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What do you think of this?
- Thread starter zams
- Start date
J
JohnnyMorganWXJX
Guest
> From FMQB:
>
> The NHL has returned and was that hockey fan Alex Tear in
> Pittsburgh checking out new hockey sensation Sidney Crosby?
> And while in the Steel City, could Tear be heading for a
> face-off with Clear Channel's Kiss? Worth watching!
>
I don't follow. What kind of face-off? Kiss has no competition, head-to-head.
>
> The NHL has returned and was that hockey fan Alex Tear in
> Pittsburgh checking out new hockey sensation Sidney Crosby?
> And while in the Steel City, could Tear be heading for a
> face-off with Clear Channel's Kiss? Worth watching!
>
I don't follow. What kind of face-off? Kiss has no competition, head-to-head.
R
Radio_Realist
Guest
> > From FMQB:
> >
> > The NHL has returned and was that hockey fan Alex Tear in
> > Pittsburgh checking out new hockey sensation Sidney
> Crosby?
> > And while in the Steel City, could Tear be heading for a
> > face-off with Clear Channel's Kiss? Worth watching!
> >
>
> I don't follow. What kind of face-off? Kiss has no
> competition, head-to-head.
I suspect that he is implying that some station in town will soon be changing formats in order to go head-to-head with Kiss.
I don't know about you, but I find "teaser" thread launches almost as irritating as "story at 11" teasers for news stories on TV. If this guy knows some inside information, he should just say it. That is, unless this is some sort of trial balloon or an attempt at stirring up a rumor.
> >
> > The NHL has returned and was that hockey fan Alex Tear in
> > Pittsburgh checking out new hockey sensation Sidney
> Crosby?
> > And while in the Steel City, could Tear be heading for a
> > face-off with Clear Channel's Kiss? Worth watching!
> >
>
> I don't follow. What kind of face-off? Kiss has no
> competition, head-to-head.
I suspect that he is implying that some station in town will soon be changing formats in order to go head-to-head with Kiss.
I don't know about you, but I find "teaser" thread launches almost as irritating as "story at 11" teasers for news stories on TV. If this guy knows some inside information, he should just say it. That is, unless this is some sort of trial balloon or an attempt at stirring up a rumor.
J
JohnnyMorganWXJX
Guest
> > > From FMQB:
> > >
> > > The NHL has returned and was that hockey fan Alex Tear
> in
> > > Pittsburgh checking out new hockey sensation Sidney
> > Crosby?
> > > And while in the Steel City, could Tear be heading for a
>
> > > face-off with Clear Channel's Kiss? Worth watching!
> > >
> >
> > I don't follow. What kind of face-off? Kiss has no
> > competition, head-to-head.
>
> I suspect that he is implying that some station in town will
> soon be changing formats in order to go head-to-head with
> Kiss.
I've never even heard of this Tear guy.
> I don't know about you, but I find "teaser" thread launches
> almost as irritating as "story at 11" teasers for news
> stories on TV. If this guy knows some inside information, he
> should just say it. That is, unless this is some sort of
> trial balloon or an attempt at stirring up a rumor.
>
I agree. Spill it. If it's secret info you possess, stay the hell off the board anyway!
> > >
> > > The NHL has returned and was that hockey fan Alex Tear
> in
> > > Pittsburgh checking out new hockey sensation Sidney
> > Crosby?
> > > And while in the Steel City, could Tear be heading for a
>
> > > face-off with Clear Channel's Kiss? Worth watching!
> > >
> >
> > I don't follow. What kind of face-off? Kiss has no
> > competition, head-to-head.
>
> I suspect that he is implying that some station in town will
> soon be changing formats in order to go head-to-head with
> Kiss.
I've never even heard of this Tear guy.
> I don't know about you, but I find "teaser" thread launches
> almost as irritating as "story at 11" teasers for news
> stories on TV. If this guy knows some inside information, he
> should just say it. That is, unless this is some sort of
> trial balloon or an attempt at stirring up a rumor.
>
I agree. Spill it. If it's secret info you possess, stay the hell off the board anyway!
I didn't come up with this information on my own. I am only stating what I saw on FMQB.com and wanted to see if anyone here had any idea what this means. The orginial post was actually word for word from the FMQB site, not from me.
BTW...Alex Tear is a veteran programmer who was in Detroit for years.
BTW...Alex Tear is a veteran programmer who was in Detroit for years.
