Voice tracking

[soundblast]

I guess voice tracking has gone wild, I was in central Texas and herd the same afternoon drive jocks on mix96 in SA and kiss 96.7 Austin, The guy was great even had phone bits, I have been out of radio for a while so I was surprised to see prime time voice tracked on those stations as well as kj07SA and KASE 101 Austin, Same jocks on the country stations and the same jock on the CHR stations.
If they can do phone bits while voice tracking it really makes jock a thing of the past. Where do they get the phone bits from?

 

[MINDonDAradio247]

I guess voice tracking has gone wild, I was in central Texas and herd the same afternoon drive jocks on mix96 in SA and kiss 96.7 Austin, The guy was great even had phone bits, I have been out of radio for a while so I was surprised to see prime time voice tracked on those stations as well as kj07SA and KASE 101 Austin, Same jocks on the country stations and the same jock on the CHR stations.
If they can do phone bits while voice tracking it really makes jock a thing of the past. Where do they get the phone bits from?

This is nothing new. These big radio companies are hiring a small group of people to voice track dozens of stations all across the country. Therefore saving money from hiring parttimers and weekenders.

The jocks who do this are normally in some big radio market and that is how they get the calls. Then in their voicetracking gig they replay them.

Of course this is speculation. I dont work for KISS or Mix. However I dont care who you put on, in my opinion i think a green rookie sounds better than any outta town prerecorded jock pretending to be local.

 

[1st of 5]

Ever notice how those morning show clowns on Mix 96.1 in SATX, or any other syndicated show always speak in generalities when discussing their weekend trysts? They never mention street, mall or park names, or what city they are in. Once I tried to listen to that senseless garbage, when trying to determine the time lag between 96.1 in San Antonio and 96.7 in Corpus Christi, which were running the same exact program. And the gullible audience eats it up, not knowing any better. But then again, who is listening? Look around you, around your kids high school, middle school, etc. All you see is Ipods, MP3s and Iphones or just regular cellphones blaring noise that passes for music. Anyone under the age of 30 doesn't listen to 'radio'. Its their grandparents old person thing, like black and white TV. If everyone in this gossip room was honest enough to reveal their ages, you'd most likely discover that we range from 35-60 something+. We grew up with radio, these young kids didn't. They don't want to bother with something as inexpensive and technologically primitive as radio, (which does not require any sw upgrades, IT apps, ISP subscriptions/agreements, surcharges, taxes, early termination penalties, complete and total lack of any customer service/repair......). Radio will most likely die and rise up again, phoenix-like, into something better AND local.

 

[MINDonDAradio247]

Well I can understand your frustration "1st of 5". However this is how it is these days. Plus technology is much different than what it was when we were young. Digital music players are here to stay. Luckily you have certain digital players like the Zune that have radios on it. The Zune HD even has a HD radio on it.

Kraddick is actually a morning show I can stomach. I have no beef with good syndication programs, it is the bad ones that kill me.When you are on 50 plus markets or whatever how many they are on it is almost impossible to get intimate locally. Least Kraddick can hide it and for the most part fool a lot of people into thinking that they are local. I cannot say the same for other syndication programs.

When Big Boy was on Power it was more than obvious they weren't in San Antonio.

 

[johnqdoe]

Voicetracking is obviously here to stay. The earlier poster was correct. You take the generic calls and replay them..."Hey man...I'm cleanin the garage and wanna hear some Zeppelin." You can use that on all your rock stations. There are SOME VT jocks that realllly try. Bob Pickett and Eric Raines are 2 that come to mind. What is REALLY messed up though is the ClearChannel Premium Choice "option". They slash budgets so much that you HAVE to plug this programming in. Pre-fab music and jocks piped in that are purposely bland. No call letters, no real info other than "Stone Temple Pilots are on tour...check Pollstar".

 

[1st of 5]

When did this 'voice tracking' phenomenon first start? I recall first noticing it after CC bought the original KSJL, (sometime in the late 90s or 2001?), which was on 96.1FM and later moved to 810AM. VT was especially noticable on Sunday afternoons, with phony callers requesting music which I had never heard of, never IDing their part of town, city or upcoming local holiday or events. I guess the 1-800 phone number should have exposed the fraud. Whoever the PD was for that sorry excuse of an R&B playlist had obviously never been near an inner city or what R&B actually stood for or it sounded like. But I guess the iron fences at those 'gated communities' keep people in as well as out?

 

[austingeezer]

For the record 1st of 5, voice tracking began in Austin in 1998 when Capstar walked through the doors of KVET/KASE with their computers. Capstar was absorbed by AM/FM which was absorbed by Clear Channel.
While voice tracking has virtually revolutionized the industry, it is not without it's problems. Most notable
would be in the case of inclement weather breaking out, or, having to track a show BEFORE a major ballgame
that will play AFTER that ballgame. You wind up simply ignoring the ballgame, which makes listeners wonder if
you know what the heck is going on.

 

[beaun]

1 of 5 - KSJL was the ABC satellite delivered R&B format with Joyner. And the 'clowns' on 96.1 today are syndicated as well and make appearances in San Antonio when called upon for big events. This has gone on for years in one form or another.

Yes, the new generic voice tracking done by Clear Channel's 'premium choice' is a joke but not all companies follow the Clear Channel way and others actually put a little effort into it to make it sound good.

 

[Kent]

When did this 'voice tracking' phenomenon first start?

You mean locally or when did it start, period? I spoke with one person who first voicetracked a show in 1977, and he said the technology wasn't new then. In Austin, it was most likely later, though there could've been a beautiful music format on FM that was running voicetracked programming much earlier.

 

[radioeye]

KHFI used the Top 40 Drake-Shanault automation system back in the early 70's. KASE was also automated with voice overs as I recall.

 

[fredcantu]

Drake never used VT. The generic announcer was right on the tape with the music.

 

[radioeye]

Drake never used VT. The generic announcer was right on the tape with the music.

When I worked there, the music was on one tape and the announcer was on another as I remeber it. It had been 30 years ago since I worked there. so my memory could be skewed a bit. Neverthelss, it was not customized in the classic VT sense.

 

[fredcantu]

It may have been another service. I worked at KRIO in McAllen when they ran a similar format in the late 1970s. The original setup was syndicated... but had folded. So they winged it on their own using DJs from Houston to voice track the shows. One 5-inch reel of tape at 3-3/4 speed was enough for a 4-5 hour show. The system was ingeniously simple. If the jock was hitting a commercial break he just recorded a 25 Hz tone at the end of his bit. The tone would trip the automation and the VT would cue up to the next cut. It the jock was going to talk over a record intro (he was provded with titles and timing) he would just hold the tone button down while he talked and the music would come up under him until he let go of the button. Considering that all this was done with the same equipment that easy listenening stations used for much simpler formats... it was a marvel that it worked.

BTW-- the output of the system filtered out the 25 Hz tone so we wouldn't subject the listeners to it... although in a time before subwoofers this was not really a problem.

I'm trying to remember some of the jocks we had doing VT for KRIO: Kenny Miles (Miles in the Morning,) Jason Williams?, CC McCartney ''the Mad Mugger.'' TK the King (Melvin Benford) was PD at KRIO and VTed from time to time.