THE FUTURE?

[Radio55]

I found this link on the Indiana board. Interesting food for thought. http://www.helpradionow.com

Personally, I would like to see operators on duty at radio stations 24/7. Companies with 5,6 stations in their building are running a considerable risk by not having an operator on duty 24 hours. I would like to see 1 operator per 2 stations (kind of like the old AM/FM set up). Owners can whine all they want about being broke, but it's bunk. They should look at this as protection for their investment. Your thoughts?

 

[Radiogre]

I found this link on the Indiana board. Interesting food for thought. http://www.helpradionow.com

Personally, I would like to see operators on duty at radio stations 24/7. Companies with 5,6 stations in their building are running a considerable risk by not having an operator on duty 24 hours. I would like to see 1 operator per 2 stations (kind of like the old AM/FM set up). Owners can whine all they want about being broke, but it's bunk. They should look at this as protection for their investment. Your thoughts?

For what the job pays, an overnight DJ would definitely cost them less than a security guard.

 

[Bob Oshea]

As long as they keep an under appreciated, overworked engineer on 24 hour call what's the difference? As far as finding babysitters for the stations, let the cheap bastards pony up at least what the burger joints are paying and then maybe they can keep the help. Ain't gonna happen as long as the industry is in the clutches of a bunch of shit for brains, slash your way to prosperity investment brokers.

O'Shea

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Amen! Time for the corporate carpetbaggers to finally go broke so that BROADCASTERS can get back into owning broadcast stations.

 

[NtUrAvgLinerJock]

I was talking to an overnight jock a while back and he said that at one time he was responsible for 6 different radio stations in the overnight. he did 6 meter readings, 6 commericial logs, 6 legal ids, and made sure there was enough music loaded up until he could get back for the next round. He told me at the time he made $6 an hour. Thats exactly $1/hr per station. That is CHEAP labor. I think broadcasting companies are taking advantage of these young kids that are so desperate to break into radio that they will work so cheaply. But sooner or later, the quality talent will leave for a better gig. Thoughts?

 

[Bob Oshea]

I was talking to an overnight jock a while back and he said that at one time he was responsible for 6 different radio stations in the overnight. he did 6 meter readings, 6 commericial logs, 6 legal ids, and made sure there was enough music loaded up until he could get back for the next round. He told me at the time he made $6 an hour. Thats exactly $1/hr per station. That is CHEAP labor. I think broadcasting companies are taking advantage of these young kids that are so desperate to break into radio that they will work so cheaply. But sooner or later, the quality talent will leave for a better gig. Thoughts?

I know of only one way to bring corporate radio to book and its one word: UNIONIZE!

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

The trick with that little option is now, with the advent of voice-tracking and the dumbing down of radio quality in general they can just get some of those 6 dollar an hour kids and their VT software to replace anyone that decides to buck the system and strike. I have a theory about corporate radio management. They don't really want any exceptionally good talent these days anyway. What they want to be able to do is replace a jock with another one at will, sort of like replacing a light bulb. When one quits, costs too much, or is too much trouble for them they want to be able to unscrew them out of the socket just like a light bulb and screw in a new one. In a beancounter's world this is perfect. Too bad the quality goes to absolute hell and ultimately so do the profits. Is it any wonder radio companies have been dropping 3-6 percent of their gross revenue each year they go along for the past several years? GOOD talent is hard to find. The bean-counters are unwilling to admit that.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

I'll add to that a little addendum. Bean-counters are by their very existance uncreative people. They exist on stats and figures on black and white paper. Creativity isn't something they are good at, so they have no concept of what creativity can do or the value of it. Since Wall Street and bean-counters from a central point in another state run most radio stations there is no way for them to ever understand the concept of how good talent can make a lot of money for a company. To a certain extent they can be sold on buying off on something like HD radio because there are tangable items and a investment involved that can be seen (even if it's a long shot on a return). They can't see anything more than a payout for talent. It's almost like ratings come by osmosis or something to them. Somehow this industry is going to have to re-educate those that are in control that talent can and DOES make station. HD, a new console, or new audio processing DOESN'T. All of the extras are just that. They are icing on the cake. It's what comes out the two speakers that counts. Talent and music content (on music stations) ARE the product. Talent is the one thing that music players like the iPod can't compete with, if the 'talent' is more than card readers.

 

[GeneSavage]

OKCRadioGuy, I think you nailed it. Somewhere, I think in the mid to late 80s, maybe, we decided if a true personality developed a following on a station, that following might leave if the personality left (and as you all know, that's the one constant in radio).

The solution? Develop a large stable of strong personalities so one person could draw as big a crowd as another?