J
JohnnyMorganWXJX
Guest
> I didn't come up with this information on my own. I am only
> stating what I saw on FMQB.com and wanted to see if anyone
> here had any idea what this means. The orginial post was
> actually word for word from the FMQB site, not from me.
>
> BTW...Alex Tear is a veteran programmer who was in Detroit
> for years.
>
Still no clue, but no matter.
What, exactly, would he program? Does FMQB have an answer for that?
> stating what I saw on FMQB.com and wanted to see if anyone
> here had any idea what this means. The orginial post was
> actually word for word from the FMQB site, not from me.
>
> BTW...Alex Tear is a veteran programmer who was in Detroit
> for years.
>
Still no clue, but no matter.
What, exactly, would he program? Does FMQB have an answer for that?
> > I didn't come up with this information on my own. I am
> only
> > stating what I saw on FMQB.com and wanted to see if anyone
>
> > here had any idea what this means. The orginial post was
> > actually word for word from the FMQB site, not from me.
> >
> > BTW...Alex Tear is a veteran programmer who was in Detroit
>
> > for years.
> >
>
> Still no clue, but no matter.
>
> What, exactly, would he program? Does FMQB have an answer
> for that?
>
'DRQ programmer retools FM winner
April 15, 2002
BY JOHN SMYNTEK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Conjure up, if you will, a very hip contemporary version of yesteryear's Professor Harold Hill, the title character from the classic Broadway musical "The Music Man."
Alex Tear
Age: 35
Geography: Born in Pontiac; lives in Harper Woods.
Personal: Single but attached to unnamed "lovely girlfriend."
Education: 1988 graduate of Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts, Southfield.
Professional: 1988-95, radio jobs in Cadillac, Lansing, Charlevoix, Grand Rapids; 1995-98, music director at WPLT-FM (now WDVD-FM, 96.3), Detroit; 1998-present, program director, WDRQ-FM (93.1).
Poof. Why, it's Alex Tear (pronounced TEER), program director of Detroit contemporary hits station WDRQ-FM (93.1).
Parallels? The fictional Hill spread the love of music in small-town America by developing boy bands that kept turn-of-the-20th-Century kids out of pool halls. The real Tear, 35, spreads the love of music by playing boy bands (and other music, to be sure) on the radio, right here in this river city.
Doggedly but without much fanfare outside the industry, Tear, according to Ann Arbor-based radio analyst Lou Kasman, "has crystalized the 'DRQ brand and focused well on the target market, which has resulted in a ratings renaissance for the station. It's a quality product."
Local music mogul Brian Pastoria chimes in: "I do commend him about what he's done at WDRQ." Macomb-based radio consultant Jimmy Risk says Tear has "really come into his own in the past 18 months."
Tear arrived at WDRQ four years ago and has retooled the station from a so-called rhythmic dance format into a mostly relentless player of today's hits: 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Pink, Destiny's Child and more. In the most recent Arbitrend ratings, he zapped WKQI-FM (95.5) among all listeners by a 4.2- to 3.1-percent margin.
His equation for victory? "Music is a priority," he says. "It's 20 percent personality, 70 percent music and 10 percent promotion." And he does it with only 35 recordings on his playlist.
When his radio day is done, many of his nights are spent at big touring road shows and at local clubs and bistros, endlessly evaluating the musical vibes of the moment.
Contemporary-hits radio is often the most ferocious of listener battlefields because, Tear says, "you try to mirror pop culture. If you grab youth, you can grab advertising dollars. It's a very fast-paced format. If you don't stay a couple steps ahead, you're in trouble."
But, just as Professor Hill warned, there's trouble, trouble, trouble:
Tear is being tarred along with other contemporary radio execs by the latest accusations of how stations pick what they play. It's an arcane and financially dark world of middlemen who allegedly bankroll promotions and buy airtime with giveaways. The new communications conglomerates, eager to get added revenue, go along. Congress could intervene.
Tear is involved in a bitter competition with WKQI, a similarly formatted station owned by broadcasting behemoth Clear Channel. Clear Channel has vowed to use its radio stations and advertising, concert promoters, billboards and now a new computer music distribution system that's trying to replace Napster to fundamentally change the way radio operates. Tear's WDRQ-FM is owned by Disney, a large media player but not as corporately aggressive as Clear Channel.
