Sounds in AR/MO-My Thoughts

[guy_in_radio]

I recently moved back to the area of Southern Mo and have taken a break from radio. But I have been checking out the sounds from Arkansas and Missouri, and I do have to say.. the sounds comming from KSPQ - Jack FM 93.9 suck. It is the worst format I've ever heard and I've been in radio for nearly 35 years. Across the state line into Arkansas is the new station Sam 94.3 it has a mix of music you do not normally hear mixed but sounds great with the liners they use too bad they do not have a local jock or two. Also across the line is a new Talk Radio Station 97.1. I like the local morning host. He has a wide range of locals promoting North Arkansas. I have also checked out the other stations in Norhern Arkansas 93.5, it should be flushed down the drains along with 107.5.

I thought I would share my thoughts of the stations here with you.

The Guy in Radio
Taking a Break in Southern Missouri

 

[ne_husker_fan]

I am guessing since you said you have been in radio for 35 years means that you are probably getting close to the 60 year old mark or more? If so, Bob FM is not catering to you, so they don't give a hoot if you think it sucks.

Isn't great to live in America to be able to share your thoughts and being able to CHANGE THE STATION if you don't like it.

 

[donttouchthatdial]

Sounds like your biased. If you've been in radio for 35 years it's time to retire. You're out of touch. The Jack format and the Sam format are the same. You need to brush up on your formats old timer. Jack, Sam, Lucy etc...are all the same. Did you notice who runs the most commercials and who fills time with PSA's?

 

[Musicradio]

Huh? 29 years for me this year and I'm nowhere near 60. I don't think you should gauge a person completely by their age.

 

[audio radience]

I got into radio in 1975. I am not 50 yet, so don't judge age with time served. Jack and Sam should be the "same" format, but they aren't in that market. I was there this past weekend and heard all the stations in that area (except Country, because there's not enough time), and I have to agree that Sam has Jack beat hands down. It's imaging, overall sound, processing, and the mix that gives Sam the edge over Jack. 93.5 and 107.5 sound lame like always, 93.1 is closer to Classic Rock than 96.1 which sounds like they are confused to me. I heard songs that were Hot A/C standards, not really Classic Rock in my book. I'm sorry, but Goo Goo Dolls are NOT Classic Rock. I enjoyed 99.7, especially the processing, and the imaging, and the production on that station is the best hands down. Some of their mix is wacky, but overall I liked their sound the best. I did notice that there are more syndicated morning shows in the area, and the 2 local morning shows I heard were lame and not informative or interesting at all. After a long weekend in the Twin Lakes area, I would have to say my listening time would be split between Sam 94.3 and KMAC 99.7 if I lived there.
Sam and Jack...same format...Not always.

 

[donttouchthatdial]

I wonder who's the most billing and payroll? That's the bottom line, the rest is speculation. It's about the benjamines!

 

[whosudj]

Wow so much intrest all of a sudden almost out of no-where on North central Arkansas Radio.

guy_in_radio started this ... I was wondering you said "Across the state line into Arkansas is the new station Sam 94.3 it has a mix of music you do not normally hear mixed but sounds great with the liners they use too bad they do not have a local jock or two." They do live I know in the mornings from 6-9.

audio radience what morning shows did you hear overe the weekend?


Just wondering how many in this fourm are local??

8)THANX 8)

 

[audio radience]

I grew up in North Arkansas, but am not local now....I go "home" occasionally to see friends and parents...
I am not going to name the lame...There were 2 stations...Both in Arkansas...Local Shows...Figure it out.
They have a lot of work to do to compete with the syndicated shows...My problem with the local boys was that they seemed more interested in "hearing themselves talk" instead of focusing on content. One guy used a bed that he was using 5 years ago when I tuned in to him...it was kind of sad really....
My guess is that 99.7 or 93.1 are the billing leaders...based on the fact I heard more different advertisers on those stations, and the stopsets seemed fuller. But that's just an educated guess.

 

[donttouchthatdial]

Hi Ray

 

[pobryan]

I couldn't resist the radio tenure issue at the top of this chain. You young guys could learn a thing or two about REAL radio back when it was personality driven! By the way, I've still got 10 years to go before the big 60 and I've been in radio almost 40 years. I started working weekends at age 12 in 1968. Of course you wouldn't know anything about that. You just turn some computer on today and let it go until Monday morning. Do you even know what a cart machine is?, what a slip cue is?, what cue burns are?, or making transmitter readings every 30 minutes!!! I remember playing Hey Jude or Stairway to Heaven when you needed to go to the john. Oh, and you really had to take a test to get a license. Imagine that, you actually had to know a little about what was going on with the transmitter and all. I still say, there will never be a better jock than John Landecker on clear channel WLS. Of course when I say clear channel I'm not talking about the mega radio group that I worked for a couple of years back. Remember Beeker Street on KAAY? Oh, the times they have changed. I never will forget the first time I left a radio station unattended. STRANGE FEELING!!! Today, it's an everyday common thing! I've gone from records with those huge platters to little platters, then to music on carts, then to music on the single Dennon CD players that tried to put CD's on the same page with carts and now some icon on a computer screen!! I've picked up AP paper which piled up all night. We actually used the back side of that paper to make up dummy logs by hand before typing them. That's right boys and girls, no traffic software!!! It used to be done by hand as was the billing... co-op and all. It used to be that a segue was something very rare. A jingle, liner or some jock talking had to be there to identify the station. It surely was NOT a juke box!!! Need I say more?

