School Closings... Public service?

[VBIED]

The other day I am in my car driving down the road listening to school closings on the radio. I flipped around until I found a station that was announcing them. Now I am not picking on Z97 at all seriously I think they sound better now than they have for years. That said, the morning lady was stumbling through them like she was annoyed at all the extra work that she had to do. I fully realize what it is like in a studio first thing in the morning during a bad storm, there is a million things going on, phone lines are going nuts ect. But for the talent to sit there and in a complaining type voice say "please stop calling" blah blah, that is nuts. Stop calling? What are you doing, I thought, is a public service. You are helping people. If you do not have time to grab your fifth cup of coffee from the break room and that makes you mad then get a different job right? When I came up through I was told to answer the phones, take the extra 2.3 seconds to say "Z97, if you wait just a minute we will be announcing the closings on the air, thank you!". Or don't answer the phone. I would not make a desperate plea, scolding the listener to stop calling. You might as well ask them to stop listening and turn on the TV instead, am I right?

So I took the time to say that so I feel obligated to take a few more seconds to say what I wanted to post about a month ago but did not. Still on the topic of Z97... Wow, you guys are really sounding great! I will not pick apart each show but I must say: Mornings, how refreshing from the last morning team. Vince you have come a long way my friend and the lady (Jackie I think) you round out the team very well. You can definitely tell they work well together. Midday, afternoons, great, I wish they were on my staff cause they definitely have the makings of great radio personalities. I will stop there cause anymore and it will turn into an aircheck.

Who ever is doing the music.......DON'T STOP....... Do exactly whatever it is that you are doing. I could think of a couple small tweaks but I would probably ruin it! Awesome awesome playlist. WAY better than it was a year ago. To the: boss GIVE The Music Scheduler A Big Raise and dont let them go!

What is your opinion on the school closing thing? Also, chime in on (in general) what you think about the make up of the Z right now.

 

[NO DAG]

It's very hard to be the only one in the studio, and having the phones ring off the hook, and try to all the extra cancellations in. The basic area school cancellations are available online, not sure about the NY schools. Maybe when they actually leave the Palatial Dorr Drive Palace and merge into the Madhouse on Merchant's Row there may be some actual teamwork with all that stuff.

As for your other comments on Z.. Vince is no longer, the middays are VT'd from Albany, the afternoon person is a good egg, and the night slammer is trying, though he would sound better mated to a rock (as he had) or country format than Zeeee 97 ! Arguably the better overall sounding product at Camp Pamal.

 

[ThatManDan]

As the saying goes: Been there...done that.

Doing school cancels when you're the only one there because the "other person" hasn't made it in yet, is a daunting task.

It is a public service even as people nowadays have more options to find out if schhol has been cancelled for their town.

With the advent of the computer and e-mail and now phone-tree calls to affected residents, people still need to be able to hear the announcements on the radio(or see them on the bottoms of TV screens.)

Every time there's a big storm, calls find their way to studio from people asking for info that's been announced several times or for info that is not yet available, sometimes frustrating the talent.

Reasons for not hearing the announcements range from, "I don't know whereyou are on the radio", "my kids switched the station and I can't find you","my radio doesn't pick up you guys" and
"the only radio I have is in the car."
Keep your cool and do what's best at the moment.

 

[deff junction]

;D And how about this excuse "My radio is broke"? Not broken,broke.

 

[merrymary]

Funny this topic comes up because recently I was servicing a client down in Keene and the KNE morning show was doing cancellations and delays.
I never laughed so much. In fact, I stayed listening in my car just to see what they might do next. This guy is reading the schools and the woman co-host is yelling things like "do your homework", "get out there and shovel for your parents", "don't be a lazy kid" and all sorts of things that brought back memories of what my parents used to say on a "no school" day. They were obviously having a good time and didn't sound stressed at all with all the phone calls. I guess attitude makes all the difference.

 

[VBIED]

Ahh, now I feel bad... I do not get to listen very often to the morning show so I did not realize Vince was gone. She must be straight out in there on her own. Just to be clear I was not slamming her either, I think she is very good on mornings, very talented! I just happened to tune in at a moment where things were obviously very busy.

So what happened to Vince?

 

[argytunes]

I don't have the slightest clue about what happened to Vince? ???