There are financial pressures from a prolonged ad slump and increased competition for the smaller total number of listeners in the age 18- to 34-year-old audience Tear is paid to mesmerize. Then there's the 14-percent national decline of radio listening in general -- from 22 hours to 19 hours a week in the last 12 years.
Technical breakthroughs also allow Clear Channel to save millions. Personalities can host shows in multiple markets, with their recorded voices spliced in seamlessly as if they were live on the air. Then there's tough-to-win synchronized national contests for millions of listeners.
Here are Tear's volleys on the hard radio serves coming his way:
On being local: "We can talk radio-speak all day long, but on the other side of the speakers all they want is compelling product. And we offer local DJs, local programming, local promotion, instead of what the opposition does. I don't know if that can be defended.
"I think localizing your winning is important . . . that's part of the fun of listening to your favorite radio station."
On coexisting with Clear Channel, which promotes the majority of area concerts, for radio station promotions: "I have to tell you Clear Channel Entertainment has been cooperative on every show. We always get what we need."
On picking what's played: "The fact is the listeners dictate to us what we play, through e-mail, listener phone research and recording sales. This is really the people's radio station."
Every Thursday, Tear, music director Keith Curry and assistant programmer and morning host Jay Towers sit down with up to 15 label representatives. "I view ourselves as Kmart: They want to stack our shelves with their products." The right songs make people listen to the station and the listeners will be enticed to buy recordings and-or go to concerts and patronize WDRQ advertisers. Tear maintains his reputation as a national radio music savant and the station's solid ratings allow the 'DRQ Gang of Three "to be very selective. What am I going to play that makes somebody tune in?"
Tear maintains that a decision on a new artist like Craig David or Pink, he says, is always based on the sound of the recording. As to leverage from the labels, Tear says because WDRQ "has all the tools" for making independent play decisions, "we don't need to" make music picks based on promotional muscle.
On congressional rumbling: "It's a scary thing when you have a company that big (Clear Channel) that can keep things on or off the radio. I would like to see somebody step in and step up to make sure that the playing field is equal."
From the Detroit FREE PRESS
> only
> > stating what I saw on FMQB.com and wanted to see if anyone
>
> > here had any idea what this means. The orginial post was
> > actually word for word from the FMQB site, not from me.
> >
> > BTW...Alex Tear is a veteran programmer who was in Detroit
>
> > for years.
> >
>
> Still no clue, but no matter.
>
> What, exactly, would he program? Does FMQB have an answer
> for that?
>
'DRQ programmer retools FM winner
April 15, 2002
BY JOHN SMYNTEK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Conjure up, if you will, a very hip contemporary version of yesteryear's Professor Harold Hill, the title character from the classic Broadway musical "The Music Man."
Alex Tear
Age: 35
Geography: Born in Pontiac; lives in Harper Woods.
Personal: Single but attached to unnamed "lovely girlfriend."
Education: 1988 graduate of Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts, Southfield.
Professional: 1988-95, radio jobs in Cadillac, Lansing, Charlevoix, Grand Rapids; 1995-98, music director at WPLT-FM (now WDVD-FM, 96.3), Detroit; 1998-present, program director, WDRQ-FM (93.1).
Poof. Why, it's Alex Tear (pronounced TEER), program director of Detroit contemporary hits station WDRQ-FM (93.1).
Parallels? The fictional Hill spread the love of music in small-town America by developing boy bands that kept turn-of-the-20th-Century kids out of pool halls. The real Tear, 35, spreads the love of music by playing boy bands (and other music, to be sure) on the radio, right here in this river city.
Doggedly but without much fanfare outside the industry, Tear, according to Ann Arbor-based radio analyst Lou Kasman, "has crystalized the 'DRQ brand and focused well on the target market, which has resulted in a ratings renaissance for the station. It's a quality product."
Local music mogul Brian Pastoria chimes in: "I do commend him about what he's done at WDRQ." Macomb-based radio consultant Jimmy Risk says Tear has "really come into his own in the past 18 months."
Tear arrived at WDRQ four years ago and has retooled the station from a so-called rhythmic dance format into a mostly relentless player of today's hits: 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Pink, Destiny's Child and more. In the most recent Arbitrend ratings, he zapped WKQI-FM (95.5) among all listeners by a 4.2- to 3.1-percent margin.
His equation for victory? "Music is a priority," he says. "It's 20 percent personality, 70 percent music and 10 percent promotion." And he does it with only 35 recordings on his playlist.
