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Buffalo WBEN... 5 years later

I'd rather read a post on Mark Leitner and his career than all this blather about the current state of WBEN and more self-promotion by our resident self-made owner. News across the board has been diluted as much as the talent presenting it. The pursuit of facts has taken a back seat to the pursuit of fame, and and/or notoriety simply because notoriety pays better. First, fast, and sensational replaced first, fast, and factual a long time ago. If you want the source of the political divide in this country, you'll find it in a media that provides instant gratification to vocal political minorities instead of factual reporting.
 
SirRoxalot said:
I'd rather read a post on Mark Leitner and his career than all this blather about the current state of WBEN and more self-promotion by our resident self-made owner. News across the board has been diluted as much as the talent presenting it. The pursuit of facts has taken a back seat to the pursuit of fame, and and/or notoriety simply because notoriety pays better. First, fast, and sensational replaced first, fast, and factual a long time ago. If you want the source of the political divide in this country, you'll find it in a media that provides instant gratification to vocal political minorities instead of factual reporting.
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Go read something else then. No one is forcing you to read
 
flybynight said:
Most understand that here, as being on-air lends itself to widespread criticism. Comes with the territory. Radio talent standards are significantly lower than years past.

And while plenty of successful talent has come from college radio, many college on-air types were harder to train than somebody off the street, as they tended to have bad habits that did not jive with commercial radio. Low energy levels and not running a tight board were big ones. Easier to start with a fresh lump of clay than trying to undo bad habits.
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When I started in broadcasting in the late '60's, pros took the time to train and advise me on how to read the news and live spots. I don't see that happening today...I could be wrong.
 
Long Time RadioFan said:
When I started in broadcasting in the late '60's, pros took the time to train and advise me on how to read the news and live spots. I don't see that happening today...I could be wrong.
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I've taken a high school student who never gave radio thought into a very capable young man who i would reccommend for a part time job in the lower 48 in a heartbeat. Hes got a little ways to go to be full time, but he could do it, if thats what he wanted
 
Long Time RadioFan said:
When I started in broadcasting in the late '60's, pros took the time to train and advise me on how to read the news and live spots. I don't see that happening today...I could be wrong.
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The system has moved outside of the station. Today there are hundreds of pros who specialize in talent coaching. This has its basis with Frank Magid in the 1970s. Magid was involved in the creation of a more aggressive news style at ABC. That was 50 years ago. Today everybody has access to that kind of coaching and teaching. The big radio companies have their own internal consultants who advice management on things. But if individuals want help or training in how to do their jobs, there are lots of ways to do it.

Randy Lane is an example of today's talent coach:

radioink.com

Randy Lane, Author at Radio Ink

radioink.com radioink.com
 
There are precious few young people in the pipeline. Most of the people who have any interest in radio are oriented toward sports broadcasting, which they see as a more viable path in the future. It'll be very hard to automate or use AI for play-by-play or sports talk. Otherwise, they're more interested in video platforms like Tik Tok and YouTube. There's also a limited amount of coaching going on at the college level, where enrollments are down and very few students react well to criticism whether it's constructive or not. With that said, I'd still rather hear a live voice than AI or VT when timeliness makes a difference.
 


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