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Thoughts on CBS-FM Success and Personalities

Mikey Radio said:
This is one of the reasons I appreciate the Radio Discussions site: Once again, I've learned something here. Where I currently live, the NPR/PBS stations use the same calls and share a website. Where I grew up and attended college, the PBS/NPR stations did the same, and the hosts from the NPR station often did VO and positioning for the PBS station and even hosted the pledge drives there. That in mind, I just always ass/u/me'd they were the same entity nationwide.
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In many of those cases, the "joint licensees" started out with TV and then added radio later.

That's our case here: WXXI signed on as a TV-only facility in 1966, but didn't add WXXI-FM until. 1974. (Unusually, WXXI AM didn't join the family until 1984, and it's taken us nearly 40 years to get another FM facility to do a full news and talk service on FM.)

Even many of the statewide networks in the south and Midwest started with TV in the 60s and early 70s but didn't add full radio services for a few more years, until NPR began providing more programming. Remember that Morning Edition wasn't created until 1979, and there wasn't a full 24-hour newscast service until the 90s.
 
To put it more bluntly, America is the world's torchbearer for capitalism and there has always been fierce opposition to the government running anything.
 
TheBigA said:
Blame it all on Calvin Coolidge & Herbert Hoover. Republicans felt that broadcasting was not a place for government. They preferred the public/private partnership. There were also the first amendment concerns. They also played a part in creating public broadcasting. The question was how to keep the government from interfering in journalism. So they created CPB to act as the buffer between them, and act strictly as a disburser of funding.



The reason why public broadcasting has survived for 55 years is because it ISN'T a centralized government top-down operation. The only way Republicans will approve this kind of thing is if it's decentralized and funded primarily by users, not the government. In 1984 the original act was amended to require all federal funding to be based on the amount of local funding the stations raise. The federal funding is primarily disbursed to the stations, and the stations oversee the national services.

Let me add that the fact that local public broadcasting was already well established by 1967, and I doubt very much they would have been willing to allow themselves to be overseen by a big national bureaucracy. The decentralized model was the only practical one given all of the various realities.
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Canada had and still has a hybrid system, where the government-run CBC and commercial broadcasting grew up together. If we were going to have done that in the U.S., that would have been the way.

I was a little surprised that our small listener supported Americana station gets some CPB funds (I'm sure not much). They carry no NPR material, and we have the big university station for that.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
To put it more bluntly, America is the world's torchbearer for capitalism and there has always been fierce opposition to the government running anything.
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When the music industry complains that the US is the only country in the free world where broadcasters don't pay record labels, my response is we're also one of the few countries that doesn't have a prime minister or centralized health care.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
To put it more bluntly, America is the world's torchbearer for capitalism and there has always been fierce opposition to the government running anything.
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Yet if you look at the democratic nations of Latin America, there is far, far less public radio and TV than in the US. Some have nearly no government intervention, such as Costa Rica, while others have very limited, such as Mexico and Argentina.

Only in the socialist nations do we see significant or total government control of broadcasting: Cuba 100%, Venezuela and Nicaragua approaching over 50% due the closing of stations that contradict the totalitarian governments.
 
Well this sure went in a wild direction. Maybe, I can be more specific and actual long term and occasional listeners of CBS-FM will answer. So far, after a lot of comments, very little has been said about a station with one of the highest CUMEs in the nations actual air staff. What do ya think of them and will this be the time that CBS aims for a bit younger audience? Tough one. Oh, BigA. Meant to say back a few years ago, when CBS-FM had Oh Wow Wednesday and about the time Dan Taylor was out, the music was 70s, 80s and 90s. But for a time the playlist was more extracted. Led Z, U-2, Smashmouth, Gin Blossoms. Its been A BIT more mainstream and buttoned up for a few years. Along with perhaps fewer actual DJ breaks and focus.
 
Tibbs4 said:
What do ya think of them and will this be the time that CBS aims for a bit younger audience? Tough one.
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The station is obviously doing very well under the steady hand of Jim Ryan. The presentation is still very personality-driven, which I think helps the station. Additionally, the presentation and overall sound of the station is high energy and fresh, which I think contributes to its success across demos; even though the songs may be 40+ years old in some cases, the station doesn't sound old.

In terms of a younger audience, it's already doing that, on purpose or incidentally. The station has recently had strong 18-34 numbers, and we're seeing that younger audiences can connect with music well before they were born, whether it be handed down from their parents or though social media trends, TV, movies, etc.