When his radio day is done, many of his nights are spent at big touring road shows and at local clubs and bistros, endlessly evaluating the musical vibes of the moment.
Contemporary-hits radio is often the most ferocious of listener battlefields because, Tear says, "you try to mirror pop culture. If you grab youth, you can grab advertising dollars. It's a very fast-paced format. If you don't stay a couple steps ahead, you're in trouble."
But, just as Professor Hill warned, there's trouble, trouble, trouble:
Tear is being tarred along with other contemporary radio execs by the latest accusations of how stations pick what they play. It's an arcane and financially dark world of middlemen who allegedly bankroll promotions and buy airtime with giveaways. The new communications conglomerates, eager to get added revenue, go along. Congress could intervene.
Tear is involved in a bitter competition with WKQI, a similarly formatted station owned by broadcasting behemoth Clear Channel. Clear Channel has vowed to use its radio stations and advertising, concert promoters, billboards and now a new computer music distribution system that's trying to replace Napster to fundamentally change the way radio operates. Tear's WDRQ-FM is owned by Disney, a large media player but not as corporately aggressive as Clear Channel.
There are financial pressures from a prolonged ad slump and increased competition for the smaller total number of listeners in the age 18- to 34-year-old audience Tear is paid to mesmerize. Then there's the 14-percent national decline of radio listening in general -- from 22 hours to 19 hours a week in the last 12 years.
Technical breakthroughs also allow Clear Channel to save millions. Personalities can host shows in multiple markets, with their recorded voices spliced in seamlessly as if they were live on the air. Then there's tough-to-win synchronized national contests for millions of listeners.
Here are Tear's volleys on the hard radio serves coming his way:
On being local: "We can talk radio-speak all day long, but on the other side of the speakers all they want is compelling product. And we offer local DJs, local programming, local promotion, instead of what the opposition does. I don't know if that can be defended.
"I think localizing your winning is important . . . that's part of the fun of listening to your favorite radio station."
On coexisting with Clear Channel, which promotes the majority of area concerts, for radio station promotions: "I have to tell you Clear Channel Entertainment has been cooperative on every show. We always get what we need."
On picking what's played: "The fact is the listeners dictate to us what we play, through e-mail, listener phone research and recording sales. This is really the people's radio station."
Every Thursday, Tear, music director Keith Curry and assistant programmer and morning host Jay Towers sit down with up to 15 label representatives. "I view ourselves as Kmart: They want to stack our shelves with their products." The right songs make people listen to the station and the listeners will be enticed to buy recordings and-or go to concerts and patronize WDRQ advertisers. Tear maintains his reputation as a national radio music savant and the station's solid ratings allow the 'DRQ Gang of Three "to be very selective. What am I going to play that makes somebody tune in?"
Tear maintains that a decision on a new artist like Craig David or Pink, he says, is always based on the sound of the recording. As to leverage from the labels, Tear says because WDRQ "has all the tools" for making independent play decisions, "we don't need to" make music picks based on promotional muscle.
On congressional rumbling: "It's a scary thing when you have a company that big (Clear Channel) that can keep things on or off the radio. I would like to see somebody step in and step up to make sure that the playing field is equal."
From the Detroit FREE PRESS
J
JohnnyMorganWXJX
Guest
> > What, exactly, would he program? Does FMQB have an answer
>
> > for that?
> >
>
>
>
> 'DRQ programmer retools FM winner
> April 15, 2002
[article omitted]
Impressive. He's had alot of success, but it is all Michigan.
Now, I'm not one to poo-poo outsiders, but he BETTER do his homework. Pittsburgh is in no ways the same as Detroit (or any other place in Michigan). If he comes here (and again, if), he cannot just plug in his Michigan format and sit back. 'Burghers will not accept it that easily.
And that's if he has a place to put the format. What's available?
>
> > for that?
> >
>
>
>
> 'DRQ programmer retools FM winner
> April 15, 2002
[article omitted]
Impressive. He's had alot of success, but it is all Michigan.
Now, I'm not one to poo-poo outsiders, but he BETTER do his homework. Pittsburgh is in no ways the same as Detroit (or any other place in Michigan). If he comes here (and again, if), he cannot just plug in his Michigan format and sit back. 'Burghers will not accept it that easily.
And that's if he has a place to put the format. What's available?
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