But getting back to the subject of cancellations...there seems to be more TV viewer interest than radio listener interest these days!

Most television news operations list local school and event cancellations on the lower portion of the screen while a local newscast (or a network news show) is in progress!

I can sympathize with the woman on Z-97 if she is the only person in the studio. It's not easy for any single person to compile a complete list of phone cancellations while reading them on-the-air! Add to this the fact that there are individual callers who still telephone radio stations expecting the person on the air to go over their entire list of school (or event) cancellations---even if 4 other phone lines are ringing at the same time! :

argytunes

 

[nhradiochild]

"Is Vic there?"

OK, so I had to slap some Python into the mix just cause I thought it was fitting.

Anyway, when I was working at WPNH, I worked the evening shift and when there were school closings, I'd just hang out at the studios doing production or whatever until morning and help the morning guy do them when it was possible for me to. (This was when I lived on the next street over.) He was normally a solo act, doing Classic Rock, rip n' read news, sports and weather. Yeah, the show wasn't seamless as it was.

 

[NO DAG]

In Vermont, most if not all of school closing data is pooled. So getting the cancellations are a lot more accessible than before. You don;t have to wait to hear them on the radio, as no schools give any stations exclusivity. Plus you can get the same closing info online, on local cable access, and all the high powered television stations. Off course a good radio 'Operation' could easily tie the cancellations to their respective websites.. I heard Q106 making an on air plug for something like this, for example. More common in larger cities.

Local radio can help with commerce and event type closings and delays like "Debbie's Discount Dress Emporium" closing early at 3:00 pm.. That stuff you can't find anywhere else. As a wise sales rep said to me once, "Some places are the first ones to call and tell you that they are closing, you'd think they would advertise smartly to let my listeners' know that they are open too as well !"

 

[bsboy]

I believe Vince went to work for CC in Boston.

 

[12345678]

While school cancellations are important and a "public service", it gets ridiculous when you're reading 400 school closings and they get updated AS you're reading them, never mind the fact that it can take up to 10 minutes or more of airtime to get through them all. The first 120 minutes of a morning show can easily lose HALF that time just to cancellations. I say steer them to your website and update that closing/delay list constantly (get someone to sponsor it too!). It will take the listener less time to log on and scroll to their school as opposed to keeping their ears peeled to the radio for their school to come up in one of your 10 minute cancellation marathons. Plus, you've got the TV stations scrolling the closings as well. Of course there are the "people in their cars". Well, you can't please everyone all the time.

If you DO have to do the rundown on the air... gotta have fun with it like that earlier person said.

 

[RocketPower]

Funny how consultants and PD's will drive it into any air talent (other than a talk show host) "play more music, the listener will tune out if you talk too long". Yet some stations still are in the 70's with the school closings. Considering Z-97 is a CHR, their listener base, although school aged and young mom's and dad's, more than likely has a TV and a computer. I agree that stopping everything to read 100 school closings is a total tune out factor. When you have signals like Z-97, you cover so much ground that you end up reading school closings over at least 2 states and God knows how many counties. Drive them to your website, it's the only sane thing to do. If they don't have a computer then I hope they have a TV.

Also, back in the day, there was usually at least 1 news person, a side kick, a show host and probably a sports guy in the studio. As you guys pointed out, she was probably alone in the studio, with a ton more school closings to read than the entire show had back 20 years ago. More schools, more day cares, yadda yadda.

If you heard what sounded like frustration, there probably was some. Jackie came from Albany, nobody there reads the school closings, they all go to the website. She was probably just wishing the Professor would enter this century.

On another note, I completely agree with the original poster. The station is sounding tighter and slicker than it ever has. Whoever is doing the music, has their head on straight. Even with Vince gone, Jackie's fun to listen to.

Happy Hanna-kwans-mus Everyone!!!

 

[Oldbones]

Local radio can help with commerce and event type closings and delays like "Debbie's Discount Dress Emporium" closing early at 3:00 pm.. That stuff you can't find anywhere else. As a wise sales rep said to me once, "Some places are the first ones to call and tell you that they are closing, you'd think they would advertise smartly to let my listeners' know that they are open too as well !"

Not sure I agree that these announcements are a good idea. It can turn into a clutter-fest in a big hurry. I can see announcing local sporting events being cancelled or a large mall closing, but every little Jazzercise studio or Hallmark shop? Nope.