HECK, NO!

What you do is reduce the personality on the air so that people hardly know or care who they are listening to. Make the music the main draw (and yeah, kinda like Drake did back in the 70s) so that you can have your superstar, or a weekender, or nobody on the air and the audience will be pretty stable... they won't know what they're missing.

Then came the Sony Walkman. And now the iPod. And XM & Sirius. And 50,000 channels of internet radio jukeboxes.

...oops. :-[

It is lowest common denominator radio, and while it is safe, it is not particularly successful. As we've discussed about individual stations in the past: many are successful because they either have no direct competition or their competition is taking the same path to financial security.

Until somebody steps up, takes the risk, and re-introduces personalities in music radio (just as talk personalities resurrected AM radio, whatever you may think of their beliefs), it will always be, and the only advantage radio will have is that it's easier to tune in than pick a song on your mp3 player.

...which ain't much advantage, in my book.

And, as long as mega-corporations are juggling mega-dollars trying to stay afloat, there is NO WAY they're going to take that kind of risk. I don't know that I would, either... far too dangerous, too much potential for massive, massive failure.

If you think about it, radio has actually been trying to go MORE this way with things like the JACK format, which was / is sans jocks.

If all of your talent is on your hard drive, then you have absolute control over your talent.

Ugh... I just depressed myself...

 

[Bob Oshea]

OKCRadioGuy, I think you nailed it. Somewhere, I think in the mid to late 80s, maybe, we decided if a true personality developed a following on a station, that following might leave if the personality left (and as you all know, that's the one constant in radio).

The solution? Develop a large stable of strong personalities so one person could draw as big a crowd as another?

HECK, NO!

What you do is reduce the personality on the air so that people hardly know or care who they are listening to. Make the music the main draw (and yeah, kinda like Drake did back in the 70s) so that you can have your superstar, or a weekender, or nobody on the air and the audience will be pretty stable... they won't know what they're missing.

Then came the Sony Walkman. And now the iPod. And XM & Sirius. And 50,000 channels of internet radio jukeboxes.

...oops. :-[

It is lowest common denominator radio, and while it is safe, it is not particularly successful. As we've discussed about individual stations in the past: many are successful because they either have no direct competition or their competition is taking the same path to financial security.

Until somebody steps up, takes the risk, and re-introduces personalities in music radio (just as talk personalities resurrected AM radio, whatever you may think of their beliefs), it will always be, and the only advantage radio will have is that it's easier to tune in than pick a song on your mp3 player.

...which ain't much advantage, in my book.

And, as long as mega-corporations are juggling mega-dollars trying to stay afloat, there is NO WAY they're going to take that kind of risk. I don't know that I would, either... far too dangerous, too much potential for massive, massive failure.

If you think about it, radio has actually been trying to go MORE this way with things like the JACK format, which was / is sans jocks.

If all of your talent is on your hard drive, then you have absolute control over your talent.

Ugh... I just depressed myself...

I too am saddend by all of this. Let's face it, we just happened to come along in an era that has definitely come and gone. Nightaire, if they ever do come full circle guys like us will be long gone. It is truly a heartache. I will never forgive the dirty bastards!

Hope You're Well,
Bob O'Shea

 

[Hung up]

NIGHTAIR wrote...

Until somebody steps up, takes the risk, and re-introduces personalities in music radio (just as talk personalities resurrected AM radio, whatever you may think of their beliefs), it will always be, and the only advantage radio will have is that it's easier to tune in than pick a song on your mp3 player….

If you think about it, radio has actually been trying to go MORE this way with things like the JACK format, which was / is sans jocks.

This is a very interesting situation in which we find ourselves. The satellite radio services promote the fact that they're DJ-free and mp3 players that are all the rage are also without announcers. So, maybe we're looking at this issue from a very subjective and antiquated position. My question is: Are DJ's relevant to today's young music consumer? Most kids have no "radio idol" that they'll drive dozens of miles to see in person at a car dealership or radio event. Because of the removal of personalities from radio there's a whole new crop of listeners who have never bonded with an air personality. For them, the DJ's have lost their significance in the radio equation.

Am I wrong in this bleak analogy? I hope so!

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

With the under-30 crowd you are 100 percent on target. They haven't grown up listening to jocks so they, for the most part, don't need or desire listening to them. That's where making their own mixes on an iPOD comes in and where radio becomes an afterthought to them. Yeah its there, but it sucks and they only bother when they have nothing else to play.

 

[GeneSavage]

...and I would disagree that the only way to compete with an iPod is to try to imitate an iPod. You CANNOT win that game.

