S
SCRADIOJOCK
Guest
As promised, I have spent days listening to various stations here in the Rutland/Leb market (#180), and am ready for some random thoughts. Please take a moment and review my posts a couple of threads down about the web sites etc...
Once again, I feel the need to provide the following disclaimer: Anything printed below, including comments, observations, and instincts are made from a pure outsider standpoint. Although I am quite familar with many of the As promised, I have spent days listening to various stations here in the Rutland/Leb market (#180), and am ready for some random thoughts. Please take a moment and review my posts a couple of threads down about the web sites etc...
Once again, I feel the need to provide the following disclaimer: Anything printed below, including comments, observations, and instincts are made from a pure outsider standpoint. Although I am quite familiar with many of the stations and personalities in the area, there is nothing personal in any text, merely the random musings of a listener visiting the area, spouting off about the sound of radio here in the market. I am not a scorned ex-employee, someone with a personal axe to grind, or someone who, in the big picture cares about the area, except that I think we should ALL strive for the best radio possible...in NYC, Rutland, or Fargo, ND. Got it?
I also want to say that I do not want to read replies that use the size of the market as an excuse. “It’s Vermont”…”It’s market 180”…”We cant pay good talent”…with the technology of today, there is no excuse. There is no such thing as having to buy sub-par carts, or bad reel to reel tape. The radio that needs to be done everywhere should be top notch, with it’s own local flair…LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL…remember that the flat-landers who come up to ski are used to larger market radio. It sounds extra bad to someone up from Boston or NYC…It is what will drive people to XM…We have to, as an industry, set a bar and exceed it everywhere if we are all to have jobs!!
Let’s start with the PAMAL properties:
CAT COUNTRY- Where to begin with this train wreck?? I listened for while on Saturday afternoon.
There seemed to be a lot of stop sets…I remember the old days of 4 an hour
10, :20. :40: and :50) The other thing I noted immediately was how loose the station was. There was no tightness to songs or elements. Not knowing sub cats for music, it appeared as though I heard something like this: Gold, X-mas, Current, Gold, Gold, Recurrent, Current. To it’s credit, they were all good songs. The jock was awful. There seemed to be no focus when he talked. One break, he opened the mic, talked for a bit, threw in the station ID, talked some, then into a stop set. Seemed like Cat Country was an afterthought. Secondly, he come out of a record, and had some artist info. It was good info about Garth and Trisha. He seemed to take a long time getting to the point, then closed into the next song with, not the station ID, the end of the marriage story stating “so that should work…” and went into the new Montgomery Gentry song. I would think that especially with a brand new song, you might want to own the song, then ID yourself.
I heard a lot of song to song with no station ID. Again, this seems to be an old fashioned way of programming. Especially now, having leap into market 180, with 2 books, diary recall should be paramount!
Thinking that it was the classic “weekend help” problem, I gave Monday a shake as well, hoping that Cat would redeem itself with great radio.
I listened to the tail end of DB, the morning guy. He sounds like Krusty the Clown…then his goodbye. First, he talks about leaving for about 90 seconds, then we are propelled into a 3 minute montage of goodbye audio. Does he do this every day??? Either he is a touch narcissistic, or he thinks that people really care that a DJ is leaving for the day…I am sorry, but not even Rush has a daily farewell like that…(I have always been under the idea that if what you are doing is better than say a Garth Brooks song fine..otherwise, shhh…play music…) During this nonsense, there was no station identification for many minutes, including out of the goodbye montage into the next actual song.
The Monday afternoon guy, the “1/2 Assed Cowboy,” (Need I even comment???) sounded good. Voice quality was good, and seemed to be focused with info. I again, heard song to song programming.
WJJR- Going into my analysis of WJJR, I have to preface it by saying that I don’t know a lot about current AC radio, so it would be unfair for me to critique any music choices, good or bad, as I just don’t know. I will stick to basic overall observations about the overall sound of the station.
I listened at various times this weekend, and found a lot of syndicated programming, so I waited until Monday to give my ears a taste of 98.1. Like Cat, there were a lot of segues without imaging. Again, I have to think out loud about the fact that VT is full of tourists right now, and having not only your strongest sounding jocks, but having your imaging and station identification all over the place should be paramount. It is about repetition….
Monday afternoon, I listened to Ed Kelly. I must say that he is a much better fit for an AC afternoon drive than a CHR morning show. Ed’s voice was strong, as I would expect, but I am afraid some of the basics were gone. Again, it has to do with branding the station. He came out of a song, into a stop set. Spoke about the blood drive the following day. All very smooth. Ed pre-sold the Beach Boys, and launched into the spots with no station ID. Personally, I would have taken the chance to mention it at least 1 more time.
The WOLF- On Sunday, when I was in the area, I have it a listen, on both frequencies. The station sounded crisp. I am personally a fan of Williard, the voice guy, so I was happy with the sound of imaging. The music seemed on, with the position of New Country and Legends. I also liked how the wolf identified the legend, as it played. Reminding the listener of the position, for diary reasons, then driving the point home.
