• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

What happened to the passion of our craft?

D

DaveCrockett

Guest
I used to get pretty upset with some of the opinions on this board, and not just the ones critical of me. But I started to look at the posts differently. When I read the boards I see a lot of passion for radio from people outside the industry. There is a lot of Roula and Ryan bashing, Cumulus bashing, Pat Fant bashing, Clear Channel bashing and the bashing of radio in general. But I love the fact that almost everyone on this board is fanatical about broadcasting and has an opinion on it! I hate the fact that most broadcasters who post here have to do so anonymously because “big brother” is watching them… but that’s another topic all together.

It’s no secret radio used to be a lot more fun than it is today. Sure we would get in trouble for saying something on the air or doing something in the conference room after hours. We would even get suspended for going over the line. But it was expected behavior from air personalities to be a little bit crazy. That’s why we were hired in the first place. It was that energy that gave radio its personality. As irresponsible as we were allowed to be in the “good old days”, were we passionate about our station and our craft. We would have impromptu air-check parties at somebody’s house on a Saturday night. We’d kill a case or more of beer while harshly critiquing each other’s work while laughing at mistakes like dead air or live copy gone wrong… it made us better jocks. You hated looking bad to your peers!

I have been running my production company for about 5 years and recently started shopping myself around. A programmer emailed me last week and told me he loved my work. He was from the old school too. But he told me the reason I am going to have a hard time finding a gig is because companies want to hire “DJ’s, not Personalities.” It’s easy to see where the passion has gone. Maybe I just suck. I can’t remember the last time I sat down with a bunch of buddies and went though airchecks. After 30 years of being on the air I have to believe I know what I’m doing. I guess I’m just too passionate about airing compelling radio instead of crap.

So what was the point of this post. Just to tell the posters that I respect their passion and wish radio had more to offer them so they could talk about what makes a radio station or jock great rather what makes the industry bad.

Your thoughts?

Dave E. Crockett
www.avnetproductions.com
www.daveecrockett.com
 
Dave E. Crockett said:
It’s no secret radio used to be a lot more fun than it is today. Sure we would get in trouble for saying something on the air or doing something in the conference room after hours. We would even get suspended for going over the line. But it was expected behavior from air personalities to be a little bit crazy. That’s why we were hired in the first place. It was that energy that gave radio its personality. As irresponsible as we were allowed to be in the “good old days”, were we passionate about our station and our craft. We would have impromptu air-check parties at somebody’s house on a Saturday night. We’d kill a case or more of beer while harshly critiquing each other’s work while laughing at mistakes like dead air or live copy gone wrong… it made us better jocks. You hated looking bad to your peers!
Click to expand...

Dave, you are so correct. What radio has lost, for the most part, is personality. I hear hints of it at times, but many of the stations are very controlled in what is allowed to the point of squashing any creativity. Give the listeners the prescribed "formula" which has been derived in some far-off city seems to be the order of the day. Part of this is due to the lack of local ownership of the stations, something that will not return anytime soon. There are some people still in radio who can add personality to a station - if the management will let them.
 
Does passion mean infantile jokes about someone's personal appearance? I am a listener and if what I have read is passion, then your business deserves to DIE! A bunch of petty whining babies who hide behind an alias because they are either jealous or a talentless programmer/producer?? who spends too much time posting nasty comments.
 
Dave, an excellent post and well framed...let's face it, with the exception of a few major markets. the personality radio of the 60s and 70s we grew up with just won't work anymore. The days of a single dominant station catering to a mass general audience when AM was king was magical...with the listening options limited and without the competition of 100 diifferent other sources from satellite radio, the internet, 500 cable channels and the like...and with the listening audience today so splintered both ethnically and by gender, the whole dynamic has changed. Use to be, you could go to the beach and every radio out there echoed the same station. Replicable cookie-cutter formats and the ability to voice-track 4 shows with one hired hand make the bottom line look good and the shareholders happy at the expense of quality and personality...meanwhile, the listening public just accepts what they get and the young folks of today will never know what they missed re: personality radio by being "born too late..."

Harold Levine
Program Director
Radio Bop
radiobop.com
50s and 60s Rock 'n Roll without the 70s!
 
I see it differently. Hopefully others see this too.

I think they are frustrated because many have spent years developing themselves for their target audiences only to have all that work hamstrung.
Hamstrung by the big business micromanagement process. Holding them in safe zones both in musical selection and on the mike. Holding them to the unspoken threat that if they get fired, about half of the available gigs in the country have the same HR department.

Imagine crafting the finest guitars from the finest rosewood and other materials. Being able to move from shop to shop on your reputation and the quality of your personal effort. Now imagine two or three companies suddenly owning all the shops and providing only green pine and a dull saw.

