What Happened to Intelligence & Thought in Radio

[mailman ron]

I don't listen to the radio for music....I have 37 CD's full of my favorite tunes for that...Since I listen for about 7 hours a day while delivering the mail, I want some entertaining "talk' radio....there is little in Las Vegas...my old favorite was Glenn Beck, who used to be very funny and entertaining but smart and thoughtful too....Since he started his TV show on MSNBC, he's gotten more serious and "issue-orientated" and isn't that fun anymore...My favorites are Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty out of Sacramento...you can download their previous day's show at either KNEW or KSTE's websites...they're funny, informative and play well off each other....As I have written in the past, I was on KORK-Las Vegas back in the late 70's-early 80's when "personality radio" was still in vogue- Red McIlvaine, Walt Reno, (before he was "Country") Chuck Manning...It took humor and intelligence to be on the air then...I wasn't that great, but I had fun on the air and with the callers...It seems to take 2 people to make this work today, and even then the hosts I've heard here in Las Vegas are simply amateurish...Allan Stock was on the radio in Santa Rosa where I worked which is a small market not even heard in San Francisco and the "quality" was what you'd expect from small-town radio...But Vegas shouldn't be small-time radio anymore...With all the entertainment available here, it should be a big-time radio player...The "sports-talk" stations are geared to 18 year olds and seemingly pound one subject for hours...try KNBR from 4-7pm and hear interesting sports talk...I'm not trying to be the Bay Area guy putting down Vegas radio, but the quality issue is what bothers me. I can only compare it to what I've been listening to for 20 years. Vegas radio in the 70's and 80's was pretty good quality for what was then a small market...What happened?...Will "personality radio" ever come back or are the listeners too immature or dense to understand humor and play-on-words nowadays?..I want Vegas radio to be entertaining and informative and "local" really...I'd listen 7 hours a day if it was. I think the corporations and syndication have killed any originality in local radio here.

 

[smedge2006]

If we accept that radio talent is dumbed down today, why is that so?

Perhaps the more intelligent talents have figured out that consolidation, a dwindling job market, one-sided contracts, and ham-handed management that is always ready to sacrifice the talent to save its own skin
is not the best place to be. Thus having a Darwinian effect on the talent pool...

 

[mailman ron]

Good call, smedge...but I think people don't seem to want talk or entertainment from radio. The hard-core talk(Limbaugh,Savage,Hannity) has an audience but it certainly isn't "fun" or "entertainment"...What passes for "fun" now are "Morning Zoo" types and the Howard Stern's of radio which are an insult to your intelligence..Have you heard the audio of the morning show from Sacramento where the woman died from drinking 2 gallons of water? I'm not blaming them for her death, but it's that mentality that is being put out as "entertainment"...I guess radio is giving people what they want, which doesn't say much about us...I mean, 35 million watch American Idol to watch people with zero talent and some that could almost be considered handicapped make not only fools of themselves but are publically humiliated by Paula,Randy, & Simon...The conceded ones deserve it, but not the emotionally unstable...And you know they were only put through to the TV night in order to be humiliated...Radio reflects our depth, and it's shallow in that end of the pool.It took me hours of preparation each day to do my "spontaneous" and "off the top of my head" stuff on KORK. It's nearly impossible to "wing it" especially by yourself and I don't know if radio executives are savvy enough to do or understand "personality" radio again...It requires too much thought, by the executives..the talent...and the audience. I don't know if anyone under 40 is capable of that nowadays.

 

[mailman ron]

Thought more about "under 40" comment in last line...Don't think age has anything to do with capability to be both entertained and inform, or as Armstrong & Getty say, "entormed". As a society, we're geared now to sound bites, insults and mockery. We aim for the lowest common denominator and constantly hit it because it's easier to be rude & crude than intelligently entertaining.....So, question.....Is there a web site that lists the various podcasts of radio shows across the nation?

 

[smedge2006]

Thought more about "under 40" comment in last line...Don't think age has anything to do with capability to be both entertained and inform, or as Armstrong & Getty say, "entormed".

No. But it does provide one handicap. No format has ever been developed for 18-39 men that isn't brain-dead.
Progressive rock radio of the 70s wasn't stupid, at least until the Superstars format came along. But since about the mid-80's, all morning radio aimed at men under 40 has been moronic to one extent or another.