You bring up an interesting point though about business-closing announcements. They think you're important enough to give a free announcement that they're closing early, but when it comes time to buy a schedule they have every excuse in the book.

 

[itsnewstome]

When it comes to business closings, there's always someone who wants to announce "we're open" and that's a very bad idea. When listeners hear a name mentioned on a snow day it's for a closure not an opening. That's why "we're open" always backfires.

Also, while I'm on the soapbox, why do companies with 20 or fewer employees use the radio instead of personal communication for snow day announcements? I guess some people just like to have their name mentioned....

 

[NO DAG]

Looks like we have another situation where there is the potential for lots of closings, cancellations, and delays.. Since the storm has occured on a Sunday when the majority of radio stations in earshot of me are long since voice tracked and unstaffed, it will be interesting to see if any groups will step up and serve the public good above and beyond the EAS activated reminder..

 

[Ray D. Oh]

This battle has been fought before but I am one of those who thinks cancellations drive listenership. I know we are trying to drive people to our websites and that is valuable but most of radio still makes the majority of it's revenue (98%) on what goes on the air. We want people to listen. If they bring up my website I want them to listen to my air stream. That's why I am still a believer in not posting cancellations on the website and, instead, driving listeners to listen to the radio. No matter what people say...at this point....what comes off the radio dial is STILL our main business and source of revenue. We must continue to drive people there. True the website may be easier for some people but we should protect our air. If not, then why not open websites that do nothing but cancellations, school closings, etc and take another reason for people to listen to the radio away? We are shooting ourselves in the foot!

 

[Julius Leonard Marx]

Please stop calling?

I've done time in newsrooms during snow storms. Maybe the person you heard was asking people to stop calling in FOR school closings. Taking down bona fide school closings and getting them on is tough enough. It's impossible when people who (for whatever reason) don't want to wait to hear their school, call in, tie up people and phone lines, and ask if ________ is closed today. I've asked people to listen on-the-air and I hear "I don't have a radio," or "I can't get your station."

Then there are all the BS closings. Somebody who has a day-care center in their house with six kids. Some small business with ten employees. Call them yourself! This, I suspect, is somebody looking for a free mention on the radio. There has to be a limit to who gets to announce their closings.

Then you have the people who didn't sign up and get a password. They seem to think the snow affects nobody else because they insist on keeping me on the phone to argue.

And the schools who never heard of the KISS principle and want to make it complicated. Kindergarten closed. Grades 1-3 two hours late. Grades 4-6 afternoon only. No after school activities. Grades 7 and 8 three hours late with one hour early dismissal. Staff report on time. On and on. I started telling these people to rewrite and call back (we don't have time and we don't have enough space on the form).

Saying all that, I think radio should get out of the business of announcing school closings. Maybe a summary and a few majors and then send people to the closing line (enter a code and get your info right away). Or post it on the website. Either way, school closings can be sponsored and not disrupt regular programming. On news and news/talk stations, especially, your regular listeners are mostly not people with school age kids (school age grandchildren, maybe). They are tuning in for what they regularly tune in for. If you are reading school closings, they may tune elsewhere.

 

[NO DAG]

"Jackie came from Albany, nobody there reads the school closings, they all go to the website. She was probably just wishing the Professor would enter this century."


It looks like Jackie has her wish, though in an indirect way.. Looks like the Pamal Rutland gurus have linked the school closings on the WJJR, Cat, and WEBK websites, the exception is the one where it makes sense the most.. Z 97. Another excellence in broadcasting moment from "Merchants Row"...

 

[Ozman]

Jo jo... the station i work for (Besides WWLR) is out of your ear shot...
I was the board op For the patriots, in between breaks I would go to the other station in the building and Just announce who had cancelled any events that were going on for who was calling on the request line. there were only a couple today so I decided it was in my best interest to only do a couple air-breaks and stay Next to the other board for the Patriots
-OZ

Looks like we have another situation where there is the potential for lots of closings, cancellations, and delays.. Since the storm has occured on a Sunday when the majority of radio stations in earshot of me are long since voice tracked and unstaffed, it will be interesting to see if any groups will step up and serve the public good above and beyond the EAS activated reminder..

 

[NO DAG]

Are the stations at the top of I 91 ?? Mooooooooooooooo !!