 

[xdjproductions]

Pobryan...you go back farther than me, but I am 38...started when I was 17...so that's 21 years in the biz. But you are exactly right about what being on the air was like before automation. I worked for stations with hand typed logs and no music log. Just clocks with color codes and categories. Stacks of carts and a few records(AT40 and a couple singles).

Not only was it important to have some personality, but to run a great board was as important as anything else. It was a competition many times to mix the perfect sweeper over the right intro and post the vocal or even a music post. It was more fun, to me, when I had to make sure what was on the air sounded the way it was supposed to....not left up to the software.

Even though I am for running it manually with jocks firing jingles, sweepers and songs.... talking LIVE and answering the phone....there were times with certain jocks, I wished we had some automation to put in their place. I guess that is part of the problem. What could have been used to help in emergencies or in very small markets has become the norm and overtaken the art of radio. :'(

 

[pobryan]

Yeah, it would be nice to replace some jocks with automation. But where do they start today? All of those old "training shifts" are on computer today. It's a lost art!!!

GIVE ME A FEW CART MACHINES AND A MICROPHONE ANY DAY. YOU CAN HAVE THE COMPUTER!!! It's just not the same when you're depending on a computer for all the cues!!! If you want a tight board, fire the computer and do it the old way. Oh well, that'll never happen again. I guess I'll have to listen to my old air checks...

 

[Musicradio]

Phil,
You just had to mention all the things radio once was....remember, you have to be OLD to know that stuff! (ha)

How are ya?

 

[txradiochick]

Hey now...easy boys...I'm 39 and eyeballing 40. Let's not start throwing around the word OLD in the presence of a lady. LOL!

Phil,
You just had to mention all the things radio once was....remember, you have to be OLD to know that stuff! (ha)

How are ya?

 

[donttouchthatdial]

The computer is like a violin, it only sounds as good as the operator...garbage in garbage out. Did you know that wolfman jack was the king of recorded live bits? 50% or more of his shows were pre recorded, but it sounded live. The wolfman understood the true art of radio...recorded, but sounds live...the art of the mind.

 

[Rich Moellers]

Yeah, it would be nice to replace some jocks with automation. But where do they start today? All of those old "training shifts" are on computer today. It's a lost art!!!

GIVE ME A FEW CART MACHINES AND A MICROPHONE ANY DAY. YOU CAN HAVE THE COMPUTER!!! It's just not the same when you're depending on a computer for all the cues!!! If you want a tight board, fire the computer and do it the old way. Oh well, that'll never happen again. I guess I'll have to listen to my old air checks...

I'm not too old (36), and having started in '86 with carts, turntables, reels, etc, I've been privy to all of the revolution. Love some of it...and hate some of it. Speaking as a manager, I can tell you our industry has suffered in terms of accountability with the advent of automation. There's just something about following a log, stacking up those carts, checking them off as you play them and re-cuing them that gets lost when you have your whole day merged for you and you ignore the paper log. In the old days, you didn't dare duck out for a smoke during a stop set!

 

[Danoinark]

I couldn't resist the radio tenure issue at the top of this chain. You young guys could learn a thing or two about REAL radio back when it was personality driven! By the way, I've still got 10 years to go before the big 60 and I've been in radio almost 40 years. I started working weekends at age 12 in 1968. Of course you wouldn't know anything about that. You just turn some computer on today and let it go until Monday morning. Do you even know what a cart machine is?, what a slip cue is?, what cue burns are?, or making transmitter readings every 30 minutes!!! I remember playing Hey Jude or Stairway to Heaven when you needed to go to the john. Oh, and you really had to take a test to get a license. Imagine that, you actually had to know a little about what was going on with the transmitter and all. I still say, there will never be a better jock than John Landecker on clear channel WLS. Of course when I say clear channel I'm not talking about the mega radio group that I worked for a couple of years back. Remember Beeker Street on KAAY? Oh, the times they have changed. I never will forget the first time I left a radio station unattended. STRANGE FEELING!!! Today, it's an everyday common thing! I've gone from records with those huge platters to little platters, then to music on carts, then to music on the single Dennon CD players that tried to put CD's on the same page with carts and now some icon on a computer screen!! I've picked up AP paper which piled up all night. We actually used the back side of that paper to make up dummy logs by hand before typing them. That's right boys and girls, no traffic software!!! It used to be done by hand as was the billing... co-op and all. It used to be that a segue was something very rare. A jingle, liner or some jock talking had to be there to identify the station. It surely was NOT a juke box!!! Need I say more?

