The Declining state of radio and your opinion why...

[Jeff Michaels]

I have been on the air, I've been a mobile DJ.

I know for a fact that when I go out somewhere, I like there to be a live DJ and not just a jukebox, XM or radio on. Though a place with a jukebox is ok I suppose.

As for the radio, I like to know that a local person, who lives in my area, and knows the area personally, is the one spinning tunes.

What is the reason you think radio has gone downhill?

My reasons are:

- Not many live DJ's. I'm ok with a canned show (Countdown, Bob & Tom etc) But for the regular music rotation, I like a real person, LIVE on the air.

- Small # of songs played. Looking over the possibilities on WLLW's system, there are a little over 1,000 choices in their library. I'd still add more, but thats better than many stations who tend to always play the same 3 or 4 songs per artist. (Hey, even XM has a small-ish amount of songs they play on their channels)

As I mentioned in the other thread, I am on LIVE Sundays 1pm-5pm EST on 99.3FM (96.3 FM Ithaca) on WLLW. www.fingerlakesdailynews.com (Click on The Wall and Listen Online) I try to play the most different stuff each week that I can. Especially on a classic rock format, there is no reason not to.

 

[heydaybegone]

Question one...

Correct me if I'm wrong...but the station's official website is the "Finger Lakes Daily News.com" ? Let's start there.

Actually, that has nothing to do with the state of radio, but had to break the ice with the lowest common denominator. ;D

Welcome to the Roch/Buf boards...it's a rough crowd tonight...so throw your best stuff... these posters are good, and VERY passionate.

Let's see how this thread goes............

HDBG

 

[TheBigA]

What is the reason you think radio has gone downhill?

Self absorbed DJs who are more interested in promoting themselves, their show, and what they think, than actually serving the public.

How's that for an answer?

 

[Jeff Michaels]

HDBG: Thats the website for the stations in the area, yeah. Thanks for the Welcome. I am pretty passionate about radio as well. I only mentioned the site because I mentioned the station due to the amount of music they have to play. Other stations may have that amount available but play a teeny sample of songs. About 200-300. The computer system there has 2 folders. The regularily played music is about 800 and the not so played stu has about 300-400. In any event, I mentioned my shift since I was on the subject.

Big A: Serving the public? Care to explain? Read above for m response to the rest.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Heh. Let me introduce you to TheBigA. He hates talent. According to him, talent gets in the way of a good format. Yet, he's a big proponent of the interactivity offered by on-line programming. So, I guess interactivity and relating to others is good, as long as you don't have to pay somebody with the talent to attract listeners by being good at providing information and being relatable.

 

[Jeff Michaels]

Thanks SirRoxalot.

Seemed that way to me as well, but I'm friendly enough so ya know...

I don't know, I think I do a great job (Actually DJ'ed a mobile gig Friday for Donna Deedee, former newscaster and she got her start in radio, She loved my style, selection and personality) I like to relay stories behind songs (Which I'll cut down on a bit when my countdown debuts, since thats the point of the show) But I also like to "try to" be funny, even with the forecast.

Personally, the days of a DJ spinning the records is the days I long for. The movie FM is how I wish it still was... Even with white nipples! lol

 

[Element9]

What is the reason you think radio has gone downhill?

Self absorbed DJs who are more interested in promoting themselves, their show, and what they think, than actually serving the public. How's that for an answer?

Predictable. How's that for an answer. You have a problem with self promotion in an era of Facebook, You Tube, My Space (RIP), personal blogs and websites, to say nothing of message boards? The meek may inherit the earth, but they'll never do morning drive in LA or have a show on NPR. Cut the brother some slack.

 

[SSSKub]

another person on this board equating their lack of employment to "the global decline of radio"

awesome :

 

[TheBigA]

Heh. Let me introduce you to TheBigA. He hates talent. According to him, talent gets in the way of a good format.

Not true.

Just read the first post in this thread. Practically every sentence has the article "I" in it.

"I know for a fact..."

"I like there to be..."

"I Like to know..."

"I'm OK with...

" I am live Sundays..."

"I try to play..."

I I I I I I I.

