, you gain listener loyalty. You are essentially projecting an image telling your listener that you are there specifically for him/her, not the advertisers. If you can generate revenue on the side “as a result of” growing and maintaining a listener loyalty base, then everyone benefits.

R

 

[VERITAS DE VOCE]

Man, this bromidic colloquy is driving me crazy

People, radio stations used to have the pulse of the city it resided in. TV simply reported the facts while radio created an avenue for the denizens to discuss those facts on a more personal and relevant scale. "Community Service" was the moniker of choice for non-coms because that was the differentiator. These days, "Community Service" has become what Kidd does and the bereft search for "sweeps" month in the industry, as DE pointed out.

Now, true non-coms need to point out they "serve the community" to put the reference back where it should be, "voluntary action to provide resources" instead of the narcissistic hunt for red marker to go up the Arbitron scale as you self-promote your "community service."

The entire point continues to be in here that big radio does it for the buck and ratings. Non coms, often do THE SAME THING, but for a much different reason. This may limit how often they do it, but the passion to do so is always held in check, rather than because of A check.