Today's under-30 crowd has no interest in jocks because they haven't been exposed to entertaining jocks. All they've heard are liner card readers. There may be real talent reading that card, but the listener doesn't hear it because to them, it's just another commercial for a show, a shift, or a sponsor.

YouTube and American Idol shows that under-30s WANT to be entertained. Not mindless chatter, but not soulless facts, either.

For those of you old enough, do you remember rushing home to turn on the radio and listen to your favorite DJ? Yes, he played your favorite music, but he ALSO made you laugh, informed you, maybe made you cry if there was something serious going on. He was a three dimensional friend... there's that topic again, COMMUNITY.

Decades before that, kids ran to the radio to hear Amos & Andy, The Shadow, and so many others. Was Will Rogers professional sounding? Heck no! Yet there's a pretty great museum to him in Claremore, and he is still loved by millions.

The polished presentation should be a tool we use to help CONNECT with listeners. Young people don't want that any less that older audiences. They are connecting with their peers... they should be connecting with US, too.

Remember calling in to the top-40 DJ to request your favorite song? Remember hearing yourself on the radio? That's community. That's what's helped drive talk radio over the past 20 years: the sense of community.

It is an inborn natural desire, to connect with other human beings. It drove the CB craze, it drives message boards like this one, it drove instant messengers and e-mail and shortwave and so many, many things down through the centuries.

Why do we think, after thousands of years, and with MySpace & Facebook bursting at the seams with youth, that suddenly we have a generation that wants to be isolated?

It is cheaper not to connect with the under-30 audience, but it is not a long-term winning strategy. We WILL lose them to the internet, because they won't know anything else of radio.

...in fact, with the ease of setting up a ShoutCast station, and podcasts, they are likely to REPLACE us with their unprofessional, but entertaining, shows streamed over the internet.

We can create a sense of community with our current (typically VERY talented) jocks, and we can find new talents to connect with our audience from the internet...

..but will we?

:-\

 

[Hung up]

Excellent, excellent post, Nightaire! I share your passion but not your optimism.

Everything in life is relative. If you’ve never known mountains, you don’t miss them. If you haven’t had fried okra, you don’t get it. So, those of us who have such warm feelings and a lifelong connection to personality driven radio cannot possibly imagine a world without it. On the other hand, people who’ve grown up without it cannot imagine what it’s like to have that connection.

You are right that radio execs are silly to save money in the short run through voice tracking and liner reading to ultimately destroy their future, but that’s business. This happens all the time. Ever seen an AE promise the world to a client knowing that the station can’t deliver just to get a quick sale? They lose the client forever because they’re dissatisfied, but they met budget that month. YIKES!

Nightaire wrote…
Remember calling in to the top-40 DJ to request your favorite song? Remember hearing yourself on the radio? That's community. That's what's helped drive talk radio over the past 20 years: the sense of community.

Yes, it was cool back then. So was call waiting. But you gotta think like a kid in today’s culture. It’s cooler to be broadcast internationally over youtube and myspace. Look how many folks have become overnight sensations with their Internet freakouts. The new technology is much more powerful and alluring than hearing your voice over a local radio station that very few of your friends are listening to in the first place.

Nightaire wrote…
Why do we think, after thousands of years, and with MySpace & Facebook bursting at the seams with youth, that suddenly we have a generation that wants to be isolated?

I don’t think the under-30 sect desires to be isolated, but they’re seeking their connections elsewhere through the technology you listed, not radio. It’s the “me” generation of entertainment; the age of instant gratification and personalized entertainment. Radio’s like the newspaper to these kids. It’s becoming irrelevant.

I share your love of radio done right and hope that there is still a widespread desire for Old School, personality driven media. Maybe the pendulum will swing back that direction, but I don’t see it happening.

 

[GeneSavage]

Hung Up, we agree more than you might think. You're 100% correct that the under-30 crowd is seeking their community elsewhere. I would argue that it is we (that is to say, radio as a whole) who have helped guide them away from radio being a community outlet for them.

I also agree that it is cooler to be international EXCEPT that if a few of your friends actually do listen to the local station, it's more instant gratification... or can be, anyway.

I have suggested for 10 years now that someday broadcast towers may shut off their broadcasts and be use strictly as Wi-Fi repeaters... even if radio were to survive, it's a lot cheaper to put a computer in a corner and stream to the world than to pump out 100,000 watts and reach a 90 mile radius. That guaranteed rental check from a national ISP would certainly help pay the electric bill...

Radio isn't going away tomorrow, and it isn't going away in 5 years. It is, however, lessening in relevance, and I don't know if radio will adapt to the internet, the way it did to television, in time.

So am I a radio optimist or a radio fatalist?