What about THEM? The audience. What do THEY want to hear? What do THEY like? It doesn't matter. My show, my rules. THAT is what's wrong with radio, and why listeners are paying for satellite or Pandora. To escape all the self-absorbed talent who only care about what they want and what they want to play. In today's world, the listeners already know what they want to hear. They don't need a DJ telling them what they should like. They want to hear their favorites, and they want to hear them now. If that includes Stairway To Heaven, then play it. It doesn't matter if you just played it five hours ago. Real talent knows how to make Stairway To Heaven exciting for the listeners the ten billionth time they've played it. That's a talent. What this guy is doing sounds to me like college radio.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that TheBigA believes that everything that corporate radio has done in the last 20 years is primarily for the benefit of the listeners.

 

[TheBigA]

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that TheBigA believes that everything that corporate radio has done in the last 20 years is primarily for the benefit of the listeners.

Funny how you tell me what I believe. Just like the DJs who tell me what I should like.

But I'd agree with the view that getting rid of self absorbed DJs was for the benefit of the listeners. Because it's what the listeners want.

If you think playing your personal record collection is what radio should be, then you're in the wrong business. Serving the public means you play what THEY want, even if it's not what you like.

 

[Jeff Michaels]

Sorry Big A (Already figured out what the A stands for obviously lol)

I am all about the people. I gave the phone number, make a request and if we have it, I'll be overjoyed to play it!

 

[Wildstyle K]

One thing people should keep in mind while reading and absorbing the content here is that people are speaking and emotionally reacting to the question at hand - based on their personal experiences. Every time an opinion question is delivered, people will react based on how they feel emotionally, in regard to something they had to deal with in their lives. The point is not to get upset and take anything you see as a personal attack. You just see the other opinions, understand that different people have different views and emotional experiences (some you may understand, and some you may not understand), then share your opinion.

Everybody has made some good points here.

By the way; Notice my ability to refrain from using any "I" statements or sentence starters, despite the fact that the subject requests for me to deliver MY opinion and share MY feelings from my point of view. Now THAT takes SKILLS! Don't U think? ;D

Probably will have more to say on this later.
Enjoy your day, people!

 

[GeneSavage]

I'll start out with an "I" statement:

I don't pay for Pandora in order to get away from personalities. In fact, I have a "station" dedicated to comedy, which I mix in with my other music "stations."

Radio may or may not be shooting itself in the foot with the removal of local talent. Unless you have well thought-out research on this matter, you don't know either.

Radio is suffering a slow, minor decline, and has been for about 20 years. However, that is an over-generalization; radio is having a hard time pulling an audience in some places, while in others it's doing quite well.

Although many changes over the past 20 years have not been to my personal preference, I'm a bad reference point, being totally obsessed with radio myself. Most listeners are just not that passionate about radio after their teen years.

...Now THERE is a potential problem for radio: the loss of teens. They're still there, mind you, but the numbers continue to slowly slide away. Teens ARE going to Pandora, they're using Spotify, they're going to YouTube, they're going to Turntable.FM, they're loading up their iPhones, and if they want to interact with somebody, hear jokes, etc (things teens used to get from a DJ) they can jump onto their favorite social networking site and ask 500 of their closest friends, "'Sup?"

The distractions for listeners have become significantly greater over the past 20 years. Today you have 300 channels of TV, networked X-Box Kinnect, the internet on your smart phone, Netflix, and on and on.

Radio has to be more interesting than ALL of these things.

For a while, radio tried to be more interesting by being more shocking: see Howard Stern, Bubba The Love Sponge, etc. Conservative talk radio often takes a similar route, as has religious radio in times past. The problem is, the shock value only lasts for so long if you don't have something truly amazing behind it... and behind all the shock, it was still basically radio.

What is the solution for radio? Can radio just "wait it out" and hope people will get bored with all the new gadgets? I don't think so; radio certainly didn't wait for television to "just fade away" before latching on to music formats to rescue their falling numbers.

So what is the "magic bullet" that will keep radio viable for another 100 years?

...Man, if I could answer THAT question, I'd be a VERY wealthy man.

I think personalities could help, but I don't know that the ROI is high enough; obviously most radio heads think it isn't.

I think active involvement with the listeners through social media has the potential to impact people, but I see too many stations using their social media accounts as spam-bots. (Some TV personalities are actually doing a better job at social media than radio!) Can you do enough social media to boost audience numbers and, more specifically, advertising dollars? I don't think this has been proven yet.

Radio can be everywhere, but if the content isn't compelling, people can just tune right past you.