They know the listening (and paying) folks are dissatisfied with their output. They are bitter because they know they can't do their personal best. The current condition of the industry just won't allow it.
This isn't just radio. It's in a lot of other industries.
 
Now that's a post that makes sense. I can understand the frustration you folks in the business are feeling. Like you said, it's happening in other industries, even the one I'm in.

There are still good radio personalities out there. Leslie T is one of the best on Houston radio IMO. She makes it a point to become part of the music scene that her station represents. She know it forwards and backwards.

As much as other people here don't like Wendy Miller, she's the same way.

This is just my opinion of course.
 
Kudos on this thread. Dave E is absolutely correct and I agree with the assessment of the business. With satellite, Internet and thousands of other choices besides radio, the old days are indeed just memories. Playing to the stockholders instead of the listeners is ruling the roost now and forever. Dave, personalities like you are what made radio great. I used you years ago for a quick TV spot I made for a local TV station and you could not have been more professional and courteous. My suggestion and advice to those great personalilties and disgruntled sales people and managers is to take that talent to the Internet. Talent travels well and I have found that devotion and drive will be with you no matter where you are. Look what has happened to radio and TV as the truly talented people have been weeded out by the corp bean counters and statisticians. C-R-A-P!! I can't and don't listen much to anything in Houston anymore. When I want to hear my music I go to XM. When I want national news I hit XM. When I want local weather, I hit XM. No local channel in this market can cater to my listening needs anymore. It used to be when you wanted a weather update, you'd go to KTRH. Now all you get is blah...blah...blah by some talking head where news, weather and sports updates used to rule. The closest thing to serving up a great format with everything you wanted and needed was BizRadio 1320, but that has now been reduced to paid programming most of the day. If I'm not mistaken that is also local ownership, but even that owner has sold out. This market needs a true local radio pioneer that has the pocket change and cahonies to buy and program a great news station. God knows that there are enough talented people running around the market without jobs. Unfortunately that is a pipe dream and as I said at the front of this post the great days of radio with great personalities, programmers and sales people are gone forever. I'll look for all of you in cyberspace where I now reside and flourish with success.
 
good points from all of you!
as a listener who used this as a forum to vent frustration and radio news for the past 8 years, I've moved on.

Clear Channel was the enemy. now all the major stations are owned by "enemies".
even the new radio-info has become frustrating and boring. I think thats why there have been fewer discussions.

I've moved on to XM. music and news when I need it.

good luck Dave in whatever radio audience you get.
 
Hey Dave,
An excellent post. What happened was the bean counters won a battle the creative people didn't even know was going on. And now it's too late. You can't put the toothpast back in the tube.
I'll call ya soon buddy.
Weaver
 
Yes Dave, great hearing from you. I really enjoyed you at KKBQ, the group of personalities and entertainment (Yourself, Pam Ivey, Harley Colt & Cactus) you guys had there during those years was awesome, it is definitely missed on radio now. You have your one or two entertainers at a station now but not the quality that KKBQ had back then. I am a country fan and definitely miss you guys on the air. Glad to know you are doing so well, good luck in the future and take care.

A Fan,
David R. Walls
 
Wow, that was a blast from the past David, thanks for reminding me. Yes, Dave E Crockett and Pam Ivey and Harley Colt, Cactus, boy, those were the good old days. I kind of got away form Country music after that and y'alls absence was one reason (the change in country music itself being another). Anyway, thanks for the great memories from another fan. I too wish you all the best.
 
"Dave E Crockett and Pam Ivey and Harley Colt, Cactus, boy, those were the good old days."

...Am I missing something here? How about Lander, Kelly, Parker, Boomer and Wise. THOSE were the good ole days son. Get it right next time please. BTW: 93Q USED to be a fun station to listen to back in my schooldays, but after the flip to country in the early 1990's it was just downright insulting. It NEVER should've happened.

And to answer your question Mr. Crockett, it sounds like you're just plain depressed. I'm sure it's tough not being king of your own show anymore, but my advise to you is to [EDIT] and stay positive. p.s. Passion isn't something you put on like a tie or a shirt before going to work either.

I hope you're all having a nice day...

[EDIT=ad hominem attack]
 
Ok then....

I grew up on the "old" 93Q...let's see, that would be the Q Morning Zoo as I recall. I listened to them through my junior and senior years in high school and then afterward almost up to the format change. My first car had an AM only radio and 93Q simulcast on 790AM, going by the ID of 79Q. I even used to do a mean "Mr. Leonard" impression...remember him?

Yes, those were the good old days as well. But my taste in music changed to country for awhile and that's about the time 93Q country came along so I was glad to change as well.