I expect them to stay the course, although it will be interesting to see how the lineup changes following the departure of Scott Shannon and if it impacts their ratings negatively or otherwise.
 
Well said, AB. It’s funny. The key is to play the music and never discuss anything related to its age and then try to develop the validity and currency (right word?) of the really good jocks. I mean. This is a heck of a team for 2022. I have to think BBL
will retire in 2-3 years. He is 71 now if memory serves me correctly. Not sure on Joe Causi. Dave overnights is about 50 right?
 
Tibbs4 said:
Well said, AB. It’s funny. The key is to play the music and never discuss anything related to its age and then try to develop the validity and currency (right word?) of the really good jocks. I mean. This is a heck of a team for 2022. I have to think BBL
will retire in 2-3 years. He is 71 now if memory serves me correctly. Not sure on Joe Causi. Dave overnights is about 50 right?
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Broadway Bill Lee just did a long interview with legendary programmer Pat Holiday. He's tied in through 2024 and doesn't seem to want to slow down. He is 71.
If you're interested it's here:
 
That was a great interview. It is interesting. What a brilliant career. He seems lucky to made it through as unscathed as he did. So, here is the million dollar question i have to know. If you go back to his airchecks on Facebook, etc., he had a much deeper voice. I know time does that, but I think be actually changed his on air voice to sound younger and not have that older sounding cigarette voice. Thoughts?
 
Race Taylor was voicetracking on WOGL but when they rebranded he was dropped. I believe he still VT’s mid-days on KLUV. I know there’s nothing official, but I wonder if this has been in the works and contributed to the decision to drop him from WOGL?
 
Broadway and Joe Causi are excellent talents, and sound uniquely like CBS-FM. With mornings changing and a likely accompanying change in middays, this would be a terrible time to shake up PM Drive and/or Nights as well, and I imagine the Audacy programming brain trust realizes that. Moving Race to mornings and installing a new voice in middays will freshen up the station, while complementing the heritage voices from 3p-midnight.

As stated earlier, I think a female midday host would be a welcome addition (I have some ideas for potential candidates, not that anyone at Audacy cares), but we’ll see what happens.
 
DavidEduardo said:
That is more than a decade away. In 25-34, 80% of all persons in metered markets use radio. That is not the same as "all the music they have listened to".

So for the next decade or so, that is not even a concern.

And the second highest billing station in the US targets 18-34 and 25-34 women... KIIS.
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It's funny that in most large markets now, chr does best in 25 to54, while classic hits does the opposite, WCBS fm was recently #1 18-34.
Prior to the last few years, CBS Fm winning 18 to 34 never happened once.
The 80s hits, along with the collection of enduring 70s, have an undeniable appeal to a younger audience who weren't even alive when they were released.
So, it's not really about the normal that music aging out, it's more of a question of burning out. I think the mass appeal hits aided by some correct flavor to keep things fresh here and there, has a promising future for the next ten years so long as radio delivers what makes it special.
 
DOB said:
So, it's not really about the normal that music aging out, it's more of a question of burning out. I think the mass appeal hits aided by some correct flavor to keep things fresh here and there, has a promising future for the next ten years so long as radio delivers what makes it special.
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Interesting comments. Whether it's burning out or aging out, the pop stuff isn't standing up to time as well as the rock stuff. Perhaps its the subject matter, or the way the writers addressed the subject matter. I don't know what it is. But certain music is more timeless than others. I think we can all agree on which songs I'm talking about.
 
DOB said:
So, it's not really about the normal that music aging out, it's more of a question of burning out. I think the mass appeal hits aided by some correct flavor to keep things fresh here and there, has a promising future for the next ten years so long as radio delivers what makes it special.
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No, that is not the issue. The change in demographics has, mostly, to do with Nielsen having huge issues with the composition of the panel.
 
Over dozens of markets?
I'm in total agreement with the flaws in consistency and accuracy that have been brought about with Nielsen's recruitment issues and how they just get magnified when they need to weight the various demographics where the panel is 'light' in, but that doesn't disqualify the special appeal that 80s music has with those who weren't alive when these songs were currents.
The appeal goes beyond radio.
I also understand why this becomes like politics with those who grew up with the music of the 60s and early 70s, where it's hard to be objective about things for which there is a great deal of passion.
It's true also of Classic Rock's staples, we also have just gotten used to those songs consistently over indexing with listeners born well after those songs were created.
 
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