State Of The Board

[Jay_Surly]

A previous thread noted the occasional lethargy of the board, relative to technical and content issues. The board is a treasure. It's free. It's quite extensive. It gives radio insiders and outsiders an opportunity to express themselves, blow off a little steam and comment on the issues.

Although I don't post nearly as much as I did a year ago, I'm genuinely grateful to have a forum to express myself and read the opinions of others. To the hosts and moderators who make it possible: Thank You.

I notice the board sometimes loads slowly, which I attribute to traffic. As a few I-T people have explained, when the pipeline's full, it sometimes gets clogged. Overall, it's a small price to pay for something that's free and accessible.

As to content, I believe this board goes in cycles. At one time it had a collegial quality. More recently, it's featured some exchanges that better resemble the WWF. Perhaps that's an overstatement, but you get the point.

I enjoy reading posts from established, "in the business" posters but I don't believe that one has to be "in the business" to offer a well-measured opinion.

Overall, this board is head and shoulders above the boards that serve other markets. Cincinatti, Philadelphia and Syracuse posters can be caustic in the extreme sense of the word. By comparison, this environment is civil.

Best regards,

Janos Surlikevich

 

[wired]

>Well Put.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Caustic Solutions

> >Well Put.
>
Cincinatti, Philadelphia and Syracuse posters can be caustic in the extreme sense of the word. By comparison, this environment is civil.

Oooh. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check those out. It's kind of like watching NASCAR and waiting for the car crashes...

 

[Element9]

>
> Overall, this board is head and shoulders above the boards
> that serve other markets. Cincinatti, Philadelphia and
> Syracuse posters can be caustic in the extreme sense of the
> word. By comparison, this environment is civil.
>
And at times, the board is Sybil. Thanks to the mods for removing the drek and twaddle posted by the plague earlier this week.

Mr. Surly makes a valid point about the nature of this board, but I personally enjoy an occasional dust-up and find the 'Cuse board entertaining. It's like NASCAR meets WWF meets the (old) NHL. Mr. Radknowski and I have exchanged barbs in the past, but much of what he writes is salient and occasionally humorous and I'd like to think he finds some merit in my posts. Roxalot and Desi Bell are clever and bring an interesting perspective too.

Overall, I'd like to see more of the established names return to the board. It seems the topics that generate the most interest are: Ratings, Jack, format changes, personalities, KB and WBEN.

Apparently, some legendary posters such as Tesla Coil and Filthy Susan have had their fill of the board and grown tired of reading and posting here. It's too bad. Their posts generated the most heat and also offered interesting opinions. Plus, the "WBEN Hate" that FS brought to the board made for good reading and always generated response, whether you agreed or disagreed with him/her or not. FS's "WBEN pigs at the trough" jpeg still ranks as one of the all time "best on board," well deserving a "BOB" Award. (BTW, who is Paul Sadowski?)

 

[anderson]

Although there are quite a few of us that lurk in the shadows without posting, I do find the banter and insight to be entertaining and informative. Most of the Rochester items I am already aware of before they hit the board, but seeing a different view on things is always a plus. For free, ya can't go wrong here.





> A previous thread noted the occasional lethargy of the
> board, relative to technical and content issues. The board
> is a treasure. It's free. It's quite extensive. It gives
> radio insiders and outsiders an opportunity to express
> themselves, blow off a little steam and comment on the
> issues.
>
> Although I don't post nearly as much as I did a year ago,
> I'm genuinely grateful to have a forum to express myself and
> read the opinions of others. To the hosts and moderators who
> make it possible: Thank You.
>
> I notice the board sometimes loads slowly, which I attribute
> to traffic. As a few I-T people have explained, when the
> pipeline's full, it sometimes gets clogged. Overall, it's a
> small price to pay for something that's free and accessible.
>
>
> As to content, I believe this board goes in cycles. At one
> time it had a collegial quality. More recently, it's
> featured some exchanges that better resemble the WWF.
> Perhaps that's an overstatement, but you get the point.
>
> I enjoy reading posts from established, "in the business"
> posters but I don't believe that one has to be "in the
> business" to offer a well-measured opinion.
>
> Overall, this board is head and shoulders above the boards
> that serve other markets. Cincinatti, Philadelphia and
> Syracuse posters can be caustic in the extreme sense of the
> word. By comparison, this environment is civil.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Janos Surlikevich
>

 

[Debaser]

> >Well Put.
>
Agreed. Even though whenever I posted criticisms of Filthy Susan's constant barrage of venom at WBEN, she was never able to answer me directly (ex: why does she keep listening if she hates the station so much?), which may be one reason she no longer posts on this board (oops, wait, there goes my TREMENDOUS EGO again!!!).

And since it's been pointed out in another thread that Lance may have never answered any of my 4 emails because he actually has a life, I should let you know that Desi Bell was banned from these boards for spamming (hey-I just wanted to let everyone around the country know about Pulver Radio and I went about it the wrong way; I made a major mea culpa to Lance, but he saw fit to ignore me) and is now known as...
Debaser. Yeah. D (esi) B (ell)= D (e) B (aser).
Damn, I'm clever...