Even I'm not sure. 8)

 

[travis bickle]

Staring at the screen, all things radio spinning through my mind. The good , the bad, and the fugly. And all I can come up with is...

"O radio, why hath thou forsaken me?"

 

[bossbill]

Until you've had to meet a payroll in a small town, you have absolutely no idea why so many small market stations are forced to use networks or voice-tracking.

I don't consider myself a cheap bastard. The few people we are able to afford are being paid $15-20 per hour, have a generous and complete medical plan, YMCA family memberships, 401K, staff parties, holiday bonuses, etc.

My payroll is a substantial percentage of revenues. We can't afford one more person. We maintain live/local morning shows; that's all the money there is.

Major markets are another story. A station grossing $20 million can certainly afford 24/7 live. Larger markets are often paying less than we do.

I would love to run my stations live/local 24/7. The cost of doing this, unfortunately, would far exceed our gross billing, and we still have other expenses, like electricity, BMI, ASCAP, Sesac, studio rent, phones, tower rent, transmitter maintenance, etc.

Meet a payroll a few times and you'll understand. We don't like it, but is it better to be on the air with the ability to break in for emergencies, or go silent?

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

"Major markets are another story. A station grossing $20 million can certainly afford 24/7 live. Larger markets are often paying less than we do."

That's the sad thing Bill. You can't afford it in your marketsize, but are trying to do as much local as you CAN afford. Corporate has screwed themselves up by getting in so much debt on aquireing stations they are effectively in the same boat. Bad news for them is they don't know how to be very effective in tieing into the local community with as little staff as they run. (my guess is your outfit does a pretty good job of it will few workers) That's why recently medium and larger markets have been tanking. Maybe at some point some local guys, sort of like you except with a few more bucks or a group of guys together can go buy the statons McRadio has to shed to survive and do something useful with them. I truely don't think radio will "go away" but it's going to have to change a lot. Good local owners that give a crap and WILL put a buck in to make a buck will be the ones that win.

 

[Radio55]

I don't consider myself a cheap bastard. The few people we are able to afford are being paid $15-20 per hour, have a generous and complete medical plan, YMCA family memberships, 401K, staff parties, holiday bonuses, etc.

Bill Wolfenbarger, you are one of the heroes of this business. Serving the public, taking care of your employees and doing great radio in your community. I really believe that the locals of this business, the smart ones, will survive. There are some smaller operations in Oklahoma still chugging along just fine.

I think the key thing here is that stations voice-track for a very simple reason: They Can. Technology has finally produced a quality system to automate radio stations and what smart operator wouldn't use it to ease expenses at their stations. What "radio people" need to do is to learn how to evolve into other areas of the business. If you've been a jock all your life, and you see the voice-tracker taking over (that's what they call a "sign"), try doing some reporting, work in the newsroom, do traffic reports, expand your talents and abilities. Get in survival mode.

By the way, Bill, do you stream your signal?

Good luck to you, sir...

 

[GeneSavage]

I second what Radio55 & OKC Radio Guy said: it's a whole different story in a small / unrated market.

I worked at a couple of stations in an itty-bitty town in Missouri, and one used automation & out of market voicetracking because literally we couldn't find anybody in town to do the shifts (but mornings & afternoons were live & local) and the other (heritage) station was live & local 6am - 6pm & then satellite 6pm - 6am.

It gave 10,000 people in town (& the surrounding towns of 100 - 300 people a piece) something with local content to listen to. It didn't help that on a clear day, Kansas City signals would drift in... but both stations have made it & are making it.

It should also be said that voicetracking, while I'm not a fan, CAN be effective in cutting costs, keeping local content on the air, and giving jocks back their lives.

At the station I mentioned above using voicetracking, the out-of-town jocks would call me with questions about things in the local paper (they read it online), would check & see if we had this business or that store, and talked about coming to town to make appearances at remotes. Their breaks would often upload within just an hour or two of them airing, making sure the content was as fresh as possible... it was actually kinda impressive!

My problem is with jockless overnights in major markets, and radio veterans being made to read liners about how little they talk. :

Every marketer I know is trying to create passion about their product.

People get excited about people (SEE: reality shows & webcams).

If the money is there, why not put one of those people-things in the air chair?

Heck, get a noobie, pay him minimum wage, and watch him like a hawk... but let him connect with the listener.

You'll get a passionate staff member (remember those?) and a passionate audience.

(And chances are some radio veterans might be willing to take a pay hit for the ability to do what they got into this business to do, potentially making you BUCKETS of money in the process.)

A fun thread would be, "Who would staff your all-star OKC / Tulsa dream station?"

Maybe I oughta go start that now...