The voice tracks I heard were a little low, that could have been an issue with the jock when he recorded them, or the post mix with compressors. One other note on the jock, not a lot of personality talk. It seemed like each break was a liner card. I know that Nassau, like CC, like the cookie cutter variety of corporate radio, but I had hoped that it wasn’t so micro managed that the jocks couldn’t stretch their legs a bit. To be fair, that could have just been the jock also, but I thought it worth mentioning.
Neither station would come in on the Rutland side of Killington, which might account for the fact that Cat beats the far better station in the books.
Now some CC interests-
XL-92-I did, as requested, give XL a listen, when I could. The signal was not strong enough to get a full taste in the Rutland area, however. With the CC programming, I expected the station to be tight and focused. It was. Imaging was tight, and slick, as it was with KIXX. Again, I expected nothing less than mediocre radio. That seems to be a CC problem all over the markets I listen to. It is ok radio. Even good radio, but they seem to often fall short of “great radio,” regardless of the market size.
The website, as usual, looked sharp with lots of stuff to do on it. I am going to endeavor to listen more over the next couple of days for a more thoughtful review.
KISS 97.1-As with XL, and the others, I expected the station to be tight, as I am sure it is programmed far away. The remote break I heard was a bit lengthy…in this case, less would have been more! The station sounded like an average CHR with a bit of urban mixed in…It did seem a little heavy for the daypart, given the fact that it is in Rutland VT…Here is where the location and market needs to be taken into account. However, I didn’t hear much else in the market with the same sound, so there is no reason to compete. Makes it easier on the MD, not having to flag everything in selector anyway, right?
QUICK FIXES:
CAT-tighten up!!! Put imaging around songs, sell the station!!!! Make your jocks focus on information. The music sounds good. Fix the little things, it is what will kill you. Give the morning guy this goodbye script: “It’s almost 10…We’ll be back to do it tomorrow…join us for BENCHMARK 1, and BENCHMARK 2!! Talk to you tomorrow!!!”
WJJR-Push the station image. You are in a 2 book Top 200 market…diaries are IMPORTANT!
WOLF-Consider ways to get your signal into the Rutland metro. Bring up the VT levels, let your jocks relate to people with more than liner cards!
XL and KISS-Hey, its Clear Channel. It doesn’t really matter what they do, with their covert telephone marketing in key months, promotion $$ that doesn’t end, and a pool of worldwide talent, they know it all..what can they be told. They are like teenage girls, they know everything, right?????
That is all for now, from my end…now I will read with glee, all of the noses that get out of joint…relax, it’s just radio!!! As for me, I am just Keepin and Eye On the Radio!!!
Once again, I feel the need to provide the following disclaimer: Anything printed below, including comments, observations, and instincts are made from a pure outsider standpoint. Although I am quite familar with many of the As promised, I have spent days listening to various stations here in the Rutland/Leb market (#180), and am ready for some random thoughts. Please take a moment and review my posts a couple of threads down about the web sites etc...
Once again, I feel the need to provide the following disclaimer: Anything printed below, including comments, observations, and instincts are made from a pure outsider standpoint. Although I am quite familiar with many of the stations and personalities in the area, there is nothing personal in any text, merely the random musings of a listener visiting the area, spouting off about the sound of radio here in the market. I am not a scorned ex-employee, someone with a personal axe to grind, or someone who, in the big picture cares about the area, except that I think we should ALL strive for the best radio possible...in NYC, Rutland, or Fargo, ND. Got it?
I also want to say that I do not want to read replies that use the size of the market as an excuse. “It’s Vermont”…”It’s market 180”…”We cant pay good talent”…with the technology of today, there is no excuse. There is no such thing as having to buy sub-par carts, or bad reel to reel tape. The radio that needs to be done everywhere should be top notch, with it’s own local flair…LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL…remember that the flat-landers who come up to ski are used to larger market radio. It sounds extra bad to someone up from Boston or NYC…It is what will drive people to XM…We have to, as an industry, set a bar and exceed it everywhere if we are all to have jobs!!
Let’s start with the PAMAL properties:
CAT COUNTRY- Where to begin with this train wreck?? I listened for while on Saturday afternoon.
There seemed to be a lot of stop sets…I remember the old days of 4 an hour
10, :20. :40: and :50) The other thing I noted immediately was how loose the station was. There was no tightness to songs or elements. Not knowing sub cats for music, it appeared as though I heard something like this: Gold, X-mas, Current, Gold, Gold, Recurrent, Current. To it’s credit, they were all good songs. The jock was awful. There seemed to be no focus when he talked. One break, he opened the mic, talked for a bit, threw in the station ID, talked some, then into a stop set. Seemed like Cat Country was an afterthought. Secondly, he come out of a record, and had some artist info. It was good info about Garth and Trisha. He seemed to take a long time getting to the point, then closed into the next song with, not the station ID, the end of the marriage story stating “so that should work…” and went into the new Montgomery Gentry song. I would think that especially with a brand new song, you might want to own the song, then ID yourself.I heard a lot of song to song with no station ID. Again, this seems to be an old fashioned way of programming. Especially now, having leap into market 180, with 2 books, diary recall should be paramount!