I would suggest niche programming, formats a small portion of the population would aggressively get behind, but most radio corporations are so d-e-e-p in debt that they can't afford a small audience, no matter how rabid. Their shareholders would never put up with it.

Maybe there isn't a solution for current radio. Maybe we're going to have to see how deep the rabbit hole goes... have the industry collapse, sell off their properties for pennies on the dollar, and mom and pops snap them up and program Yiddish speed metal or some such thing.

 

[Wildstyle K]

Radio will probably be ok. Once we start colonizing other planets, since all that extra technology wont be there during the first few years of colonization, it's possible that people will be forced to revert back to radio for a while... ;D

 

[Element9]

Back to the original question, "the declining state of radio and your opinion why..." Jeff, would you like to define the premise, for example, "I believe the state of radio is declining because..." followed by facts, an informed opinion or a shot in the dark theory (which, if nothing else, stirs the pot.) You can't just walk into the party, say "Okay everybody, I'm here," work the room like you're a regular, book and leave the heavy lifting to A and Rox. Hell, this ain't the Syracuse or Binghamton board.

 

[Jeff Michaels]

If you listened to my show today, you'd hear my perfect example. I didnt have many requests to contribute what I played so the rest was mostly me...

There should be a few sets of music rotations for classic rock. One rotation set should be the big songs. The hits we know and loathe love.

The next set should be TONS of album cuts. They don't repeat very often because of the amount of them.

Every set should be three songs (Though long songs could dictate a shorter set)

The set goes as such:
HIT
ALBUM CUT
HIT

As for A/C formats, there should be all types of music styles played. 50's to today, Country, jazz, rock, pop, R&B etc... No homogenizing the music (Fiddle-less country songs)

In addition, WARM has lost complete control. Toto's: Hold The Line and Journey's Don't Stop Believin are ROCK, not A/C. Donna Summer, Stayin Alive, YMCA, Celebration, I Will Survive... THEY ARE DISCO, NOT A/C. Hell, I've heard them play Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone which is a hard rockin, screamer!

Someone needs to fix that station!

As for the jocks, people with small funny stories and/or music knowledge tidbits are welcome, I like the local talent talking local news and issues, on the light side of things that is...

shock jocks are not welcome nor are shock jock types during regular music hours.

 

[jas2525]

Radio will probably be ok. Once we start colonizing other planets, since all that extra technology wont be there during the first few years of colonization, it's possible that people will be forced to revert back to radio for a while... ;D

This is terrific news!

I'm gonna start getting the rust off my post-hitting technique! OMG, to think of all those wonderful JAM jingles that we'll be playing once again! That's of course after we get through the echo period.

Oh joy!

 

[Bob1370]

Jeff hit a lot of the most important reasons why radio is struggling, to which I could add, on the spoken word side, large numbers of stations who've stagnated in the 1990s with the same hosts beating the drum on the same issues and fighting the same culture wars they were bleating about 20 years ago--turning off a large number of 35-54 listeners in the process. And let's not forget how a combination of satellite feeds and automation have taken the life out of what used to be live and stimulating radio. When a station talks about how live and local it is, and it makes a difference to its numbers, you know that should tell you something about the state of the business. Live and local used to be an unstated and obvious assumption; now it's a selling point.

What's really going on, is how an essentially locally based medium is falling into convenient (and cheap) habits and losing connection with its local audiences. It's an easy habit to break. Ask Dan Mason at CBS how he broke the habit, and made his group of stations arguably the most profitable in the country...it could be instructive for everyone.

 

[TheBigA]

And let's not forget how a combination of satellite feeds and automation have taken the life out of what used to be live and stimulating radio. When a station talks about how live and local it is, and it makes a difference to its numbers, you know that should tell you something about the state of the business. Live and local used to be an unstated and obvious assumption; now it's a selling point.

Once again this mythology that radio used to be live and local, and now it's not.

Once again this mythology that if you do radio the exact same way it was done 50 years ago, it will appeal to day's younger generation. If you just hire a full staff of live local people, the listeners will throw away their cell phones and computers, turn off their TVs and video games, and return to the medium their parents grew up on.

Audiences aren't leaving OTA radio for live and local on satellite or the internet. That's not their motivation, and it's not what they're looking for. They're not looking for a connection with some local DJ who talks at them. Look closely at where they're going and why. The only people beating the drum for more live and local are people with a vested interest in it. The listeners want something else.