I don't know where the attack on Dave E Crockett came from....I was thanking him for his contribution to that time in my life when I was enjoying him as well. If John Lander came on here and posted, I'd thank him for that period of my life as well.
 
Just for the record, I am a 50 year old whose listened to the radio as far back as I can remember. I can look back at the "Good old days" and bring in names such as Jackie Ward, Bruce Nelson, Russ Knight, Chuck Dunaway, Barry Kaye, Weaver Morrow, Lee Jolly, Johnny Goyen, Tommy Ward (bet y'all don't know him) Bill Bailey, Richard Dobbyn (the list would be endless), and could consider those as some of the best. Dave E, I have listened to you and many others over the years and you'd be included as being in the top personalities. The key word here is personalities. Over the course of the years, the formats have changed, and many like myself have had to adapt (even if we didn't want to). But for many of us listeners, we not only like the music, but we enjoy the entertainment of a great on-air personality.

Within the last 20 years or so, it seems that radio's corporate managers have pretty much decided that we listeners will listen to whatever they tell us we want to hear, and in most cases that's pretty much what happens. Now it seems to me that instead of programming based on listener input, they program on focus groups in some other city. It seemed that the smaller stations (and owners) however, were more willing to program for the local listeners in the years past. Not being an expert, I very well could be wrong on this point, but some of the stuff I hear on the air these days just don't make sense.

When it comes to format swaps, I've seen a lot of them. KILT, KKBQ, KIKK, KFMK, KZFX, KENR, and several small stations that no longer exist, but in all of them, I've found good and bad. The one thing that has made them all great in any generation, is the on-air personalities who get up every day, and find a way to make the listeners day a bit better. Granted, there are some bad talents out there now, but they seem to be entertaining some of the listeners out there.

As one who listens in the car, at work and at home, my hat is off to all of the personalities that do make my day a bit better. As for the coporate moguls who make the decisions for the listeners, take time to read the above posts, and listen to what these folks have to say. They truely are the professionals.

That's my 2 cents, I'll go back to lurking now.

Poops
 
Talks2you,

I am going to call you out on your post, first of all the last paragraph where you took a below the belt shot on Dave E. Crockett is really sad, why do so many people feel like they have to do that on this site, are you really that "bitter" in your life?. And let me clarify I moved to Houston in the summer of 1988, so I wasn't exposed that much to the Q Morning Zoo, I do remember it however, and they played alot of the music 104 did, I think I listened to 92.9 more however, better mix of music. But all of this is my opinion which was what I was stating, the "those were the good ole days, get it right son" comment is your opinion, not mine, so I will beg to differ on that comment. I remember 93Q best for the Country format, because I was exposed to more of it than the old format. But at least I just gave my opinion and didn't attack someone personally. Geez that is lowdown.
 
What passes for radio today is an assembly line of homoginized blandness.
There is no innovation. Sorry kids "Jack" is not innovative. There is no identification with the local listener anymore and national contesting is a shriveled up carot on a stick . The larger than life promotions that packed in crowds for businesses,and dances are gone. Today we are treated more to a promotional van, a few cute teenagers /college students wearing a station logo,giving away tshirts, food coupons, and bumper stickers.
It was the personality who's presentation ,style, communication and Passion with his listener who made the station,not the gm or sales guy. Today one gets hired to run the board. To them its a job,to the on air talent before ,it was a dream. The scott system,the selector breaks down its a hassle,then it was on the spot creativity,the artt of the adlib and make it a "bit" while solving the problem. It was KHJ in LA,WINS in NYC,WTOP in DC,KLIF In Dallas, KILT in Houston. Today its "Kiss' across the country,or "Mix" and other "Charlie Chaplin Modern times" <see the movie>/George Orwell"1984" formats. Those who have entered radio in the last 11 years,never have been exposed to "true radio" as mentioned above,and thus the virus of blandness continues,until someone wakes up and does something different Like Mclendon,Storz,etc once did. Until then the Mortuary for radio is on standby.
 
houstonray said:
Ok then....

I grew up on the "old" 93Q...let's see, that would be the Q Morning Zoo as I recall. I listened to them through my junior and senior years in high school and then afterward almost up to the format change. My first car had an AM only radio and 93Q simulcast on 790AM, going by the ID of 79Q. I even used to do a mean "Mr. Leonard" impression...remember him?

Yes, those were the good old days as well. But my taste in music changed to country for awhile and that's about the time 93Q country came along so I was glad to change as well.

I don't know where the attack on Dave E Crockett came from....I was thanking him for his contribution to that time in my life when I was enjoying him as well. If John Lander came on here and posted, I'd thank him for that period of my life as well.
Click to expand...

