When someone tells a story about overnight DJs having interns, and then backs it up by telling a story from 20 years ago, that indicates the storyteller isn't drawing on recent experience.
Nope...another flawed assumption.
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The old KRTH
- Thread starter David Shapiro
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When someone tells a story about overnight DJs having interns, and then backs it up by telling a story from 20 years ago, that indicates the storyteller isn't drawing on recent experience.
Nope...another flawed assumption.
As a lost 45....why not? Gotta get out of your safe zone shell every so often. Kudos to stations that do!
"Safe zone?" What risks have you taken with your own money lately? If it was YOUR butt on the line, you'd do the exact same thing.
That #1 special is based on radio surveys from the KFWB Fab 40, KHJ Boss 30 and the KRTH Radio surveys and began in 1978 on K-Earth 101. The History of Rock and Roll uses the Billboard Hot 100 to compile it's Time Sweeps of songs. The later is national and the first is local. Big difference.
Please look up "derivative" in the dictionary.
You are talking ONE 2 minute song at 2am. It will not break you. Playing songs like that all day, sure, I'll back you on that. You are playing it ULTRA safe and it sounds ridiculous. Kind of like a driver who refuses to drive over 55, in a 65 zone.
Don't need to. Ask Bob Hamilton, not me.
Many... certainly the majority... of radio jobs were eliminated by technology.
An ad in the 40's for WOR listed nearly 100 engineering employees. Equipment was more fragile, tubes burnt out, lines went down, recordings were done on acetate disks and the studio could not be run without a board op and engineers. Today, WOR likely gets buy with a couple of engineers who are shared with the other iHeart stations. There is no need for more.
And through the early 70's, directional AMs required first phones on duty... including at the transmitter for critical arrays. That is no longer required because technology is so much better.
In production and on air, digital storage and automation make everything from the playing of music and the production spots to the loading of spots faster and easier.
Computer traffic and billing cut the back office staff needs.
Voice tracking and reliable equipment made it possible to have good talent on weekends and overnight.
But of course, the recession caused further cutbacks. If radio billings fell almost 40% and the average margin on a station was 30%, then something had to go.
And the cuts are not the exclusive property of a couple of big companies. They were normal... in the case of advancing technology... or necessary... in the case of the recession, in Faribault, MN and New York City alike.
No matter how many times you click your shoes, you can't get to some other place. You are still in a metaphorical Kansas.
Sure. Why don't you wear a dress or eat dog meat. It won't kill you.
It's easy to take musical chances in your bedroom. Lot harder when there's money at stake.
Wrong. All countdown shows go back to things like "Your Hit Parade" on NBC starting in 1935; the countdown format took a couple of years to evolve but it is the basis for everything after that including AT40, The History of Rock and Roll (using years instead of ranks) and all the things that came later.
No, you're not talking ONE 2 minute song at 2 a.m. and you know it. If KRTH did that, you'd be on here in a heartbeat, saying "now they just need to loosen up a little more----maybe a lost oldie an hour".
But the fact is, as I've said, recently and not so recently, there is NO safe time to do something out of character. You and Vinnie may think Classic Hits stations are there to play whatever was once popular, but today's audience views it very differently---and it is why KRTH and other stations like it are successful: They see KRTH as the station that plays songs they love---every time they tune in. It becomes like flipping on a light switch. The light comes on. If they flip that switch and the garage door opens, that's unsettling. If they do it again and the front sprinklers come on, you now have a problem.
So, once more---the analogy isn't one of driving 10 miles an hour under the posted limit to be safe. It's about BREAKING the law. It's answering that text on the freeway (he said again), and one of three things can happen---you can get away with it, you can dent a fender or you can die. Either way, you're gambling unnecessarily with the employment of people at the radio station and the food, shelter and clothing that employment provides for their families.
It's comments like the one above----over and over and over---for FIVE years---that cause pros like David and BigA and me to have to rebut the same thing again and again for the reasons we cited an hour or two ago.
Moderator Frank, if you still exist, THAT's why there are circular arguments. You can ban me or ban the people at the root of the problem or lock the thread or whatever, but do your damn job.
Please.
This is a guy who wants professionals to do their job like a hobbyist. And calls someone who won't play a 60 year old song "playing it ultra safe."
What he calls "playing it safe" makes it possible for thousands of people to still have jobs in radio. The kind of programming he advocates is financially unsustainable. Unless we're talking about an amateur operation in one's bedroom.
For those on this thread who pine for the Oldies without a ton of interruptions I found http://www.1120wkce.com/ online.
WKCE brands itself "Mid-Century Music" and features songs from about 1950-1970 although most are in the early part of that group. Lots of early RnR. It broadcasts from Knoxville so it includes some Country and a few Bluegrass songs which fit the timeline. Commercials are rare. Reportedly there is one live DJ but he is on too early for me to catch him. Otherwise it is just good old RnR.
WKCE brands itself "Mid-Century Music" and features songs from about 1950-1970 although most are in the early part of that group. Lots of early RnR. It broadcasts from Knoxville so it includes some Country and a few Bluegrass songs which fit the timeline. Commercials are rare. Reportedly there is one live DJ but he is on too early for me to catch him. Otherwise it is just good old RnR.
I understand the topic and also understand there are more than a couple radio fans wishing for something from the "old days". Since you radio folks have gone round and round on the primary topic I thought it had about reached the logical end and I would offer a personal favorite to those who are excluded from modern radio.
It absolutely had reached the logical end and it should have remained locked. Frank, "keeping it friendly" wasn't the problem. I'd ask you to reconsider your re-consideration. There is absolutely nothing left to wring out of "The Old KRTH".
Everyone,
I have been threatened from persons on both sides .... Threatened if I close this thread and threatened if I don't close this thread.
I'm closing it. I don't want to see any Members leave but I really think that we have beat this dead ol' horse way too long.
I have been threatened from persons on both sides .... Threatened if I close this thread and threatened if I don't close this thread.
I'm closing it. I don't want to see any Members leave but I really think that we have beat this dead ol' horse way too long.
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