Thinking that it was the classic “weekend help” problem, I gave Monday a shake as well, hoping that Cat would redeem itself with great radio.
I listened to the tail end of DB, the morning guy. He sounds like Krusty the Clown…then his goodbye. First, he talks about leaving for about 90 seconds, then we are propelled into a 3 minute montage of goodbye audio. Does he do this every day??? Either he is a touch narcissistic, or he thinks that people really care that a DJ is leaving for the day…I am sorry, but not even Rush has a daily farewell like that…(I have always been under the idea that if what you are doing is better than say a Garth Brooks song fine..otherwise, shhh…play music…) During this nonsense, there was no station identification for many minutes, including out of the goodbye montage into the next actual song.
The Monday afternoon guy, the “1/2 Assed Cowboy,” (Need I even comment???) sounded good. Voice quality was good, and seemed to be focused with info. I again, heard song to song programming.
WJJR- Going into my analysis of WJJR, I have to preface it by saying that I don’t know a lot about current AC radio, so it would be unfair for me to critique any music choices, good or bad, as I just don’t know. I will stick to basic overall observations about the overall sound of the station.
I listened at various times this weekend, and found a lot of syndicated programming, so I waited until Monday to give my ears a taste of 98.1. Like Cat, there were a lot of segues without imaging. Again, I have to think out loud about the fact that VT is full of tourists right now, and having not only your strongest sounding jocks, but having your imaging and station identification all over the place should be paramount. It is about repetition….
Monday afternoon, I listened to Ed Kelly. I must say that he is a much better fit for an AC afternoon drive than a CHR morning show. Ed’s voice was strong, as I would expect, but I am afraid some of the basics were gone. Again, it has to do with branding the station. He came out of a song, into a stop set. Spoke about the blood drive the following day. All very smooth. Ed pre-sold the Beach Boys, and launched into the spots with no station ID. Personally, I would have taken the chance to mention it at least 1 more time.
The WOLF- On Sunday, when I was in the area, I have it a listen, on both frequencies. The station sounded crisp. I am personally a fan of Williard, the voice guy, so I was happy with the sound of imaging. The music seemed on, with the position of New Country and Legends. I also liked how the wolf identified the legend, as it played. Reminding the listener of the position, for diary reasons, then driving the point home.
The voice tracks I heard were a little low, that could have been an issue with the jock when he recorded them, or the post mix with compressors. One other note on the jock, not a lot of personality talk. It seemed like each break was a liner card. I know that Nassau, like CC, like the cookie cutter variety of corporate radio, but I had hoped that it wasn’t so micro managed that the jocks couldn’t stretch their legs a bit. To be fair, that could have just been the jock also, but I thought it worth mentioning.
Neither station would come in on the Rutland side of Killington, which might account for the fact that Cat beats the far better station in the books.
Now some CC interests-
XL-92-I did, as requested, give XL a listen, when I could. The signal was not strong enough to get a full taste in the Rutland area, however. With the CC programming, I expected the station to be tight and focused. It was. Imaging was tight, and slick, as it was with KIXX. Again, I expected nothing less than mediocre radio. That seems to be a CC problem all over the markets I listen to. It is ok radio. Even good radio, but they seem to often fall short of “great radio,” regardless of the market size.
The website, as usual, looked sharp with lots of stuff to do on it. I am going to endeavor to listen more over the next couple of days for a more thoughtful review.
KISS 97.1-As with XL, and the others, I expected the station to be tight, as I am sure it is programmed far away. The remote break I heard was a bit lengthy…in this case, less would have been more! The station sounded like an average CHR with a bit of urban mixed in…It did seem a little heavy for the daypart, given the fact that it is in Rutland VT…Here is where the location and market needs to be taken into account. However, I didn’t hear much else in the market with the same sound, so there is no reason to compete. Makes it easier on the MD, not having to flag everything in selector anyway, right?
QUICK FIXES:
CAT-tighten up!!! Put imaging around songs, sell the station!!!! Make your jocks focus on information. The music sounds good. Fix the little things, it is what will kill you. Give the morning guy this goodbye script: “It’s almost 10…We’ll be back to do it tomorrow…join us for BENCHMARK 1, and BENCHMARK 2!! Talk to you tomorrow!!!”
WJJR-Push the station image. You are in a 2 book Top 200 market…diaries are IMPORTANT!
WOLF-Consider ways to get your signal into the Rutland metro. Bring up the VT levels, let your jocks relate to people with more than liner cards!
XL and KISS-Hey, its Clear Channel. It doesn’t really matter what they do, with their covert telephone marketing in key months, promotion $$ that doesn’t end, and a pool of worldwide talent, they know it all..what can they be told. They are like teenage girls, they know everything, right?????
That is all for now, from my end…now I will read with glee, all of the noses that get out of joint…relax, it’s just radio!!! As for me, I am just Keepin and Eye On the Radio!!!