WBZH

[kenhawk1160]

Ken... It's not that WBZH/WPAZ couldn't find anyone to sell what they were putting on the air (which everyone now thinks is alternative etc. It wasn't... especially when they first came back. Then, it was local news, MOR, afternoon local talk, etc. Indie and local music came later).

It's just that the initial sales staff, which eventually went away, was as volunteer as the rest of the staff. I don't know this for a fact, but that's what it seemed like.

Too bad.

All the more reason to stand by my argument to leave the radio business to radio business people.

 

[klutch00]

There appears to be an ongoing theme on this board that Alternative Rock does not work on AM. I suppose the reasoning behind this is that most young people listen to FM instead of AM. With that reasoning would someone please explain Radio Disney?

With Radio Disney, you're catering to a pre-teen market that may not care about radio all that much...yet. The real question is can you retain ANY of that audience once said individuals enter their teens?

I think the point is if no stations are airing Alternative Rock in a market then why not try it on AM? When WCHE flipped to Alternative Rock no other stations were airing that format. WDRE and Y100 were both gone so why not try to fill that void?

One other argument is that Alternative Rock sounds better on FM. Do you know what else sounds better on FM? EVERYTHING! Unfortunately there are a limited number of frequencies on the dial so AM is still useful.

You have a point. If you're able to get people to go out of their ways to flip their bandswitches over, great! The question is how many of them will do this, can you draw in enough of an audience for your efforts to be viable, and can your facility blanket enough of your target audience with a decent enough signal? You claim that "EVERYTHING" sounds better on FM and you're correct. The issue is that with non-music formats, it's less of a factor; although even that's changing in some respects.

I think that AM should consider several factors such as a high-quality ANALOG transmission standard and a quality AM stereo transmission standard.

I think the biggest problem today is that six corporations own ninety percent of the media. How many times does one have to hear "Mrs. Robinson" as opposed to a song by Soul Coughing?

Sincerely,
Randy Dascher
www.randydascher.com

It's downright ludicrous that the media oligarchy is as big as it is! Moreover, too many of the smaller AM stations (and maybe some small FMs, too) are IMNSHO overvalued; some grossly so! Why these stations are being bought and operated by these oversized corporations is beyond me!

 

[wcradio2]

Leave 'radio business' to business people... sure, on the revenue side. But leave it to 'radio business people'? Sorry man, those people are the ones killing radio. Unless you want nothing but force fed Justin Bieber or oldies etc. Same old business model making way for less and less choice.
But by all means, please suggest programming more Music For The End Of Your Life and brokered colon cleanse. I think these tired 'ideas' will merely perpetuate the continued downward spiral of entertaining radio.
But, I'm glad you think it's working and radio is improving. I prefer the blueberry flavored Kool-aid myself...

 

[amfmsw]

wcr...well, we see how well it worked when NON-radio people went at it...now it's dark, everyone's out of work, the community lost a voice alltogther, and the station is lost. You can't freestyle a format. You need to have discipline and a plan, and enforce it. Tweak whn necessary. I too hate 350 song rotations, but 1370 took it to the other extreme. It was like the Wild West, college radio of the late '60's...on noisy, muddy, narrowband AM in the 21st Century no less. Online listening was plagued by 180 degree put of phase audio....thin, cancelled bass. I was really rootin' for them, having cut my own teeth there some 40 years ago. But I saw the train coming off the rails from the start when they changed the heritage calls.

 

[wcradio2]

amfmsw, I absolutely agree with you about the heritage calls.

 

[RandyDascher]

It's downright ludicrous that the media oligarchy is as big as it is! Moreover, too many of the smaller AM stations (and maybe some small FMs, too) are IMNSHO overvalued; some grossly so! Why these stations are being bought and operated by these oversized corporations is beyond me!

It's a scary world we live in when one of the biggest media corporations is owned by the same company that produces a large share of the jet engines used by the military. I can't name one anti-war personality in the main steam media other than Phil Donahue who was fired from MSNBC nearly ten years ago.

 

[amfmsw]

RD: If you're referring to GE owning NBC, those days are gone. First, GE makes commercial engines and aircraft. Nonetheless, GE sold NBC/Universal off to Comcast over a year ago. They own it, and CH 10 and the NBC TV stations nationwide now. As well as CNBC, MSNBC, NBC, NBC Sports, NBC Radio News, Universal Television Distribution (MCA), Universal Film Library, TWC and various other cable networks. Comcast is a BIG company. Cable is just a distribution arm for their product now. They've come a long way from when they bought our the Lenfest family and Suburban cable, or when the dad gave away a set of pots and pans to the housewife if she let him hook up the house to the CATV!

 

[RandyDascher]

According to Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt, Comcast owns 51 percent of NBC and General Electric owns 49 percent. According to a Yahoo News story dated December 7th, 2012 titled 'New U.S. Defense Contract for GE', it states "GE Aviation, a division of GE is the world's leading producer of large and small jet engines for commercial and military aircrafts." Here's the link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-defense-contract-ge-220903616.html

 

[Bill_W]

According to Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt, Comcast owns 51 percent of NBC and General Electric owns 49 percent. According to a Yahoo News story dated December 7th, 2012 titled 'New U.S. Defense Contract for GE', it states "GE Aviation, a division of GE is the world's leading producer of large and small jet engines for commercial and military aircrafts." Here's the link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-defense-contract-ge-220903616.html

Comcast does own 51% and thus controls NBC-Universal. GE does still own 49% and does not control the company anymore. I understand over time, GE will sell the other 49% to Comcast.

 

[kenhawk1160]

wcr...well, we see how well it worked when NON-radio people went at it...now it's dark, everyone's out of work, the community lost a voice alltogther, and the station is lost. You can't freestyle a format. You need to have discipline and a plan, and enforce it. Tweak whn necessary. I too hate 350 song rotations, but 1370 took it to the other extreme. It was like the Wild West, college radio of the late '60's...on noisy, muddy, narrowband AM in the 21st Century no less. Online listening was plagued by 180 degree put of phase audio....thin, cancelled bass. I was really rootin' for them, having cut my own teeth there some 40 years ago. But I saw the train coming off the rails from the start when they changed the heritage calls.

Well put, sir.

 

[klutch00]

It's downright ludicrous that the media oligarchy is as big as it is! Moreover, too many of the smaller AM stations (and maybe some small FMs, too) are IMNSHO overvalued; some grossly so! Why these stations are being bought and operated by these oversized corporations is beyond me!

It's a scary world we live in when one of the biggest media corporations is owned by the same company that produces a large share of the jet engines used by the military. I can't name one anti-war personality in the main steam media other than Phil Donahue who was fired from MSNBC nearly ten years ago.

He's probably not what anyone would call 'mainstream', but the late Ron Smith who was on Baltimore's WBAL from 1985 until just before his death in 2011 opposed the war; and he was not a 'leftist'!

Oh, and call me someone who's 'cheap', but when I said some smaller AMs were overvalued, I think that the decimal point could be moved one spot to the left with some of those operations!