Hear, Hear Bryan, a tip of the barley malt to ya!!!! This from another ole timer!

 

[Media Mogul]

Yeah, it would be nice to replace some jocks with automation. But where do they start today? All of those old "training shifts" are on computer today. It's a lost art!!!

GIVE ME A FEW CART MACHINES AND A MICROPHONE ANY DAY. YOU CAN HAVE THE COMPUTER!!! It's just not the same when you're depending on a computer for all the cues!!! If you want a tight board, fire the computer and do it the old way. Oh well, that'll never happen again. I guess I'll have to listen to my old air checks...

I'm not too old (36), and having started in '86 with carts, turntables, reels, etc, I've been privy to all of the revolution. Love some of it...and hate some of it. Speaking as a manager, I can tell you our industry has suffered in terms of accountability with the advent of automation. There's just something about following a log, stacking up those carts, checking them off as you play them and re-cuing them that gets lost when you have your whole day merged for you and you ignore the paper log. In the old days, you didn't dare duck out for a smoke during a stop set!

I was still playing carts and working at a station without a computer as recently as 2001. In fact, I was right down the street from Rich.

When I go back and listen to all the sound effects that people like Rick Dees and Ray Lincoln used on their shows, my gosh they must have prepared for six hours to get the laughter and just the right track where they wanted it. Now you can just hit that "hot key" and go! I am still pretty young, and had it not been for that station in Russellville, I don't think I would appreciate the amount of work that used to go into hitting the jingle at the right moment and then firing off your next song...

Who would have thought in 1976 that you could sit in Little Rock and voicetrack a shift in Memphis or Albuquerque. Or voicetrack a shift period!

 

[txradiochick]

I started back in the 80's too with reel to reels and carts. I love doing production but some of the real skill has been taken away. It's so much easier today to mix a good spot than it was back in the day but there was so sort of real thrill when you got it just right. It was so much more personal when you had to cut and splice your tape. You really felt like you had created something.

As silly as this sounds...it's true. I miss the sound of carts clacking together as you rushed to pull everything for your shift. Carrying them under your chin and hoping they don't pop out and fall all over the studio. LOL!

Don't get me wrong, I understand the cost savings associated with remote voice tracking and heck, let's be honest, it feeds me but I do really miss the old days.

Do you guys remember the goosebumps you would get when you hit just right between the songs? When you had the control?

Remember when you knew the stories behind your callers? When they called you in the middle of the night and were more YOUR entertainment than the other way around?

That's what I miss...the sense that you've really created something....the goosebumps...and the friendship with the crazy callers.

t

Yeah, it would be nice to replace some jocks with automation. But where do they start today? All of those old "training shifts" are on computer today. It's a lost art!!!

GIVE ME A FEW CART MACHINES AND A MICROPHONE ANY DAY. YOU CAN HAVE THE COMPUTER!!! It's just not the same when you're depending on a computer for all the cues!!! If you want a tight board, fire the computer and do it the old way. Oh well, that'll never happen again. I guess I'll have to listen to my old air checks...

I'm not too old (36), and having started in '86 with carts, turntables, reels, etc, I've been privy to all of the revolution. Love some of it...and hate some of it. Speaking as a manager, I can tell you our industry has suffered in terms of accountability with the advent of automation. There's just something about following a log, stacking up those carts, checking them off as you play them and re-cuing them that gets lost when you have your whole day merged for you and you ignore the paper log. In the old days, you didn't dare duck out for a smoke during a stop set!

I was still playing carts and working at a station without a computer as recently as 2001. In fact, I was right down the street from Rich.

When I go back and listen to all the sound effects that people like Rick Dees and Ray Lincoln used on their shows, my gosh they must have prepared for six hours to get the laughter and just the right track where they wanted it. Now you can just hit that "hot key" and go! I am still pretty young, and had it not been for that station in Russellville, I don't think I would appreciate the amount of work that used to go into hitting the jingle at the right moment and then firing off your next song...

Who would have thought in 1976 that you could sit in Little Rock and voicetrack a shift in Memphis or Albuquerque. Or voicetrack a shift period!

 

[radiosaur]

I was still playing carts and working at a station without a computer as recently as 2001. In fact, I was right down the street from Rich.

When I go back and listen to all the sound effects that people like Rick Dees and Ray Lincoln used on their shows, my gosh they must have prepared for six hours to get the laughter and just the right track where they wanted it. Now you can just hit that "hot key" and go! I am still pretty young, and had it not been for that station in Russellville, I don't think I would appreciate the amount of work that used to go into hitting the jingle at the right moment and then firing off your next song...

Who would have thought in 1976 that you could sit in Little Rock and voicetrack a shift in Memphis or Albuquerque. Or voicetrack a shift period!

No, it meant Dees and Ray and all the others had to be better at the job than someone who has the computer do all the work....and it did take talent and expierence to make the jingles and stuff work on the air. You had no second takes.

Good jocks could work on the fly and make it all sound good. It was an art.

I have to wonder how some of the 'young ones' would do with a stack of carts and some cart decks.