 

[Radknowski]

Re: State Of The Bored

> Mr. Radknowski and I have exchanged
> barbs in the past, but much of what he writes is salient and
> occasionally humorous and I'd like to think he finds some
> merit in my posts.

Why are you blowing smoke up my pants?

This board runs hot and cold. I miss the days when people would surreptitiously post 25-54 ratings that could be deciphered only by using your Tom Mix decoder ring. Can't remember if that was Surly or Roxalot.

BTW, is not WGR sounding good lately? The morning show has progressed from abysmal only a year ago to entertaining. Jeremy White is tedious, but he gets a pass. Must be I'm getting used to him constantly interrupting Howard Simon and his yelping. He redeems himself from time to time and he does a damn fine John Sterling immitation.

Howard Simon is so much better than the previous morning show crew that I've nearly forgotten who they were.

 

[topsound]

Re: State Of The Bored

> > Mr. Radknowski and I have exchanged
> > barbs in the past, but much of what he writes is salient
> and
> > occasionally humorous and I'd like to think he finds some
> > merit in my posts.
>
> Why are you blowing smoke up my pants?
>
> This board runs hot and cold. I miss the days when people
> would surreptitiously post 25-54 ratings that could be
> deciphered only by using your Tom Mix decoder ring. Can't
> remember if that was Surly or Roxalot.
>
> BTW, is not WGR sounding good lately? The morning show has
> progressed from abysmal only a year ago to entertaining.
> Jeremy White is tedious, but he gets a pass. Must be I'm
> getting used to him constantly interrupting Howard Simon and
> his yelping. He redeems himself from time to time and he
> does a damn fine John Sterling immitation.
>
> Howard Simon is so much better than the previous morning
> show crew that I've nearly forgotten who they were.
>

One of my clients once decribed the former GR morning show as "like listening to a bar fight." You knew Howard would be a step up, although I wish he would carve out a little more space for himself and conduct more interviews. He has not yet matched the quality of his 'NSA show.

And I wouldn't mind hearing Schopp & Dog try their hand at a general-talk format someday. They've become entertaining whether they're talking sports or not, and would make a great morning show (something this town sorely needs). Brad Riter sorta slipped under the radar to become a good night host, however he sounds a bit uptight hosting Sabres pre and post, as if he realizes that he's got a different and larger audience at those times. I'm sure he'll relax and become more comfortable.

Kudos to Andy Roth and company for starting to to pull together a quality radio station under sometimes-challenging circumstances.

 

[Element9]

Re: State Of The Bored

>
> And I wouldn't mind hearing Schopp & Dog try their hand at a
> general-talk format someday.

You're being very generous here. 'Dog may be a salt of the earth sports guy, but he's very grating and hard enough to listen to doing sports, which is his forte, let alone general issues talk radio. Zero cred. The voice and mannerisms lend themselves more to talking about the Bills and Sabres than talking about the supreme court, the Erie county budget debacle and congress. Leave that stuff to the bloated-ego of Tom Bauerle, when he's not talking about his "little kitties..."

On the other hand, Mr. "I'm smarter than you" Schopp is so ponderous and self-absorbed, he'd likely do a decent job in the general issues talk venue.

>
> Kudos to Andy Roth and company for starting to to pull
> together a quality radio station under sometimes-challenging
> circumstances.
>

Yeah, props to Roth for running a radio station that has zero in-format competition because the parent company bought the competition and changed the station's format, using the same tactic when WBEN became the sole commercial
news-talk station in 2000.

It would be interesting to see how WBEN and WGR would do in the face of direct in-format competition from a commercial competitor that invested its full resources competing with WBEN and WGR. It's eminently possible to take WBEN apart, because frankly, the target is huger than Billy Fucillo's ass. It will never happen because news-talk and sports are very expensive formats to produce and Entercom owns the strongest AM signals in the market.

Anybody who thinks they can compete with the established news-talk-sports station 'on the cheap' is living in Lutz-Land. WBUF threw in the towel in less than a year. Buffalo is an aging market and as much as some might protest, news-talk as it is currently positioned, is an aging format which appeals more to 50+ than it does 25-49.

The ONLY way to bring young, 18-49 listeners back to the AM band is with sports. WGR deserves some credit for attempting this, but still, they're the only game in town. WJJL, WLVL and WSPQ don't count. They're not even in the ballpark.

 

[topsound]

Re: State Of The Bored

> Yeah, props to Roth for running a radio station that has
> zero in-format competition because the parent company bought
> the competition and changed the station's format, using the
> same tactic when WBEN became the sole commercial
> news-talk station in 2000.

Just speaking for myself here, but my definition of "competition" has changed drastically in the past year. I no longer care if there's only one Buffalo radio station in any particular format. I've installed the CD player in the car, satellite's coming soon, and in the home or office I've got Internet radio as well. (Plus there are the "sounds of silence" on occasion).

So if ANY station is doing enough to keep my attention, I say good job, regardless of whether anybody else on the Buffalo dial is a direct competitor. The competitive landscape for any programmer is infinitely wider now.