"She knows dats right, you know dats right, I know dats right!" (As Mr Leonard was fond of saying)..I used to listen to the AM (790) when KKBQ was running AM Stereo using Kahn......in fact, I preferred it to the FM audio wise!!! (this was before the 10 kHz bandlimit on AM and I was using a rare Sony XRA-33 which decodes ALL 4 AM Stereo modes and had a wide/narrow filter switch..I still have it but the FM section died....the cassette deck is ok...need to dig into the FM side and see what is wrong..it was TOO cool listening to 89WLS in stereo while driving around SE Texas at night).
I always thought they missed a good chance to use the Q in the middle and go 93Q79 on their stickers...would have been easier to print and known just as the Q (The omnipotent group from Star Trek: TNG..how ironic!), I would not have changed them but maybe 3-5 grand for the consulting fee :) I THINK I still have one of the old O Morning Zoo stickers with the balloon on it (somewhere).

Dave cannot be held for what happened at KKBQ...it was not his decision or authority to flip from Top40/CHR to Country..that was management's decision (no different than when KILT-AM went from Top40 to Country years ago...which I WAS NEVER happy with but then I am NOT a big country fan...growing up to Top40 and AOR rock was my forte!)..BTW Dave, remember Alan Justice (Linder)?? Last I heard, he was on the west coast...1st in the LA area and hanging with Weaver and now is north in the NW area (Oregon/Wash) but not sure...if you or anyone has an address for him, I would love to know...used to hang with him at the 790 xmtr site where he lived and also fixed a number of PCs for him...he could have been a good engineer (He would restore ham rigs with great results!) and had the voice to get the chicks...but his self esteem was a bit too low and when he wore the ugly ball caps to cover the bald spot or combover, I told him to take it off, cut the hair and they still would come to him.....but he didnt listen (damn Yankee hard head! LOL)

YES YES YES, it IS the content and personality that made older radio great....Being an old Top40 DJ, we had the chance to decide which song was to be played next...within limits...it had to be the correct category and it could not have played less than 2-4 hrs ago depending on station), we took phone calls/request (and got to meet some honry young girls that way...especially the girls in Vidor and similar towns! One PD, while I was at KAYC/KAYD, even dated one after his divorce...it was somewhat weird to have his drunk date try to come onto you while in the control room while he was down the hall in the bathroom and then 30mins later, her mom was calling looking for her because she had high school the next day (whew)...and HE was well past 40 at the time! but I digress ;) , we TALKED on the air and didnt read from liner cards, we read the weather and made jokes about it on the air, cutting up with the newsguy, doing parodys with jingles or shows...like the Larry Black show...I had edited a KAYC sweeper to add his name into it just for the fun of it..and some of the other parodies we did then were X Rated as well...want to hear one? I'll post the URL soon after I get the files uploaded---you can listen to the Rex Allen ones one jock did at KLVI in the 70s during an Asros game..tape spliced only!!) and even sometimes goofed up which added to the fun!!

Jack would be close because they play a wide range of music...though they are automated for the most part, the liners/sweepers are mixed and funny at times...and that makes it close....but to have a REAL LIVE GOOD DJ on the mic would top it off....I remember listening to Al Caldwell back in the 70s on KAYC in the morning....I dont listen to him now...my music tastes have not changed but Al's politics, etc has.....though we remain friends and old coworkers from years gone by...but CC is running the show at KLVI and the other BMT stations (GAWD someone SHOOT/BLOW UP the reverb and processing...PLEASE!!!!!!! IT SUCKS!) while COX runs 92.9 and 107.5 as well as 97.1 and folks, they arent going to change their ways....(pity).

I am still passionate about radio and while my participation in it is not as much as it used to be, it is NOT the same business it used to be..when I was a full time DJ and engineer, it was fun but didnt pay well...NOW, it is not as much fun with all the extra work thrown on everyone (but thats true in most businesses), but it doesnt pay any better than it used to! :) AND we all know WHO is responsible for that.....certainly NOT the runs on the air...they dont make the rules or write the checks...

Will real radio return? Probably not...the consultants think the younger generation doesnt want that and they may be right...my 4 yr old Stepdaughter has an attention span worse than mine at that age...and is soo damn smart (and smart a$$) she wont care about DJs when she grows up...she already knows a lot of country songs (the wife is a CHR/Country fan and is in a country phase right now!)....better than I know classic rock and Top40 stuff from my era (egads!)
 
Ahem......excuse me.............I do real, passionate radio every Monday through Friday night from 7pm til Midnight on 93.7. I don't know how to do any other kind, and I personally take offense at anyone who says otherwise. Just because the medium has changed doesn't mean that I can give less to my listeners. My supervisors at The Arrow understand my feelings about this and encourage me every inch of the way. When that support stops, so will I.

Thanks for listening!



Colonel St. James
[email protected]
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom