Please. I'm not at all defending the print reporters who for decades have fumbled basic radio factoids in stories **meant for laypeople** but come on. "Veteran PD" is being quite picky for pickiness' sake here. First off, I don't think I've heard **anyone** use the phrases "platter chatter" or "disc spinner" in some time-- but so what? Do you people not refer to today's remaining liner-card readers as "DJs" or "disc jockeys" anymore? And many of us still refer to "taping" programs and playing "records." The English language is full of vernacular that doesn't quite "fit" anymore, yet remains thanks to tradition.
As far as getting station histories wrong, radio people have a lot of nerve to talk. Not speaking of anyone specifically, but I've seen some of the absolute most-mangled broadcast "histories" run by radio people and enthusiasts-- people who should know a lot better than some newspaper reporter who writes about hundreds of different subject matters a month. The only source I've seen that consistently gets it right is run by the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia.
But here's the saddest part of what I just read here-- some of you people still think regular, non-radio people (i.e. folks who will go the rest of their entire lives without ever seeing this message board) actually give a damn about this stuff. Most under the age of 25 don't even know what call letters are. And the few younger people now in broadcasting are not now, nor will ever be radio geeks. I've on at least two occasions had to explain to full-time, on-air radio station employees what a transmitter was.
As for 102.7, if you'd offered me a million dollars right now I couldn't tell you what the call letters are these days. Last I knew or cared, it was WJSE. If it is or isn't something else now, that's news to me. Heck, I couldn't even tell you what the New York one is now. I do know it's no longer WNEW-FM. Point is, who cares?
Interestingly, I don't notice glaring errors in print articles with regard to broadcast-related stuff when the subject is television instead of radio. What does that tell you?
